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Question regarding cheap Costco style FS bikes...

Bobby Peru

Bobby Peru

Monkey
Jul 16, 2004
151
0
Big Tuna, TX
Has anyone ever "tested" on of those cheap ass boing-boing full suspension bikes? (you know the kind, they sell 'em at K-Mart and places like that for like $200.00) I'd like to see how long one of those bikes actually lasted in a real DH situation.
Has a bike magazine ever done a review on one?

I drive a truck for a living and I do a lot of thinking, so I was pondering this thought today and figured I would g'head and ask you guys. If anyone knows, it would be you guys! THANX!
 
sanjuro

sanjuro

Tube Smuggler
Sep 13, 2004
17,373
0
SF
Bobby Peru said:
Has anyone ever "tested" on of those cheap ass boing-boing full suspension bikes? (you know the kind, they sell 'em at K-Mart and places like that for like $200.00) I'd like to see how long one of those bikes actually lasted in a real DH situation.
Has a bike magazine ever done a review on one?

I drive a truck for a living and I do a lot of thinking, so I was pondering this thought today and figured I would g'head and ask you guys. If anyone knows, it would be you guys! THANX!
Click to expand...
The closest thing was a review of a $500 Mongoose DJ bike in Dirt Rag this month. It is a funny review, because the guy liked the bike alot, after he replaced the fork, wheels, and cable detangler.
 
PatBranch

PatBranch

Turbo Monkey
Sep 24, 2004
10,451
9
wine country
The suspension is extra weight with out even doing what real suspension is supposed to do. Might as well get a ridged frame. I would destroy one of those. It would be fun. Imagine riding a costco bike at vietnam in whistler.
 
Jm_

Jm_

sled dog's bollocks
Jan 14, 2002
19,002
9,669
AK
I have people that bring those kinds of bikes into the shop after riding them "offroad".


I've seen it all, jammed preload rings, jammed seats, blown shocks, broken and bent frames, wheels in shapes that boggle the mind, etc. In many cases I shouldn't even TOUCH the bike, there's simply way too much messed up with it to bring it back. I often feel sorry for them though and try to get them rolling again (lots of people use these kinds of bikes for transportation around here). 99% of those cheap bikes use brake housing instead of derailer housing (because it's 1/3rd the price, no matter that it doesn't really work). And most of the time, it will cost more money to turn it back into a working bicycle than it will to just go out and buy a new one.

Many of the people that have these bikes bring them to us after their first ride, where we show them all the things that were not done right when the bike was put together. This is also a huge issue for these kinds of bikes, and wally world doesn't pay their "bicycle builder" anywhere near enough to do a quality job, and most of the people buying the bikes just look at the flashy colors and "extreme" stickers.

There's one fellow that comes to mind when I think of these bikes. He bought a "schwinn S30" from wal-mart. This bike has NOTHING to do with the old schwinns, and the schwinn bicycle company doesn't exist anymore for all intents, wally world just slaps the schwinn name on bikes comming from a chinese factory. Anyhow, this guy is pretty pissed that he has had to spend so much money to make his "schwinn" work correctly. Wal-mart doesn't warrenty the bikes for "off road" use, even though they look like mountain bikes. They even told this guy when his replacable derailer hanger broke that he'd have to buy a new bike! I wrote him a letter that he could take to wal-mart and give to a manager or someone in the bike department so he could straighten them out. We feel pretty sorry for this guy though because he isn't the brightest bulb out there, and he was "taken" by the flashy bikes in wal-mart. He's pissed because he bought the "most expensive bike" there, and it is just junk. We try to work with these people and do what we can for them, for our efforts we get a lot of return business and people saying that they are glad we are not "a-holes" like the rest of the shops that just turn them away or don't offer any explainations as to why they won't help them or repair their bikes.
 
S

Shmoe

Monkey
Oct 23, 2001
216
0
Calgary, Canada eh?
JM mentioned the pay with building up bikes.

I did it for Canadian Tire for a while and their bikes are equal to walmart pretty much. Its $6 to build a kids bike and $8 to build an adults bike. Any bike that cant be fully built up (IE after you have done everything, you notice the bikes got a slightly bent frame) you get nothing.

It sounds sketchy, and it is, I was building about 5-6 bikes per hour. That was easy money. I would do everything as fast as possible to make the most money. The scary thing is that I got compliments because I built bikes better then the last guy... I mean, who in the hell was building them before? Oh well. I took my $40 per hour and didnt complain.

The place I worked had a bike stand and a multy tool.. I had to use my own tools.

Come to think of it. I think im going to apply for this job again, the money was great.
 
PatBranch

PatBranch

Turbo Monkey
Sep 24, 2004
10,451
9
wine country
A specialized hardrock is a decent bike for $250. it is jumpable, can be ridden on trails... What is stupid is I see people with heavy bikes with supension that does nothing and they only ride road or cummute. with a used bike you can get good quality at a good price. Cheaper than bying a bike that shouldn't be considered a bike and trying to upgrade and fix it.
 
