Not fencing

This post has nothing to do with fencing but instead relates to the other sport by which I make my living. Bicycles.

We recently had a guy bring a Walmart purchased Schwinn into the shop to get a new seat and some add ons. He decided to have us tune it up too since (as usual) the gears were really not adjusted right coming out of Wally World. When I first looked at it I was shocked. It had actual real components on it. I mean the shifters and the rear derailleur were the same as on an entry level Trek Mountain Bike. This of course worried me a bit because quality is the one thing that keeps us going over the horde of Wal-Mart bicycles. The bike had also been assembled correctly, not the oh so common twisted cables, hubs tightened into bearing crushing rigidity, pedals loose or anything. Even the fork was on right. (You would be surprised how often the guys at the Dept store put those on backwards.)
My fear of a qualitative assault on our sales ebbed as I looked further at the bike those, the wheels are still cheap. The Bottom Bracket was nice 1980 technology without 80's quality, and the front derailleur was a piece of excrementa guaranteed to deprive anyone using it of full enjoyment.
So Schwinn has made some improvements, but I still wouldn't recommend this bike to anyone.