Velognome 

Saw this in the Walmart, it's a true Mixte. Did not examine the components but maybe a good base to build off of?

It was only $155

fender1

and I bet, even at $155, it works better than most vintage mixtes at twice the price.

sarahbruce

I had two Schwinn Gateways for a while that came with the same build as the one in the pic. They are actually decent bikes that with a regular maintenance can last as long as any other bike. The wife and I even took ours on a small "tour" for about 5 days with no problems whatsoever. I could be a little biased though, since we picked ours up on clearance at Target for under $48 each!
Bruce

Edit- Found a pic- This is us on our Gateways 5+ years ago!

nlerner

Get it repainted, apply some Rivendell decals, and Bob's your uncle!

repechage

I would get it shipped, would you trust an assembly job there?

fender1

Call it "Clem" and and save yourself $1,400.

squirtdad

I wouldn't use it as base for any upgrades.....frame is nothing special to to be used as a foundation

Heavy, all steel bars, stem, seat post, ashtabula crank, saddle pretty terrible.

It would be usable as is. And it doesn't have any junk like suspension which is good

Lowest end components, which will work, but IME are not durable and difficult to work on and keep tuned.

Rims appear alloy.

I personally would not trust a walmart build.

John E

I concur w/ squirtdad, particularly that last line. Build it yourself, or have a real bike shop do it.

sloar 

Even shipped there's problems. I ordered a bike through Walmart for my daughter, headset and bottom bracket assembled dry and I think they used an impact. Chainring had to be straightened in a vise, seriously bent. Plus chips and dings. Better to pick one up, inspect it and adjust what they screwed up.

CuttersRidge

Brakes on the top chain stay, I've seen that remarked on before but it is nice looking.

Target Schwinn Gateway, not a Mixte, woman's.

Schwinn Women's Gateway 28" 700c Hybrid Bike - C... : Target

But Target might have others. I've looked at a few bikes at Target and some don't look that bad really.

sarahbruce

Well, as much as I hate defending a big box store bicycle, especially in c&v, you guys are being too harsh. Maybe it was just the two specific ones I had, but these schwinns are not bad. I would not hesitate to recommend one to someone looking for a low end bike for recreational or commuting use. All the components, while heavy, are actually really usable and stayed in adjustment. Even the included rack is very sturdy and functional. I did completely disassemble, grease, and adjust everything right after purchasing, but I do that with most bikes I get anyways. We put a few thousand miles on them before passing them to a coworker and a family member. The frames are somewhat stylish for a new "throwback" bike too.
Bruce

CuttersRidge

Bicycling magazine about 10 years ago, did a review of the new Schwinns in the big box stores, quality-wise, at that price, they thought they were a good deal. A road bike among others were reviewed.

supercycle62

I picked up one of these locally for $20 used. It's a 1980's Canadian made SuperCycle Medalist Series II 12 speed mixte with drop handlebars. It was in fine condition, all I had to do was adjust the seat and handlebar heights, pump air into the 27-1/4" tires and start riding. I also swapped the racing seat for a comfy cruiser style padded seat.


I plan on adding fenders and swapping the drop handlebars for ones like on that Walmart mixte for an upright riding position. If you're looking for a mixte I'd look around for a used one. There are still deals to be found. However the Walmart Schwinn does look nice though for $155.

CuttersRidge

Per photo, when I see some modern Mixtes and frames, that Schwinn doesn't look bad at all and I do like the color.

SCHWINN WOMEN'S MIFFLIN 28" HYBRID BIKE- GOLD Similar Schwinn, much more than the Mixte in post #1 ; I'll have to try to get in to those stores soon myself.

I've looked at some modern Mixtes as someone mentioned one company above, of course, these Schwinns are not lugged in that sense but it looks somewhat light, not too bad to me.

Mixtes naturally seem to have a retro-look to them, the downtube on these though are fairly wide though, 28" tires. Interesting.

CuttersRidge

I wished we had been left a link actually and this is no criticism of the OP but it would be good to see more of what we are looking at.

SonsBikes

There are so many good vintage mixte bikes out there. I would not support the production of new Chinese bikes, especially when you can likely find a good craigslist rogue mechanic who refurbishes vintage bikes.

I've had several mixtes come through my garage. I've got a vintage Puch and the moment. Beautiful, graceful, and wise!

