Anyone who has ever owned one of those then gotten a "real" bike shop quiality bike knows what I am talking about. If you have bad experiences/stories about these bikes post them here.

Come on and admit it....somebody out there has bought one....we all learn from past mistakes...

I've had a few... the only one that ever worked properly right from the start was a 20" single speed/coaster brakes. I had a 26" 'mountain bike', but it never shifted properly, and the brakes didn't work too well...

My mom's bike is from walmart, and it actually has held up for several hundred miles of mostly just riding on the road, and it's fine. The stem creaks, but you can't win em all for 100 bucks... and we could probably tighten it.

Back when I had a x-mart bike, it was a huffy, I was 13 and didn't know any better. Didn't matter if the gears wouldn't shift, my crazy teen legs just pumped harder up hill. Who cares if the brakes didn't worked, I used the soles of my shoes if I wanted to stop. I had no clue things other then platform pedals existed, my shins are still riddled with dents from slipping off those pedals and shinguardless soccer.
They certainly suck but I tend to find that its dumb when kids have nice stuff, shoes, clothes, cars. Bad bikes build character and make us appreciate us nice one's even more.

ditto.

it (and Greg LeMond) was enough to get me involved with a cycling group at my school. then, when i knew better, i bought a new bike.

sold the Huffy for like $40, never looked back.

Come to think of it in about 2nd or 3rd grade I had one, only it wasn't from any of the X-Marts as I don't think they were around then...well maybe the "K" one was. Anyway, mine was from Sears, right out of the "wishbook". It was probably the 1st FS bike available. It was kinda' like a Schwinn Stingray w/ the banana seat which was supported on either side w/ two "coil shocks". It had some sort of springer front-end like a '47 HD Knucklehead. It also had a 3-speed "grip-shift". Man now that I think about it Sears really was a forward thinking company!!! A big honkin' multi-speed FS bike in the late '70's!!!

Only problem was that it probably weighed as much as the heavier DH bikes and it was mighty hard for some 8-10 yr old legs to pedal all over town! Those were the days...an 8 yr old could ride all over town w/out being abducted or molested!

X-mart = All things for all people.
LBS = Bike things for bike people.

Jack of all trades? = Master of none!

I had one, my Brother had one,both lasted less than 2 months, even AFTER being put together properly but my dad.

https://www.bikeforums.net/bicycle-mechanics/103801-department-store-bike.html

this was in the mechanic forum

My cousin and I both had Huffy's back like 6yrs ago. We decided to try a drop of like 3 feet LOL, it was off a 18wheeler ramp. Anyway, my cousin started off on wrong foot and the bike just fell front wheel straight to the pavement. The rim bent into a TACO. Thats how crap they are. from just 3 -4 feet.


I also had a recent huffy up until Yesterday when I bought a Trek 4500. Anyway, if anyone could get those crap ass gears to actually shift in the right positions I'd give hem 100.00 LOL. Basically when I ride it you know its junk. All I had to do at the LBS was just hold the TREK and I knew it was quality.

A friend of mine bought a huffy full suspension. He told me he wanted the heaviest bike that was the hardest to pedal so he would get a better workout. I just laughed. He never shifts gears either, he says it messes up if he does. I still just laugh.

I've worked on the stupid things I don't need someone to tell me they're crap

LOL Thats funny.

Im 13 and don't have a x-mart bike. I have one of those specialized hardrocks with disk brakes

I had one when I was 6-9 maybe (heck maybe younger). Purple, with a banana seat. Ss I think. It rocked. I took that thing down some steep hills. Eventually destroyed the wheels, but man did I have fun

I've never owned one

My CCM revenge has plastic lever chassis (metal lever though) which always break in the end. Rear suspensions sucks like hell. Fork is almost as smooth as my mz race though. Heavy bike. Not assembled by seriously trained person. Surprisingly its still holding nicely. Hmm.

I believe this link was posted on the forums about 6 months back......

https://www.dirtragmag.com/print/article.php?ID=657

I had one about 5 years ago, a dually. It was the scariest thing I ever rode, the suspension? was so soft it bobbed so bad it was near uncontrollable on road. The really scary bit was I took it down through a local national park oblivius to the danger I was in, I was so glad when I sold that, Im only glad I lived to tell the tale. My favorite though is still the display bike I saw in K-mart with its fork put on backwards so that the axle was behind the fork and with the bars pointing in the right direction.

My first bike ever was a Huffy Sledgehammer from Toys R Us. I really wanted it since it was big and shiny and had a front suspention. What the hell did I know, I was 12.

Then I had an epiphany when I rode a Trek 820.

In this order,huffy shock Dr.,Redline,Magna,Diamondback sorrento,And my current non x bike specialized rockhopper!

ive never owned one but ive ridden them and id rather ride a...well nothing really my point is i hate them more than anything

I craked and eventually snapped my CCM X-VOLT bike it was commical

As kids we got our bikes from the local Hardware store. Gotta love the small town; Hardware doubles as sporting goods store. Anyways, I recall Rialto Hilltoppers...I think...that would be ridden mere blocks at a time, never off road. Within the season (4 months) they would be destroyed. My handyman pop always tried piecing together the 'good parts'. I think he realized they were just ****e when he recently bought his Jamis.

For my part, one of these survived from a complete lack of use until about 2 years ago. I started riding it to work in Saskatoon here, and the thing shat the bed on little curb hops...gentle ones. The bike was my bro's, who freaked out that I was wrecking his bike, so after a few repair jobs and subsequent breaks, it was time to save some coin. Picked up a Trek 4100, simple little starter, and I've put that thing through hell. It's survived many a crash with my old 240 lbs coming down on it in terrible ways. Now that I've lightened up a bit, and ride a bit smarter, the thing is still ticking along great.

X-mart bikes...nothing but a painful way to learn the true value of a real bike.

-RotD

I hate cheap bikes! My previous ride was from "Source for sports" and although they are somewhat a bike shop, they are not strictly bikes. The thing did take alot of abuse, but here is the list of problems I had with it. I gues I rode it a little hard for what it was ment for....
1st-new drailer
2nd-new drailer
3rd-new drailer
4th-snapped swingarm (and not even a big jump either)
5th-new drailer
6th-ok fed up with drailer, had the chain cut short and put a chain guide "one speed drailer" thingy. LOL bent the hell out of that. So I put the chain on two bigger sprockets to make up for the slack (the new gearing was not 2 in the front three in the back, so 6th gear)
7th-bent back rim, was replaced by sun rim (and new tire)
8th-you know where the front forks "open" at the bottom to grab the front axel, snapped that right in half, I have no Idea how I was just riding it and I noticed it cracked, then ten minutes later it was off. So i found a way to tighen the front wheel on, sorta "shoved" the metal piece back in place, then electrical taped it all together.

The next week I picked up m Kona!

Ok I copied and pasted that from another post I recently made because I didn't want to type it all again. And no it wasn't a "X" mart bike, but it wasn't from the best shop either. I still have it. But the.. o yeah I forgot to mention I striped the crank too.