do walmart bikes last?
 

in my neighborhood there are alot of hispanics that commute to work via 70 dollar walmart mountain bikes. do people on bike forums think these walmart bikes are a viable form of transportation. it seems if they are, buying a bike for more than 70 dollars is just throwing money away.

A lot of people on here talk about how crappy department store bikes are, and honestly, I'd agree with them, except for the fact that nearly every bike that I've had up to now has been a department store bike, and they've all been bulletproof. Now, granted, these were the steel frames, so they wouldn't crack, and they didn't have suspension to be messed up, but if you could deal with the occasionally skipping derailleur, they got you around, and put up with a LOT of abuse.

Of course they're a viable form of transportation -- or those hispanics (odd that that's the thing that defines them) wouldn't be commuting to work on them. If somebody is a bike commuter simply because they can't afford a car, then the odds are good that they don't know much about bike maintenance or have the right tools (the hobbyists are more likely to know about that), and so if the bikes broke as often people seem to claim they do, they wouldn't be able to afford to keep paying people to fix them.

Also consider that Walmart sells quite a few different bikes -- different brands, different models, etc. Some are likely to be of better quality than others.

Personally, I've bought a few Wal-Mart bikes of various types over the years and I've found the quality to be acceptable. Most recently, my wife wanted a mountain bike, we got her a $80 one from there. It was remarkably well put together -- no complaints about the quality at all. It needed a few adjustments here and there, but nothing difficult. My biggest complaint about it was that the suspension let the distance between the pedals and your seat vary, which was just weird to me (but I mostly ride road bikes with no suspension, so perhaps that's normal?) and my wife liked it -- until she realized that my road bike was 10 lbs lighter (20 lbs vs. 30 lbs) and then she insisted on something lighter, even though weight only matters under certain circumstances.

As for if we're wasting our money buying better bikes, well, maybe. They say you get what you pay for, and there's some truth to that, but it's not a linear scale. $100 can get you a good bike, $400 gets you a bike that's better -- but certainly not 4x better. And a $1000 bike certainly isn't 10x better ...

Personally, I'm a fan of getting a good bike used. Of course, that tends to work best when you know something about bikes and can spot a good deal, and can fix things that you find wrong with the bike you bought ...

The frames are adequate.
The components are bottom of the barrel.
The assembly is often slipshod.
The full suspension bikes are almost novelty items.

A single speed, rigid, bike, being mechanically simple will last the longest.

In that environment, if its stolen, your only out $70. If you leave it outside to rust, it's only worth about $70. If you've only about $70 then the fact that there are better bikes out there at higher prices is meaningless.

The average third world uses much much less for bicycle transportation.

the cheepee bikes work just fine. won't win a race with it, and can't do the trails for very long with them, but they're fine for commuting.

i owned a cheepee mountain bike for the longest time and it served me well... had to true the wheels often, and the derailleur skipped regularly, but it was great for me at the time.

i don't bash the cheap bikes. i understand that they won't win races and may require maintenance more often than nicer bikes, but they serve the purposes of the owner.

Will they last? Remember seeing that old washing-machine, all rusted and dented, that someone tossed off the back of their pick-up down by the river? Yes - they will last. Like that.

I rode a Target bike for about 10 years and then commuted on it for about a month. It worked fine and I think that I could probably ride it for another 10 years if I had to.

But, I cut a 65 minute commute to 50 minutes just by switching to a better bike. That old bike is NOT fast.

Well, let's do the math.

A bus pass for a month is $66. The bicycle in question is $70. Will a Walmart bicycle last longer than a month? Yes. Therefore is buying a $70 bicycle "throwing money away"? No.

And BTW - I rode my Walmart mtn bike for approx. 15,000 km over a period of about 5 years ... commuting year round, and doing the occasional winter century. I paid a little more than $70 for it, but when I added up all the bus passes I did not have to buy, because I commuted on my bicycle instead, I came out something like $3000 ahead. It's the only one of my bicycles to have actually "made" money for me.

The cassette, rear bearings, axle, rear derailler, etc. on the $60 Walmart bike I bought all self-destructed after about 2 months.
Make sure and keep your receipt.

