Your mission, should you choose to accept it
 

is to turn a crappy wal mart bike into a decent road bike. I know it'd be a bit heavier than most bikes, but what parts should I look into? I was thinking of getting some new gears, new tires, new handlebars, and new brakes.

Would it be cheaper to do this, or to just go buy a road bike?

Just go buy a road bike.

A pig with lipstick is still a pig.

No cartidge bottom bracket will fit it, and the rear droput spacing is 135mm. Don't waste your time.

Get a new road bike. To add another colorful metaphor to blandin's, you can't make a silk purse from a sow's ear.

I say, get your self a Record group, and some new Shamal wheels for that GMC Denali you're looking into. Along with that, get a set of Cinelli Ram bars, and an Arione saddle with a Cinelli carbon seatpost.


Then, use a big pry bar to spread the rear stays to make that 135mm rear hub fit.

After you destroy the frame, go out and buy a new Pedal Force carbon frame, or if you can afford it, a nice Orbea Orca frame to replace it.

Then you'll finally have a decent Walmart bike.

I dont accept the mission.

Look for a used bike. You might be able to find an older, used bike that fits and it will be better than some cheapo Wal-Mart bike.

perhaps a saucy little hat would help....

....just make sure to get a new outfit to match.

I've done it. Kinda.

I essentially have been recycling discarded Wal-Mart type bikes as an alternative to actually spending money on my bicycling hobby. It's not tough to pick up various discarded Wal-Mart bikes if you know where to look. You can often go to the local scrap yard and pick some up.

The trick is NOT to stick any extra money into it. Don't buy any brand new components to put onto your junk yard treasure. Instead, strip parts off another junker. It saves money and just makes sense.

The theory is the "lowest common denomenator" principal. Which means, your bike is only as good as the worst component on the bike. To maximize value of the bike, assemble the bike with components of similar value. In the case of Wal-Mart bikes, only use junkyard components, otherwise it's just a waste.

The best value of working on junkers, IMO, is gaining mechanical expertise. Who cares if you accidentally cross-thread the bottom bracket by mistake. It's junk anyway. No loss.

I refuse to help you in any way on this. I don't shop at walmart.

There really is no point. By the time you finish replacing all the crappy components you'll have replaced the entire bike in situ.

No matter what your budget for new parts is, I bet you could go out and find a much better used bike.

Has this tape self-destructed yet?

if it wouldn't be so expensive this would be a cool idea to see what everyone came up with.

Best way to upgrade such a bike would be to do the following:

1. unwind the bar tape and remove.

2. replace with a nice road bike from here

3. re-tape the new handlebars with the old tape

4. (optional) replace bar tape with new tape

http://www.bikeforums.net/showthread.php?t=237231

This guy went on that mission. Now read it all an report back. Its kind of admirable. Shows how much more the rider matters than the bike.

So you're trying to polish a turd...

Why, Oh Why would you buy anything, especially a bike, from Wallmart?!


I get the heebie-jeebies just driving by a Wallmart.

Sure... you can find a worn out bike that originally sold for $700 9 years ago that the buyer is asking $300 for. Much better deal than a $300 new bike.

I haven't had much luck looking for used bikes... gonna put an ad in and see if there's someone out there with a used bike sitting around, but I'm tempted to just buy the GMC Yukon from Walmart, as much to kick some roadie butt on a Walmart bike as anything. :p

Kent GMC Yukon

I remember reading in (i think it was bicycling) about two guys who did this to a wal-mart bike. Their mission was to prepare it for the texas state TT championships. They tried to keep as many original parts as possible but changed a few things to get it in race shape. It turned out to be 30 something pounds and they actually did race it.

What do you want to do with the bicycle?

For getting you around town, you probably don't need to do anything to it other than put on a comfortable saddle and make sure the derailures are set up properly. =)

I've been riding on essencially that untill this weekend. While I was riding it, my friend scourged ebay for me and over the course of 3 months we built out a steel framed shimano 600 outfitted road bike for about $300. Tomorrow I should be able to let you know what difference I notice.

-- James