Bikes!

[glatt]

Originally Posted by footfootfoot

The inch has gotten massively into Mountain Biking, last year for his birthday he got a cheap department store Schwinn with some money he earned and gifts from family. At first I forgot who I was dealing with (a 12 year old) and tried to talk him into buying a better (used) bike. He had his heart set on the
Schwinn and I eventually realized I was being a colossal buzzkill and what was important was that he loved this bike. So I zipped it

Get out of my head!

Seriously, I just went through this exact same thing. Except my son wanted a road bike. He had it all researched and was pointing to what I assumed was a POS Chinese bike from Walmart. I steered him to a local non-profit bike shop that teaches at risk teens how to tune up vintage bikes and then sell them. The non-profit vintage place had a lot of decent old high end bikes, that started at around $200-$250 and his budget was more like $150-$200. Plus they only had womens' bikes there that might fit him.

So he gave me the $169 cash and I bought him a bike from Walmart.com.

It's actually amazingly good for the price. But it's just like you say, the aluminum frame isn't round in cross section. All sorts of weird shapes. And everything is 700CC now, not 26".

Anyway, he fucking loves it. And it feels like it's decent quality. Shimano components. Shifts nicely. Brakes work well. Made by GMC, but GMC, if you read the box, is Shanghai General Sports Co., Ltd.