In a brief moment of lucidity Dennis scribbled:
> Just a quickie folks, are Makro bikes junk or passable? Den.
If you've never ridden a bike, or know absolutely nothing about bikes and riding, then they're ****.
If you know even a little about bikes then they're absolutely f'ing terrible and you wouldn't touch
them with someone else's ...
A bro-in-law bought a BMX from Makro (Nottingham) for his son. It lasted about a week.
He returned it and got a full suspension (hahahahah) mountain bike in exchange .. that lasted
two weeks ..
Seriously, they are fine if all you want to do is pop to the shops, that are less than a couple of
miles away, and back again, and you know how to setup a bike reasonable competently. Anything more
serious than this and it would be worthwhile passing Makro by and going to a local bike shop. The
bikes, as supplied, are not necessarily setup at all, and as the nature of them suggests that
newcomers to cycling, or at least less knowledgable people buy them, I consider them to be potential
death traps. Both my bro-in-laws cycles head sets were loose, the bmx bike didn't have the front
brake working at all, the mountain bike (in name and style only) couldn't change up the gears past
3rd gear at the rear and couldn't change onto the small front ring, the handlebars weren't tight and
neither brake worked properly. Indeed the rear brake cable wasn't tight in the brake clamp. None of
the tyres were pumped up anywhere like properly.
All the above problems are fine if you are even slightly experienced and know what to do to 'fettle'
a cycle, but for beginners (like my bro-in-law and his kids) they are potentially life-threatening.
When they're sorted so that everything works, they're fine for youngsters, but they'll probably
break them before they grow out of them ..
--
Completed 1568 Seti work units in 11876 hours
http://setiathome.ssl.berkeley.edu/