Mountain Biking - mongoose walmart bikes, any good?

I saw a bunch of them at my local wal-mart supercenter. They're definitely in my price range (max is $200). I am looking for a moutain bike mainly for exercise/trail riding not for extreme sport or anything like that. I would like a portable/folding bike (but they costs like over $400 for a full size one).

Any one here know of a good mountain bike under $200 that's light and durable but also with a ton of options? Thanks.

No such bike exists that fit your description and price point.

Ah! Heresy! Save another hundred and get an entry level Marin. I started out with a Nail Trail and that is third from the bottom. For Gods sake and your own, don't get a walmart bike. Aside from being far too heavy; they suck. Haha. You will be much happier on something that will give you exercise, not wear you out.

Thanks for all the replies.

Phiber -- I don't know much about bikes. I've never heard of Marin bikes. But I'll look into them.

Anyone else have any suggestions? Oh, by the way, the mongoose walmart mountain bike retail for $157.

Marin is a real nice California company. They make good bikes and are usually affordable. I have owned two and loved them both. The thiing with owning a bike that doest weigh as much as a car is that, especially for trail riding, you won't die halfway through. Usually those walmart specials are made out of HEAVY STEEL. Marins' Cromolly bikes are badass and don't weigh hardly more than an aluminum HT. I own a Nail Trail which is their top of the line Aluminum Hard Tail. Now, their bottom of the line HT is going to be heads above that mongoose. I would say if you can afford around 300 or have a Sun and Ski sports near you go pimp a Marin. Sun and Ski sports also has a real nifty program called Play now Pay later. You put at least 25 percent down and give them three post dated checks for the rest and you take stuff home with you. :) that's the only way I could afford 2 grand worth of stuff in one trip. ;)

its better than a walmart bike. Its called motiv and is about 250 at costco. and as long as your not to rough it sholdnt break.

oh yeah.. walmart bikes are awesome. im surprised they havent put bike shops out of business...

oh yeah.. walmart bikes are awesome. im surprised they havent put bike shops out of business...


Just the oppisite, bike shops make lots of money repairing X-Mart bikes. January can be very busy in a service area fixing bike bought at big chain stores and simply put together and given to kids as Christmas presents.

Look for a good used $500 hardtail for $200.

Thanks again for everyone's reponses.

I found the nail tail Phiber spoke of here:

http://www.marinbikes.com/html/spec_04_nail.html

The retail price for it is $840.00! Way over my budget for an exercise bike. Again, I'm new at bikes. :(

I don't understand why a bike could cost so much. At that price I can get 5 wal-mart bikes. It sounds like they'll break down pretty easily, but I would have 5 of them to go through.

I have to go back to wal-mart and check to see if they're made out of metal or so other alloy that is lighter.

I wish I had a Costco membership to go look at the motiv bike that cheewymuffin suggested.

Anymore suggestion, guys? Or is operator correct in saying that there's not one for what I'm looking for?

It's not light, and it doesn't have a ton of options but i've bought a supercycle at Canadian Tire for about $200 CDN w/taxes. Only thing that I didn't like was the brakes so I replaced those. But other than that after 1500km of riding on it, everything is fine. Just take care of it.

Of course once you bring it home, be prepared to give it a VERY throrough checkup. I already knew how to do most of the basic things so it wasn't a huge job.

Currently i'm fixing up an old road bike I got at a garage sale. You could look into one of those. My friend got a really nice Nishiki for ~$50. Everything in top-notch working condition as well.

Hope this gave you some other avenues to explore.

If your just looking to ride on the road definately get a used road bike.

Listen.
If you want a good bike for 200 US, try getting a lower end trek. DONT GET A WALMART BIKE WHATEVER YOU DO. I'm serious. I didn't listen to everyone, I got a canadian tire bike and now Im trying to sell it. They are terrible. Don't get them. For god's sake avoid them. Bikes are not toys.

I'll second what The Fixer said. Look for a used bike from a LBS. Or alternatively, save up and raise your budget up another $100-$150 and look at something like the Specialized HardRock. They're solid, dependable and hard to beat in the $300 to $350 range price-point.

well ive got my old peugot dirt racing mtn bike hanging in the storage room. its got the old small chromo tubing and acera x components. only thing is the shifters need to be replaced as the spings in em are screwed (due to an excercise hiatus) i could probably let it go cheap. i was gonna fix it and just keep it in case someone i knew needed a ride, but somehow i dont think thats gonna happen soon. and itll be too many years to keep it for my oldest kid.

