Originally Posted by wneumann
Yep. It's far more interesting to find out just what is wrong with the bike than just a dismissive "it sucks". It's fine to think something sucks -- just back up your case with some real information.
I know back when I was trying to decide if I should buy my current Cadillac bicycle, I went looking places like this for information (particularly negative, as the few actual reviews I had seen were all positive, and I wanted to know the downside), and the closest thing to an informative opinion was someone who said "oh, you can get more for your money" without saying what or where offers better value (since then I've only found some of the Windsor bikes that seem to offer better components at a similar price range), all of the other negative reviews consisted of nuggets of "wisdom" along the lines of "Cadillac, you've gotta be kidding me?"
Essentially, the negative reviews all seemed to be coming from folk who really had no experience with the bike. And this is where Cig's review is of some worth -- we may find out that the bike is indeed a total crapbomb, but we'll know why it's a crapbomb, which is what's really important. At least to me.
You may already know that your Cadillac bicycle is a product of Kent Bicycles as is the GMC . I am a Cadillac dealer, so I am not about to denigrate your choice. Here in Canada, the GMC is sold in Toys R Us stores, and I have been offered the chance to handle them as well, but I declined, leaving them to the big box store as they are at the bottom of the spec chain for sure.
I am quite interested in the OP's reveiw, and appreciate his updates, and I think there are some present who may be surprised at just how much service life there can be had from the lower componentry levels these days, particularly when fastidiously maintained by someone such as the OP.
The thing is, when compared to other bikes with the same specs, the GMC is a good value. The same is true of the more up-spec Cadillac(they go all the way up to full cabon, Dura Ace), which in my experience have a good build quality.
BTW, what model Caddy have you got?
Dan Burkhart
www.boomerbicycle.ca