New bike (needs upgrades)
 

Hello
after some years of not owning a bike i got one for my birthday last week .
it is a Genesis V2100 made by Kent international .
http://reviews.walmart.com/1336/14089739/reviews.htm
It came unassembled so i had to put it together my self, after some adjusting to the brakes and shifters i got it to work perfectly .

First off i think the bike is great it held up fine the first time i went for a spin in some rough to moderate trails, considering i am on the heavy side (260lb:twitchy:).
i feel this bike has some potential to be even better, that's why i ask to you experienced riders to give me some pointers on some upgrades i can do to this bike without having to spend hundreds of $$$, i dont know much about the components the only one i noticed that has a brand name is the thumb shifters and derailleur say tourney made by shimano.
so again how can i upgrade this bike (shock, wheels, tires, brakes etc.) without spending lots of moneys $$$

thank you

If the bike works fine for you, why do you want to upgrade it? Is there a specific problem you are trying to solve?

I would not put anymore $ into this entry-level bike. If you enjoy the sport, then same some $ so you can upgrade to a better bike in the $500 to $700 range. I doubt that you will be comfortable with a Wally World Special if you plan to ride long distance (+20 miles).

A Wally bike is truly not worth trying to upgrade. I'm not saying this out of spite or hatred for your bike. It's just the simple truth given the price point of this product. Any money you put into the Genesis you will just not get back from it. Instead just enjoy it for what it is, an introduction to biking and physical fitness. And save your upgrade money in a jar or piggybank towards your next bike.

By all means tinker with the stuff you have on the bike to tune it as well as it can be. But do not try to upgrade anything on it other than maybe the bars and stem to fit you better and the saddle to suit your riding style. Anything more than this would be a poor investment as most of the major things you're talking about in terms of shock, forks, tires, brakes, wheels, etc will cost you as much or more for even passable quality replacements as the entire Wally bike is worth. Ride the snot out of what you have and learn from it.

The one "upgrade" that I would suggest is to pay a shop to go over the wheels and tune the tensions since this is one point where the price will show. But even wheels at this price point will hold up well if the spokes are tensioned correctly by a skilled wheelbuilder. And don't be shocked when tuning the wheels costs you 1/2 of what the bike cost. Typically the charge for this sort of thing is $30 a wheel.

When you know that you're commited to riding for the long term review the strong and weak points of your dualie bike for how it fits the sort of trails you're riding and decide which way to go for your next bike be it another dualie or a hardtail or perhaps to go more road focused. Spend your "upgrade" budget on this new, or newer used, brand name bike from a major recognized maker and sell the Wally bike to someone. In the end this will be a much less painful plan than to sink double or triple the original cost into "upgrades" that the frame likely won't be able to fully utilize as well as a better design.

Ride as is.

got it !! thank you everyone
will keep at it, the one thing i will upgrade is the man killer seat apparently they decided to harden the part were the boys sit hehehe
thank you again

A lot of the time you can just play with the angle it sits on and relieve that pressure by moving the main contact point to the flare on the rear where your sit bones are located. Also as you ride more you'll come to realize that a bicycle saddle is intended more as a positioning device for your body and not as a place to "take a load off". Barker lounger saddles only belong on casual beach cruiser bikes used for gawking and mobile sun tanning.... :D

Adjusting the saddle is one of the tinkering things I suggested above. There's likely a lot of this sort of zero cost tuning you can do to make the bike fit you better. Another is altering the angle of the brake levers so that your arms, hands and fingers form a straight line from your serious trail riding position to the levers. This will allow you to pull on the brakes without having your wrist cocked over at an upward or downward angle. This greatly reduces the wear and tear on your tendons and at the same time allows you to apply the most force you can if required with less fatigue.

By the way, if you're trail riding and start hopping over fallen trees and trying out other such things I'd suggest a good set of knee and shin guards along with a chin bar full helmet. Crashing on the side of the trail can put you in the path of some rather nasty stuff and it's good to be armored in anticipation of such things. If you're just riding the more casual smooth walking trails then you won't need that stuff yet. But even there a good helmet and safety glasses along with some good gloves is not a bad idea.

Enjoy your new hobby!

Funny thing (BC rider)
 

All of the things you mentioned on your post are true, as i keep using my bike more and more i stated to thinker with the position of the brakes levers to help my reaction time since i almost had a close call crash, the seat either than adjusting i replaced it with a new one because the original one was to hard and my bum was sore :cry: .

by the time of this post your recommendation for shin guards and knee guards is too late :lol: i had my first crash yesterday and not even while nailing some super cool jump, it was while turning in a loose sand area of the trail i went on, im ok no major damage to me and the bike is intact :thumb:

:)

This is the point where we all stand back and smile at your war wounds and mumble the old saw about how chicks dig scars.... :D Also there's no cure for sore cheek muscles cuased by too much full face grinning... :D

Get bar ends for the handlebars, to give a change of position, and a water bottle cage. These will both make things better on longer rides.

adjusting the seat won't fix it if the problem is that it is too narrow. Make sure it's a bit wider than your sit bones.

