craigeckhoff

I buy a steel mountain bike under $100. New comfortable seat for $20 right away.
500 miles got new narrow tires 1.75 by 26 $40. 1000 miles new crank set 42/32/22, plus new chain plus install $60. 1500 miles new rear rim and cassette 7 speed upgraded from 6 speed plus install $80. 2000 miles new front rim and new back tire (I rotate front tire to rear as needed) $60. 2500 miles new chain, swapped front suspension fork for old ridget fork $40. 3000 miles got new shifts
and rear derailer $50. $350 total for a 1/2 year of touring. A bike as good as any $1000 tank steel strong touring bike. Plus as a wallymart bike no one even thinks about stealing my "piece of junk" bike.

TakingMyTime

Sounds like you should have bought a new bike in the first place.

What's your point?

jefnvk

You can tour well on anything that is comfortable and can carry the equipment you need. If it works for you, that is all that matters. I took a 20 year old MTB that originally came from Dicks Sporting Goods on a trip this year, it originally didn't cost that much more.

That said, no, it is not an unstealable bike. People stealing bikes for a quick fix generally aren't nuanced enough to know what to steal, they'll take anything they think they can get a quick $20 for.

unterhausen

I have upgraded some really crummy bikes into a pretty good bike. The main issue with crummy bikes is the wheels, so that's something to take into consideration. Also, if it has a suspension fork, getting a rigid fork is a good idea. And a decent set of racks and bags will make it a lot better tour.

I think you are over-estimating the amount of thought that thieves put into deciding which bike to steal. Unless you are in an area with well-educated thieves, they go after whichever bike is easiest to steal. And if you think nobody will steal your bike, your bike is probably the easiest to steal. And they like to take bags too, so you should take measures against that.

sdmc530

You got $450 listed on your post, for 450 bucks I can get a super nice used bike from my LBS too and could ride it anyplace as well.


I too don't understand your thread but yes you can ride anything comfy anyplace for any distance.




I ride the bike MS rides, last year a person I work with wanted to try the 20 mile route, shortest. Got a BRAND NEW box store bike for $139, made it about 11 miles and the bike was so uncomfortable and un ridable because of poor parts and more so probably poor assembly and quality control. Person never road the bike or any bike again. The argument can go both ways.....just saying....






BTW people will steal anything they can make $25 on....no doubt no bike is theft proof

MarcusT

You can tour on anything, but what most tourers want to avoid is breakdowns. This is the reason they buy $1,000 bikes because the components are durable and they can ride for years without replacing parts.
Touring is about the adventure not the equipment, however because most of us cannot tour as much as we'd like to, we throw ourselves into the bike tech, so while waiting for spring to come or days of rain to pass we are tweaking and upgrading our bikes, maybe even drooling over a new bike about to come out.
On the road we are all equal.

unterhausen

if it rolls, it's worth stealing. If it doesn't roll, they steal parts.

There is a touring forum here: https://www.bikeforums.net/touring/

I can move this thread if you want

katsup

I think most people that tour buy new as they don't want to deal with repairs out on the road as you have. One can fix up a used bike before hand, but not everyone would be willing to do that when they can just buy new.

J.Higgins 

I have found that if you are trying to sell a bike; if its pretty, it'll get sold faster than a beater. It stands to reason that if a bike is pretty that it has a higher chance of getting stolen as well.

Lazyass

6 speed "cassette"? What MTB group had a 6 speed cassette instead of a freewheel?

mstateglfr 

As mentioned, you list $450 of purchases in this post.
I have ridden just as many miles on bikes that i have less than $450 in.
So good for you and good for me...i guess. Not really sure what the point here is.

How about racks for holding all this..or did one come on the bike? You use a front rack too now that you have a rigid fork?

And you dont need to spend $1000 to get a 'tank strong' touring bike.
This is $600 and comes with an excellent drivetrain as well as wheelset(once tension is checked) for a bike that costs hundreds more.
https://www.nashbar.com/bikes/Produc...2_602988_-1___


Or here is this for $350. Tiagra 9sp shifting, cromo tubes, rack,
BikeIsland.com - Bicycle Parts, Accessories and Clothing at Affordable Prices with Free Shipping
New drop bar for $100 less than your setup.




But in the end, this isnt a contest.

indyfabz

From my days as a bike thief, I can tell you that wallymart bikes are easier to sell than high end bikes and thus more desirable targets. Hope you have a good lock.

fietsbob

There is a mobile homeless population , that has learned to migrate with the seasons, using cheap bikes.

New Bike From Wall*Mart.. save the reciept , when something fails, take it to the nearest Wally-World store

show them the receipt, get a new one , Repeat as often as required..


In conclusion; you may, I chose not to do that..




....


..

Gresp15C

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ship_of_Theseus

shelbyfv

It's good someone is keeping this stuff out of the landfill.

Fastfingaz

Short answer,,,, yes , till it breaks ...

Maelochs

"I bought a $100 Walmart bike and replaced everything but the frame." Okay, great.

For that same $100 if you had been patient and planning to replace just about everything anyway, you could have found an old rigid MTB or even an old steel or aluminum touring or sport-touring frame of much higher quality---lower weight, better compliance, better quality control .... and done the same sort of thing and had a better bike at the end of the day.

And then could have attacked it with thee different rattle cans, including overspraying on the tires .... the crackheads would still steal it.

