Whoa, a 22 mph raccoon? Was he rockin a little golf bag?

Thanks for the very informative review. I'd recommend that when you do your summary of everything "done on this bike" you somehow differentiate between adjustments/fixes to make the bike ride safely, vice tweaks intended to make the bike "perfect" for you.

There is nothing the matter with adjusting your own bike to meet your own personal very high standards, I did the same to my own commuting bike years ago and haven't adjusted it since. But it may be misleading to suggest that the average customer for this type of bike would have the need or desire to make adjust/fix every little thing (including not feel right or sounds funny "problems") that didn't meet the standards of a dedicated bike enthusiast/perfectionist.

Cig how are the wheels and rims holding up?

The wheels and rims are solid. I have not even had to retune them after 600+ miles.

Made it to work and back. The ride home was so nice at 1:15 am. Just a few cars on the roads. Only had 4 cars and 2 motorcycle pass me on the way home. I had a 9.68 mile ride home and made it with a ride time of 30min. It was only 60 deg. with no wind. to day I post that I'd have 628.6 miles but turned out to be 629.4 miles. The bike is still running fine. Nothing to report.

Hey Cig great review. You give alot of good details about the bike for other potential buyers. I was in your position 2 years ago when my car died and I needed another way to get to work. I didn't have months to wait for a deal on ebay or craigslist because taking the bus took way too long. I also didn't know if bike commuting was for me, so I didn't want to throw down $400 for the cheapest bike at the bike shop. I went to Walmart and bought a Dual Suspension mountain bike for $100 figuring if it made it through the summer, I would get my monies worth (didn't know about the 90 day warrrenty). I had to go over it and make alot of adjustments to get it to shift well and safe to ride, but I did and began using it on my 13-22 (depending if i taske the subway) mile round trip commute.

Then I decided I wanted to try mountain biking, and started riding alot of single track with this bike. After a couple rides, the rims were wobbly as hell, so I had to keep trueing them. The first thing to die was the rearhub, after about 300 miles, which i constantly had to adjust the cones to get it to spin without play. The axel crushed the bearings (maybe to due poor adjustment) but I had to fix it every week until that point. So I bought a used ritchey wheel with a tire and cassette for $30 on ebay and kept riding. Then after awhile I bent the large chainring after riding over a bunch of big logs (around 600 miles on bike), it was easy to hammer back in position, but I avoided big log crossings after that since i didnt have a bashguard. Also a plastic piece in one of the fork legs started popping out at around the same time.

The fork finally died after around 1200 miles and did not seem safe to ride anymore. So I feel i got my monies worth from the bike since it lasted well past summer, and I even got to try mountain biking. Was the bike crappy, yea it weighed 40 lbs and the hubs sucked, but this was my first bike since a bmx as a kid, so I didn't really know any better and I got a crash course in bike repair which I think is pretty valuable; probably worth more than the $100 bike cost in satisfaction and bike shop savings. I upgraded to got a decent (105) road biek since I liked commuting so much and it actually paid for itself after I got right hooked by a car and got some money. A few months ago I found an early 90's steel raleigh mountain bike for $15, which I stripped, painted, and built from the ground up as a rain bike. It ended up costing about the same as my Walmart bike and weighs half as much ~25 lbs (fully rigid though), but it took 2 MONTHS to complete(waiting for dry weather to paint/paint to cure/finding good deals on parts) and required some bike knowledge. No you don't need a crappy bike to learn how to do repairs, but you become pretty good fixing things since you have to do it more. All in all I would recommend the walmart bikes to people like Cig or myself who need something right away, can fix it, may not be accustomed to fancier rides, or are not sure about biking yet. Cig I am sure will put thousands of miles on this bike, and I think the hubs/rims may be the only thing that ever fail. Sorry for taking up so much space in your post. GO CIG!

Evancds, don't be sorry, I liked your insight on cheap bikes.

