borobike

Thanks wphamilton and nfmisso. I appreciate your support.

Banzai, I said a long time ago in this thread that this has ceased to be a Denali lifetime report and is more of my own bike blog for whatever bike I happen to be riding. I upgrade the Denali because I want to. Could I, in the end, have gotten a better bike for less as it is now? Maybe, and I'll freely admit it. But it doesn't change the fact that it's been a long road getting to where I am now and the Denali has been there every step of the way, taking whatever I throw at it, and will continue to be for the foreseeable future. THAT is why this thread is so long, and again, for those that may have missed it the first time...

This is no longer a lifetime report thread. The Denali has changed significantly enough that it no longer makes sense. This is my ongoing bike blog for those that may choose to read it. I had hoped that throwing another bike into the mix would make it a little more clear, but I guess it didn't. I would edit the title, but I can't.

Yes, I freely admit I praise the bike that you call a 'train wreck' and my accomplishments on it pretty often. You know why? It might shock you to know I'm actually proud of it, and proud of what I accomplished on it. I'm invested far more than financially in this bike at this point. So in essence, no, I don't know that the 'train wreck' factor is the appeal of this thread, but if it is, then so be it. I'd like to think that those who read my admittedly long-ish posts can see what my friend nfmisso sees...a simple joy in cycling that I continue to rediscover every time I ride, and that I can hopefully share with others. That is, after all, what I feel when I write these things. And, maybe users like wphamilton and other Denali owners, who may see a modification I do that they might like to do to their own. And yes, for those who may not connect with either but simply want to see what this idiot is doing now, as I hinted at earlier with my somewhat sarcastic tone about throwing Campagnolo on a Denali. Which, I did...and it's still working great.

As wphamilton stated, there is nothing unusual about the Denali's componentry, everything is very standard which is why I am able to slap anything and pretty much everything on it. Not that it's necessary, wphamilton, CigTech, and others have gotten many thousands of miles on their stock components.

Want to know the true limitations of the Denali frame? I'll freely admit them to you.

It has a heavy steel fork, which, with narrow road tires and stiff aluminum frame, makes for a somewhat harsh ride over rough surfaces. It does not have a separate detachable derailleur hanger. It does not have braze on points for downtube shifters (that may apply to me more than others, I like DT). I'm having trouble coming up with much more, and yes, I'm being fully open and honest. It's a very standard frame, and as wphamilton states, it really is not all that heavy. It's the stuff that comes attached to it that makes the bike seem heavy initially.

I'm really sorry you can't appreciate the merit of enjoying the simple joys in life. Not everything needs to be approached on the basis of price tag, or optimal value for the bottom dollar. I'm willing to bet I've gotten as much joy out of my Denali as you have out of your finest road steed, because it's helped me learn everything I know about cycling and been there with me as I changed from a fat couch lard on the fast track to having a stroke as my grandfather and father before me to where I am now. Can you place a dollar figure on that? Probably not...but on that standard, I think I got a hell of a value out of my Denali and every cent you and others feel I've wasted on it.

If you stuck around for all that, then I commend you.

On a more positive note...

Today, I made up for the ride I didn't get yesterday due to rain. I rode the Free Spirit (Sovereign) for a little over 29 miles. I was reminded of why I chose that bike to be my long distance/touring bike. So smooth, it's like riding on air! As a result, I seem to get less tired over longer distances on this bike. As you may remember, this was the bike I rode 53 miles on last fall, and other than my butt being a little confused, I really wasn't that tired or sore.

Of course, it is a bit of a chunk, so it won't be winning any races. I think we averaged about 15-16 according to one of our riders' GPS units. And that's about as fast as I'd want to push it on any kind of reasonable distance with our terrain. Higher speed cruising in top gear on flats is relatively easy, but it's best to take the hills with a more leisurely pace. I'd really like to do a century on this bike.

Today was also the first day I've rode without the clipless setup and I have to say...I don't really miss it! That's not to say I don't appreciate the merits of clipless but I did just fine without it and with less foot numbness. I'm sure that means I need to adjust something. I did notice that my feet were moving around more when doing some hard cranks uphill.
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CigTech

Banzai,

I had a Denali and only fixed what broke on it in 6 months with 6000 miles. That was the BB and the chain (due to wear). Oh and I did upgrade the rear derailleur just to get a better shift out of it for $16.00. If you have a Denali and want to dress it up a bit with upgrads more power to you.

