The $99 Bike of Doom
Steve George is a 47 year old writer from Winnipeg, Canada. A serious cyclist since 2003, he decided that his favorite bikes were getting a bit too much wear and tear from his daily commute. So he decided to experiment and invested in a cheap bike that he wouldn’t mind running into the ground. He’s not only blogged about his adventures, he’s kept a detailed mileage chart that shows he’s ridden more than 2000 miles on his Supercycle 1800.
Check out www.bikeofdoom.com, and drop Steve a note if you ride a $99 bike, too. He would love to hear from you.
February 8th, 2008 at 9:18 am
I’m always amazed when I see bikes that cheap, and I can’t help but wonder if there really is that much of a markup on bike stuff I buy, or if there really are that many places to compromise in the name of cheapness. I recently saw a new unassembled “mountain bike” in a discount department store for $40. That’s less than I paid for the [insert component] on my bike. I’ll have to check out the blog to see what you really get for that much money.
February 9th, 2008 at 1:50 am
A Skoda may go just as far and even out last a Porsche but the question is whether the experience is the same. I’ve ridden cheap crappy bikes and have not enjoyed the experience nearly as much as riding a nice quality bike. Seems like a year of riding wasted. Reminds me of the guy that ate nothing but McDonalds food for a month just see whether it would affect his health.
February 9th, 2008 at 10:49 am
Visiting Urban Velo is part of my daily routine especially now that the NAHBS is currently happening and Jeff is uploading such high quality photos of the event. Seeing this entry just seems to annoy me more and more everytime I see it. I also live in a major Canadian city and the for sale ads are full of $25-$50 beater bikes that are perfect for driving into the ground if someone does not want to put wear and tear on their bikes.
Anyway I’m left wondering what kind of working conditions and what the environmental policies/impact are from a factory in China that can produce bicycles that retail for $99 Canadian. Canadian Tire is like Canadian version of Walmart. The more I think about it the more absurd and ridiculous the whole experiment seems to be.
I’ll get off my soap box now.
February 9th, 2008 at 3:09 pm
Actually, it’s Brad who is uploading the photos from the Handmade Show. But thanks for the kind words, none the less.
Even on high end bikes, the tires are usually made in an Asian factory where the working conditions are so deplorable that companies can hardly find enough people to work in the offices, let alone the factory floor.
February 9th, 2008 at 9:47 pm
Sorry I did mean Brad.
February 9th, 2008 at 11:57 pm
Every 6 months or so, my brother goes to Wal-Mart and buys the cheapest mountain bike they have. He takes it up to trails at the local state park and abuses it. He enjoys destroying it. Eventually, he tacos a wheel, or something major falls off.
He spends about $200-$300 a year on bikes, and loves doing it this way.
February 10th, 2008 at 1:08 pm
I was curious myself where the $99 Bike of Doom was manufactured. The reply I got came from Raleigh Bikes, who told me it was manufactured in Waterloo, Quebec. With 50,000 units sold annualy it is probably Canada’s bestselling bicycle. Full post on the reply I got from Raleigh Canada can be found here:
http://www.bikeofdoom.com/2007/09/20/everything-you-always-wanted-to-know-about-the-supercycle-sc1800-mountain-bike-but-were-afraid-to-ask/
The environmental policies/impact resulting from the manufacture of the $99 Canadian Bike are probably no more than those resulting from the manufacture of my Giant mountain bike, which has a shiny “Made in Taiwan” sticker on the bottom bracket and retailed for four times as much.
February 10th, 2008 at 5:36 pm
There is a difference between manufactured and final assembly.
February 10th, 2008 at 9:11 pm
I can’t believe this is even a debate whether bikes should be more expensive than 99 dollars. It’s completely ridiculous. He’s calling it a “bike of doom” for a reason. That’s because it’s likely that if he didn’t have mechanical skills he couldn’t keep the piece running more than a week or so. The manufacturing processes it takes to make a quality bicycle(much less the labor and development) are going to cost money to get done correctly-period. The best name for a bike like that is the company Next. As soon as you buy it you might as well get ready to turn around and buy another one-NEXT! Try that for environmental impact. It’s an instant landfill item.
February 11th, 2008 at 5:56 pm
i find that most “department store” bikes are put together VERY poorly. a good mechanic can get one working and keep it working well, but the average person is left with a $100 bike that they would assume they’d have to pay $50 or more to repair after a season of riding once the brakes tear through the sidewall of the tire(s), the hubs unscrew themselves, the headset or stem gets loose, etc.
on the bright side, this means more mongoose rockzillas and NeXt BMX bikes for me to rescue from the curb and breathe life into. :]
February 12th, 2008 at 1:37 am
I ride a nice bike and enjoy it a lot but I think this an interesting experiment. I don’t really think there is any debate as to whether or not a more expensive bike is longer lasting or more pleasurable to ride but I think this kind of stuff sheds light on the fact that you can get around on very little machine fairly efficiently for a quite a while. I had a cheap BMX from Schucks Auto when I was a kid- “Race Line” it was called, and I hammered that thing for years before it finally blew out. I rode that bike harder than any bike I ride now… If you have ever visited a place like SE Asia or Central America you might have noticed that people use bikes of ‘the bike of doom’ caliber for work, hauling their families, animals, tools, carts, passengers, you name it. Those are some of the cheapest bikes going down there and people use the sh*t out of them for years… with repairs of course. I’m not advocating to run out and buy one of these things, just illustrating the fact that they are useful machines albeit cheap.
February 13th, 2008 at 6:12 pm
I’m thinking the “doom” part refers to the fate of the overseas, underpayed, and wholly unprotected laborer who probably manufactured that bike.
Interesting site.
February 26th, 2008 at 10:49 am
The laborer who manufactures the cheap department store bike is the same one who is manufacturing the price competitive Trek, Giant and other LBS bikes that commuters are being encouraged to buy.
I agree completely that one of these junkers is not worth buying unless you’ve got some mechanical inclination, and I try to make that clear on my blog. The point is, many people ARE buying them. My cheap ass bike sells 50,000 units a year. So what do you say to these people? Get the hell out of cycling? I think it’s naive to think that people on a budget, or just getting into cycling, are going to be willing to spend hundreds of dollars on their first bike. The numbers suggest they’re going to buy a department store bike, whether it’s good for them or not.
The majority of Google searches that lead to Bike of Doom are for the model number of the bike I’m riding, suggesting that people have bought one, have run into trouble, and are looking for a fix. I’m happy to provide information that will allow them to squeeze a little more use out of the bike.
I agree wholeheartedly, however, that any long term enjoyment to be found in cycling will be in the saddle of a good bike purchased form knowledgeable sales people at a Local Bike Shop, regardless of where it’s manufactured.