I-Like-To-Bike

I suspect almost any inexpensive bicycle that has adequate gearing for a short short commute to/from any urban area with reasonable topography like West Philadelphia or Center City Philadelphia and that can be ridden with reasonable comfort would be preferable for most bicyclists than much more expensive bicycles that the owner is hesitant/afraid to leave parked outside for any length of time due to fear of theft or damage to a prized possession. Only if all intended destinations are in secured facilities would that not be a factor for most bicyclists.

As an example, I seldom if ever worried about commuting on my 1972 Raleigh Sports 3 speed throughout Philadelphia in the 70's to include parking all day at City Hall locked outside to one one the ornamental fences on the south side of the building, parked in Chinatown for meals, or at Vet's Stadium or the Spectrum for night games. This relatively inexpensive (cheaper than any 10 speed sold at the time) and plebian bike attracted no interest from would be thieves or vandals since "10 speed racers" were all the rage at the time and bicycles like mine were ignored by the low life of the day. A 10 speed bicycle of any quality or cost would have had almost no value for my purposes as it could not be used with any expectation of remaining in place upon my return. FWIW my Raleigh held up quite well with little maintenance finally seeing its end of days (under my ownership) in Freiburg, Germany in 2002 where my daughter left it after 2 years of study at the University.

Bikes that require the owner to leave it indoors at home for fear of being stolen or exposed to the elements have little value for commuting, shopping or any other purpose that doesn't allow the owner to be the equivalent of a security chain at all times whenever the bicycle is not stored in secure facilities; I suspect that such pampered bicycles might hold up quite well, though.

Digger Goreman

At the time (winter 2013), and within weeks of each other, wife and I bought (not knowing any better at the time) Good Will newish Roadmaster for her and ragged, but serviceable Trek mtb for me. Within one year the RoadBastard was unrideable and the Trek 800 Sport is still on the road today. After sidelining her bike, we tracked down a used Trek for her... still riding it today, also....

Used quality trumps cheap and new every day....

Rajflyboy

Those Damn Trek’s again

livedarklions

Rajflyboy

I’m convinced. It’s time for me to get a Trek.

Vintage Schwinn

A you-two-bur, HACK AND RIDE BIKES, reported on his journey in 2019 of purchasing a $99 sale priced Wal-Mart bicycle across Florida.
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCjx...qrrJzWuQt9k3ng
---March 15, 2019 upload to YOUTUBE by HACK AND RIDE BIKES "Unboxing & Assembly of the bicycle"


----April 6, 2019 upload to YOUTUBE by HACK AND RIDE BIKES "The Ride Across Florida on the KENT gmc denali"


----April 14, 2019 upload to YOUTUBE by HACK AND RIDE BIKES "Answering viewer questions and his critical summary"


It is a dependable, perfectly acceptable bicycle for folks that DO NOT NEED TO RIDE FAST!!
It is a weighty 29.6 pounds, but at the same time it is mild mannered and easy enough to ride and it's handling is predictable and very stable!
Yes, perhaps the bottom bracket is not of the quality that one would expect on something in the $500 and up price range, but one can easily
upgrade the bottom bracket for next to nothing in cost, assuming that the bike owner does that work himself/herself.
Sheesh.....it isn't rocket science. I have built at least thirty, perhaps more, road bikes in the past fifty years.
This one is simple. Anybody that is old enough or has messed with ancient French, English, and Italian bottom brackets when cotters were employed, you had differing sizes and to modernize them, you have to really think and measure, but there are still great MacGyver'd solutions courtesy of folks like Sheldon Brown and others that summerized practical solutions for you. With these Kent bicycles, you can fit any number of quality off the shelf(off the web) New, higher quality bottom brackets. Yes, sure, if you have your LBS do the changeover, it will COST YOU more than the price you paid for the bicycle, but for maybe $30 total cost for a decent bottom bracket and a new $6 bottom bracket tool from the many mammoth China sellers of bike parts on the bay, you can DO IT. Heck, if you can assemble bikes and tune them and change cables, and replace derailleurs, it is super simple. Sure, the novice that knows zero about bikes that has not ridden a bike since they were 13 years old, is probably not going to have a clue. Somebody that has decent mechanical skills say like someone who can put together metal shelving, scaffolding, or just change the blade on a lawnmower, could probably easily do it......., certainly anyone that has a vintage car or car that they work on as a hobby.
None of this is terribly difficult. Yet, we get responses from the "bike mechanics" that perhaps overvalue the aptitude necessary to do SIMPLE stuff such as on this very basic, inexpensive machinery. I'm not saying that there are not certain high-tech, high quality bicycles that are demanding of a highly qualified bike service technician but sheesh, YOUTUBE and see some goofball like RJ The Bike Guy and the right tool(s) and parts via Amazon Prime or the Ebay and you're done!
Not everybody needs an expensive LIGHTWEIGHT Road bike that they can cruise at 21mph on. The Wallyworld//Tar-jay// Kohls//Dicks//Academy///K-mart///interweb direct sellers of these INEXPENSIVE bicycles have the right products at the right price for a large segment of the population that has a vastly different need and perspective on what is a suitable bicycle. These inexpensive low cost bicycles are heavier and they are slower, but there are many folks that are happy riding them.
Yes, perhaps this does not please some of the proprietors of local bike shops, but I'd guess that the Wallyworlds & Tar-Jay bicycles will continue to make inroads and grab a larger percentage of total quantity of bicycles sold in the United States during the next decade. Why? Simply because there will always be a core demand for very simple bicycles that are not overly complex. If for example that these INEXPENSIVE bicycles are as bad as cycocommute seems to believe, then, they can only get better, and not any worse!! They are not as terrible as cycocommute rails about but they are not without issues as you have witnessed in the documentation and hundreds of pages of previous discussion on these various Big Box store bicycles. There are some that are decent enough for most of the population that wants to ride bicycles. A bicycle has two wheels and human providing the power to make it go. A 55 pound coaster brake, beach cruiser is a bicycle, as is the lightweight-very advanced machinery that gets ridden each July in the Tour de France. New bicycles are sold in big box stores and at LBS. Where you wish to purchase your NEW bicycle likely will depend on what you deem essential for your bicycle riding pleasure.


