You’re right, of course. It’s well worth casting a critical (even cynical) eye over an el cheapo bike. And it’s true that a reconditioned quality second-hand bike will be your friend for much longer.

All of your anecdotes made me laugh, especially the plastic derailleur! Talk about unsuited to the task. I also worry about plastic brake calipers on cheapie bikes—they are not something you want to fail unexpectedly and catastrophically.

Regarding the low end bikes… I’ve worked on a few of those things and I’m inclined to say it’s probably a good thing there’s less of them being bought. Some of the parts on the cheap and nasty department store bikes are downright dangerous. I’ve had at least one really unfortunate nut strip completely while attempting a simple adjustment on brake calipers. The alloy was utter crap. Can’t imagine what the rest of the brake components, not to mention the frame, were made from.

And how’s about those you-beaut wonderful “mountain bike” lookalikes with front shockers and all, bearing stickers that say “Not designed for off road use”!

Then there was the front deraileur that was made of plastic and would bend rather than shifting gears.

On top of that a friend took a cheap bike back for a bit of attention and was told that if he was going to take his “mountain bike” over gutters they refused to service it. Hmmm.

If you want a real entry level bike get a good second hand one and put the money into parts. Might seem a little heavier to start with, but the jolly thing will be less likely to fall apart.

(IMHO… YMMV) ;-)