I live in the tropics where the salt, wind, sea breeze dissolve a bike in no time. I purchased a $100 Kent La Jolla from Wal-Mart which is Aluminum Frame, but bike is pretty much the only transportation here in the South Pacific and most folks here use the "Sun Bike" due to the durability and resistance to the elements. My question is, should I just bite the bullet and buy a Sun Bike or be ready to replace things as they break on the Kent. There is a big difference in money between the Kent and Sun. I am thinking the Sun Bike has better components and would be less problems. Any advice would be appreciated.

I would run the Kent until it fails, see how long it lasts. The Sun Bikes appear to be steel, which will rust out in a salt environment too. I have a pair of Huffy cruisers that I bought used that we keep at a beach house at the NC coast. The main upgrade I did to them was a stainless steel chain. I hose them off a few times a season and keep things oiled up. So far they have lasted 5 years, most of the bolts have surface rust on them.

Aaron

Steel Rusts, Aluminum Corrodes, its No Win, in a Marine Seaside climate , you might as well stick with $100 bikes

and dont be Attached to any One of them.. they will last longer if you don't also leave them outside, when at Home.

Thanks wahoo/fietsbob, that's what I'm thinking. Since it's an aluminum frame it should be fine. And seems to be good reviews too. Nothing will last long out here anyway

Yup, for a beach cruiser actually being used as one, there's no point in spending
a lot of money,(who can afford shaft drive), sand & salt doesn't take long to
destroy bearings & chains. If the frame paint holds up I'd say alu is fine, but salt
is almost as bad for it as it is for steel.

Or get something you can constantly paint, like it's a battleship

So far this bike has been doing surprisingly good. I went thru all the bearings, hubs, headset, crank, etc. before I rode it. It needed more grease and re-adjusting everything (mostly loosening). Had to use a cheater on the head set, I thought it was cross-threaded at first. Front wheel was bent pretty good, so I called Kent and they're sending me a new one free of charge. I've got a pretty good critical spare parts inventory now too. So Hopefully, I can keep riding.