rmwun54

It would be sad if you buy the wal-mart bike because then you would be learning the hardway of buying a bike. Those bike's are always to heavy and the parts are the least to desire. Everyone that rides knows this to be true, so don't do it. Buy a used bike for that price if you can or wait and save up the extra cash and buy something you will enjoy instead of regreting it. I have purchased eleven bikes up to now and what I know now versus my early days of buying a bike could have save me a load of money. I'm not saying you have to buy a real expensive bike but don't settle for something that is cheap.

kidaware

rasheed -- thanks for the links. I'll check them out. Yes, I intend to post once I decide on a bike (and put up a pic too).

markm109 -- two people for a Gary.

Phiber -- I must be blind not to see them. I just clicked on the first one.

Trauma -- I'm from Fort Worth, Texas. Hello neighbor from the north! Hope it's not too cold around this time of the year up there. It darn hot down here in the Texas heat.

rmwun54 - hooligan & super-douper has already talked me out of buying a wal-mart mongoose bike several posts up. A co-worker said that he bought a wal-mart bike for his son that lasted for a year without any problems. He said it comes with some sort of Shimano branded component located near the handle bar. Which he said the Shimano brand is the top of the line for such a bike component. Not knowing much about bikes, I took his word for it. Anyone here disagree?

At any rate, I called up the local bike shop asking whether they had the 2005 specialized hardtop sport model in store. They said they don't have them right now, but are in transition between the 2004 and 2005 models. For availability, they're thinking it'll be around 2 weeks to 2 months before they get that model in the store. What a bummer, dude. I was hoping to try one out at the store.

khuon

Shimano is a company. They make a lineup of bike components that span from bikes you'd find at K-mart for $75 to bikes you have to make an appointment with a builder and get interviewed before they'll make you one for upwards of $7500 and more. It goes without saying that the stuff you find on the K-Mart bike is going to be much different (lower) in quality than what you'll find in a high performance racebike.

khuon

You might want to ask them what they still have from their 2004 stock. Sometimes you can get a great deal on "last year's" stock. The bikes will not really have changed that much. As a matter of fact, looking at the two (2004 Specialized HardRock Sport vs. 2005 Specialized HardRock Sport), I only see a very slight difference in the fork and crank. The 2004 model also started out $20 lower MSRP than the 2005 model. See if you can still locate a 2004 model clearance.

DocRay

I competely agree. Used good MTB are bargains. Canadian tire/Walmart will be sued eventually for selling those cheap shoddy bikes, they are unsafe. They are designed aesthetically only to look like real bikes, the FS bikes are the worst, with springs but no dampers, like riding a pogo stick. The warranty forbids off road use because they will not handle it. A neighbour had a new Crappy Tire special and the brake caliper snapped on a downhill when he applied the brake -but he saved $100, when your heading for traffic at 30mph with no brakes, it doesn't quite seem the bargain. They are heavy, use gas pipe for tubes, cheap cast aluminum parts and bearings made of chocolate. Turn off the lights in the garage and you can almost hear them rusting. Buy one and you'll have to buy another in a year. I would not buy these disposable bikes for my kids. You can buy a good used bike and sell it again at minimal loss when the kid grows up if you teach him/her to take care of it.

Shimano should be ashamed for licencing their name to Chinese "factories" that make these bikes -it will bite them back one day.

Never cheap out on anything that goes faster than you can walk.

imprezaman

Your best bet would be e-bay, don't waste your time on a Wal-Mart bike...

kidaware

khuon -- I took your suggestion and called up the bike shop asking if they had a 2004 specialized hardrock sport. They said they didn't have one at my location but that another store had one left (in blue). They said they'll get it transferred over to their store (it will take a day or two). He gave me a price quote of $285 (about $308.51 with tax). Which is not bad considering the MSRP is $320. I can't wait to try it ou! Thank you for the suggestion.

DocRay -- I agree with you on Shimano. That is just plain misleading to put their name with poor quality workmanship/material. If it weren't for people like khuon on this forum explaining about Shimano, I would have believed my co-worker (and probably many other people like them think that way).

imprezaman -- I don't quite trust e-bay for some reason. Maybe someday, I'll take the plunge and try e-bay out.

kidaware

Yahoo!!!!! Wheppppeee!!! I finally got my bike! It's a 2005 Specialized HardRock Sport. I would have gotten it sooner but the dealer ran out of the 2004 model. Several days later, they got in a 2005 model. But it's not at my location. Urgh. More wait time for them to transfer it to the store at my location. My experience with bicycle inc is exceptional (thanks, Sean for sticking around even after the store has closed for 30 minutes--although a lot of the stuff you told me about bikes went way over my head ).

