This week on my travels round the web I found a couple of interesting blogs with posts about Department Store Bikes.
The first, BikeLoveJones (The true adventures of a gal and her bike), has a nostalgic post from a gal who recalls her childhood riding various department store bikes, and who points out that most avid cyclists graduated from department store bikes to LBS bikes. She started on a small BMX style bike, then graduated to her sister’s 10-speed DSB, and cycled everywhere, like we all did.
The other blog was from one of our close neighbours in the US, South Dakota, Cycling South Dakota, where the blogger mentions that most of his cycling co-workers use department store bikes, at least to ride to work. He has a great photo of the front window of a Local Bike Shop with a sign that says “We will not work on Dept. Store Bikes.”
Both posts made me realize why taking a stance against Department Store Bikes is the wrong approach. Most cyclists get their first taste for cycling when they’re children. Most children ride Department Store Bikes. Without Department Store Bikes, which provide a low-cost entry into cycling, most kids would never start cycling. You can talk all you want about the poor quality of department store bikes but without them, and I mean without the cheapest of them, the DynaCrappiest of them, there’d be a lot less cyclists on the road today. If I had to shell out a few hundred bucks every time my kids got a bike, or had to search for a used bike, I would never have bought them bikes. I’d have bought them skateboards instead.
This is the same recruitment model that exists in amateur astronomy, by the way. Amateur Astronomers are forever complaining about the poor quality of Department Store Telescopes. Essentially they’ve got flimsy mounts and poor optics, which means any serious amateur astronomer won’t use one. Like cycling, however, Department Store Telescopes are the entry point into the hobby for most astronomers, and most have fond memories of using their cheap ass telescopes. When I was a kid I had a 60mm Tasco tabletop refractor — similar to the one pictured on the left — the ultimate department store telescope, on flimsy tripod legs. I used it well into adulthood, and developed my interest in amateur astronomy because of it. Would my parents have been able to purchase a “good” telescope back then? Heck, no. I’d have gone without. It wasn’t until I was well into adulthood that I got my first really good telescope, when I made my own — pictured below in mid-construction.
Unlike the field of cycling, however, amateur astronomers seem to have come to an accommodation with Department Store Telescopes. While nobody recommends you actually buy one, there’s very little of the strident anti-department-store posturing you often see in cycling. Instead, the astronomy approach seems to be, “Don’t buy one, but if you’ve already got one, here’s how to make it useful.”
Anyway, enough of that. Spring is here! If you haven’t already put your bike on the road (LBS, DSB, or otherwise) do it now!
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