I spot them sometimes myself...but WTF is going on with those handlebars?

Thanks! Honestly, for the grief it gets, it's really not a bad bike at all. The stronger I get, the more it keeps proving that.

Yesterday I went on a 30 mile ride as part of a city wide sponsored event. That was the longest ride they offered, so some of the fastest riders of the city were there, I think about 30 total doing the 30 mile ride, there was also a 20 mile, 8 mile, and a 3 for beginners. I ended up hanging with the fastest group of the ride the entire time, finishing 5th in a breakaway pack of 5 (including me) riders at the end. Of course, they all had much nicer bikes, including Treks, a Cannondale, and an older aluminum Raleigh. We rode non-stop and while I don't know the average speed of the ride, it was definitely at a good pace. I remember ending up in top gear very frequently and staying there to cruise at speeds of up to 27 mph on the flats. More going downhill and 16-18 mph going uphill, so I guess that would put the average speed for the ride somewhere in the low 20s. I forgot to reset my avg speed on the computer.

Not trying to boast, but I am pretty proud of that considering I've only been riding for less than a year and it is, after all, a Denali.

I won't lie though, I was doing okay until the last couple of miles when the pack I finished with decided to sprint, and it almost killed me to keep up. Everyone was telling me that I was a strong rider for keeping up on platforms and that I needed to go clipless. For this bike, I agree. I'll have to put it on my wish list. I don't think they knew it was a Wal-Mart bike, albeit a fairly heavily modified one.

I'm not meaning to boast, but I am pretty proud of it. Not only for how I've been able to make this often overlooked bike work for me but for my own gains in the past year. When I started last year, I was riding 4.5 miles on my own early in the morning and it exhausted me.

Here's a picture of my bike I found from the event:



I had almost no problems during the ride.

I say almost, my bike has been developing a creak at the stem area that worsened during the ride. I forgot to regrease the stem bolt, expander, and steerer during my teardown this winter. Today I went back and greased it, and all is well. No more creaks.

Really, aside from the Sora FD I bought breaking, I haven't had any problems in recent memory with the Denali aside from creaks. One was the aftermarket rear wheel which needed to be retentioned, another was the seatpost that needed to be tightened, and the stem which just needed grease. It was getting pretty creaky but now is new bike silent again.

I am at 1403 miles now. With warm weather returning and the time change past, I will be piling on the miles on this bike again. My guess is about 110 miles per week spread between four days, some with up to 50 miles if I do the Saturday extended rides. I really need clipless pedals...

EDIT: After completing this post, I found some Diadora cycling shoes for $30. Did some research, seems like a good price, so I ordered them. Now I just need to find some SPD pedals, already found a few for under $20.

EDIT 2: More searching found my pedals. Wellgo WPD-823. They do okay for offroad, but apparently work very well on-road. Got them for $15, so for $45 shipped I've got myself into some clipless pedals and shoes. Hope I don't fall over too much.
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