ktanner777

Good for you man. Glad that you are in the saddle first of all and also happy that you felt like you got a good deal that turned out to be a bonus learning experience.

Don't let the yuppies on the BF influence your decisions too much. The only thing that seperates most of the people on here is the price tag of their bike. If these people were pro level they wouldn't be on a forum. I sometimes have to catch myself being greedy thinking about dropping more and more money on bikes and have to remind myself that....it's not a career, I'm not a pro, and it's all about having fun.

deadprez012

New lessons in the last week:

1) Proper form trumps lightweight fancy equipment, price tags, and stretchy gear in all but sanctioned competition. Met a guy with an ego out on open road and outrode his sexy Jamis bike. I'm no judge of great equipment, but I know that my $160 bike beat out his $700+ bike. Proof that a touch of athleticism and dedication means way more than great tech!

2) Crap components are crap components are crap components...but the benefit is that everything from here counts as an improvement!

3) A guy with a crap bike wrenching on it with focus and a touch of mechanical skill is worth his weight in Ti against a guy with an awesome bike asking what to do when he gets a flat. Observed that at the shop today. Was tuning my derailers specifically for my riding style, filling a cheap inner tube with Slime (R), and fine-tuning my brakes on the Denali while a real cool, overpaid (or way spoiled) 20-something comes in with his Trek-something, snags the first guy in a shop apron he sees, and says, "I just bought a new tube last night and it popped today. Can you fix it?"

To which the shop guy responds, "I'm not the mechanic, but a few different things could have happened. It could have been..."

5 minutes later, the shop guy asks, "Did you check that you were buying the right size tube? This one is about 3 inches too much tube." And the owner responds, "They come in sizes?"

Meanwhile, I'm finishing up my job, wiping my hands clean, and rolling away to another great ride.

4) Very few people actually know anything about their bike. Which is fine in lots of cases...but if you drop over half a grand on a machine, and are a kid in college, surely you owe it to your parents to at least have researched what you spent those pretty pennies on? Like the guy who hesitated to confirm that his Sonoma was wearing a carbon front fork & shot a blank on what the machine weighed.

5) Being able to tell people the real good & bad about a cheap road bike has inspired 3 bike purchases this week--some cheap, one not-so-cheap. All newcomers to the bike scene equipped with a little bit of objective information for once. Perhaps one of them will still be going strong in a year.

Check & out,

Dunte

benajah

WalMart does not buy from distributors. One of the ways they keep prices so low is that they have a very strict corporate policy to buy only from the manufacturer (there may be an exception or two that sneaks through the policy, especially in the grocery dept, but they would be rare indeed). Honestly, I really hate WalMart and all that they stand for, but the truth is they have a brilliant business strategy.

ciocc_cat

I knew Sam and Helen Walton back when I lived in Rogers, Arkansas (right next to Bentonville). Sam drove an old car and wore overalls to the local Food-4-Less. Nobody was a stranger to him. Their grandson was a member of our local cycling club. His first bike was a hand-me-down - he had to work and save-up for a good bike (a Klein Performance IIRC).

I bought my current Bell helmet at Wal-Mart. Not as fancy as a Giro, but it is light weight and protects what's left of my 55 year-old brain. I have a seven year-old adopted daughter that I'll have to put through college someday, so expensive cycling goodies aren't an option for me anymore.

baribari

The Bell helmets at Walmart aren't especially heavy (about 80 grams more than a Giro Atmos though...) or uncomfortable, but the venting is *extremely* poor (which is to say it's like they don't have any vents at all). It's worth the extra money to not have your head drip sweat every time you take your helmet off.

Chris_F

Yup, same guy. And I guess I can't really claim to be the world's slowest cyclist because I can't track stand, so anyone who can is potentially slower than me. But in a world obsessed with going fast and hammering hard, I'm a "stop and smell the roses" kind of cyclist. A different breed, if you will (and certainly a lower class).

WhyFi

I just love how the tone has changed from, "you shouldn't sneer at me just because of X, Y, Z..." to, "I'm sneering at you because of A, B, C"

Yay - I'm happy that you've learned an iota or two, but you should kill the attitude, 'cause you've got a lot left to learn. Your bravado is setting you up for a, "I thought I knew so much - how could I have been so stupid?" moment in the near future.

Yaniel

I'm glad you're enjoying your bike but stop with the you vs them attitude. a lot of people don't care to wrench on their bike or learn about it because they just want to ride it. That doesn't make you better than them. I'd bet a lot of pro tour riders would take longer to change a flat than the average BF user and a lot can't tune up a bike, does that make us better than them? no.

a 20 something year old on a trek has to be over paid or spoiled? maybe he just worked hard and has a good job and gets paid appropriately for what he does. stop hating. also, how do you tune derailleurs to your riding style? they either shift properly or they don't.

border reiver

It's nice that you have such a high opinion of yourself. Now you should go out and try a few races or maybe even moderately fast group rides--then you can report back on lessons learned from a large dose of pain and humiliation.

