https://www.nbcsandiego.com/news/local/man-gets-charmed-by-golden-retriever-before-stealing-a-bike-from-a-garage-in-pacific-beach-sdpd/3278781/
An alleged burglary took place on Diamond Street in Pacific Beach last month.
At 10:40 p.m. on July 15, a man allegedly stole a bicycle from a home's garage.
In the middle of the brazen theft, he stopped to share a moment with a dog.
“The guy enters the garage, grabs the bike and starts to walk out. He is about five feet outside the garage door, and a golden retriever comes outside, into the garage, and follows the guy out. He immediately comes back in, parks the bike and starts playing with the dog,” San Diego Police Department Lt. Brian Brecht said.
A video posted on social media by San Diego police shows the man, after playing with the dog for about a minute, leaving the property with the bike that is believed to be around $1,300.
“We are still looking for the subject. That’s why we advertised this on social media, but hopefully, we can get some tips from the public,” Brecht said.
A lot of corners get cut on new bikes in the US, if you buy something in the sub $500 range your best bet is to go bare bones and low complexity (like a beach cruiser). Suspension, a ton of gears, etc. at the same price point will be very heavy and you'll be replacing parts constantly.
I bought a Walmart mountain bike for $400 last year to convert into an ebike and I've replaced the seat, brakes, freewheel, front wheel, both tires, and I'm now considering the rear shifter and derailleur. Bike of Theseus
I'm curious if the lower price point bikes end up pushing the midrange price point up. Like obviously they're intentionally using heavier materials for the lowest price point, just wondering if that ends up with a higher parts cost than is necessary. If there wasn't the motivation of designing tiers to upsell you, I'm guessing the lowest cost bikes could comfortably the midrange ones.
i mean ideally the number of groupsets, the changes year-to-year, and duplication of work between competitors could be reduced, making the line-up of components simpler and saving money that way. but there's not really any way around the fact that a high-quality frame costs more in materials and labour hours to make.
Yeah, absolutely, european big box sport store Decathlon will sell you a really solid bike for the price of a not so solid bike because they offer like 1 - 2 frames per category and then the rest is just better drivetrains or extra parts like fenders or a rack