Cig,

i hate to sound prickish but i must.

i don't think this has been the proper review you think it has, and i think that in all probability you have embelished the facts.

i have no doubts that with a major overhaul from day one that this bike could last a couple thousand miles, although i don't believe that it would be a smooth riding machine.
but mostly it is your claims of average speeds close to thirty mph and the supposed praise you and this bike receive wherever you go that are so over the top that i must assume your mechanical review of the bike is skewed as well.

i have a midrange bike that gets a few compliments every now and then... and i am willing to bet that it would be more of a headturner than your GMC, but never have i had people coming to my workplace just to visit it, nor could i claim that sales improve when i ride to work.
nor do people buy more of the model after inspecting mine.

then with the average speeds.... i always have finished respectably on century rides and are most often passing others as opposed to being passed, but never have i had an average speed of twenty+ mph riding solo... at least not the distances you are claiming unless their was a real good tailwind... and then to claim thirty is just goofy.

reading the later posts of this thread it seems as if the local GMC support team think the lack of disagreement with the posted results would be because the "nay sayers" might be embarassed that they were wrong... they are probably much like myself, i quit reading or responding because i find the review so riddled with inaccuracy and ego that my responses are difficult to make while keeping a genuine tone.
maybe i shouldn't have read up on this, but i had to see why it was still going... and now that i see what people will perpetuate i feel a need to respond.

a proper review would have had a much more scientific approach and would not reflect at all the views that others have of you and to an extent their views of the bike you are reviewing. i think you started okay, but then the smallest criticism of your review caused you to polarize your findings and soon you were preaching to a choir of thrifty cyclists. even those things you found problematic in design were minimized to the point of nonexistance by page ten.

i also have major disputes with your belief that you can report a faulty condition on your bike and explain the actions needed to fix the problem and in doing so enable others to purchase the same model without the worry of faulty construction. a mechanically savvy individual should see where this logic fails.
this is just one area of your review that works to invalidate your findings as a whole.


i truly hope i am wrong about everything and that your bike is every bit the steal you claim it to be.
i regret that i am driven to be so frank but i see no other way to respond in a respectful manner.

i have not seent he bike in person but i would advise any one of the purported hundreds of prospective buyers that are reading this thread to either be prepared to make arrangements for a competent mechanic to perform an inspection of the bike or to have the brass to ride it with knowledge that it could fail in an awkward moment.
also keep in mind that nothing is free and in respect to walmart this truism applies double.

well then, i guess that is all... sorry again for the bluntness.

cheers.