Nominations, and why they fail:
Huffy:
Not the worst - if you take some of their cheap frames and make singlespeed, coasterbrake bikes out of them, they're decent. One or two of their department-store specials can be made halfway decent if they have V-brake posts.
Their Cranbrook/Santa Fe/Santa Fe II cruiser is pretty bad though - worthless handlebar stem and equally bad (soft steel) bullhorn handlebar, and the steerer tubes sometimes split. Swapping the fork, stem, and bar yields a decent bike though - for better or worse.
Murray:
A bit better then Huffy, usually when it comes to singlespeed cruisers. Otherwise, on par with Huffy.
Magna:
Sometimes on par with present-day Huffys, often worse. Nevertheless, you can singlespeed a bare frame, and it won't come apart. Can't say this is the worst either.
Pacific:
See Magna.
Free Spirit:
Manufactured by too many companys to nominate, and the 531 Ted Williams machine kicks this brand/label out of the lineup.
NEXT:
About on par with Pacific, but their dual-suspension mountain bikes are fodder for being absolute trash.
Come to think of it, I really haven't run across anything bad enough to the extent that it can't be made into a reliable, ridable bike via the coasterbrake singlespeed method.
...with exception to virtually all department store, dual-suspension mountain bikes. With that, I nominate these as amongst the worst bikes in existence - at least, that I've had experience with. I've never seen an Itera, and I don't think I want to.
-Kurt
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