Originally Posted by pylon
A $99 Walmart Bike, will likely get ridden very little, ride like crap, will be worthless after a year or two, and will likely be broken half the time. If you buy your kid a top end bike, with good components, with some simple maintenance, it will be worth half of what you paid still in a couple years, and your kids will love riding it, if for no other reason to ride around and show it off a bit. My old man always ended up buying me really nice stuff he couldn't really afford, simply because I destroyed cheap bikes with how hard I rid them. In 1983 he bought me a $600 Diamond Back Pacer 500 (the Ferrari of BMX bikes back then) and I rode that thing for 5 years, and I maintained it like a master mechanic, because I knew how special it was. I saved all summer to buy my First Kuwahara Mountain bike in 1989, and it still hangs in my parents garage, and is completely rideable, as I always kept it well tuned and maintained. In fact my dad still uses it a few times a year.
Almost all the guys I know, that are huge into cycling in their middle age, typically had really nice stuff as kids. We always talk about our old top end BMX's and First Specialized or GT Mountain Bikes like they were awesome old Hot Rods. In fact, even as a car guy, I am sooner to hand someone the keys to my BMW, than let ANYONE, so much as touch my totally personalized and personally hand built Devinci I painstakingly put together over 2 seasons with exactly selected components.
A good bike is truly an investment in your kids future if they latch on to it young. Worst case scenario, you buy them a nice Jr. Trek, Giant or Specialized, they hardly use it, and you can get 60-70% of your money back on Kijiji. I do know, some shops offer youth trade up programs too, that will soften the blow.
Just my 2 cents.
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