SloButWide 

I'm guessing it's the Admiral - 700c Schwinn Admiral Women's Hybrid Bike, Mint Green - Walmart.com

sarahbruce

Yeah I think these were originally the Gateway and then the Wayfarer and now the Admiral. They all are super similar and the components are the same.
Bruce

roccobike

I've never seen a multi-speed, adult bike come out of the three major big box stores that didn't need serious repair work, including the $200+ bikes. I've worked on enough. The bikes themselves may not be all that bad, but the assembly is awful. IMHO, it should be criminal as safety is not something taken seriously. Cranks that come loose, pedals falling off, derailers that send the chain off the crank and jam the rear, brakes that don't and forget about wheels being true.
For the DIY folks on this forum, it's no big deal to fix all of it. For someone who doesn't work on bikes, either find a bike shop that will work on it (many refuse to repair them) or just buy a bike at a bike shop. If you have to buy from a big box store, at least consider Dicks (somewhat better) or REI (the local one here is actually pretty good). Just my $.02

CuttersRidge

The color struck me because I saw these Handsome Bike "She-Devil" mixte frames online; and the color is close, that's why I kind of liked the bike in the OP:



https://www.amazon.com/Devil-Step-thr.../dp/B0186EJI18

We just got a woman's bike but there is no harm looking.

(edit on, the top tube I found out is solid until the seat tube, so no swank dual tubes, then, past the seat tube they separate, see images at amazon)

CuttersRidge

I'm not making a plug here but that with the rack and fenders is a lot of bike, I checked out just the Schwinn racks and those are $25 or so by themselves.

dddd

I recently bought one of the new-wheel-size 27.5-plus bikes from Kmart, same as the one sold at WalMart but with a different name.

I payed only $200 on sale. The frame is fine, if heavy, and with slightly too-long chainstays imo.

Componentry started going bad from day one. I've had it for just a few weeks, only three times actually off road through tough singletrack.

The shifters were hopeless, barely worked and would shift themselves. I was able to ride it home from the store but replaced the shifters, brake levers, bars and stem the same day.

I still hated the function of the original chain and rear derailer, even after replacing the shifters, so decent Shimano chain and derailer went on immediately.

I got the fork working smoothly using premium suspension grease during rebuild, but it got sticky again after one hard off-road ride, so I rebuilt it again (today) and added rubber bellows fork gaiters.

The bottom bracket needed adjustment four times already (what's up with that?), so I replaced the bb and crankset this morning after doing the second fork rebuild. The original steel crankset weighed 1370 grams, and the bike was originally 45lbs. I have shaved additional weight by removing the steel kickstand and steel handlebar (replaced with Easton carbon, lol).

My bike apparently got dropped in shipment, bending the rear axle and actually loosening the bearing cup in the hubshell. I called Pacific the day after purchase, and they shipped me a new wheel (these have 60mm-wide rims btw) that arrived just four days later. I also found same-sized cones to fit a thicker (10mm vs. 3/8") solid axle that I will be installing. I fixed the bearing cup issue for now using red Loctite inside of the hubshell behind the cup, so I now have the new wheel as a spare.


The 7s, 14-28t Falcon freewheel was replaced with a 13-28t Sunrace freewheel, for a taller top-gear. New grips, saddle and Rockshox suspension post were also installed.

The original tires are 650B X 2.8", the new mid-fat "plus" size, and work well at 17psi. The rims and the build quality (tensioning) were not bad.

Disk brakes are no-name mechanical on 6" rotors. The metallic pads are very screechy, but I found bigger rotors and organic pads for literally just a few dollars on Ebay, though yet to be installed.

Brake cabling was squishy, so I shortened the front housing and used premium "incompressible" Jagwire cabling to the rear caliper. Much improved, but braking is still just plain weak. A slight improvement has come with 150 miles of break-in.

So this perhaps sums up the WalMart/Kmart bike quality these days. I feel lucky that the original hubs, headset, front derailer and fork can even be used, they are marginal at best, even for modest usage.
This bike was definitely not "road ready" at time of sale, much less trail-worthy!

It was an eye-catching bike on sale for $200, just wanted to test it out. It will need a fork and brake upgrade for any sort of riding that involves chasing other riders, but should be fine now for trail riding since the fork is now better protected from dirt entry.

Here's a picture I took after today's wrenching session. I will hit the trails again today and evaluate it some more!

RobbieTunes 

I've ridden a Force MTB from Target, with front & rear suspension, and disc brakes.
It was pretty good, especially since I was comparing it to nothing.

squirtdad

So what is the real cost of the ridable bike in terms of replaced components and hours of work? and think about what it would cost someone who didn't know how to work on bikes..

my neighbor across the street was amazed with a quick clean up of a 25 year old Trek from way back in their garage produced a better riding, working,more reliable bike than several of the big box store bikes that had bought more recently

CliffordK

One can hardly buy a bare frame for $155.

The bike looks pretty. But, I can't see any info about the tubing selection. Straight? Cromoly? High-Tensile Steel? Weight?

I'm a bit incredulous that they're still using steel one piece cranks.

It might make a great town bike, but I just don't see it as ever being anything more than that.