I'm not a mountain biker. But, I just wanted to encourage you not to let the anti-Walmart (and anti-retail generally) folks get you down. They have valid points about how a retail bike can be a money pit, costing you as much as it would have if you'd just bought a bike-shop bike to begin with. But, that sentiment ignores the simple reality that you may never have been willing to spend $500 on a bike after years of not riding (and not knowing how you'd take to it).

If the bike got your riding, that's a huge positive. Adding upgrades can have the same pragmatic benefit: Learning maintenance; discovering your preferred riding position to help you make a more informed purchase of a $500 bike; accumulating parts and accessories that can be used on another bike (perhaps a used bike-shop bike that needs rehab?).

It's definitely true that you can end up spending as much as you would have if you'd just bought a $500 bike. But, if you're getting more out of it this way (experience and a gradual approach that was right for you), don't let anyone kill your joy. As long as you understand the pros and cons, do what's right for you.

All roads lead to Rome.

stem
 

does anyone know what is the size of the stem on this bike ?
i think i need it to be replaced mine keeps getting loose and has to be tighten .

Sheldown Brown's Servicing Bicycle Headsets will give you information to determine that yourself. Maybe also his Bicycle Headset Dimension Crib Sheet

From the Walmart product photo, it looks like you have a threadless headset. BicycleTutor.com has a tutorial on how to adjust.

i see that the handle bar and the stem have lines (indentations) is that threaded ?

great info , thanks for the links

At that tutorial site there is another tutorial on overhauling a threaded headset. If you watch that you'll see the difference between threaded and threadedless.

I think you're describing the splines in the center of the handlebar which help the stem grip it.

The Genesis V2100 has a threadless stem; which part keeps coming loose, the stem itself or the handlebar?

The stem is right around 100mm, just a very few degrees of rise; just about any aftermarket stem would work for it. See what your LBS has for about $20-30, you can swap it to the next bike if you want, too.

You might want to stubborn it out a little while longer though. If you haven't ridden regularly for a long time, then ANY saddle is likely to cause certain parts of your anatomy to complain. Heck, I ride year round, but I'm still uncomfortable when I bring the MTB out of hibernation each spring.
Compare it to breaking in a new pair of leather shoes - If it's all wrong it'll never get right, but the initial discomfort isn't a reliable indicator of things to come.

But what the OP can do, which isn't entirely financial stupidity, is to replace with better when stuff breaks.
If the OP wants to keep the bike he has to buy something, and the extra cost to go from Shimano low-range to Shimano mid-range isn't much.

the handle bar, is the culprit
im looking to buy STEM 31.8MM 110MM 5* ALUMINUM 1-1/8

is this the right size ?? for the handle bars?

There are two different clamp area bar diameters that might apply to your bike, 31.8 or 25.4. Can't find a spec that tell which you have, but such a size difference you should be able to figure out. Odds are that it's a 25.4 though.

With that said, it's a bit worrying that yours come loose. I suggest that you check your bar for crimping.(which can happen due to overtensioning the clamp. If the bar is crimped, then I strongly recommend that you replace that. A bar snapping off is a nasty failure.

If the bar isn't crimped, the quick and cheap fix is to cut a shim out of an aluminum soda can or something. Just a rectangular piece that wraps around the bar as a kind of liner, to make it a bit thicker. Then you can tighten the stem again.

did some upgrades
 

hello everyone
i did an upgrade on my Wally bike i changed the stem and set, since i did not know the size of the stem i bought 2
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...=STRK:MEWNX:IT
and
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...=STRK:MEWNX:IT
the one that ended up fitting on my bike is the KORE stem , its perfect !!!! i love the extra length .
and i changed the seat to this one
http://cgi.ebay.com/NEW-Schwinn-Schw...item255b50d45e
million times better, no more crushed Planters :lol:


thanks for all the helpful information .

Hi... I'm thinking about buying this bike for strictly small city street riding... nothing off-road. I have had a NEXT for years and although it still works fine I just want a new bike. Is there a mirror that can be installed on these type bikes. My NEXT had the extra hand grips and the mirror fit perfectly on them. Thanks ... I'm new here by the way.

I just bought one. And I know theres a lot of haters who would be really mad at me for the parts I put on mine, but in defense I couldn't afford a new frame and wanted to ride. Its an ok bike if your just gonna ride around for exercise or to a friends house but will need work if you really want to ride it. Mine now has double walls front & back(new hubs too), New stem, Azonic bars, Fly crank, Splice forks, Crupi pedals, Sealed headset, new rear shock as well as some other small things. Now these are all parts I had sitting around and felt they should be used instead of collecting dust. I now have a bike that does not resemble a wally world bike in the least bit and is very comfortable to ride.

Tarheel, if you find this a bar end mirror that plugs into the hole in the end of the bar will fit. You may need to cut a hole in the grip to get access to the hole. There are also some that velcro on over the grip. Frankly I would not like that kind because the velcro would rub on the palm of my hand in a very bad spot.