T-Mar

Here's a head's up to all the Canadian members. The Canadian Tire chain will be offering a true road bicycle this weekend for only $99! Getting a road bicycle is big enough news, but we haven't seen prices like this since the 1970s boom. Sure, it's only entry level, but it stacks up surprisingly well to what we got for our $99 over 30 years ago...

Weight: this blew me away. While there wasn't a scale handy, I'd estimate 24-25 lbs.

Frame. Bads news for the C&V types - it's welded aluminum - but if you want to sell a bicycle to-day, that is where it's at. The Fixie crowd can start browsing elsewhere now, as it has vertrical dropouts. The main tubes are are hydro-formed in various degrees of aerodynamic profiles but the seat tube is aero only in the middle meaning it takes a C&V friendly clamp style front derailleur and round seat post. The seat stays look quite sexy with an s-bend and both stays being welded together above the brake braidge to form a nono-stay. Chainstays are on the long side. Forks are aero profile, straight blades, and based on the uni-crown welds, appear to be steel. OH yeah, the frame is blue with silver stay and fork ends, reminescent of our beloved chrome.

Derailleurs: Retro look Shimano units with a vertical rear derailleur with delrin pivot housings - Simplex deja-vu. But at least the front parallelogram has to be better than those old piston Simplex units. Shifters are Shimano twist grip - more on them later.

Gearing: An aluminum, cotterless, triple crank up front with a C&V friendly bottom bracket with traditional ball bearings and a square taper spindle. The bad news is swaged, non-changeable chainrings but they are steel so they won't wear out soon. In back there is a freewheel, not a cassette, with 7 cogs and Hyper-Glide style ramps. However, it looks like a Falcon unit as opposed to Shimano and is likely the weak link in the drive train.

Wheels: 700C aluminum, dark anodized, aero section rims with machined sidewalls. Never got that in the boom. Hubs look like steel Joy-Tech units. No quick release.

Brakes, Aluminum, single pivot, side-pull units from Lee-Chi. They felt spongy, but I'm not sure if it was the calipers and/or the cables. Aero levers.

Miscelleneous: An aluminum, micro-adjust seat post (27.2mm) and aluminum quill style stem. Now for the wierdest part of the whole bicyle - anatomic, steel, two piece handlebars. Two Piece? Remember how the shifters were twist grips? Well, they are mounted on the bars next to the stem, similar to the stem shifters we grew up with. But they wouldn't fit over the curves, so the bars are made in two halves, the twist-shifters installed, then the bars slpliced together with a collar. The bars are probably steel for extra strength at the joint. It also compromises the brake cable routing as the housing can't run under the bar tape, despite the aero levers.

Yeah, I know -where are pics? Well, I didn't have the camera with me, so you'll have to wait until to-morrow or visit the CTC website and check out the Supercyle Medalist. However, the flyers announcing the sale will be out to-morrow and they will probably sell like hotckaes, so perhaps you should just visit the nearest CTC.

Now, Supercycle is not the best brand and there are obvious concessions to hit the price point. And the high school kids they hire to assemble the bicycles typically do a poor job, but most you you know your way around a bicycle and love to tinker anyway. The bottom line is the price is a downright bargain and I think they are worth a look. Many of us pay that for used bicycles that weigh 5 lbs more and don't have anywhere near the features. I'm not wholly endorsing it - you'll have to make your own decision - but the price is right and it's been so long since we've seen any road bicycles at anywhere near this price. I just didn't want any of you to miss the opportunity.

Only in Canada, eh?

jet sanchEz

Hrm, this is very interesting. A friend of mine has asked me to keep an eye out for her, this may be just the ticket. Thanks!

cudak888 

Sounds like a reinvented GMC Denali/'07 Schwinn Varsity.

Either that, or some other concoction of Target's Vertical-brand cheap-o roadbikes.

-Kurt

ricohman

hmmmm
A beater for behind my desk at work.

66aldo

Awww crap! I was just there before supper tonight. I will have to check that out tomorrow!

cyclotoine

I'm sorry but the thought of this makes me throw-up a little in my mouth. For us this may be a "good deal" because we can properly adjust everything and replace the crap caged bearings before the wheels or crank even turn (they're probably pitted from assembly anyway)... But I still would NEVER encourage someone to buy a bike from Canadian Tire. The assemblies I have seen are downright alarming, like you are taking a risk just considering trusting the assembly and riding one of these off the floor, that coupled with no warrenty and no service is bad news... These are destined to be used one summer and then have the rubber bits dry rot in a garage for he next 20 years. I would sooner see someone by the $600 KHS flite entry level road bike if they actually want to so more than ride around the park for 15 minutes a couple sundays in the summer.

cudak888 

Look at it this way, Anthony - they'll be our next-year $15 yard-sale, "Craigslist flip" finds.

-Kurt

roccobike

I doubt that it will have Sora brifters, but if it does, it's cheaper to buy the bike than just the brifters.

spider-man

+1

I also don't know why this is in C&V.

