On paper (or on-screen), the British Eagle Tulsa Mens Bike looks to be a bargain, especially in over-priced, cash-strapped Blighty. The £70 ($115) bicycle comes from Asda, one of the UK’s cheaper supermarkets, and looks to offer free, healthy transport to anyone who can save up a week’s unemployment benefit.
But the trouble begins… immediately. Helen Pidd from the Guardian’s Bike Blog took one in to her Local Bike Shop (actually my old local shop, too, when I was unlucky enough to live in London), Two Wheels Good in Crouch End. The conclusion of the LBS? The bike is junk.
First, the women’s model was supplied with a men’s saddle. Second, it just doesn’t work properly. The brake calipers are bendy, flexy plastic, the twist-grip gears won’t actually hold in a single speed for more than a couple minutes (or until the next bump in the road) and hills were impossible: “but tackling them on my weighty (18kg), graceless machine felt like I was scaling Pen-y-Ghent on a pedal-powered tractor,” says Pidd. Even the back wheel came supplied already out-of-true.
Worse, this is a self assembly bike. Anyone who knows enough about building and fixing bikes would know enough to avoid this machine, so therefore the only people who might buy it are not qualified to build it. The tools supplied are inadequate, and taking it to your LBS to assemble will cost £20 and up, or an almost 30% increase on the cost price.
It shows us that “low-priced” is not the same as “value”, and that skimping on a good bike is not only dangerous but it spoils you fun. Our advice? Buy second-hand, or, if you are like Wired.com editor Dylan Tweney, dig around in the hedgerow behind your house. You might get lucky.
Product page [Asda]
Bikes: buy cheap, buy twice [Guardian]
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