Yaniel

he'd probably say its because they have $5,000 bikes and he doesn't.

umd

OP went from interesting story to facepalm pretty quickly...

deadprez012

I'd normally completely agree. Seems the chain guide on the front derailleur of this bike absolutely will not be set at an angle that lets it clear all three chain rings without rubbing the chain to death. So I played with the stops & the cable to completely omit the 28 ring (which I don't use). See item 2, crap components.

And it looks like I stepped on a few toes, which isn't a surprise. For the most part, you guys are right, I'm a bit full of myself, and I'm not behaving as if I have lessons left to learn. But mind you, this isn't general gross arrogance or bravado at work--I was raised to appreciate and maintain things I spend hard-earned money on. I struggle to understand anyone that would choose to do otherwise. If you're not inclined to work on your bike, cool, and if you don't care to understand how it works, just fine for you. The shop will probably serve you and your money well.

But I met some serious disrespect from my shop and went a different path. Other roadies I've met that work on their rides have been good to me (and I've gotten much better as a rider because of them).

Anyway, be back next week with a ~500 mile update (a few long rides last weekend and one planned for the upcoming) on the bike.

wunderkind

That's why you drive a Miata otherwise it be an S2000.

deadprez012

@ Wunderkind or Chris_F : Diverging from thread topic, what are the drivetrain specs on Miatas? I remember Texas World Speedway hosted some kind of (car) track school and used Miatas. Do they come set up well for track time or were there probably some serious mods under the hood? I never did the car school, as a motorcyclist, but I thought it would be cool to spin the wheels in the little thing.

border reiver

The amateur racing scene built around Miatas is one of the most popular and competitive in the US. Google "spec miata" sometime.

Randochap

Speaking of learning lessons .... If you got rid of that thing now (you'd be better off with something like this), then work ten years penance with a human rights organization, you may lessen your chances of being reincarnated as a pack animal in Bolivia.

deadprez012

Um...well I'll see about the human rights organization bit...but I completely agree I'd be better off on that! That is, if you have one handy

What should be to come from this Denali is something low low on the totem pole to compare to the first CV I pick up (edit: first that I keep) because I've been on a 25 yo bike that felt & rode better than this one. Currently on the hunt in my area for something worth rebuilding...but that topic is in another forum entirely.

BTW, lesson from today:
Even more than crap components, $h!tty tires are $h!tty tires. Do not think they can be saved. Do not think that your 85psi max tubes will suffice. Do not pass go. Do not collect $200. Some patch work and Slime-covered, dirty fingers later, I think they'll make it to the weekend!

Randochap

There are plenty good 70s/80s bikes around. It should be a moral duty for all serious road cyclists to save at least one of these classics from ignorant hipsters, who would cut them up without understanding.

It is also the moral duty of all people to resist the decay of civilization.

baribari

The only difference between a $700 name-brand bike and a $160 Walmart bike is a few pounds and the location of the shifters (and the number of gears)...

umd

And how soon it falls apart

baribari

Define 'fall apart.' If the bike was put together correctly (hint: It wasn't), it won't literally 'fall apart' any faster, although more than likely the brakes pads will wear out faster, tubes will leak, wheels will loose their true, and the derailleurs/shifters will probably start to act up sooner... But part of the reason the $700 bike will last longer is because the owner is probably going to take better care of it.

IE, you're more likely to leave the cheap bike outside (ie, if you live at a dorm or something), and you're more likely to clean and maintain the expensive bike.

But otherwise I pretty much agree with you... the thing is, you could buy four Walmart bikes for that one boutique bike, and still have change left over for new tires, tubes, and lube.

Herbie53

It would appear the OP has learned everything there is to know about cycling in about 20 days.

Where can I get one of these Denalis?

Nikephoros

I'm glad you are so into it and have made lemonade out of the lemon you bought. It doesn't sound like you're putting on serious miles, so it should be perfect for you. But make no mistake, it could be dangerous if/when you get more ambitious. For your own sake, don't bomb down a hill at 40+mph on that thing. Also don't ride fast in high traffic intersections, putting your life in the hands of those brakes is scary.

ciocc_cat

I wore the Original Bell Biker in the late 1970s - talk about hot and heavy! Compared to that old turtle shell, my new Bell feels light as a feather and cool as a cucumber. As far as sweat goes, you're going to drip the stuff even if you ride bare-headed in the summer where I live! (Hint: Think 105F heat index and humidity high enough to swim in - in June.)

deadprez012

No one even begins to claim that, bud. But you could hit your nearest corporate small-business-eater and pick one up for about $85 too much.

Pretty much true. Among things I'm seeing, though, not only (as many a poster has mentioned) would it be better to pick up a CV & go through this same process, but parts are easier to acquire in some cases, components last longer, and shiny bits just seem...shinier...on something with history. I would say my main problem with this bike, having put so much work in it (but as yet no extra money), is that it doesn't really have any flavor or character.

It feels about like every other bike out of that store. Which isn't exactly to its benefit.

Labor counted, it's a decent bike, worth tuning up and playing with, but not too satisfying to own. Just satisfying to know better how to handle/maintain/revive-on-roadside than some others.