Hahah i love charging people with walmart bikes $300 when they could buy a new one, but their so damn insistant on having their POS.

Check the bike shops for a used bike. The Wally World bikes are heavy and have crap components that will make your experience a negative one sooner or later. All those "features" that they sell, the full suspension especially, are made of garbage materials, and are not something you need unless you are doing some serious hard core riding..in which case you'll break the cheap stuff they have. Shop around and get a good name brand bike used, you'll be far better off.

I also suggest going used... do you have a www.craigslist.org in your area? You can check there for used bikes and gear. Good luck

a friend bought a $125 bike from walmart.
Ride #1, all goes well.
Ride #2, cancelled, pedal broke. (he had to buy new pedals, added toeclips)
Ride #3, got a flat, couldnt repair because I didn't have wrenches (no quickrelease hubs on X-mart bikes)
Ride #4, bent wheel, I straightened it enough to ride, but average X-mart shopper has neither tools nor skills to do that.

He's now considering buying quickrelease skewers. He's already got almost $50 in parts for his $125 bike...and thinking of another $20 for skewers. If I didn't fix it for him, he'd have paid LBS a ton of money each repair. All that for 3 rides.

Contrast that to my experience. 10 yrs ago I bought a Gary Fisher Mamba. Entry level hard tail at the time. I rode that sucker hard until 2002, when I bought a 2001 Gary Fisher Sugar 4 full suspension. Now that mamba is my commuter. In 10 years I've replaced the shifters (wore out after 5 years), rear wheel (old lady backed over my bike in a parking lot, while it was locked to a rack), and brakes (I wanted to upgrade to V-brakes, cantis worked fine, but wanted an upgrade).

I think you're better off buying used, and if money is an issue, don't forget to get a bicycle repair book, I bought one years ago and now I maintain all my bikes and friends' bikes for free. And don't forget helmet and if riding at night, lights and a good lock.

If it's still too much, try to find some old "beater" for around $50. Ride it til it dies, then fix it yourself, and find out what you like and don't like about bikes.

Wow. You guys are the greatest with the replies. Thanks once more to everyone who replied.

hooligan & super-douper -- you guys have convinced me to steer clear of wal-mart bikes.

khuon -- the specialized hardrock got some good reviews here:

http://www.reviewcentre.com/review23396.html

and you're right about the price it's $350 (it's a bit pricey for me but like you said I could save another $150 to get this). I went to specialized web site (http://www.specialized.com/SBCBkModel.jsp?spid=9345&JServSessionIdroot=ymwvfobaft.j27006) and it looks like they have the 2005 version coming out at the same price $350. The reviewer from reviewcentre.com stated that he didn't like the noises that the disc brake makes. The review looks like it was posted around the 2003 - 2004 time frame, so hopefully, the 2005 version (hardrock sport) corrected the problem. Also, it looks like the 2005 version has a Tektro “V” front and rear brakes. Is that the same "V" brake that Gnigamica from reviewcentre.com mentioned?

super-douper -- I'm going to look into the Gary Fisher Mamba as well (10 years! can't beat that). Thanks for the heads up. Do you prefer it over what khuon's suggestion (specialized hardrock)?

twahl -- Yes, that's where I'm going to check out next. There's a local bike shop several miles from where I live. I didn't go to the local bike shop because I didn't know anything about bikes. So, I didn't want to go in and get bombarded by the dealer (who knows a great deal about bikes as opposed to walking into wally-world). But now thanks to everyone's posts here, I am a bit more confident about bikes.

nepaMTBer, Trauma, twahl, & rsvmiller1 -- I'm trying my best to avoid used bikes for my first one just because I'm new at bikes. I figured if I get a good new one, this will allow me to study it and learn how to fix it without having spent too much money on repairs.

rsvmiller1 -- thanks for the craigslist link. I've heard of it mentioned elsewhere before but didn't know anything about it. It looks like they have listings for dallas / ft worth!

Any more suggestions?

