Monthly Archives: September 2011

Target Missoni has been brought up so many times this past week that I had to find out what it was for myself. It’s a new collection that has come out from Target, including things for your home, clothing, luggage, as well as a few bikes.

While most box store bikes are pretty inexpensive, these bikes are in the $400 range. This is because of the designer label, not because the bikes are good quality. The item details on the bikes are very non-descriptive, like most cheap bike are, other then the Nexus 3Speed Coaster Brake Hub. This bike could be quite a strain for people to deal with, weighing in at 41.4 lbs. For comparison, my girlfriend’s Linus Mixte weighs 32 pounds and she sometimes talks about wanting something a little lighter. My Long Haul Trucker, a fully loaded touring bike, weighs about 36 pounds. Other less expensive bikes can easily weigh less than 30 pounds.

Here is a description of how to clean it from the site:

“•Care and Cleaning: Wipe Clean With a Damp Cloth”

I hope people realize the bike will need more “care and cleaning” than what a damp cloth will do. I don’t know how these bikes will really stand up to the test of time, like some old department store bikes have. These bikes will still fall prey to the troubles that other box store bikes do, like forks being put on backwards, and parts breaking after a week. People that are not into bikes always wonder why bikes from places other than big box stores can cost so much. It’s the quality of the parts. Regardless of the $399.00 price tag, it seems the bikes are pretty popular with their target market, selling out within a day of being released.  It’s hard to grasp why anyone would spend this much, when they could buy a better functioning bike for just about the same amount of money, even if it is a low-end model, from a real bicycle company. Another big reason for not buying from a big box store, is you can only get service from a real bike shop. If something breaks on these bikes, they can’t bring them back to Target and expect an associate to fix it, even something as simple as a flat tire. As far as I can tell, these are just fashionable BSO’s (bicycle shaped objects), that probably won’t get many miles put on them, but will look stylish in someone’s apartment.

Missoni Women's Comfort Bike - Copper or Black/White (28") - $399.00

Missoni Men's Comfort Bike - Black/White (28") - $399.00

Here are some other bikes that I share similar feelings about. Republic Bike  started out as cheap bike company that let you choose the color of all the parts you wanted, but that was all you could change.  A couple years ago they started producing bikes for Urban Outfitters.  I have seen bikes sitting on the floor there with cheap parts falling off of them.

Urban Outfitters has bikes from Republic Bike

Republic Bikes from Urban Outfitters - $399.00

Crate & Barrel also have a Republic Bike with CB2.

Abuelo 3-speed men's bike - $499.00

There are plenty of other bikes out there that are fashionable and of much better quality for reasonable prices, that will give you much more bang for your buck. These are bikes you can get from a real bike shop, with real service and warranties, for around the same cost:

Electra Bikes

Electra Bikes Amsterdam Original 3i

Linus Bikes Dutchi 3speed

Public Bike C3

Bikes like these have a much more classic style and functionality behind them, being modeled mostly off of French and Dutch bikes that have been around for decades.