The 1st Denali was killed by a car, i had 8371 miles on it. The 2nd Denali I put 11246 miles on it in 1 1/2 years. I did change out the Shifters. I gave it to my son. Replaced the BB and Chain due to ware.

So if you never rode one and don't ever want to ride one why are you in the thread in the 1st place?

monsterpile

Here is the Denali I got a few months ago I finally got it in ride-able condition today and its pretty decent. I was going to commute on it, but my knee has been bothering my so I'll stick to my regular commuter for now. I'll do some recreational rides on it though over the next few weeks to try it out where I can avoid hills even though it does have a triple. I hadn't really paid attention to the handlebars although I always wondered how they got those grip shifters on there and now I know. =) I got a kick out of the Schrader tube on the front and the Presta on the back. I'll put some miles on this just becasue Iwant to see how it it and then clean it up and move it along to another owner. So far not surprisingly the worst part about the bike is the brakes.

monsterpile

I finally got in some miles on my Denali. Here are my thoughts after 2 days of commuting.

Last Sunday I was riding my Trek and the rear gear cable snapped so I ended up finishing my day riding with a 3 speed. Instead of replacing the gear cable I got out the Denali and adjusted the brakes so I could use it for work this week. The issue with the Trek was a good excuse to get out on the Denali. =)

The good:

The bike feels pretty good and I usually don't like grip-shifters, but these get the job done well enough (they aren't the bottom of the food chain) and they even do a great job of shifting the triple which is an issue with them sometimes especially on lower end bikes. I wasn't a fan of the position of the shifters, but after a day I was used to them. After adjusting the rear derailer again after 1 day (I didn't fine tune it before that) everything shifts much better than most bikes of this ilk I have ridden.

The bike rides well enough. I was used to the cushiness of my Trek, but when that wore off I was pretty happy with how this thing rides. by day 2 I was zipping along having plenty of fun. Its a smooth ride and fast enough although I have been riding a loaded down mountain bike type for the past few weeks so this seems fast in comparison I suppose.

I love the way they speced this bike with the wider tires and low gear range. This is a great little bike for commuting IMO.

Bad

No fault of the bike, but one of the chain links was not free and stuck from a poor job of putting the chain back together by the previous owner so that was making the chain skip. I took care of that quickly.

I would probably prefer a shorter stem I feel a bit more stretched out than I would like, but its not the worst setup.

The brakes could use upgrading. Maybe pads would be enough, but probably replacing both the pads and calipers would be nice. After just a day it seems they are a bit better than before. Maybe the pads were more dusty than I expected. The brakes are the only thing i would really say needs to be upgraded everything else is fine with reasonable expectations.

Bottom line/Conclusion

I can see why people that have this bike like it alot. It feel more like a real bike than alot of the BSO I have worked on and ridden. I am tempted to outfit it and ride the heck out of it, but I already have so many bikes... If I was going ot make this my commuter I would upgrade the brakes put a different seat on and change out the pedals. For me that would cost less than $30 and I would have $60 into the bike since I paid just $30 for it. Of course then I would add a rack and lights and stuff like that, but any commuter would need that. I have just been using a messenger bag since it hasn't been that warm and I haven't needed to haul much back and forth to work. Honestly the Denali is better than I thought it would be and I had reasonable expectations for it and I fix up and ride alot of varieties of bikes and levels of quality so I know what to expect from BSO bikes. This is one of the above average bikes.

wphamilton

I thought I'd add an update on mine since we're getting kind of general here. I've been riding my Nashbar build this year so the Denali has been languishing, but I tuned it up today, put some 32 tires on and adjusted it for my 15 year old son. It's a little big for him at 5'7" so he's sitting pretty upright with the saddle all the way down, but we went on a short ride and he did great! Without my eccentric fairing of course.