The reviewer from reviewcentre.com stated that he didn't like the noises that the disc brake makes.
noise is something that's fairly common with disc brakes, especially if they're still breaking in or when they get wet. i have hydraulic disc brakes on both my bikes and the rear on one wails like a banshee when i'm braking downhill and the front on both bikes like the screech when they get wet.

i don't really mind the noise anymore... sometimes it can be annoying, but you learn to ignore it after a while.

with regards to the new bike, i'd also suggest something like the specialized hardrock. i'd also look at other bike companies like giant (www.giantbicycle.com), trek (www.trekbikes.com), norco (www.norco.com) and ironhorse (www.ironhorsebikes.com). there are more brands that you can look at, but these are just a few off the top of my head that make pretty good bikes for relatively cheap.

and again, there's always buying used...

in any case, good luck with the new purchase. don't forget to post back when you've decided and post pics if possible :D .

super-douper -- I'm going to look into the Gary Fisher Mamba as well (10 years! can't beat that). Thanks for the heads up. Do you prefer it over what khuon's suggestion (specialized hardrock)?


I can't really compare the Fishers to any other bikes, since I've owned exactly 2 mountain bikes in my life, both fishers and i still have both. I've been very happy with them. I'm sure there are a lot of bike manufacturers that make solid bikes also, but I've only had experience with Fisher.

I've seen people riding those Walmart Mongoose full suspension bikes on paved rail trails. Not my first choice of a bike on pavement, of coure they didn't even know what height to put the seat at - legs bent out at funny angles and all. I guess Walmart didn't fit them properly.

I've get a Gary Fisher Tassajara (hardtail) and it's held up very well. I've looked at the Specialized Rockhopper for my son and it looks like a decent bike as well. I think you would do well with either brand. I don't know anything about Marin's - have only seen them in a store once.

Remember, if you buy at a good lbs, they'll stand behind their product and help you as you learn.

Mark

Thanks again for everyone's reponses.

I found the nail tail Phiber spoke of here:

http://www.marinbikes.com/html/spec_04_nail.html

The retail price for it is $840.00! Way over my budget for an exercise bike. Again, I'm new at bikes. :(

I don't understand why a bike could cost so much. At that price I can get 5 wal-mart bikes. It sounds like they'll break down pretty easily, but I would have 5 of them to go through.

I have to go back to wal-mart and check to see if they're made out of metal or so other alloy that is lighter.

I wish I had a Costco membership to go look at the motiv bike that cheewymuffin suggested.

Anymore suggestion, guys? Or is operator correct in saying that there's not one for what I'm looking for?

No dude, look down at the bottom of the list. Bayview trail or Pioneer trail. I started out with an '03 Bolinas Ridge. :)

just as note, i dont know where your from, but here in Ottawa there is a "T&L" LBS that has Specialized bikes at around 30% off, so you may find something in your area.I find end of year is the best time to buy. (no i dont work there, but i have been buying most of my extra stuff there).

It would be sad if you buy the wal-mart bike because then you would be learning the hardway of buying a bike. Those bike's are always to heavy and the parts are the least to desire. Everyone that rides knows this to be true, so don't do it. Buy a used bike for that price if you can or wait and save up the extra cash and buy something you will enjoy instead of regreting it. I have purchased eleven bikes up to now and what I know now versus my early days of buying a bike could have save me a load of money. I'm not saying you have to buy a real expensive bike but don't settle for something that is cheap.

rasheed -- thanks for the links. I'll check them out. Yes, I intend to post once I decide on a bike (and put up a pic too).

markm109 -- two people for a Gary.

Phiber -- I must be blind not to see them. I just clicked on the first one. :(

Trauma -- I'm from Fort Worth, Texas. Hello neighbor from the north! Hope it's not too cold around this time of the year up there. It darn hot down here in the Texas heat.

rmwun54 - hooligan & super-douper has already talked me out of buying a wal-mart mongoose bike several posts up. A co-worker said that he bought a wal-mart bike for his son that lasted for a year without any problems. He said it comes with some sort of Shimano branded component located near the handle bar. Which he said the Shimano brand is the top of the line for such a bike component. Not knowing much about bikes, I took his word for it. Anyone here disagree?

At any rate, I called up the local bike shop asking whether they had the 2005 specialized hardtop sport model in store. They said they don't have them right now, but are in transition between the 2004 and 2005 models. For availability, they're thinking it'll be around 2 weeks to 2 months before they get that model in the store. What a bummer, dude. I was hoping to try one out at the store.

A co-worker said that he bought a wal-mart bike for his son that lasted for a year without any problems. He said it comes with some sort of Shimano branded component located near the handle bar. Which he said the Shimano brand is the top of the line for such a bike component. Not knowing much about bikes, I took his word for it. Anyone here disagree?

