After many months of railing on Wal-Mart brand bicycles my dear readers, I am forced to admit that I saw the "Funk" there the other day! Now keep in mind there are no less than 45 or so designs on their bike racks at any given time, but one jumped out at me. It is a brand of bicycles for little girls called "Bratz" The branding on the bicycle is pictures of four little cartoon girls with very big domes (heads). This brand has such things as dolls, calendars, web backgrounds, etc. I was so excited by the design that I pulled it off the rack and was dragging it around the store looking for my wife to show her this HOOOTTT bicycle. I eventually found my wife, hitherto known as Sister Dale, and she said "Wow, that's cute!"


Just so you all know, Sister Dale speaks her mind and I know if it was ugly, she would have let me know so I do indeed trust and value her opinion in such matters. Pictured to the left is the design that made me say "Now that's tight!". What is most amazing about this bicycle is the simplicity in the design, the angles of the top tubing and how it flows to the rear of the bicycle and forms into a rear fender. The color is a powder blue and the designers do a great job at matching the colors scheme throughout the bike
without over-kill.

From the top of the seat to the bottom of the crank, from the tip of the rear fender to the tip of the front fender, this bicycle was very well done. You will rarely hear me say this but for this price point ($69), there isn't one thing I would change about this design as it appears now. Remember I said awhile back, "When it comes to bicycle design for youth and children, sometimes more is just that, MORE!"

While checking out other 'BRATZ" product offerings, I came across this image to the right of another 'BRATZ' style chopper bicycle. Now, I didn't personally see this one on the rack but it is for sale on a 'United Kingdom' website for around 150 pounds, that is around $300 (roughly) to you and I here in America. Hmmm, where do I begin? The only way to describe this design to you is to say call it like I see it TACKY! This bicycle is ugly yall. Let's start with the seat- I am assuming the seat is trying to imitate fur. This doesn't look like fur at all, it looks like a purple sheep who had a 'Bad Wool Day'.

This material needs to be chopped down to present a 'Slicker' more flowing look. The back seat bar which arches up above the back of the seat looks ok, but the chrome on the bar looks tired! Why not stripe this sucker with the frame color of purple mingled in with a swirl chrome. The tires need to be a little thinner and the handle bars just make me say YUCK! Enough of all that. I will keep my eyes open for future bicycle designs from BRATZ and keep you all posted.

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