So, after lasting around 18K miles of daily commuting and light off road use the Denali is now a generational bike having been passed down father to son. Who knows, after some now overdue parts swaps it may last for years and another generation.

borobike

Hey monsterpile,

Thanks for the updates on your Denali! Sounds a lot like my reactions to mine when I first got it, especially the brakes. I found that Kool-Stop pads helped a lot, and dual pivot calipers helped even more. If it were me, and I could only buy one, I'd get the new dual pivot calipers (they usually come with pads anyway) and swap those on. The Kool-Stop pads are great and probably the best of the lot, but I've found that the Tektro pads my calipers came with actually work really well too. Those pads are in use on my Sovereign and I have no complaints. Please feel free to update your experiences here whenever you want, I hope your Denali gives you many great miles!

Thanks for your update also, wphamilton. That's awesome that you've passed yours down to your son, seems strange to be able to say that about a department store bike but this is one of those that is actually worth hanging onto. Hope it gets him into cycling and if he's ever looking for upgrades, he knows where to look!

Speaking of upgrades and updates, here's one for my Denali.

I crossed 1600 miles the other day. No major drama, just some wheel tensioning issues that I think I've finally gotten sorted out. Well, aside from the past week or so, that was pretty drama filled.

I think I was pretty brief on my discussion about retensioning the rear wheel last time. Well, since then, it's been a long saga.

I chalk it up to my newness at tensioning wheels, but my aftermarket rear wheel was giving me fits about staying tensioned. It was better than it was, but it continually kept pinging again after tensioning. I think I ended up tensioning it about five times before I finally got it to shut up...and I did stress relieve the spokes.

Then, right about the time the rear wheel dilemma was drawing to a close, the front wheel (stock) began to ping as well, indicating the spokes were in need of retensioning. This seems okay in itself being about a year old and with 1600 miles on it, but was really confusing at the time, making it harder to isolate which wheel needed attention. I went through the same trouble with it, tensioning, only to ride it again and hear the same increasingly irritating ping.

On top of that, I've gotten a new car recently...so I don't drive my truck as much and am forced to remove the front wheel to load the bike in my trunk when going to group ride meetings. That's not a big deal in itself, but it's part of the recipe for near-disaster...

Anyway, as you may know, the stock front Denali wheel isn't quick release, so I have to unbolt it and bolt it back on every time I load it and unload it. Again, not a huge deal in itself, but over time this wrenching began to loosen the retaining nuts for the wheel bearings...

All the while I'm still dealing with spoke pings. Pretty frustrating.

Well, this past Wednesday, I do another retensioning, and ride out to meet the local group for the Wednesday night ride. Early in the ride there are no pings, and all seems well. But a few miles in, I start hearing pings that grow progressively worse, becoming loud exasperating creaks and pops that make my bike sound like it's about to break a spoke, and I'm feeling each noise through the handlebars. I assume it's more spoke problems, and halfway through the ride I split off and limp home. Even quitting early, the ride still ended up being 20 miles long.

Got the bike home and was pretty mad at it, til I discovered the wheel bearings were pretty loose. Tightened them up, checked spoke tension again, and rode again the next day only to find more pings. Pretty well lost at this point because I don't get how the spokes could still have uneven tension. Take the bike home, flip it over, and spin the front wheel...and it starts pinging. Definitely not a load induced ping, rather it seems to be coming from the front wheel bearing.

Took it apart, found lots of shiny specs and metal flakes in the grease, and the bearings were pitted and rough. Definitely trashed, no doubt from riding on them when the bearings were loose. I was afraid my races were going to be too which would mean new wheel (no sense in repairing the stock one, not cost effective) but after cleaning I found they were okay.

Put all new bearings and grease in, and while I was in there I took the time to convert the front wheel to quick release. Was an incredibly simple procedure.



Made sure to include the Vitesse logo to show it can be done.

So, as it turns out the past few days of wheel tensioning were pretty much unecessary, as it was the bearings making the noise...but it's nice to know that everything's fixed and that a mistake on my part didn't become expensive.
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Chris Chicago

cool thread.
Borobike, did you ride the denali when you started your slim down and were 227lbs? if so, did you break any spokes back then? I'm curious bc my brother weighs about that and i got him a replacement wheel about 6mos ago. spokes started poppin about 3mos after that.

borobike

Thanks, and I did, actually! So did my friend who weighed about 260 (now 240) although he doesn't ride as much as I do...well, much at all I don't think.