Rabid Koala

I was going to say the same thing.

cyclotoine

Gripshift.

ijgrant

I've seen this bike in person.

It's not a road bike, it's the poor quality parts from a $150 mountain bike, stuck on a road frame. The grip shifters give that away. The fact that they had to cut, and weld the handlebar back together to do that sets off all kinds of alarm bells.

I normally stay away from Crappy Tire bicycles, but this one takes the cake for poor design. I feel bad for people who's first cycling experience is on one of these.

hxzero

I didn't get to see the $99 one online, but I checked CT's site and looked at one that they had for $299. It was essentially a GMC denali bike but with different decals. Same paint job and everything.

pinerider

Don't buy one! I do a bike recycling program, I don't want to have to try and fix up one of these in a few years. This level of componentry is usually impossible to adjust properly and has a lifespan of about 6 weeks or so. Bikes like this are ridden for one season, then hung in the garage until someone decides it's spring cleanup time!

Bikedued

And then they throw them on craigslist for $50 more than they paid, then wonder why people post response ads, lol. I have a denali, not something I'd ever ride. The frame doesn't look all that bad really. The components are pretty crappy though. The handebar isn't cut and welded, it's two pieces and clamped together at the stem. There was another of these bikes made from the same frame. I saw it last Sunday at a local ride. Schwinn Volare. Same frame, bars, components, everything.

I bought mine at the flea market for $50. It had Sun M-13II with Joytech hubs on it. Probably ordered from bikepartsusa or something to reduce the crappiness factor, lol. They came off within 5 minutes of getting the bike home. The rest I have't decided what to do with yet. Recycle?,,,,BD

bikemore 

I've been wondering. With the prices of commodities going sky high has
anyone figured out what the typical aluminum bike frame will bring at the
scrape yard? With there being 2 cents worth of copper in a old (pre 1982)
copper penny and 9 cents of metal in a nickel you have to pay attention to
these things.

cudak888 

I have one of those frames sitting around too. I'm still trying to figure out what to do with it myself - can't figure out any cheap way to build it up to flip. Can't fixie it (vertical dropouts), can't singlespeed it (aluminum frame w/permanent rear spacing), can't put half-decent recessed brakes on it (made for nutted), and any shifters mounted to it will have to be barcons.

Was figuring on doing an ultra-B.S. SS conversion w/half a million spacers on a cassette hub, but I don't like to do *****ty work either.

-Kurt

Jaeger

Thanks for this tip, T-Mar. I remember buying my first road bike at Canadian Tire in the 70s - actually my brother bought it and I inherited it from him. For $100 this bike is definitely a little better than what we got then, but it's a shame about the grip shifters.

I think there's a real need for some type of cheap thumb shifters for entry level road bikes. I think Suntour had the right idea with their Command shifters - I wish someone would make something like that today.

The rest of the bike seems serviceable enough for a low end beater bike.

splytz1

This is a very unusual post for T-Mar. I just can't really figure it out, it seems so different from his usual posts, and he hasn't been back. Hasn't been around much at all lately. The syntax, diction, his use of the word "sexy," and informal phrasing such as "Oh Yeah" - all very unlike him.

edit: hmm, I just went to his "most recent posts" and this didn't even appear. Odd.

Kinetikx

The post search has bugs. I'm thinking this is T-mar. The typos sell it for me

To the point though- I wouldn't buy one if I were in Canada but hey, you never know, it could get some people riding. Then again it may ruin them on road bikes forever. It's the ones who want to stick with it that we are after. The people who would buy a bike we would want and then trash it are the ones this bike is meant for.

Antipodes

No offence, T-Mar, but I concur with some of the others - why did you post about that POS?
In this day and age, instead of buying this throwaway BS, we should be looking to recycle as many of the '70s and '80s boom bikes as we can, as most of them fixed up make for decent, affordable bicycles. As Cyclotoine said, these are "ride for one summer", if that, bikes destined to end up rotting away as useless piles of toxic crap in landfill. No thanks!

ricohman

You west coast guys sure are upset by this crappy ride.
I will bring my Twenty into work for some lunchtime fun instead of going to look at that poor CT thing.

pinerider

Hey, I have a Supercycle Twenty in my garage right now. Needs a rear brake cable. It's a mid-70's rebadged Raleigh Twenty. All Supercycles aren't crap, just most of them!

ridethecliche

Doesn't T-Mar have a red star?

This guy doesn't...

66aldo

I'm probably one of the biggest bike noobs EVER even though I've been riding a long time. I'm not good with mechanics and the hands-on stuff but willing to learn. What's my point? Well, even at $100, is this bike REALLY THAT BAD? You hate the shifters? How much to change them? The handlebars are 2 piece ... why not change that too? I see that soon after, you will be at, say $200 but this is still way cheaper than most entry level bikes at the LBS. I just came back from one of the local ones and there was nothing less than $400! Well, if I'm just riding around (for fun or exercise) and not racing or burning up the trails, I don't really want to spend that much. I guess I don't see how this is really that bad ...

Sorry for the semi-rant