Bikeforums.net is a forum about nothing but bikes. Our community can help you find information about hard-to-find and localized information like bicycle tours, specialties like where in your area to have your recumbent bike serviced, or what are the best bicycle tires and seats for the activities you use your bike for.Sir Lunch-a-lot
05-23-07, 09:44 PM
Hey! I just thought I'd like to share the fact that I bought my first folding bike a week (or two) ago. Yup. Granted, it is a Walmart Bike, but on the whole, it seems to be on the higher end of things quality-wise (trust me, I work assembling Walmart bikes 5 days a week, and I have found that not all Walmart bikes are P.O.S. quality. A few of them are real crappy through and through. CCM is a pain in the butt to adjust, and some wheels are really out of true. But there are some good Walmart bikes out there. You just got to know what you are looking for).
Anyway, I've been carpooling to the city with both my parents to work every morning since I got home from college, and I had been thinking, "You know, it would be really nice to have a folding bike that we could just throw in the back that I could zip around town with right after work" (I get off an hour before either of my parents, and Dad's work is at the other end of town - a 1 hour hike or a 10 minute bike ride). After looking on ebay and thinking, I concluded that for the pricerange I was looking at, the Walmart folder was going to give me what I wanted. As it was, with shipping costs, I would have paid as much or more for an older, more dubious bike than this one.
And so far, I have been really happy with it. Since I got it, I've been able to get errands done that were impractical or required a car before (lots of simple stuff... doctors appointments, haircut, etc). And when I fold up the bike, I haven't gotten much of any flack for bringing it in places. Well, I did get told to get out of 7-11, but it wasn't folded then either. And 7-11 is a real small store. And it was a dumb idea to shop there for stuff anyway (I went to Safeway instead. Nobody said a word about me walking around with my bike. And if they told me off, I'd simply fold it up and pop it into a cart. Real simple).
Ahh... the freedom of a folder. I'm always a bit nervous, though, when I take my bike into a business of any sort. But like I said, most places probably won't tell me off when it's folded. And if they do, I can point to their total lack of facilities for locking up bikes.
The other thing I've begun noticing more now that I am biking in a city is the stupidity of some drivers. I thought it wasn't bad out here, but I guess I was wrong. But that is a whole 'nother kettle of fish.
Anyway, I'm starting to ramble. I guess the gist of this all is that I'm real happy having a folding bike. Really happy. Yeah. Oh, and I've attached some pics of it.
Anyway, I've been carpooling to the city with both my parents to work every morning since I got home from college, and I had been thinking, "You know, it would be really nice to have a folding bike that we could just throw in the back that I could zip around town with right after work" (I get off an hour before either of my parents, and Dad's work is at the other end of town - a 1 hour hike or a 10 minute bike ride). After looking on ebay and thinking, I concluded that for the pricerange I was looking at, the Walmart folder was going to give me what I wanted. As it was, with shipping costs, I would have paid as much or more for an older, more dubious bike than this one.
And so far, I have been really happy with it. Since I got it, I've been able to get errands done that were impractical or required a car before (lots of simple stuff... doctors appointments, haircut, etc). And when I fold up the bike, I haven't gotten much of any flack for bringing it in places. Well, I did get told to get out of 7-11, but it wasn't folded then either. And 7-11 is a real small store. And it was a dumb idea to shop there for stuff anyway (I went to Safeway instead. Nobody said a word about me walking around with my bike. And if they told me off, I'd simply fold it up and pop it into a cart. Real simple).
Ahh... the freedom of a folder. I'm always a bit nervous, though, when I take my bike into a business of any sort. But like I said, most places probably won't tell me off when it's folded. And if they do, I can point to their total lack of facilities for locking up bikes.
The other thing I've begun noticing more now that I am biking in a city is the stupidity of some drivers. I thought it wasn't bad out here, but I guess I was wrong. But that is a whole 'nother kettle of fish.
Anyway, I'm starting to ramble. I guess the gist of this all is that I'm real happy having a folding bike. Really happy. Yeah. Oh, and I've attached some pics of it.