I obviously work in a bike shop and have been seeing these things come in for quite some time now, and I've been bothered by it since the first time I ever heard the name mentioned....Tony Hawk bikes. Why do these exist? What person thought that the name of a SKATEBOARD personality would be great to market "BMX" bikes? Are we they trying to say that bikes and skateboards are the same thing? Because the last time I checked they were very different. Are we that dumb in America that we can't tell the difference between the two sports? The general public must actually think this because on several occasions while out riding I've had numerous people yell "Tony Hawk" out to me and whomever I'm with. Or in one instance had some say directly to me (when I was eyeing a handrail up) "are you gonna Tony Hawk that thing?". Really? Come on people let's get alittle educated as to what's going on in the world. That's like me saying that Shaq is the best football player I've ever seen. Or Tom Brady endorsing a line of tennis rackets, you know he's not a tennis player. So by then selling these bikes are they saying that he rides bmx? I highly doubt it. These bikes are very low quality too, which makes them even worse. They are assembled wrong by the toy stores/ dept. stores that sell them, so ultimately end up at the shop when the brakes don't work or whatever usually goes wrong with them. What happened to the days of Huffy or Murray they were of the same class. Are they trying to say these are better because some guy that has his own skateboard company and video games is putting his name on them? Honestly I've lost any kind of respect I had for Tony Hawk after seeing these. If I were him I'd wanna have my name removed from a product of such awful quality. But I guess money makes you forget about your standards. You don't see Mat Hoffman skateboards because everyone would be like WTF? Why does he have a skateboard line? And I doubt Hoffman would ever do anything like that because he knows it's straight out DUMB.
I feel sorry for the kids that actually have to ride these things. They are clearly targeting the parents naivety. There are better bikes out there for not much more money. I'm not saying that everyone should be able to afford a 300 or 400 dollar bike, but if people did their research they'd find there are affordable bikes out there for around $200. Which I believe is about double what these things retail for, but will also last twice and long and probably be alot safer. Plus will be assembled by someone that actually can work on a bicycle. Most of these "stores" that sell these bikes have assemblers come in one or two days a week and build everything they need built, from grills to bikes to furniture.They usually get paid by the piece too, so that means they try to speed through everything as quick as possible so they make some money. At a shop bikes are assembled by a MECHANIC, usually one that has a background in BIKES. From working in the bicycle industry for years I've seen my fair share of damaged bikes come through in shipping. Most all complete bikes are made overseas, so they see alot of handling before ever being assembled. At a shop you would NEVER see that bike sitting on the sales floor being sold (well maybe at SOME shops), that would be taken care of before it was ever sold. It would be made right or sent back, not at a dept store. They sell whatever they get in messed up or not, scratched damaged, you name it. I've seen so many bikes come through the shop doors with so many things wrong with them I could write an entire book about just that.
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Well enough of the rambling about this. Let's hope that these things disappear soon. Support BMX company's that put R&D into their product, and shops with the knowledge to properly fix them.