I had to work today so I only got 7.16 miles today. The bike is still running fine. Let you know more on it later.

a lot of comments mentioning this bikes worth as to how many miles it has functioned.
i think this is a fair gauge to use... but as for the potential buyer that is not yet bike savvy, i think there should be more mention of the tweaking done to this bike as well as to the inconvienence in having to do so. for most this would entail a trip to a shop or the purchase of tools to perform the task (an entry level set of tools can easily equate to the price of the bike in question).

i am not an elitist but i commute on a nice bike. i buy more than bare necessity because after riding a quality bike i can hardly stand riding a cheap one. mis-shifts and clackety crap drive me nuts, i certainly don't want handlebars that can't take an aggressive ride without bending.
i learn more and more to look at a product for its quality as opposed to its price tag. cycling is a good teacher in this respect although it is a spendy hobby/sport... however, it is an inexpensive mode of transportation even when considering high end bicycles to perform the task (4,000 dollars doesn't buy much of a car).
which is my way of rationalizing the cost of my kit, although i will reserve the right to deny the rationalization.

Have you read this thread? Not the whole thing of course but at least the recent posts.
Cig says that it has been shifting flawlessly, and everything is holding up very well.
Sure the adjustments may be inconvenient, but once cig publishes the complete how-to on what adjustments need to be made, anyone should be able to do it easily.

A point well taken. Most people who buy this type of bike may not have the savvy to fix it or the coin to keep running the shop to figure out what's wrong with it. Some people have told me that they shelled out some money and when something like brakes isn't working right, it's embarrasing so the bike just sits somewhere unused probably because they don't have the know-how to fix it or the $$ to pay a shop to do the adjustment/repair.

The other side of the coin is that some (most?) people may not be that fussy with an inexpensive bike. Some things that a perfectionist may choose spending much time or money "fixing", might be ignored by some (most) people who are not "savvy enough" to tweak things that are not broken and serve them well.

That's about the most popular comment in this thread.

i've read the whole thing, of course.

his most recent statements are why i posted my remark... it hasn't always shifted so well and he has said numerous times that he hates the shifters for their flaws. i wouldn't say the picture of how it is holding up sounds so wonderful either. i really would hate to ride a bike that the handlebars would bend from normal use.

and more, i doubt that Cig could give a complete "how-to" on making these bikes dependable much less doing so easily. at the risk of sounding like a jerk, i find that idea to be somewhat absurd.
i mean that with no disrespect to anyone, it's just that the scope in repairing/reassembling a poorly assembled line of bicycles seems to be a bit more than Cig could cover with one purchase.
i think everyone here might agree that these bikes are disposable and meant to be like the ford festiva... after so many miles you just throw them away and buy another.
i don't knock them for what they are, i just don't think a person should buy one if they are shopping for a dependable life long friend.

Funny you should mention the Ford Festiva. I bought one new in 1991 for $5,500 including a sun roof and AM FM Cassette Player. A bullet proof car that I drove for 6 years/70,000 miles with very little routine maintenance and without a dime of repairs. Never failed to start or to get me where I wanted to go at an average of 40mpg. I sold it for $2,500 to a friend in 1997 because I was going overseas and could only take one car and my wife wanted hers with the automatic. I suppose some fuss budget could have spent all kinds of time "fixing" noises that would not be heard in a Benz or perfecting the state of tune to get 41 mpg. But most people recognize that a Festiva is not a Benz though both serve their owners well. Most people probably wouldn't try to "fix" a Festiva because it wasn't a Benz.

as i said, i don't knock the denali for what it is... it certainly won't be mistaken for a Moots.

not to be a wise guy but I wouldn't expect to have to repair stuff on a car until it hit at least 70,000 miles so i don't know if that's really saying much. I don't know though but after following the Denali review, even though it hasn't broken in two or anything yet...I'd be more inclined to take a pass on it. Then again i probably thought that before i read this thread. I just a few weeks ago bought a marin larkspur from rei outlet on 30% closeout for 272...pretty fast, (granted flatbars but this is the commute forum!) and everythings stayed in tune which is good because I'm better off not monkeying with stuff...even get to bring it back to the rei where they shipped it to for 200 mile tweak. I think they still have some...sorry, not to hijack the thread like the my 1000 bianchi is better post -but for not that much more money maybe a wiser choice?

Man, I go to work and miss all the good stuff on this post.

If I bought a car for $150.00, and all I had to do to it was a few adjustment. I be smiling my happy little assss off. But lets get real here, it's a BIKE, not a car.