I'm so exhausted. The weight of the bike is so amazingly light. Sean took the front wheel off and I nearly fell to the floor at how freaken light weight the front wheel is!!!

I can't wait to take it out for a spin tomorrow morning. I promised to put up pictures ASAP. Thank you all for your replies. I'll post more about my experiences later. For now, I'm gonna hit the shack!!!!

hooligan

Another successful rescue from the jaws of death by US! Not the U.S., but us! The bikeforums members! WE should all give ourselves a pat on the back and kidaware...you deserve a ride! Go out there and ride your bike (i was gonna say rip it up, but then other bikes couldn't use the patht hat he used )

kidaware

As promised, here're some pictures of the brand spanking new 2005 specialized hardrock sport for all to see!!!

The pictures (canon powershot A75) look a lot better than what's posted. I had to adjust them/downgrade them to make the 100KB forum picture upload limit.

kidaware

more pic

kidaware

can't stop...more pic

kidaware

wahoo...

kidaware

yee-haw!!!!

hooligan

Looks good. Now...the ritual...of saying a couple of words.

Get that rig dirty!! In fact, as you read this, you should be destroying your property and piling it onto your bike to make it look dirty.

catatonic

Light.

Durable.

Features.

For $200, you can get any ONE of these, no more. About $350 will get you two, and about $600+ will get you all of it.

The walmart bikes avary in quality from basic quality to utter garbage, most have forks that are far worse than the ones the cheapest LBS bikes have, and many of thoes wally world style forks were involved in safety recalls, the brakes are atrocious and dangerous at best, the gearing is often the cheapest possible with poor shifting and less than reliable performance. There are ok wal-mart bikes, but for $20-30 more oyu cna get an LBS bike that was assemebled by someone that will stand behind his work, and you often get a warranty that's worth half of anyhting as well. The LBS bike will most likely be 6061 aluminum, hardtail design, with a single bottle cage mount. it will have either an SR Suntour or RST 50mm suspension fork, generic name V-brakes, and Shimano Tourney gearing.

$200 at a bike shop can get you a tough bike. Far from light, but it can do what you want it to do. i would go up to $300 though since that's the point the stronger forks start showing up and some bikes in that rage use shimano alivio drivetrains as well, which is a bit better than tourney.

jallen

Digging up an OLD thread (Seems I do that a lot.. sorry.. hehe I use search feature a lot!)

another Nail in coffin for walmart's bikes:

They leave a whole BUNCH of them outside 24/7 in any kind of weather. I've ran thru hurricane force storms half blinded by rain, and shaking my head at the bikes exposed to the elements on my way to the door.

That is so *DUMB*.

Consider this: avergae x-mart user won't even lube anything anyway, and to sell a bike for $150 that has been stripped of anything remotely resembling lube by the weather is just plain irresponsible.

Not to mention those bikes suck anyway


By the way, congratulations on your new HardRock! Don't ride it TOO hard (See signature hehe) It's a great bike!!

jallen

I think you hit it RIGHT ON in my case, Catatonic... I paid 300-ish for mine, and it does appear I have the light & features, with not enough durability. (Frame is an exception, it's bulletproof!!!! It's an awesome frame to built up on) My components crap out on me..

I need to stop abusing it TOO much, or upgrade to say rockhopper or stumpjumper and continue my abuse. Another possibility is to stick to the frame and replace the parts that crap out on me.

catatonic

Heh, I've been through this upgrade frenzy too, from msrp $240 to msrp $1100 bikes. You really do get what you pay for, but right off the bat at about $200 you get roughly the equal to wal-marts finest, but with better assembly, service, and support (the top end schwinn hardtail there is actually pretty decent if you know how to properly assemble it yourself, about equal to a DDB outlook). Once you hit 240, your aboves what walmart offers at a hardware level as well. About 350 you start seeing upgraded components, and sometimes lighter frames.....around 400 you start seeing disc brakes at teh cost of component groups.

at 500, you start seeing only lightweight frames, lx (and sometimes XT) components, good forks, light wheelsets....basically if you look across every companies lienup there will be some very nice parts. once you hit 600....the bikes are usually pretty much decked out. 800 can land you a bike like my talus, which is pretty much a killer XC frame with a rather nice component selection (frame only is availible). Retail on it is 1100, but bay area cycles was selling one for about 800...so remeber never pay retail unless you absolutely must have it "right now".