Originally Posted by
droy45
Exactly. If you put it all together yourself and get everything adjusted right it will run fine. Its a cheap bike and mostly because it has low end components which can be upgraded as time goes on. You won't wear it out unless you use it for trail riding all the time. The frame should be fine as they are mostly all 6061 alluminum made in Asian countries using modern CNC welding practices. So the quality should be consistant. Its not a Surly Pugsley for sure but good enough for occasional jaunts in soft snow or trail riding. If I were to need a fat bike for my commute, I would save up for the Pugs but the roads are always plowed well here no matter what kind of storm we get.
65 mentioned the hubs being a weak link and he's right. First thing I'd do is re-pack and readjust the bearings. Many failures on these cheap hubs are due to incorrect factory adjustment (usually too tight, but sometimes too loose) or insufficient grease.
As long as you don't expect it to stand up to abuse, I don't see how you'd have any problems with this for quite a while. Personally, I'm only 130 pounds and not planning on doing any cliff drops... so yeah, I'd be surprise if I didn't get many years of service out of it.
I like the reviewer's comment "90% of the fun at 10% of the cost."