I'm sure Cig will be able to make this bike work great. My problem with the GMC is most people who buy it won't have the skill to make it run as it should. These people will be stuck with a bike that never worked right from the start that will wind up in the trash. I've worked on my fair share of dept store junk in the past. Maybe this bike is the one that will trancend the crap pile, and introduce the masses to a good bike for not alot of cash.

Till you know for sure... KHS makes the Urban-X for 300 dollars. It comes with a rack AND fenders (add 75-80 to the GMC) and will, with out a doubt, give you years of service.

oh oh oh , i work for a bike distributor

mark up for atleast one company is about 30-40 percent depending on what it is, some of the top spec bikes like their team bike has a full 50% markup but you have to sell like 10grand worth of stuff before you can even order one

I work for the city of San Francisco. I just like my KHS.

I'm impressed that GMC make bicycles where you are ... here they just make powertools www.gmcompany.com

The Denali is running in top forum now. Did 457.1 miles so far and looking at doing about 25 miles tomorrow. I have the rest of the week off, so I'll be racking up the miles this week.

congrats

Did the 25.6 mile ride today. Nothing to report but speed and fun time. Had a strong of 12 mph. did 25miles in 72 min. Thats a average speed of 21.33 mph. Then when I got home 6 year old want to go ride so we did 5.7 miles in 35 min. That's a average speed of 9.68 mph. Not bad for a 6 year old on a 18" BMX.

Everything went smoth with the derails and gears. I did run it up to 30.3 mph with a cross wind for 2.5 miles (all flat). The fream is every nice for a cheap bike. But like I said before, it was not made for any one over 230 or so pounds. I say it you over 220 you really need a steel frame.

Oops- try this link instead:
http://www.mydeo.com/videorequest.as...4162&CID=50848

So how does the ride compare to other bikes you've ridden, now that you've put 450+ miles on it? Do you sense that it takes more effort to hit the same speeds? How does it handle bumps? Higher speed turns?

Wow, and your not even paddlin !!

The Denali does flex quite a bit when I go across the painted lines in the cross walk. You know when they just keep repainting over and over the lines until there 1.5" high and only maybe 16" apart. Other then that it takes bumps just fine.

And the bike is very nimble when it comes to high speed corners. I like a good steel frame, but down here in Florida the salt air and sweet cause the frame to rust very fast. So I wanted to get a Aluminum frame to get away from that problem. And the 7005 Aircraft Aluminum frame is stronger then the 6061 frame that most bikes use in they frames (by 10%). Which make the 7005 frame almost as strong as a steel frame. Also the 6061 Aluminum frames flex more then the 7005 frames.

I have 470.8 miles on the Denali in the past 19 days with one day off the bike.

Today I got called in for a couple of hours to work. When I got there, there was a Denali seating in front of the store I work at. So I went in and found the owner. His was like must Wal-Mart buyers, He did not know some of the things that needed to be fixed or how to fix them.

His Break pads where set just like the one that I got from Wal-Mart ( see picture 3 on first post this tread). And the break calipers wher more of the road style. The one I have are bigger and look more like MTB calipers. The Handbar tape was so lose that it had about 1" space between the bar and tape. The break handles where lose and I turned them back into place by hand while looking at it. I could tell that he had a lot of miles on the bike. The blue side parts of the seat, had the color worn off. He said that he got the bike about 6 months ago and rides about 30 miles a day. And that he does not own a car so he rides every day. Other than that the bike looked new. So you know he was not just thoring it down or something. And he has the Kenda Cosmos tires. Where I got the Kenda Kwest. He said that he gets flats all the time and wanted to know where to gwet long stem Schrader vale tubes. Whit the deep-V rims the reg. Schrader vale is almost to short. I told him to get the vale extions from the autoparts store and that will fix that problem.

I gave him this forums web page address. Told him to come in here for good avice. I also gave him my E-Mail address and told him to get intouch with me and I help him put the bike back in top running from.

My Denali is running just fine. only put 7 miles on it today. Because of work. So I have 477.0 miles so far. Think I'll go ride it tonight after 10pm or so.

I am glad to hear you are having such great luck with it, i will be off of mine for a bit due to work and injury. hopefully oyu get lots more miles out of it

Well don't forget, most commuters are realists. We like theory, math and a little bling. We ride...ride...ride. We post here help other commuters get to their destinations. So your GMC thread is just the ticket! :)

Judging by the various posts, the bike has less than 500mi on it but these components seem to need one or more fixes already. That doesn't seem too good. I guess I judge wear and tear by mileage. Except for maybe brake pads, if a component goes for less than 1K miles between repairs, I'm dissatisfied. One reason is because with our cr*ppy weather, I don't like stuff floundering or failing while on the road.

