My Bicycle Shaped Object Experiment

[Mongoose!]

Life is just too short to ride Game bikes for fun in your adulthood...

[Shebeen]

rad thread!!!

 

incidentally, i've done 105km on a out the box raleigh special!

 

was for charity, put my rack on it, took the sound system out of my bakkie and played some tjoons the whole way.

 

first breakage was....yes, a PEDAL, got that replaced (thank god) at cape point by a bikeshop.

 

and had a flat tyre at chappies, didn't have a #15 spanner on me, so had to fix the flat on the fly.

 

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_h-Tx835tV_g/RfelqsVLRuI/AAAAAAAAAFU/zvhBHPFwZxI/s320/IMG_5301.jpg

 

http://muizies.blogspot.com/2007/03/argeeeeeees-longest-day-ever.html

[TNT1]

 bicycle shaped object (BSO), which to those of you who don't know, is what serious cyclists call a bicycle that originates from a big box store/department store, such as Game, Makro, etc.

When did this happen?

[Salty Biker]

rad thread!!!

 

incidentally, i've done 105km on a out the box raleigh special!

 

was for charity, put my rack on it, took the sound system out of my bakkie and played some tjoons the whole way.

 

first breakage was....yes, a PEDAL, got that replaced (thank god) at cape point by a bikeshop.

 

and had a flat tyre at chappies, didn't have a #15 spanner on me, so had to fix the flat on the fly.

 

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_h-Tx835tV_g/RfelqsVLRuI/AAAAAAAAAFU/zvhBHPFwZxI/s320/IMG_5301.jpg

 

http://muizies.blogspot.com/2007/03/argeeeeeees-longest-day-ever.html

Nice!! Read your blog post as well. Congrats on finishing the Argus like that. It sounded fun. Whatever happened to that bike?

[Salty Biker]

When did this happen?

I've heard the term a few times on blogs and forums years ago. Personally I feel a bike is a bike is a bike, wherever it comes from. Some bikes are just better than others of course. Calling this Raleigh a BSO was just tongue in cheek

[ChrisF]

In 2016 I tried a similar experiment .... looked at a few bikes at Makro, and took the "better" of the lot ....

 

I got home, assembled it.  Stood back and for a very brief moment was happy with my purchase.

 

 

I noted that the steering was not straight, and clamped the front wheel between my legs and tried to adjust the bar just that little bit ..... OUCH !!!  With no effort at all I was able to twist that front end, without even beginning to actually moving the bar position !!  That front end had the flex of a piece of straw ....

 

 

I took it back the next day.  To their credit, I showed them the flex, and got a full refund without any fuss.

 

 

 

Then again ...

Bought Maritz's first 20'' bike at the very same Makro, actually a few days before my little experiment.  Back at home we stripped and SERVICED the bike.  more than 3 years later that little Makro bike has surprised the heck out of me !!!  Even done Hermanus trails with it.  He has had many bikes since then, but this little green machine is still at his parents place, and many kids have learnt to ride on it.

[Super Sywurm]

If you can't buy a Macdonalds burger, buy the bike.

[Mudsimus]

Will medical aid claims count towards the cost of the bso?

[Shebeen]

Nice!! Read your blog post as well. Congrats on finishing the Argus like that. It sounded fun. Whatever happened to that bike?

Got donated to izivunguvungu academy in Simonstown, along with 3 other bikes we acquired through the awareness. One of the Mask kids there at the time was a certain Songezo Jim (although we can't quite claim to have started his biking career!)

[RocknRolla]

My first bike in my adult life, was a real cheapy I bought from Westdene cycles. Had a rack and a kiddie seat on the back, my wife was studying at the time, and I took the lighty out for long neighborhood rides on the back of the clunker. Stopped for snacks and cooldrinks, visited my parents. I also rode it in the quarry that is now eagle canyon, just before they started development.

 

it’s on those dirt roads I realised the limitations of these bikes as “mountainbikes” when I bent the seatpost, and buckled a wheel doing a small jump at high speed on a dirt road section. Amazed still that I did not fall off. (No lighty on the back at that stage)