Cool User Name

Target here. The Walmart crowd is pretty iffy.

That being said I bought my bike computer, a bell at wally world for my cheap dawes.

brokenrobot

Naw, I just LIVE there, and that's temporary

DMF 

When did they move Brooklyn to 'Bama??

n4zou

Anytime you talk about Wal-mart expect to get nasty comments from liberals. Just ignore the anti Wal-mart rants and take into account that it's more about anti big corporations rather than just Wal-mart in general. I'm waiting for the day when they (liberals) discover Shimano is a very large corporation and start ranting about that corporation as well. Wal-mart is just what it is and as it's at the top of the market there the corporation they complain about the most. The day they fall a rank or two is the day the liberals chose whoever replaced them to complain about. If you think Wal-mart stuff is bad you should look at the stuff on the shelves of other X-marts.
I personally use those cable kits to fix up bicycles for people who can't really afford the additional costs involved. They are adequate for most bicycles and work perfectly well for many years of normal use.

brokenrobot

Fixed!

mike

Talk is cheap. As a businessman, I would rather that customers came to me to buy products.

neil0502

Says you.

You're building your case on a faulty assumption. Those things tend to collapse on themselves.

top506

Folks who hang out on C&V and flip a lot of bikes know about and use the Wallyworld cable sets, as well as the 7-speed chains and brake pads. I've done it myself.
That being said, on the bikes I ride I use stainless cables, SRAM chains, and Koolstop pads from either the LBS or on-line retailers.
For a lot of folks Wallyworld is the only game in town-just the way it is, not the way we'd like it.
Top

sknhgy 

What about their chains? I saw some today at WM for $7.14 I believe. How would that compare with KMC chains?

mike

I keep hearing from some people about how cheap cables are no good and that they only use top-of-the-line cables. You read posts that would make you believe that most cables are stainless steel teflon coated Campagnolo engineering wonders.

That just is not the case. I work on all kinds of bikes the VAST majority and I mean VAST VAST majority of bicycles out their have standard steel cables with standard housing. That goes for Trek and Giant and on and on. Sure, in the elite spandex circles (of which I also participate from time to time), everything is special and expensive, but this is not reflective of the majority of bicycles and their riders.

What I am saying to my wrench friends out there is that if you need some reasonbly good and very cheap cables, you can get them at Wally-world for cheap. The guys who do a lot of wrenching will know what I am talking about.

MyBikeGotStolen

Thanks n4zou, this might become my new sig.

top506

I've heard it said (but cannot confirm or deny) that they are made by KMC, but seem to be a notch or two down the food chain from any KMC-branded chain I've handled.
I've used them on a few bikes with seized chains recovered from the dump with no problems, including a bike my daughter rides on a regular basis.
Top

MyBikeGotStolen

I bought one of the bell chain breakers from Walmart for about $3 figuring I would lose it before I broke it. Of course I actually needed it last weekend and I couldnt find it anywere! At least it wasnt a $15 Park Tool I lost.
It seemed pretty decent for the one time I got to use it though.

Sci-Fi

Plenty of Walmart cable threads. The ones that buy and use them haven't complained (so far) about unusual stretching or constant breakage. Some casings are lined and some are not. If it's an unlined casing, you need to grease the cables and it doesn't matter if it's a name brand or off-brand.

El Julioso

Anytime a liberal says anything about anything, expect nasty comments from conservatives who use the term "liberal" as if it's a dirty word.

I find this bit regarding a bike from the Wal-Mart site amusing:

"Assembled by the hands of skilled Italian mechanics to be tuned up and ready to ride right out of the box"

What probably annoys me about Wal-Mart the most, aside from the fact that it doesn't do any one thing well (aside from trampling smaller businesses under its boot heel), is how it assumes that its clientele is composed of complete morons.

There is no such thing as a bike that is ready to ride out of the box. Not only does a bike come in several pieces right out of the box, the tires are always flat, the cables are very rarely tensioned properly, barrel adjusters are often way too far out, bolts too loose, saddle at the wrong angle, etc. I've had Wal-Mart bikes come into the shop with backwards forks, brake levers tilted up 45 degrees, brakes that don't work, and so on... many a horror story can be told about non-professionally assembled bikes, to be sure.

Something tells me you aren't in the bicycle business (or if you are, you don't personally sell anything). I generally talk with customers anywhere between 10 minutes and an hour before they're comfortable shelling out $1,500+ for a bike. Besides, one thing I've learned very well is that talk = customer service. People won't like you unless they talk to you. People like you, people buy from you. People don't like you, they go somewhere else. Hence why LBS's stay in business despite the dubious advantages of Wal-Mart pricing. Although the constant stream of drones flooding into and out of Wal-Mart, buying low-priced products of questionable quality from people who don't know anything about what they sell and built by people who make a few dollars a day at best, must look quite impressive, in a twisted, money = morality sort of way.

hr2510

I bought two of the kits at wally world. On the first bike the shift cables seemed to work OK but the little brake cables not only felt but worked like rubber bands. No matter how hard I squeezed it only barely slowed the bike. I took the second unopened set back for a refund and tossed the other set in the trash. Sadly they didn't work for me.

