I'll have to be at work at 4AM. We have inventory to do. But I'll leave the house about 1:30 am just to get some more ride time. And then back to the house around 8:00AM. So I plain to get about 24 or so miles tonight pluse what I ride today. And then 5 miles bake to the house.

I do have to say that I get alot of people asked how much I paid for the Denali. And telling me that the Denali is a nice looking bike.

Trollin', Trollin', Trollin', Trollin', Trollin', Trollin'
Trollin', Trollin', Trollin' , Trollin', Trollin', Trollin'
Slashdaaahhht!

Trollin', Trollin', Trollin', Though the Karmas swollen
Keep them Post's a Trollin'
Slashdaaahhht

Firsts and grits and daily, Hellbent for Natalie, Wishin' my gal was by my side
All the things I'm missin', flames, naked and petrified'
Are waiting at the end of my ride

CHORUS
Post 'em on, Mod 'em up, Mod 'em up, move 'em on
Move 'em on, Mod 'em up, Slashdaaahhht
Karma out, Trollin' in, First postins'in , Signal 11's out
Mod 'em up, trollin's in , Slashdaaahhht

Keep trollin', trollin', trollin', Though they're disapprovin'
Keep them doggies trollin', Slashdaaahhht
Don't try to understand 'em, Just cheer 'em, post and feed 'em
Soon we'll be postin' high and wide
My hearts calculatin', My first post will be waitin',
Be waitin' at the end of my rant

Hyaa!

CHORUS
Trollin', Trollin', Trollin', Trollin', Trollin', Trollin'

Hyaa!
Trollin', Trollin', Trollin', Trollin', Trollin', Trollin'
Hyaa!
Slashdaaahhht!

Slashdaaahhht!

If your profile page is correct...then this is an age appropriate response. It oozes the maturity of a 14 year-old.

Dia-Compe aero hoods or AME-made Dia-Compe Aero-compatible hoods will be drop-in replacements. These Lee-Chi aero brake levers are essentially reissues of Dia-Compe's fantastic G300S levers of the 1980s - minus the excellent finish and tight-fitting hoods. The AME or Dia-Compe hoods fit nice and snug though.

-Kurt

It actually is a pretty damn accurate review of the bike. Just because the poster happens to be 14 it doesn't mean he's wrong.

Lots of people think the trashiest of Wally-World's bikes are good-looking. In fact, that's how WW manages to sell those crappy things to people... forget any sort of quality, just make them look pretty to a clueless eye.

---------------------

BTW, CigTech, I'm not trying to poo-poo your experiment. I'm generally curious as to what it would yield. I'm just pointing out the obvious, of which you're surely aware yourself.

Sorry, this is coming from a thirty-something, but it is indeed a POS. People who've been been riding riding bikes a while know this, it's only Libertarian wet-dreamers who love Walmart no matter what, that can't take the criticisms.

I've been following this thread and will continue to follow it, because it's different.

The Denali is beyond a doubt a cheap piece of crap. Usually it gets brought up in the roadie forum, with people thinking that they've stumbled on an insanely inexpensive road bike. They come looking to roadies for advice on whether they should buy it or not. They know that if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is. In that context, it is too good to be true.

But in this context I think it should be given a chance. The Yugo was a cheap piece of crap too. Nobody would have hung around the sports car forums asking if they should buy one, and yet, many were sold in the US, and occasionally you even see one on the road still. Not often, but many people got decent service out of them. They may have been a way for them to travel to a job that paid more than something they could get close by. Whatever the case, they probably got their money's worth out of it. They weren't comfortable in the damn thing, it didn't ride nice, it didn't handle well, and it wasn't fast, but if they kept the oil changed and tightened up the things that rattled loose, the damn thing kept running until they could afford or justify spending more on a nicer vehicle.

Same thing with the Denali. I think in this context, it deserves to be treated fairly. It's not as nice as some used bikes, it won't last as long and it won't ride as well. But it very well be a bicycle. It may be an inexpensive means of conveyance for a little while...and maybe, just maybe, you'll see a few that have 10K miles on them and are still being ridden daily. Just like a Yugo.

Cudak88: I'm going to put some Sharmo 3300 7 spd. Shifters/break levers on it after the test. But thanks for the input.

Chephy: Yep, as far as road racing bicycle go. This is not one of them by any means. Any input is welcomed here.

KrisPistofferson; I don't like Wal-Mart at all.

Twhal; I got the Denali because people where talking so bad about it. And I know that most people don't fix they own bicycles. So I really want to see what was so wrong with the bike. First I would never just buy a Wal-Mart bike and start ridding it with out going over EVERYTHING on the bike. Many people that buy Wal-Mart bikes do just that. Then when the bike falls apart they get on these forums and talk crap about the bikes. When it was their entire fault in the first place for not taking care of the bike. So I fault Wal-Mart more then the people, but its still up to the person to maintain the bike. At a LBS they do it for you. So the buyers never give it second thought.