I too like a high end bike and have one. But if you need a good starter bike and are handy with tools. I say get the Denali and save a few $$$$. Thats is all I have been saying all along. Yes I adjusted the breakes, and derailers. That's all I have done to it. I sure all of us have adjused our break pads before. It's not that hard. So please don't tell me you take you bike to the LBS to have the break adjusted. And now that I have it dialed in it is shifting flawless and running a easy 25 mph.

A guy came in to the shop today and seen my bike park in the store. He asked if it was mine and told me that it is a very nice setup. So I asked him if he rides and he told me that he has a Specialized road bike that he got from a pond. So I asked him if he want to take it out side and give it a go. He said Thanks I'd love it. I did not tell him how much I paid for it or where I got it from. We took it out and he road it around the building I work in. After 10 minites he comes back and just said "Wow, How much did it cost? and where can I get one?" I told him that he could go are up to Wal-Mart and pick up one for $158.11. He looked at me like I was crazy and then looked back at the bike for a few seconds. Then Looks back at me and said "No really, how much does these bike cost?" I started laughing and told him I sale this one to him for $500.00 if he really what it. He said "Your not joking about this being a Wal-Mart bike?" I said NO, and that I would sale him this one for $500.00. We talked for a few minutes and then he left.

About 2 hours go buy and I look at the window to see him on a Denali riding up to the store. I was do for a dinner break so I went out and adjusted hi breaks and check his derailers. His derails where installed right so did not have to do anything with them. then we took a short ride of 8 miles and got back to the store about 28 minutes later. He could not believe that the Denali was a Wal-Mart bike even after he bought one there.

So looks like I have a new riding buddy on the days off. We where hitting speeds of 28.7 mph on our ride.

Any ways, I have a total of 652.8 miles on the Denali so far in the past 32 days. I did send a E-Mail to Kent Bicycle to find out where to get replacement tubs (with a long stem Schrader Vale). As soon as they send a reply I'll post what they say. I have looked all over the net for them and can not find them any where.

Thanks for the rim spacing sorry about tire though.

Great story!

Well it's more then a store, I told the guy to join the BF and add to this post. I don't know if he will. But I hope he does. I have been after the other guy from last week to join the BF as well. So he could add to this post as well. But I don't think he is into it as much as the guy from today.

There's nothing wrong at all with Walmart bikes as long as you adjust the bike yourself. I rode a Walmart bike from SC to TX with the only problem of a few flats and a brake adjustment. Not even a single loose spoke. I've also read a lot of journals at crazyguyonabike where they spent 10 times what I spent and had to constantly find an LBS to tune up or fix their bike.

I currently am riding a Walmart bike, a Schwinn Aluminum. 1,400 miles on it so far and again, only a brake adjustment needed. Not a single problem outside of that.

Walmart bikes work great but don't expect to be welcomed by roadies who spend 20x more on a bike and then spend more on adjustments & tuneups at the LBS than you spent total on the Walmart bike.

And you can't beat the return policy at Walmart.

I have been following this thread with interest. I am one of the last people in the world to spend big money on bikes. I always buy used and buy often;) One trend I have seen in the low end bikes is the inconsistensies in assembly and manufacture. Kid down the lane from me has a Next BMX bike that had a cracked weld in the frame. It came off the rack at WM that way. We told them to take it back, also the rear wheel had a couple of stripped spokes in it. The second bike was assembled complete wrong, with the forks mounted backwards and one of the pedals crossthreaded. When they went to get a 3rd bike the first bike had been put back on the floor at a discount. I went with them on the 3rd go around and we got him a bike that is all in one piece and pretty well assembled. It did take a half hour of tweaking to make sure everything works on it. And it has the big sticker that says not for offroad or competion use on it.:rolleyes: So far the local WM does not have the Denali in stock so I haven't been able to look at one. WM is one of the worst for specifiying a certain price point and leaving it up to the manufacturer to decide how to meet that price point. They aren't the only one by any means, but they are the king of that process. Unfortunately there are no minimum standards that mean anything when it comes to bicycle assembly or manufacturing. It is up to the individual to make that call.

Aaron:)

You might want to simply get a long stem Presta and install a Schrader-to-Presta adapter.

-Kurt

I have tought about just soldering the SV hole closed. And drilling a new PV hole 180 deg around the other side of the rim. But for the test I'm going to just run it stock. So I'll look into that later.