jgsjr

Click on the bike, and go down to the specs, country of orign for components is listed as Italy... Shimano has a plant in Italy? It is assembled in Italy too, apparently. Frame is from China, componets from Japan, and then sent to Italy for assembly? Seems fishy to me.

doctortalk121

xxx

garth

I buy the regular Pyramid brand cable from a local bike store. I believe they charge me 3 dollars for a pair of derailleur cables and 5 for a pair of brake cables with housing. Without housing, it's 3 dollars for a pair of brake cables. When I'm doing a personal bike or a nice bike for a friend, I pay 75 cents per foot for really good lined Jagwire housing with my choice of color. For derailleurs, on vintage type bikes, I just use this garden variety type wire. If it's friction and color is important, I don't even use the compressionless housing for the rear derailleur loop .. I just use the same color and type of housing I used for the brakes ( I do sometimes have to strip off a bit of the outside plastic part of the housing so I can use the smaller ferrules and get everything to fit in the smaller cable stops but the appearance is improved over what it would be if I used generic Shimano compressionless shifter housing). When I use lined brake housing with generic brake cable, and I rub beeswax into the cable before I thread it through, the brakes always have a very positive and good feel to them. I've never noticed much of a difference with extra thick cable exotic cable wire. I haven't noticed fraying or rusting wire on any of my restorations, even years later.

Am I missing something? Is ten dollar cable wire that much better?

Garth

Wino Ryder

[QUOTE]


daaaaaamn!!......All this from such an innocent thread!

But I'm with you on the Wally World cables, Mike!

One Way Rider

Pardon me while I sink your argument.

I am conservative as hell and hate the Mart with a passion. You need to understand it isn't the idea of Wal*Mart people hate, it's their practice of screwing over others-lots of others-on a global scale just so they can bring you a low price. A low price that is an illusion. You're paying for those low prices through the nose in higher amounts of your tax dollars needed to subsidize their failure to treat employees as anything other than expendable assets. Any TRUE conservative HATES the idea of corporate welfare! True conservatives are ethical and moral. Wal*Mart is not ethical and moral. Therefore a true conservative has no business propping up Wal*Mart as some wonderful bastion of free enterprise. Because it isn't free enterprise if the market is being strangled by cheating monolith like Wal*Mart. If you can't make it as a business without emormous incentives and tax breaks, something is wrong with your model. Corporate welfare is for corporate wimps.

As an aside, it is utterly infuriating to see immoral, unethical snakes in DC claiming to be Conservative Christians. Their actions clearly indicate they are neither. This title-mongering is solely to garnish more votes. And many people are apparently stupid enough to buy into the sham.


Shimano is big. But at the head is Kozo. Who spends a lot of time and money and energy trying to make cycling better. Much of their production is in Japan and Malaysia. I don't see them trying to put Campy or SRAM out of business by putting a stranglehold on their competitors alloy and carbon sources. Everything I have read regarding Shimano's corporate ethics is indicative of a company with a strong human rights record. Kozo regards himself as a conservative.

It's corporate ethics, not whether a company is large or not that is at the center of the debate.


Again, it's not that they're big. It's about how they got big. And how they remain big.


I can see how you might want to do that, but in truth, the derailleur wire is too large to work well in modern lined systems that like a 1.1mm cable. Also, they do not supply true shift housing with the compressionless longitudinal strands. They only have the spongier, less precise brake housing with the shift cables. For a cheapo, non-index bike, I'm sure they are adequate. For anything else, there are better sources for inexpensive, but still properly gauged sets.

n4zou

+1

n4zou

+1
Super TECH White Grease in the spray can from the automotive department. Stick the straw in the nozzle and spray the grease into the casing. Immediately run the cable into the freshly sprayed casing and allow soaking for about 15 minutes being sure to start the cable into the casing from the end you sprayed the grease into the casing. After 15 minutes you may remove the cable and install cable and casing on the bike cutting to size as required. The grease is in a liquid form when sprayed and will congeal after a few moments. This allows the casing and cable to soak up the liquid grease preventing rust and providing exceptionally smooth cable operation.

n4zou

I am a Trail Watch volunteer on a local Rails to Trails MUP. I carry tools and spare parts to repair common problems. The Sheriff also lets me check out a radio to report criminal activity when on patrol.
I also repair bikes donated to Trail Watch for kids and people that can't afford to purchase new bikes. Needless to say we (Trail Watch volunteers) must live on donations of bikes and parts and can't afford the best quality LBS parts when we need to purchase parts.
On another note I was in one LBS when a biker I had helped out walked in looking for a bicycle to purchase. He recognized me and asked if I could help him pick out a bicycle. I informed him I was not employed by the LBS but he insisted I help him. I asked the owner to help him out and he shooed the owner away. I ended up selling him a nice bicycle! It was a Trek Hybrid he could puts racks on and take fishing and camping gear along while on the trail. I run into him from time to time on the trail and tells me the bike I picked out was perfect for his type of riding.

bratan

Actually I was surprised to find cables in my local Walmart today (closest LBS is about 40 miles away, and closed by the time I get from work). In fact I got tires, tubes, pedals and chain tool in addition to cables, to fix up $50 rusty roadie I got form Craig's List. I'm considering getting a chain too, but not sure about the right type yet. All in all I was very happy not to have to make a trip to LBS on weekend and spend 3x more on a crappy commuter bike... Flame me if you want, sticks and stones