Owning a bike can be a great enhancement to most students’ lives. The 15-minute walk from the far end of the South 40 to the library turns into a five-minute trip, and a student can carry far more than he would otherwise be able to with the aid of handlebars. After having a few bikes stolen due to locking negligence, I gave up on them, but when I moved off campus and fell prey to the delusion that housing on the Loop is farther from campus than is the 40, I resolved to buy one.

Naturally, price was an issue. I didn’t want to spend hundreds of dollars on a bike, and I didn’t want to spend the $150-$200 per year that signing up for Bears Bikes would have cost me; if I wanted to spend that much, I would buy a new bike that I could keep beyond my college days. Fortunately, or so I thought at the time, certain large retailers in the St. Louis area offer bikes at far lower prices. I went to one and, five minutes and $110 dollars later, left with what I thought was a cost-effective way of moving me from A to B.

I was sadly mistaken. Within a week, problems started to surface. First, I lost the ability to shift front gears. Then my brakes went. A few days later, my handlebars loosened and had to be retightened. After three weeks, one of my pedals broke off, and the other one is well on its way. A few days ago, I had to have a new inner tube installed on my front tire as the original one had broken, and I was on a flat—and while I can’t be positive, it seems to me that the tires deflate at an unreasonably fast rate.

Most of these problems aren’t financially costly. It’s surprisingly easy to bike using only the metal bar that the pedal is built around, and fully-functional brakes aren’t a necessity. The bicycle shop on the Loop tightened my handlebar free of charge, and were I in possession of the equipment and technical know-how to repair a bike on my own, I could have changed the inner tube for five dollars, instead of the $15 it cost me. To get everything repaired and restore the bike to its original condition, however, would put me back $90, nearly the purchase price.

My tale is a cautionary one. When I talked to one of the Loop bike shop employees, he told me that bikes from the large regional retailer where I acquired mine had a lifespan of about 20 miles before they started having issues. They are, bluntly, worthless pieces of junk, and no one who plans to use a bicycle on a daily basis should consider buying one. While I was waiting for my bike to be repaired, I looked at some of the bicycles that were on display. In general, they cost $700-$2,000, but there were many that cost less, and while the truly cheap ones came equipped with twist shifters (which should be avoided like the plague), for $100 more, one could purchase a bike that will probably last until its buyer decides to get rid of it. I’m on the fence about returning my bike and buying a new one, but had I known what I know now about the unreliability of such cheap bikes, I would not have skimped in the first place.