My biggest problem with this bike is the shifter. They are junk. Shimano Sora St-3300-7 7 Speed STI will be on this bike 1 mile after the test is done. I will all so be replacing the crankset with the Shimano Sora FC3304 Crankset 30/42/50. I'll replace the hubs when they fail.

Mr. Pistof et al.; we know you think the Denali is a piece of shart. Repeating yourselves is not very interesting.

Cig's test, that's interesting. Back to the regularly scheduled program...

Yep. It's far more interesting to find out just what is wrong with the bike than just a dismissive "it sucks". It's fine to think something sucks -- just back up your case with some real information.

I know back when I was trying to decide if I should buy my current Cadillac bicycle, I went looking places like this for information (particularly negative, as the few actual reviews I had seen were all positive, and I wanted to know the downside), and the closest thing to an informative opinion was someone who said "oh, you can get more for your money" without saying what or where offers better value (since then I've only found some of the Windsor bikes that seem to offer better components at a similar price range), all of the other negative reviews consisted of nuggets of "wisdom" along the lines of "Cadillac, you've gotta be kidding me?"

Essentially, the negative reviews all seemed to be coming from folk who really had no experience with the bike. And this is where Cig's review is of some worth -- we may find out that the bike is indeed a total crapbomb, but we'll know why it's a crapbomb, which is what's really important. At least to me.

Well said. If you know the limits of the equipment, adjust it right and baby it like it's your first born then it might just work even if it's pretty rubbish. There is stuff that just won't work whatever you do, but that happens even lower down the ladder than the Denali.

Your obsession with this thread makes you seem really ugly.

Thanks guys. It's good (and Bad) information, about the bike, that I am trying to get to people that want it.

Last night on the way home from work. The wind was kicking up to 16 mph. BTW your northerners can come get this cold front and take it back up north. Anyway, The back derailer slipped, causing chain backlash. This of course caused my feet to come off the pedals. I was running it in 21st gear at 34 mph., which is at a 124 cadence. I feel that this would not have happened if I had the better shifters on the bike. But could be due to the long MTB derailleur. Or a combination of the both. I have re-adjusted the rear shifter. So we will see if it happens again.

34mph? That is cranking right along.

It could also be cheap cables that have a bit more stretch to them.

I look at the cables and they do seem to be tight. But I will recheck that when I readjust the back deraileur. I now have 322.1 miles on the bike.

Well just got the rear deraileur adjusted. Not as bad as I thought. Barba was right it was the cable, jsut adjused the cable and all is fine for now. We see how it does on the commute to work this night.

True, this bike is a piece of crap. So what? All my bikes are pieces of crap. Anyway, personally, I prefer older crap. It's usually a better deal at the garage sale.

Cheap, long-cage MTB derailers have a tendency to do that when under low tension.

-Kurt

Now,that I have adjusted the cable to keep a little more tension on the derailer, it shifts a lot better. But still not like a good road bike derailer, but better then it did for sure. No kick back at all on the commute. I did run it up to 24.3 mph. on the way home at 12:00 am I run it at 20.9. Did another 6.81 miles on the bike for a total of 328.91 miles.

I'm in your camp. So dang what!
Some of the BF bicycle connoisseurs obviously believe the definition of a crap bike is any bike that doesn't look like their own bike (or bike that they covet) or whose provenance doesn't meet their "superior" standard.

My issue with the Denali is that I believe it's components are likely to wear out very quickly. The fact that the shifters are slipping out of adjustment meets with my experience, as does the skipping chain. I confidently predict that the first round of bearing adjustment is not far away. I don't mind what a bike looks like, but I do object to people being asked to pay money for a bike made of cheese, when they can get one which will last longer for less money, used. That's why I think this test is invaluable. IF the stuff about such bikes failing very quickly is exaggerated, we'll soon know. If not, we'll know that too.

Personally, the problems with shifting would have been enough to put me off. As I've said before on this thread, I have a number of bikes that cost me less money than this, and which NEVER have shifting problems, and that would be good enough for me.

Cig, are you running platform pedals on that? If so, you need to at least get some clips and straps. I know you want to see when those pedals fail, but just think of all the effort you're wasting by not being able to spin properly!

Yeah, with a proper pair of pedals he could be spinning at TdF levels.

The Pedals are setup for straps. But no I don't use them. I know it is a lot more efficient with them. But around here I have to stop every .75 miles or less. That’s because of all the stoplights. So I just did not put them on. If I where still ridding open roads I'd use them.

When I got my Peugeot I only paid $10.00 for it. Even came with a front bag. But after 3600 miles, and looked like it had at less that many on it when I got it. It needs a rebuild. So yes I agree that you can find a good used bike for a lot less. But as I said, I wanted a Aluminum frame, due to the high rust factor down here, and did not like the way this bike was not getting a fair assessment.