Originally Posted by
I-Like-To-Bike
Fives times the bike measured by what metric other than looking and/or weighing more like a bike fitted out for racing?
I am not and have not been talking about racing or racing-inspired bicycles, if
you'd like to talk about them, start your own thread on this topic. What I'm talking about is bikes like the Giant Sedona and Kona Smoke, (which are even cheaper at the end of season,) that have lower-end but perfectly good Shimano components like Acera and Alivio, not some crazy-ass plastic "Falkon"-brand derailler.
Good rule of thumb for cheap stuff, the more articulated parts, the more you may want to think about the old axiom "you get what you pay for." I cannot tell the difference between no-name cranks and my Sugino ones, to be honest, but stuff like derailler drivetrains are a different story. The 24+ speed bike you buy from Walmart is going to work like ****, unless you constantly mess with it. This is why the exception to the rule, the relatively simple, suspensionless bike in the OP, has surprised quite a few of us. It's why the thread was posted in the first place. Whatever mythical Walmart you have in Iowa, well, ours just ain't as good, apparently, because all I've ever seen are crap bikes come from there, with the exception of the single-speed cruisers which are adequate fro the price.