Vrkelley: The Denali has not needed any repares as of yet. All I have been doing is adjusting the drivetrain and breaks. nothing has be replaced. I see a repaire as needing replacement parts. Now that the drivetrain is adjusted I do not see haveing any more problems out of it. But we will see about that.

Probably not a good analogy but.. if ya had a commuter car that needed that many adjustments in a 2 week period what would be your impression of the commuter (car)?

Maybe now that you have the kinks worked out things will go alittle smoother.

Ture, If I bought a car that need to be adjusted that many times I would have taken it back. But we'er talking about a bicycle.

I saw the GMC Denali in WalMart a while ago and just thought it looked nice and it was good to see a Road Bike for sale. Keeps the public guessing at what it might be for alongside all of the Mtn / Cruiser / Kids / Toy style bikes on the WalMart bike racks. I think I might pick one up when they go on clearance for under $100 after the holidays when no one wants them. Just for the frame of course and turn it into a SS fixie. Blue is my favorite color and that helps too. Would it be my favorite bike? No. Something to have fun with? Yes. Put it into perspective.

Fixed gear and the Dinali would be a bad choice. Vertical dropouts. You could do a single speed with a chain tensioner.

I'd tell him to make sure he keeps his tires at max pressure too. I check my tires before every ride and I never get pinch flats. In fact, I almost never get flats...probably had 3 or 4 in the last 2,500 miles.

BTW-I would like to apologize for coming off as elitist in some of my earlier posts. I'm a bike nut and a roadie and I do get a great deal of enjoyment out of the bikes I own. I ride them on the weekends and I commute on them. I don't race and I live in an area where I can ride year round with very little change in the weather so I don't need fenders or racks. About the only thing I need to do to go from summer to winter commuting is dress warmer and mount lights on my road bike.

I do not think I'm better than anyone else. Sorry if my posts came off that way.

I do like reading up on this ongoing saga though. Kudos to you CigTech for starting this thread and keeping us updated on your experiences.

cOrut: Hope you get better soon. And I hope the bikes ok to.

SDRider: I did not take it that way at all. I too love cycling and bicycles of all types. You just a little over the top some times (just like me). So keep on being your self and enjoy ridding.

Today I got called into a store two city away form the house. Really not all that far away 10 miles. So I jump on the Denali and off I went. The Denali road like a hig dollar bike all the way there and back, flawless. Headwind all the way there of 16 mph. But still ended up with a ARTS (Average Ride Time Speed) of 15.8 mph. Comming home I had a tail wind of 13 mph. Had a ARTS of 19.8 mph. Made the 9.68 miles in 29.33 min. Very small rolling hills all the way. 63 foot climbs over 3/4 mile was the bigest.

So now I have 496.1 miles on the Denali in the past 22 days (with 1 day off the bike). I should have had the past 3 days off but being a manger their keep calling me in the work.

The guy with the Denail at work the other day did said that he averages 30 miles a day. Now for 22 work days in a month thats 3960 miles, for the last six months. For the minor problems I seen on the bike (handle bar tape, break pads needing adjustment, and break handles needed tightening) I say that this makes the Denali worth the $158.77 I have paid for it. And this milage come from some one that just rides the bike with no repaires, but tube replacement.

He did also say he like the feel and quickness of the bike. And he was over all pleased with the bike. The only thing bad about the bike was the number of flats he has with the Kenda Cosmos tires. But I too think it is due to pinch flats after the first flat he had. See if you don't push the tube up into the tire while reinstalling the tube, it will get pinched. And I don't know if he knows to do that while reinstalling the tire.

Well in all fairness....with 500miles @158.77 that's matching pretty closely to what I'm spending for this current bike. Now that the quirks are out, your cost per mile will probably drop even more.

$158.77/500 = .32/mile
$158.77/3960 = .04/mile (however, wo don't know what his expenses were for past 6mos)
$2100/7800 = .27/mile ($900 used bike + 1200 to replace worn wheels, crank, cassette shifters)

Belive me when I say he has done nothing to the bike in the past 6 mos. I mean if the handlebar tape is so loss, if you seen it you would have said the same thing. Other then the above items, the bike looked new.