Shimano is a company. They make a lineup of bike components that span from bikes you'd find at K-mart for $75 to bikes you have to make an appointment with a builder and get interviewed before they'll make you one for upwards of $7500 and more. It goes without saying that the stuff you find on the K-Mart bike is going to be much different (lower) in quality than what you'll find in a high performance racebike.

At any rate, I called up the local bike shop asking whether they had the 2005 specialized hardtop sport model in store. They said they don't have them right now, but are in transition between the 2004 and 2005 models. For availability, they're thinking it'll be around 2 weeks to 2 months before they get that model in the store. What a bummer, dude. I was hoping to try one out at the store.

You might want to ask them what they still have from their 2004 stock. Sometimes you can get a great deal on "last year's" stock. The bikes will not really have changed that much. As a matter of fact, looking at the two (2004 Specialized HardRock Sport (http://www.specialized.com/SBCBkModel.jsp?spid=5970&JServSessionIdroot=38fa2m0tlf.j27009) vs. 2005 Specialized HardRock Sport (http://www.specialized.com/SBCBkModel.jsp?spid=9345&JServSessionIdroot=38fa2m0tlf.j27009)), I only see a very slight difference in the fork and crank. The 2004 model also started out $20 lower MSRP than the 2005 model. See if you can still locate a 2004 model clearance.

Listen.
If you want a good bike for 200 US, try getting a lower end trek. DONT GET A WALMART BIKE WHATEVER YOU DO. I'm serious. I didn't listen to everyone, I got a canadian tire bike and now Im trying to sell it. They are terrible. Don't get them. For god's sake avoid them. Bikes are not toys.

I competely agree. Used good MTB are bargains. Canadian tire/Walmart will be sued eventually for selling those cheap shoddy bikes, they are unsafe. They are designed aesthetically only to look like real bikes, the FS bikes are the worst, with springs but no dampers, like riding a pogo stick. The warranty forbids off road use because they will not handle it. A neighbour had a new Crappy Tire special and the brake caliper snapped on a downhill when he applied the brake -but he saved $100, when your heading for traffic at 30mph with no brakes, it doesn't quite seem the bargain. They are heavy, use gas pipe for tubes, cheap cast aluminum parts and bearings made of chocolate. Turn off the lights in the garage and you can almost hear them rusting. Buy one and you'll have to buy another in a year. I would not buy these disposable bikes for my kids. You can buy a good used bike and sell it again at minimal loss when the kid grows up if you teach him/her to take care of it.

Shimano should be ashamed for licencing their name to Chinese "factories" that make these bikes -it will bite them back one day.

Never cheap out on anything that goes faster than you can walk.

Your best bet would be e-bay, don't waste your time on a Wal-Mart bike...

khuon -- I took your suggestion and called up the bike shop asking if they had a 2004 specialized hardrock sport. They said they didn't have one at my location but that another store had one left (in blue). They said they'll get it transferred over to their store (it will take a day or two). He gave me a price quote of $285 (about $308.51 with tax). Which is not bad considering the MSRP is $320. I can't wait to try it ou! Thank you for the suggestion.

DocRay -- I agree with you on Shimano. That is just plain misleading to put their name with poor quality workmanship/material. If it weren't for people like khuon on this forum explaining about Shimano, I would have believed my co-worker (and probably many other people like them think that way).

imprezaman -- I don't quite trust e-bay for some reason. Maybe someday, I'll take the plunge and try e-bay out.

Yahoo!!!!! Wheppppeee!!! I finally got my bike! It's a 2005 Specialized HardRock Sport. I would have gotten it sooner but the dealer ran out of the 2004 model. Several days later, they got in a 2005 model. But it's not at my location. Urgh. More wait time for them to transfer it to the store at my location. My experience with bicycle inc is exceptional (thanks, Sean for sticking around even after the store has closed for 30 minutes--although a lot of the stuff you told me about bikes went way over my head :) ).

I'm so exhausted. The weight of the bike is so amazingly light. Sean took the front wheel off and I nearly fell to the floor at how freaken light weight the front wheel is!!!

I can't wait to take it out for a spin tomorrow morning. I promised to put up pictures ASAP. Thank you all for your replies. I'll post more about my experiences later. For now, I'm gonna hit the shack!!!!