If you don't use them for performance-type riding and only basic transporation, they're fine. The mechanic at my LBS said he read an article in a major cycling magazine that rated the big box store bikes and they concluded that for the purpose of relatively slow, purposeful transportation, they are well designed and a good value for the money.

depends what you get. i got two bikes from wal mart, a 07' next power x 18speed mountain bike and a new 08' next lajolla single speed cruiser, although most of my bikes are higher quality. the full suspension mountain bike is like the "yugo" of mountain bikes. cuz all the money went into the full suspension, the rest of the components are marginal at best, and it heavy, but rideable.

now i absolutly love my 08' next lajolla single speed cruiser. for under $100, you get a single speed cruiser with a lightweight aluminum frame and wheels and 3piece crankset. much better than the $79 power x i also have by the same manufacturer. this bike is really light especially for a cruiser and cuz all the money didn't go into a full suspension frame and shifting systems, the basic components of a single speed bike are better and almost feel like a quality bike shop bike. i've had cannondales, specializeds, schwinns, diamond backs and paramounts and this next lajolla has that same quality feel and is easy to upgrade.

so yes, some walmart bikes hold up very well, as long as your not paying for bogus full suspension set ups, or disc brakes and cheapo gearing systems. keep it simple and if you can live with a single speed cruiser, a nice bike can be had at under $100. and yes, i commute 6 miles to work everyday on my lajolla and have zero problems or complaints.

You misunderstood his post. He was saying that if the $70 bike is good enough for the commutes, then spending more than $70 on a nicer bike is probably not worth it.

Acorn54, terminally cheap people always have a 'philosophy' that backs up continuing to be cheap. I suggest you restrict yourself to Wal Mart bikes and be happy. Your actions will be in tune with your outlook. The precise prescription for happiness. bk

Awhile back I saw a Schwinn at my local Walmart that looked like a decent buy for the money. For around $180 you got a hardtail with fenders and a rear-rack. "Serviceable" is the word that comes to mind. It was a basic bike, nothing fancy about it, but I think it would get the job done. Given the style of bike that it was, I honestly thought at the time that it could live up to what it purported to be.

Good point, I won't even buy my kids wal-mart bikes.

I bought a Mongoose DXR AL at Walmart last year. It wasn't what I wanted in a bike. Rather heavy (for being aluminum) and didn't feel balanced right. But it never did break down, I only had to switch out the pedals at one time. I ended up giving it to a co-worker who said she liked it.
Ernest

for short term it will do the job but id pony up the money for something better imo

Walmart bikes are what they are. The bulk that I have seen being ridden by the people that work at the processing plants around here are in very poor condition, quite often they only have one gear and the brakes may or may not be operational.

I have long contended that WM could use their buying and marketing power to have built and sell a decent commuter bike for under $200 instead of the BSO's (Bicycle Shaped Objects) they sell now. The best bike currently on the rack in WM that is worth the asking price is the Mongoose Paver, everything else is a crap shoot. Those people riding the half broken down WM bikes are barely moving, and the bikes don't fit for efficient riding. If you talk to them, most are saving up money to get a car so they don't have to ride the bike; I know because we have some come to work for us in the construction industry, and I talk with them all the time.

Another major issue to me with the WM bikes is that they typically only come in one frame size. That sucks if you are very short or fairly tall. My wife rides a 15" frame I ride a 25.5", neither size is available from WM.

Aaron:)

The size thing is a big deal in the long run. The main reason I stopped riding my Target bike was because it was way too small for me. But my wife is using it now and it fits her better. (She won't let me buy her a better bike right now and HER old Target bike was sized for a 10 year-old.)

I would like to find out more information on these bikes... at first glance they look pretty good, SA 3speed, looks like a threadless headset, 700c rims...and so on, but I can't find any frame size information. They may be junk, but they look good on paper for the most part.



http://www.walmart.com/catalog/produ...uct_id=8399248

http://www.walmart.com/catalog/produ...uct_id=8399249

What's a cheap bike for some, may be hard-earned critical dollars for others...

They are going to be nominally a 19" frame...seems to be the WM standard on most bikes. The suspension fork is going to be heavy and probably crap out pretty early on. They used to sell a steel framed version a while back that was a better buy for the money.

Aaron:)

Fine line between frugal and cheap. Lowest price seldom means best value.

Aaron:)

The quality of the bikes and components are not as important as the way the bikes were assembled. The spokes probably never saw a human hand. The bearings are usually set to tight, shifting is usually abysmal but part of that can be attributed to grip shifters. In my opinion a department store bike could be made usable if someone readjusted it and maintained it. Its funny that usually the cheapest bikes get the most use/abuse and see the least chain lube. Another option is to buy a bike for less from a thrift store, put tubes and a chain on it and now you've really got a good bike for under $100.

PS. It kinda pisses me off that you had to point out what nationality rides the cheap bikes, was that necessary?