That Bicycle Again

So, this morning, I cycle my £35 bicycle with the dud pedal the 10 miles or so to the shop that sold it to me. As I enter, slightly sweaty, the manageress looks at me and says "the pedals?" (although she said it in Portuguese: despite the incredible language skills of the readers of this blog, thought I’d help you out there).

So, not an unknown problem then. They refund my money, I go and choose another bike from the racks and pay for it. I note that all of the bikes in the shop use the same pedals but, I think to myself, perhaps it is just one of those things? As we all know, things do go wrong occasionally and most often either right at the beginning of a product’s life, or at the end of its design one.

Off I go, although making very sure that I have the new guarantee in my backpack.

Hhm. 5 miles up the road, just getting to the one major hill and one of the pedals crumbles, just like the first one. Bugger. Get to the spot where I’ve had the previous two failures (the back axle on the old bike and the pedal on the interim one) and the second pedal goes. Plus, the slow puncture makes itself evident.

Ah, right, not just happenstance, this is enemy action in the form of an entirely buggered manufacturing process in the first place. Ho hum. So, looks like back there again in a day or two to recoup, once again, my money, and then to spend it somewhere else I think.

11 responses

  1. As someone said in the previous tale of cycling woe, what do you expect for £35 ffs?
    I spent more than this on a bike when I was 14, nearly 25 years ago. Sure I concede you do not need to spend £2000 on a titanium and carbon beast but if you want to ever get up that smegging hill without something exploding or falling off then ffs spend a couple of hundred quid on a bike!! 😉

  2. Try the Monty Python Dead Parrot sketch:

  3. Kay Tie Avatar
    Kay Tie

    You cheapskate. A hundred quid will get an OK bike, two hundred a good one. But £35? Jeeze Louise.
    I am sure you’ve worked out what your time is worth (minimum wage rates, right?) and this bike has probably cost you more than it’s worth.
    Tim adds: I was in fact thinking of this opportunity cost thing as I came up the hill this morning. (Jesu Christe, that’s a Geek Alert if there ever was one, eh?) I’ve bought the bike to ride it, not specifically to go anywhere, just to ride it around, to get the heart and lungs going. And show the world my glorious kneecaps, of course.
    So, err, riding it around, even if it is to the store and back, doesn’t have an opportunity cost, because that’s what I actually got it for.

  4. In Britain, Tesco’s has an array of bikes on offer for less than £100 each and I can’t see Tesco letting itself in for too many replacement complications.

  5. Kay Tie Avatar
    Kay Tie

    “So, err, riding it around, even if it is to the store and back, doesn’t have an opportunity cost, because that’s what I actually got it for.”
    Do bear in mind that there are a couple of components of a bike that you have to trust your life to. I’m not talking about the brakes: if the handlebars come off or twist loose while you are going downhill at 40mph you will face serious injury or death. I really think you should get your money back and buy a better quality bike.

  6. Do you mean the pedal, i.e. wot touches the sole of your foot, or the crank, i.e. wot connects the pedal to the pedal-axle (“bottom bracket” in Septic bike shop jargon) ?
    Tim adds: The pedal itself: there’s a metal bar through th middle of it. This is surrounded by plastic/rubber to form the actual pedal. It’s this plastic/rubber that keeps breaking.

  7. IanCroydon Avatar
    IanCroydon

    What we need is a EU directive on bicycle pedals, that’ll show ’em.

  8. dearieme Avatar
    dearieme

    Worstall is a pedalphile. Or pedalphobe, as the case may be.

  9. gene berman Avatar
    gene berman

    No–he’s a whore–peddling his ass all over town.
    And, as has been well treated by others–a cheap one.

  10. Odd – I never thought of Tim as a revolutionary.

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