I don't hate box-store bikes. I have found them insufficient to the rigors of daily commuting, and if i had the option I would not put money into one of them if I could buy something old and better at a yard sale or CL ... but the Walmart route is an option, and Anything can be made to work if you are willing to do the work.

I did an 11-day, 1100-mile fully loaded tour on a built-up yard-sale bike. if it hadn't been stolen, I am sure I would still be riding it----it was one of the best bikes I have ever built---and all cheap parts.

I still ride a yard-sale bike I rebuilt, a 1984 Raleigh. If I had had an old Huffy or Firenze which didn't break (they all did) i would have rebuilt it many times over by now and would be riding it.

But .... for the money I could spend on a Walmart bike, I can get a lot more bike used off Craigslist if I am very patient. Because I do my own work (as do you) Any bike can be made into anything (I built a pseudo-TT bike with a tiny 27-inch-wheel frame, a huge seat post, and a 24-inch-wheel fork just for kicks once---rode well, too. (I was a lot more flexible then.) That frame was almost certainly box-store of some sort.

But given the option (back then I grabbed trash bikes before the garbage men got them) I wouldn't go the route you did.

Since you did, post pics, dude. Let us enjoy your creation too.

u235

I'm not sure why everyone assumes if you would have bought anything else that you would not have had to replace anything.
It's not like the one bike he had needed some parts eventually but every other bike in existence new or used would not have needed anything in that same time period.

dabac

My commuter sees 6000+ miles/year.
Takes one cassette, two chains, some brake pads.
Maybe a new shifter or brake cable.
Your miles-between-repairs sounds low to me.

Metieval

This.

I admire many bikes, not desiring to ride them is irrelevant.

My issue is, the OP spent $100 for a department store bike, and I paid $75 for a 1991 Schwinn crosscut.

Raleigh C40's, Trek 720/730/750, and Schwinn Crosscuts/Crisscross's can be bought all day long in almost every city for $100 or less on Craigslist (etc).

Hiro11

Troll sense tingling.

CliffordK

Let's see..

$100 bike
$20 Seat
$40 tire set
$60 Crankset
$80 wheel and cassette
$60 Front wheel
$40 chain, new fork
$50 New rearend.
-------------------
$100 + $350 parts = $450

So, not really a $100 bike anymore.

Upgrades do add up. Some things like tires... are consumables and part of the cost of riding. Plenty of bike-flippers choose the cheapest tires possible, so a decent set of tires is usually an early purchase.

I've done most of my mini-tours just riding the bikes I have. However, there are plenty of people that do their own custom builds.

See this thread:
2017 Inexpensive Tour Bike (and tour) Build contest!

I had intended to build up an older Jamis. And will get back to that bike soon. I got stuck a bit with the water bottle cage mounting braze-on being right where the front derailleur clamp needed to go. Plus, getting back into some welding to permanently attach a trailer hitch to it. But it will get done soon, and hopefully be up to snuff for around $200 or so, give or take.

DaveQ24

Personally - and, YMMV as they say - I have enjoyed dabbling with the one cheap bike (Walmart Mt Bike) I own that I’ve done anything with and actually rode. The other 3 or 4 cheap bikes (thrift store/big box) I bought only to upgrade for the purposes of learning bicycle mechanics - and someday I may actually blow the dust off and do something with them. Fun project if it actually ever happens.

But the thought of relying on a mass market bike in a situation where I don’t have the security of knowing rescue is just a phone call and a 20 minute car ride away - no, sorry, I wouldn’t gamble with it. Too much can go wrong, and the quality control in all stages of production and marketing of a $100 or $200 bike just can’t amount to much ... even with my limited knowledge of all things mechanical, just looking at bikes at Walmart or Target, it’s apparent that it’s caveat emptor - store return policies and buyer protection plans notwithstanding. Yes, a $20 protection plan might replace a broken bike with a gift card or whatever - but that would be pretty inconvenient during the middle of a bike tour.

There are good bike bargains out there - not that hard to find new, older bikes 50% of even more off original retail at outlet stores and websites. For myself, as a guy with poor mechanical ability, I would prefer taking that route, and getting a bike with better overall quality and components, instead of trying to make it from the frame up by upgrading components.

One thing which does stand out to me about big box bikes is how rough the welds on the frame look, compaired to those on the entry-level name brand LBS bikes. The Wal-mart bike I bought in 2014 and have rode, and upgraded some components, I did with the expectation that the frame itself will break at some random time - and I’m ok with that because my purpose was to learn mechanics and maintenance. If my bike options were limited, I would buy the best overall quality I could afford.

YMMV.

Cougrrcj

I have a grand total of $360 invested in my 32-year-old Univega Gran Tourismo that I would ride anywhere in the US. This is including the purchase price from my local Craigslist ($140), new Pasela PT touring tires ($35), tubes ($10) cables ($45 for both brake and shift), vintage SunTour barcons ($30), new brake pads ($20), rear rack ($35), panniers & seat bag ($45). OK, maybe add another $45 for fenders -- so now we're up to $405.

The chain and 5-spd rear freewheel were perfectly fine (as were some of the other parts I replaced), but let's say another $45 to replace those with a new chain and 6-spd freewheel... and I'm still at $450 for a real steel QUALITY touring bike with all new consumables that I'd take anywhere in the USA on a 3000-mile tour, without reservation.

McBTC

You'd probably look even less like a potential target for thievery if you use a single-speed balloon tire bike and disguise your panniers as newspaper carrier bags...