I gave up trying to look for a decent bicycle for my little gal turning 4 in a week's time. It has been eye opener and frustrating at the same time. I spent few of my free days doing just that. Cycling from bike shop to bike shop and after that browsing from web page to web page.
Surprising you say? Or is it just me? I cycle a bit for leisure and exercise. Therefore I do know a little bit about bicycle although not on the extreme case. The bicycles that I saw was either, too expensive for the quality that I see; or too heavy (imagine a 4 year old cycling a 25kg bicycle) which I wouldn't even cycle myself; or too extremely expensive (for the quality that I am looking at, ok, the quality should be good for this case); or just plain too shabby for that matter.
Case 1 - a kids bicycle with funky looking design, with speedometer, coaster brakes etc etc. This was a shocker to me because this is the first bike that I was looking at. It shocked me because I didn't expect to pay between the range of $170-250 for a kids bicycle. Before I surveyed around, I had a mindset that bicycles should not cost more than $50-100 range for a kid that might just use it for one year or so. I was so wrong. Anyways, the colour is off beat so we walked out of the shop (and not forgetting the speedometer!)
Case 2 - Cycled around and asked around in local shops. It seems like the neighbourhood shops carries a more reasonably priced bikes. But at the back of my head, I keep having this image of a rusted bicycle at the end of 3 months. Plus, they only have the girl's and the boy's bicycle. Let me give you an example. A girl's bike is pink, with ribbons, a pink basket for the teddy bear and so on. A boy's bicycle would have the police theme on it, to chase the big bad boy or girl in the playground in case they are naughty. What happened to the neutral colours? I am just dumbfounded. I'm not very keen on getting a gender based bicycle simply for practicality. What if my daughter has a little brother later on? Oh, right.. get another bicycle. How come I never thought about it?
Case 3 - Went online and searched for a reputable bike brand and from the dealer. When I saw something I like online I gave them a call. Here's the transcript although I swear to you it was very difficult for the Myanmar lady on the other end to understand what I was saying and vice versa:
Me: Hello, do you carry the kids bicycle xxx model?
She: Hello, you wait ah.
Me : ...
She: We have
Me: How much is it and what colour do you have?
She: $360 and only green colour.
Me: GULP! Ok, thank you!
Case 4 - Potential future scenario if I get bikes from hypermarkets. They only carry a particular brand, which filled the cabinets from wall to wall. So you think, well, this can't go wrong since after browsing the same brand over and over (at the same hypermarket), the brand somehow seems to you to be reputable right? WRONG! I got feedback that these bikes rust as badly as '20 something Indian gal' (no pun intended on this.. it was a joke from one of my friend which talked to an elderly Indian man, which commented that rust is coming out from her unmarried 20ish something daughter) and the quality of the part are just pathetic.
And so therefore the conquest continues... will I pay through my nose for quality or settle for something less?
Surprising you say? Or is it just me? I cycle a bit for leisure and exercise. Therefore I do know a little bit about bicycle although not on the extreme case. The bicycles that I saw was either, too expensive for the quality that I see; or too heavy (imagine a 4 year old cycling a 25kg bicycle) which I wouldn't even cycle myself; or too extremely expensive (for the quality that I am looking at, ok, the quality should be good for this case); or just plain too shabby for that matter.
Case 1 - a kids bicycle with funky looking design, with speedometer, coaster brakes etc etc. This was a shocker to me because this is the first bike that I was looking at. It shocked me because I didn't expect to pay between the range of $170-250 for a kids bicycle. Before I surveyed around, I had a mindset that bicycles should not cost more than $50-100 range for a kid that might just use it for one year or so. I was so wrong. Anyways, the colour is off beat so we walked out of the shop (and not forgetting the speedometer!)
Case 2 - Cycled around and asked around in local shops. It seems like the neighbourhood shops carries a more reasonably priced bikes. But at the back of my head, I keep having this image of a rusted bicycle at the end of 3 months. Plus, they only have the girl's and the boy's bicycle. Let me give you an example. A girl's bike is pink, with ribbons, a pink basket for the teddy bear and so on. A boy's bicycle would have the police theme on it, to chase the big bad boy or girl in the playground in case they are naughty. What happened to the neutral colours? I am just dumbfounded. I'm not very keen on getting a gender based bicycle simply for practicality. What if my daughter has a little brother later on? Oh, right.. get another bicycle. How come I never thought about it?
Case 3 - Went online and searched for a reputable bike brand and from the dealer. When I saw something I like online I gave them a call. Here's the transcript although I swear to you it was very difficult for the Myanmar lady on the other end to understand what I was saying and vice versa:
Me: Hello, do you carry the kids bicycle xxx model?
She: Hello, you wait ah.
Me : ...
She: We have
Me: How much is it and what colour do you have?
She: $360 and only green colour.
Me: GULP! Ok, thank you!
Case 4 - Potential future scenario if I get bikes from hypermarkets. They only carry a particular brand, which filled the cabinets from wall to wall. So you think, well, this can't go wrong since after browsing the same brand over and over (at the same hypermarket), the brand somehow seems to you to be reputable right? WRONG! I got feedback that these bikes rust as badly as '20 something Indian gal' (no pun intended on this.. it was a joke from one of my friend which talked to an elderly Indian man, which commented that rust is coming out from her unmarried 20ish something daughter) and the quality of the part are just pathetic.
And so therefore the conquest continues... will I pay through my nose for quality or settle for something less?
No comments:
Post a Comment