That 32.5 pound Wal-Mart, super inexpensive KENT Roadtech 700c, ugly green color as seen in indyfabz 12-30-19 post (post#172) has a near exact clone that is sold by Kohls under the KENT GZR 700 name. This GZR 700 is a more attractive ORANGE color but essentially is the same bicycle.
I'm fairly certain that both of these are 22 inch frames, and that is the only frame size for these.
****There is the 19 inch SUSAN G. KOMEN 700c (KENT bicycle) that is much the same as the GZR 700 and Roadtech 700c except in PINK 19 inch frame size.
The Green Roadtech700c was $128 at Wal-Mart for years but the price is currently about $148 or so.
THE Susan G Koman 700c 19 inch PINK BIKE is at walmart (Walmart #550571672 and priced low at $129
https://www.walmart.com/ip/Susan-G-K...Black/53257966

https://www.kohls.com/product/prd-29...-road-bike.jsp

Germanrazor

Really???? I have never had any bad experience regardless of what I bought or sold on Craigslist. Now if you are answering dating ads on CL then you get what you reply to as far as I am concerned which would more than likely be a serial killer honing their skills!

But as far as buying used and from such sites it has been a good experience for me and many I have talked to. I guess you have never used it and only refer from what you read without experience.

But I digress here from the OP's post as I could care less your view on it as it was meant to assist the OP.

duffer1960

There are crooked sellers on Craigslist as well as clueless sellers. From personal experience as a buyer. Bought a bike that I thought I could fix (Fuji MTB), discovered that it had been carefully put back together to appear to be ok, but had completely toasted innards. Work associate bought a bike that he thought & seller told him was a fine bike. When he showed me the bike, it was obviously a prize-winning BSO turd (had tubing made of folded sheet metal that was tack-welded at the ends, and it was fatally rusty to boot). To that seller's credit, he took it back.

Maelochs

I spent many, many years commuting on trash bikes, and many years commuting on better bikes. I actually have the experiences some of you say i should get before commenting. Most of you simply do not.

I know how far different bikes went before needing maintenance, how far they went before needing parts replacements, how many crapped out on the road and left me walking (and pushing or even carrying a broken bike.) I know how the different bikes stood up to the abuse of daily urban/suburban commuting .... because I did it.

The better bikes last a lot longer, the wheels stay round and straight, the bearings keep spinning .... none of the quality bikes I have owned have ever left me walking except after serious accidents. The same cannot be said for the bargain bikes. Fasteners, brackets, bearings, wheels, drive trains .... all have failed on the cheap bikes while similar treatment never broke the better bikes.

The guy who did the cross-Florida tour? Yeah, ride 15-30 or 40 miles every day, in all weather, without time to do maintenance more than once a week, and see how things go. Sure the bike was good---with proper set-up and regular maintenance---for a month maybe. And also, most people looking for cheap bikes don't have the know-how or tools to swap a bottom bracket---so when the BB seizes, they trash the bike (and I would pick it up from the trash, swap in a BB from another trash bike, and limp along another few months on it.) I have had new and used cheap bikes ... given daily use and minimal maintenance (about the same maintenance a quality bike requires) the cheap bikes always failed.

Most people buying really cheap bikes don't know to do maintenance. The might throw some grease or oil on the chain from time to time. They wouldn't know a spoke wrench if they saw one. They don't think to check every fastener, because cheap fasteners work themselves loose or simply strip out under load ....