The Denali wheelset can definitely take some abuse. I had the same problem with my aftermarket wheel...only a few months after purchase I had to retension the spokes, although it never broke any. The stock Denali wheel went for a year (1600 miles) without needing any service to the spokes.
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monsterpile

Boro after commuting on the bike for over 2 weeks I have to say its pretty impressive for what it is. I just listed it on CL because I have plenty of bikes and that was the intent after giving it a test, but I will be more sad to see it go than I expected when I purchased it. I really wouldn't mind if this was my only bike. Its really that solid of a bike. I would have no problems recommending or selling it to a friend assuming it would fit their needs.

Suprdav95

I got my Denali yesterday and I think the front derailleur needs adjusting. It down shifts fine, but has a little trouble up shifting. Is this an easy fix that I can do or should I take it to a shop. If I can do it, can someone explain to me how to do it. I've youtubed it but it's still not making sense.

wphamilton

Suprdav there is a barrel adjuster on the cable where it enters the shifter. You want to twist it out to tighten the cable, which pulls the front derailleur out. If you can get it adjusted with just that you're in good shape.

If you have to adjust it more than the barrel adjuster allows it's more of a pain because on the derailleur end there's no adjuster. Just a bolt holding the cable. You'd need to loosen the bolt and pull the cable slightly tighter, then fine tune it with the barrel adjuster.

To get it shifting right you may have to mess with how the derailleur is positioned on the bike. It's just a clamp around the seat tube. Unhook the cable first. Basically you want the derailleur arm aligned straight with the chain when you sight down it from the front. Position it up and down so that there's a dime's width between the chain on the big ring and the derailleur arm. Then hook the cable back on with enough tension that, with the shifter in second and the chain on the middle ring, it's not touching the chain on either side. Then mess with the cable some more to get it shifting both ways without ever rubbing. It takes some fiddling but once you get it set that's it except for the barrel adjuster now and again, which you can even fine-tune while riding if you want.

Suprdav95

Ok...I think I can handle that. I'll mess with it when I get home. Thanks!

borobike

Well, the Denali adventures are continuing...but this time in a more exciting place!

For the next few days, I'll be riding my bike across St. George's Island as well as the town of Apalachicola in Florida.

And let me say...it's a LOT easier of a ride than the hills that aspire to be mountains in my hometown!

All pictures were taken on the bike with a cell phone (except for the ones with the bike in it, obviously) so please excuse any quality issues.

But enough of that, here's the pictures...



This is how the Denali spent the trip. Now that both wheels are quick release, it really doesn't take up much room at all in it's portable configuration.

Off we go!



Lots of public beach accesses along the way. I went through the state park also.





Lots of different styles of interesting beach architecture.



My view (sort of) as I'm riding along the beachfront properties. There was a very large and nice bike path along the main road at the center of the island.



Back in the state park...a stark contrast from the rest of the island. Riding through here was lots of fun, as it was easy to open up without fear of running into an unsuspecting person on a rental beach cruiser.



Slightly hazardous surf today...(not really).



Back at home base! I ended up riding as far as I could from one end of the island to the other. Tomorrow, I'm going to see if I can charm my way into the gated community on the other side and get in more miles.

More next post...
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borobike

Continuing from previous post...

Later in the day I took the opportunity to ride around the small town of Apalachicola which is in close proximity to the island.








Apalachicola and other adjoining cities make their living off of the seafood industry. It is estimated (or so I heard) that 10% of the world's oyster supply comes from here.





Downtown Apalachicola. There is only one traffic light in the town!





The siding of the main bridge seems to make a handy place for locals to chuck their beer bottles, but it also makes a nice backdrop.





Back when Apalachicola was a major port town, this was the town's brothel. Now it houses a bunch of old 50's TV's for some reason unknown to me.





Evidence of the town's port history can be seen in homes like this, styled in 19th century naval inspired architecture.





For many years, this was the jail for the entire county. Mostly it housed drunken sailors and fishermen.





