Why you shouldn’t buy the cheapest bike you find

Why you shouldn’t buy the cheapest bike you find

Advice for students: don’t buy the cheapest bike you can find.

Having worked with students for 10 years, a recurring problem seems to be the sale of cheap, shoddy bikes. It seems like a good deal at first, getting a decent looking 30 euro bicycle somewhere, until you find out that you’ll be down another 40 euro’s for repairs. The reason for this is that many sellers specialize in selling cheap bikes, but don’t have the skills to assess the quality of their wares. In many cases, these bicycles will start to creak and fall apart within days.
It’s not rare to see these black market salesmen “repair” mechanical parts such as wheel hinges, brake systems and luggage carriers with nothing but a tie wrap, which is certainly not sufficient to hold these heavy duty parts together for any considerable length of time. Very rarely do these black market salesmen have the proper skills to repair and maintain a bicycle and most people end up having to go to a professional repair shop, thus actually spending more money in the end.

Could you get lucky?
Small chance. These black market salesmen usually don’t provide you with any service, maintenance, help or tips. They’re in it for the money, and when your not-so-shiny new bicycle breaks, you’re out of luck. In most cases, they will deny any responsibility for their shoddy bikes.

So what’s the alternative? – StudentBikeMaastricht.nl
There are a few good places you can go that provide both cheap, high-quality bikes AND good service – one such place being StudentBikeMaastricht, obviously. You might pay slightly more at first than you would for a shabby black market one, but you will enjoy it a whole of a lot longer and will actually save yourself money and headaches in the long run. There are plenty of quality bikes to be found in the price range of 50-100 euro’s without having to resort to snake oil salesmen,
So in conclusion, do yourself a favour and do a bit of research before buying a new bicycle. I guarantee it will save you money, time and frustration in the future.