So, those bike serve the intended purpose. They get the financially challenged person to work and the grocery store better than bad bus systems (and a lot of places have bad or no bus systems.) When the break they are replaced. Because the owner was never going to either severely stress or diligently (and expensively) maintain the bike, the bike lasts long enough to be cost-effective and also get replaced eventually .... or, more likely, the person makes friends at work and gets rides, or buys a "buy here-pay-here" car ... a car about on par with a Walmart bicycle.

In any case, the Walmart bike is a little faster than walking.

Walmart-type bikes are okay for people who don't want to be cyclists, but who want to get around a little more quickly than walking. Anyone who is going to be riding for the joy of cycling, would be advised to get a better bike. Fewer headaches in the long run, and better performance throughout.

There are plenty of BikesDirect offerings which I would trust a lot more than most big-box bikes, which cost two or three times as much but offer (as I know from owning one) vastly more value over time.

If a persons can only afford $150, then get a Walmart bike. It will be rideable. If a person can afford more, Get More. I have had enough catastrophic failures on cheap bikes that I would not trust one on a cross-country tour without a complete tear-down and rebuild, and never without a support vehicle. My sub $500 Dawes got me from LA to Washington DC, right out of the box. I adjusted the brakes and shifters, and had to true the wheels once (doing it roadside with spoke wrench and using the brake pads works fine, but some we did at a bike co-op we passed, because we could.) Two dozen bikes, 3200 miles, no failures. No failures. Not even really bad wheel warps, just minor flutters----could have been ridden, but since there were a couple people who could tighten a spoke, why not?

No extra lube needed, just a little chain lube.

And I still have the bike, and it still works. That now-passed (and much missed) poster Inpd had a similar Dawes he rode all of northern California, long, long miles. I know From Experience that cheap bikes don't have the same capacity ... and I didn't test just one.

Nothing wrong with a Walmart bike. It is what it is. Use it as such. Like any cheap tool, it will do the job pretty well for a while, but will wear out or break if used hard, or much, much sooner than a quality tool (mechanics don't buy quality tools to show off.) But there is nothing inherently evil about cheap bikes. The won't assplode any more than Chinese CF. They are what they are. They work as intended for their price point.

We all know this. We all know what they are good for, what they are bad at, and why better bikes are better investments over the long run ... for people who have that option. But I know, people like to bicker.

livedarklions

Yes, if you know what you're doing, CL can be a source of good value. I've done pretty well using it. If you're a newbie who hasn't done their research, it's a mine field. You're seriously claiming that your knowledge of bikes doesn't help you avoid answering ads listing absurd prices for crap bikes? You must have a very different Craigslist where you live than I do.

wolfchild

Don't get Trek, we already have too many Treks around...If you absolutely have to get a Trek, make sure to remove all the Trek decals and put some GMC Denali decals on.

Maelochs

Man, Huffy just can't get no respect anymore.

they used to be the lead standard.

indyfabz

Holy walls of text, Bat-Man!

livedarklions

I put the odds of anyone actually saying anything new and rational on this subject at exactly 0%, and am just hanging around for the jokes and the nuttiness at this point.

That's the third extended gush on the Denali, and this one includes a video of a guy buying one of the last ones remaindered at $99.

Rajflyboy

My problem is that I like all Bicycles and want one of each. A Trek and a Denali added to the collection would just make me more happy.

I have never had a Trek but they have to be excellent bicycles considering how many of them I see on the roads/trails.

Rajflyboy

excellent post and why I love reading bikeforums

you and a few others fully understand the industry from bottom to top

Rajflyboy

thanks

another great read

shelbyfv

Hard to believe 8 pages of BSO/POS on what we think of as a bike enthusiast forum. A couple more of these posts and we'll have 10 pages of (drumroll) BSO/POS

I-Like-To-Bike

Care to expound on the limits on bicycling discussion and subjects "We" believe should be enforced on this General Cycling Discussion list?

Do you really believe that when We bike enthusiasts have pontificated and electronically high-fived each other's clever comments/liked what "We" consider the final word on a bicycle subject, that no further discussion should take place, especially if it varies from the conventional wisdom provided by self described bike enthusiasts?

shelbyfv

As a bike enthusiast I fail to see the attraction of BSO/POS. I may be missing something so you can clue me in. Is it the high quality components, the well designed and constructed frames or some other feature that compels your fascination?

Rajflyboy

just buy buy a new bike every year then if that’s what you love

livedarklions

You two get a room.

shelbyfv

Don't love new bikes, do like nice ones. I just feel no need to clutter my cycling life with crap stuff.

BookFinder 

Saving for later...

smurfy

Wow! What an incredibly ignorant comment. Totally not true unless you have a habit of throwing bikes out of airplanes. I can't believe nobody else here even challenged this.