As an owner of a Walmart bike, this stings. I have a blast every time I ride that thing. I don’t ride enough to warrant a more expensive bike and this one has t limited me yet. Is all of high end biking this snobby?
I'll answer from the perspective of wrenching on bikes, which I did on a volunteer basis for a couple of years around 2006.
Walmart bikes are typically made with fairly low quality components. They're a total pain to put in correct adjustment, and they rarely stay correctly adjusted for long. It's also incredibly rare that they're put together right and adjusted properly from the store.
That said, I don't begrudge anybody for what they ride. If you're happy, I'm happy. If you find yourself riding more and visiting your LBS more in the future to get little annoyances taken care of, that's when it's time to spend more money on a slightly higher quality bike.
And if your LBS is a bunch of dicks about your Walmart bike, by all means go find a different shop. Good shops will educate you without talking down to you and let you make the right choice for your needs. If it puts a smile on your face when you throw a leg over it, it's a good bike for you!
I wouldn't say that everything has to be snobby - but there is a WORLD of difference between a $250 walmart "mountain bike" and something like a basic hardtail mountain bike you might be able to buy for $950-1200. I realize that maybe not everyone can afford that.
If a person has sufficient finances to allow for the purchase of a better bike, they will have a much more enjoyable overall experience of cycling on something like this, which although towards the lower end of the "real" bike spectrum, is still worlds better than a department store bike.
One of the reasons for the disdain towards walmart bikes among the cycling community is that many people have seen issues with them that are fundamental to safety - brakes that aren't set up right or don't work properly, wobbly wheels with loose spokes being sold as fit to be ridden, and so on. On the one hand you have questions about whether it's a good quality bike and will be enjoyable to ride, on the other hand there are often real and valid fundamental concerns about safety.
I owned a Walmart bike when I was 16-17. Rode it into the ground and had a blast. I did zero maintenance on it for two years (not ideal) and it serves the purpose. Bought a much nicer entry level Trek in my mid-20s and hardly rode it. It wasn’t until much later that I bought a bike that I rode more. It just happened that I could afford more and decided to spend more, but it absolutely wasn’t necessary. In fact, a guy I ride with in summer works at a LBS and still rides his trusty 1990s MTB (mid level). Oh, still regularly beats on most other riders too on it.
Nowadays Walmart is actually quite involved in the biking community and used to sell moderately high end bikes, though they may be out of the game now. Most people looked down on these bikes for some reason even though the entire group set was equivalent to a major brand high end bike. But it was sold by Walmart so how bad could it be? I suspect you don’t own one of these but the point is the same - as with many other hobbies, snobbery is very much thriving in cycling. Hell, I’m guilty of it to an extent too.
The Walmart thing is a bit interesting. A couple of the Walmart heirs are avid mountain bikers. They pretty much single handedly created Bentonville AR as a mountain biking destination.
I'll be the one guy: Don't feel badly about your ability to enjoy an inexpensive bike. I've ridden both high-end and low-end bikes. The high-end bike is definitely a better experience over long distances. On the other hand, I actually prefer my cheap beater (a Retrospec, a little above department store quality but not that much) when exercising on shared use paths, because it keeps me a bit slower around joggers and such.
While there is definitely a difference, it really doesn't matter if you get where you're going and enjoy the trip.