A war memorial in town.





The house in the background has some historical significance, but I'm not sure what it is?

Anyway, that's it for now, but there will be more rides and pictures later...
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monsterpile

Great pics I love your bike.

I've been seeing a few more Denalis in the wild lately. I sold mine (it didn't take long to find a new owner) and I almost miss it, but I gotta pare down the herd a great deal in the next couple months.

Max C.

I've had my Denali for about a year now and figured I'd see if this thread was still going. I've got about 800 miles and change on mine all on stock parts sans the terrible stock saddle + a rack, saddle bag, lights, etc. I've been thinking about doing some upgrades but haven't pulled the trigger yet.

Reading through some of your posts, I find it interesting the front wheel didn't come as a quick release. My model (the Brifter model) does have a QR front wheel with a bolt on rear. The wheels are actually pretty darn good quality considering the price of a new wheel set through Performance/Nashbar is 70% of the cost of the bike. The roads in LA are pretty bad overall and I commute through downtown mostly (extra bad) so I tend to beat up my rims a bit but they've stayed mostly true.

borobike

Thanks monsterpile!

Max C, I'm actually kind of surprised yours did come with a quick release! But it's a nice feature to have. Hope your Denali will continue to serve you well.

More from today. In addition to yesterday's route, I also explored the bay side of the island.



This is pretty much what the bay side looked like. Lots of dirt roads also, I avoided those because of my 23c tires.



Also taken on the bay side, but it's more beach like here.



What I love about this place: there's a bike path that runs through almost the entire length of the island. If I lived here I'd be riding my Denali into the ground! Not just for the path, but the roads and scenery is just so amazing for riding as well.




End of the road. I think there was a pass through gate for pedestrians (it's locked for most cars) and the road seems to be paved now. I may try to ride through there tomorrow if I can go through the gate without trouble; there's about 5 miles of additional island to explore.



This is actually from yesterday, but I messed with it on instagram (phone app) and it turned out looking pretty cool.

More adventures tomorrow. Don't think I've ever seen so much of this island as I have on my bike.
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borobike

Last day.

Today I explored the road and land beyond the locked gate.



The land here is rugged and untouched, much like the island originally was.



I found a few alternate routes along the way, including unused beach access points.





The only footprints here were mine.



And at last I reached the true end of the island. It's been a good trip, and the Denali has served me well on it. Today I was able to cruise at minimal effort at about 25-26 mph for quite a few miles...with the wind at my back of course...but still something I'm not used to accomplishing back home. I hope to return soon, and the bike will come with me again.
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monsterpile

I like the pic where it looks like the Denali collapsed from exhaustion. LOL =)

lcanipe

this is an awesome read. I just gout a Denali myself much under the same circumstances you yourself did. I enjoy the bike a lot, but am having some of the popping with the bottom bracket you talked about, if you dont mind my asking, what size bottom bracket did you get, when i look at the UN54 they come in 5 different sizes, and im not exactly sure how to measure them out. Appreciate it!

DenaliRider

As a recent Denali owner I have enjoyed reading this thread. Have read it several times studying some of the upgrades that have been done. I took my Denali back to Walmart today and they tuned it up for me and its running fine now. Had a few problems with the shifting. I've got 176 miles on it as of today.

himespau 

Wait, what? Walmart tuned it up for you? What kind of special walmart do you have?

wphamilton

Measure the length of the spindle. On my Denali it's 117mm - I think, I wouldn't swear to it.

DenaliRider

I had tried adjusting everything myself but didn't have much luck. A couple guys I work with that are big into cycling tried to adjust so I could shift gears but same problems with my shifting gears. I actually took it back to walmart and was going to get my money back or exchange it for another brand. The guy at walmart said the guy that assembled the bicycles would look at it for me if I had the bike there before he went to lunch. I brought it in and he spent a few minutes working on it and told me to try it out in the parking lot. He had it shifting perfectly! Good guys at my local Walmart!

windhchaser

i have a denalli to i get noise to but i adjusted the bottom brackets and its a lot quieter. i walked into a local walmart and payed 152 bucks for it.i feel like i got a good deal .but now i want a nicer bike