Another successful rescue from the jaws of death by US! Not the U.S., but us! The bikeforums members! WE should all give ourselves a pat on the back and kidaware...you deserve a ride! Go out there and ride your bike (i was gonna say rip it up, but then other bikes couldn't use the patht hat he used :D)

As promised, here're some pictures of the brand spanking new 2005 specialized hardrock sport for all to see!!!

The pictures (canon powershot A75) look a lot better than what's posted. I had to adjust them/downgrade them to make the 100KB forum picture upload limit.

more pic

can't stop...more pic

wahoo...

yee-haw!!!!

Looks good. Now...the ritual...of saying a couple of words.

Get that rig dirty!! In fact, as you read this, you should be destroying your property and piling it onto your bike to make it look dirty.

I saw a bunch of them at my local wal-mart supercenter. They're definitely in my price range (max is $200). I am looking for a moutain bike mainly for exercise/trail riding not for extreme sport or anything like that. I would like a portable/folding bike (but they costs like over $400 for a full size one).

Any one here know of a good mountain bike under $200 that's light and durable but also with a ton of options? Thanks.

Light.

Durable.

Features.

For $200, you can get any ONE of these, no more. About $350 will get you two, and about $600+ will get you all of it.

The walmart bikes avary in quality from basic quality to utter garbage, most have forks that are far worse than the ones the cheapest LBS bikes have, and many of thoes wally world style forks were involved in safety recalls, the brakes are atrocious and dangerous at best, the gearing is often the cheapest possible with poor shifting and less than reliable performance. There are ok wal-mart bikes, but for $20-30 more oyu cna get an LBS bike that was assemebled by someone that will stand behind his work, and you often get a warranty that's worth half of anyhting as well. The LBS bike will most likely be 6061 aluminum, hardtail design, with a single bottle cage mount. it will have either an SR Suntour or RST 50mm suspension fork, generic name V-brakes, and Shimano Tourney gearing.

$200 at a bike shop can get you a tough bike. Far from light, but it can do what you want it to do. i would go up to $300 though since that's the point the stronger forks start showing up and some bikes in that rage use shimano alivio drivetrains as well, which is a bit better than tourney.

Digging up an OLD thread (Seems I do that a lot.. sorry.. hehe I use search feature a lot!)

another Nail in coffin for walmart's bikes:

They leave a whole BUNCH of them outside 24/7 in any kind of weather. I've ran thru hurricane force storms half blinded by rain, and shaking my head at the bikes exposed to the elements on my way to the door.

That is so *DUMB*.

Consider this: avergae x-mart user won't even lube anything anyway, and to sell a bike for $150 that has been stripped of anything remotely resembling lube by the weather is just plain irresponsible.

Not to mention those bikes suck anyway :)


By the way, congratulations on your new HardRock! Don't ride it TOO hard :) (See signature hehe) It's a great bike!!

Light.

Durable.

Features.

For $200, you can get any ONE of these, no more. About $350 will get you two, and about $600+ will get you all of it.


I think you hit it RIGHT ON in my case, Catatonic... I paid 300-ish for mine, and it does appear I have the light & features, with not enough durability. (Frame is an exception, it's bulletproof!!!! It's an awesome frame to built up on) My components crap out on me..

I need to stop abusing it TOO much, or upgrade to say rockhopper or stumpjumper and continue my abuse. Another possibility is to stick to the frame and replace the parts that crap out on me. :)

Heh, I've been through this upgrade frenzy too, from msrp $240 to msrp $1100 bikes. You really do get what you pay for, but right off the bat at about $200 you get roughly the equal to wal-marts finest, but with better assembly, service, and support (the top end schwinn hardtail there is actually pretty decent if you know how to properly assemble it yourself, about equal to a DDB outlook). Once you hit 240, your aboves what walmart offers at a hardware level as well. About 350 you start seeing upgraded components, and sometimes lighter frames.....around 400 you start seeing disc brakes at teh cost of component groups.

at 500, you start seeing only lightweight frames, lx (and sometimes XT) components, good forks, light wheelsets....basically if you look across every companies lienup there will be some very nice parts. once you hit 600....the bikes are usually pretty much decked out. 800 can land you a bike like my talus, which is pretty much a killer XC frame with a rather nice component selection (frame only is availible). Retail on it is 1100, but bay area cycles was selling one for about 800...so remeber never pay retail unless you absolutely must have it "right now".