Some guy in my area is selling a gt nomad for 100 bucks. Since I'm currently riding a 10 year old walmart mountain bike, and since I'm all set to go on a one month tour in a couple weeks, I was wondering if it would be a good idea to buy this?

Do any of you have any experience with Nomads?
EDIT: just found the specs, https://www.bikepedia.com/QuickBike/B...omad&Type=bike (I think thats it)
Here are the pics:







I'll be forever in your debt if you help me out - this will be my first tour, and I don't want it to be a disaster.
Thanks alot!

Two weeks is not a lot of time to get comfortable on a diferent bike, before a long tour. The GT would probably be some improvement over A DP store bike. My defining factores in a touring bike is low rider(hole threw or bolt hole in the fork) ft. mounts, and drop bars, without these features it is not a touring bike. shifting, braking and tire size are meaningless without these features. with that said thousands of folks have traveled milions of miles with neather. I think I would pass on the GT the ride you are taking will be a lurning exp. you can then decide what is important to you.

I'll give you the opposite advice - given that it's not a big financial commitment and given what you are currently riding, if the bike is in good shape, I would go for it. A month-long tour on a box store mountain bike sounds rough.

I bought a pair of Nomads for my in-laws two or three years ago - seemed like decent bikes. I think they had full braze-ons which would help. The 700cc wheels will probably be a nice improvement over whatever you have now as well.

For $100, plus the cost of a tune up, if you like it, it's money well-spent. If you don't, you can sell it and basically recover your investment -- very little downside here.

Good luck on the tour.

I have no familiarity with the bike or that SPECIFIC bike but if it fits and your reference is a 10yr old Walmart mtn. bike it looks like a good deal. I'd try out a variety of bar ends or extensions for different hand positions. It may or may not need a new tire or two, regardless of the wear on the existing tires some old tires are simply worn in the sidewalls.

theres this company, i dont remember the name, but they make a drop bar bar-end. kinda nifty realy. i saw them on ebay. personaly, i dont like drop-bars. as for whether to get the gt or not, well, i say youve had the wally-world bike long enogh to know if you should get a diffrent bike anyhow. and as far as touring with a walmart bike... https://www.withoutaclue.netfirms.com/.

Thanks for the replies!
Yeah my old clunker has seen better days - one of its wheels is completely warped, it has no brakes, no way to put a rack on it, and the the gears are messed up so bad that the chain skips if you put any kind of pressure on the pedals.

After looking it up and finding its made of cro-moly, and after reading all these replies, I think I'm gonna go for it. Hopefully he hasn't sold it yet

trash the Chinese Wal-Mart bike and definitely get the GT...

you'll get used to it...

tune it... put new tires on it... ride the crap out of it for a couple of weeks... you'll be money ahead!