R

Rik

Turbo Monkey
Nov 6, 2001
1,085
1
Sydney, Australia
I'd love to do a test, rock up to a trail with a heap of spares and tools, then ride the cheapo bike until a part breaks, replace broken part, ride again, replace broken parts, and keep on going until the frame dies. It'd be heaps of fun, and make for a good story, but unfortunately there's too much chance of things going nasty that the risks wouldn't be worthwhile.
 
manhattanprjkt83

manhattanprjkt83

Rusty Trombone
Jul 10, 2003
9,646
1,217
Nilbog
sanjuro said:
The closest thing was a review of a $500 Mongoose DJ bike in Dirt Rag this month. It is a funny review, because the guy liked the bike alot, after he replaced the fork, wheels, and cable detangler.
Click to expand...

That bike is a good rig, my bro rides that for dj and park, and i have seen joe prisel destroy it on that frame as well...true some of the parts are garbage, but it works...
 
denjen

denjen

Certified Lift Whore
Sep 16, 2001
1,691
36
Richmond VA
Stay as far away from those kinds of bikes as possible. I bought one which looked pretty nice at the time. After about a month of riding it the stanctions came out of the crown as I was riding off of a curb, literaly just riding along. I cracked my skull my cheek bone and shattered my sinus cavity. Now I have 6 metal plates and 13 screws in my forehead. Just my .02 cents but stay the hell away from cheap bikes

Dennis
 
Jm_

Jm_

sled dog's bollocks
Jan 14, 2002
19,002
9,669
AK
denjen said:
Stay as far away from those kinds of bikes as possible. I bought one which looked pretty nice at the time. After about a month of riding it the stanctions came out of the crown as I was riding off of a curb, literaly just riding along. I cracked my skull my cheek bone and shattered my sinus cavity. Now I have 6 metal plates and 13 screws in my forehead. Just my .02 cents but stay the hell away from cheap bikes

Dennis
Click to expand...
If anybody needs to be sued, it's wal-mart and the department stores. They sell bikes that look like mountain bikes, they have words like "mountain", "extreme", and "downhill" on them, they mimic the designs of expensive mountain bikes, yet they try to say that you shouldn't ride them off road. When you ask them what kind of bike it is, they say it's a "mountain bike". It's false advertising and blatently misleading people.
 
Tootrikky

Tootrikky

Monkey
Jul 31, 2003
772
0
Mount Vernon
They are NOT Suspension bikes, they should be called Spring Bikes becuase the shocks/forks on them do not have any damping only Springs therefore they do not have suspension. You are better off on a full rigid.
 
urbaindk

urbaindk

The Real Dr. Science
Jul 12, 2004
4,819
0
Sleepy Hollar
Rik said:
I'd love to do a test, rock up to a trail with a heap of spares and tools, then ride the cheapo bike until a part breaks, replace broken part, ride again, replace broken parts, and keep on going until the frame dies. It'd be heaps of fun, and make for a good story, but unfortunately there's too much chance of things going nasty that the risks wouldn't be worthwhile.
Click to expand...


Been done.

Here's the Dirt Rag test:

http://www.dirtragmag.com/print/article.php?ID=657&category=features

Enjoy!
 
CreeP

CreeP

Monkey
Mar 8, 2002
695
0
montreal bitch
denjen said:
Stay as far away from those kinds of bikes as possible. I bought one which looked pretty nice at the time. After about a month of riding it the stanctions came out of the crown as I was riding off of a curb, literaly just riding along. I cracked my skull my cheek bone and shattered my sinus cavity. Now I have 6 metal plates and 13 screws in my forehead. Just my .02 cents but stay the hell away from cheap bikes

Dennis
Click to expand...
this is almost as much your fault as theirs, if a fork has pinchbolts on the stanchions you have to ensure that they remain tight, as the initial build will only go so far. I don't mean to say you should have your skull destroyed for incompetency but still.

Tootrikky said:
They are NOT Suspension bikes, they should be called Spring Bikes becuase the shocks/forks on them do not have any damping only Springs therefore they do not have suspension. You are better off on a full rigid.
Click to expand...
many do in fact have oil damping. they don't have any rebound damping though which means some serious bucking bronco behaviour.
 
R

Rik

Turbo Monkey
Nov 6, 2001
1,085
1
Sydney, Australia
There's been a case or two over here of press-fit stanchions seperating whilst riding, it wouldn't suprise me...
Also, how is one meant to know that things require maintainence if they've never been educated?
 
D

DroppinaNorco

Monkey
Mar 4, 2004
158
0
Sac Town
vietnam is at n*? r we talkin the vietnam that everybody talks about. thats supposed to be like gods gift to mountain biking? or is that a different place? im just wonderin so i dont go around running my mouth about somethin i have no idea about...
 
sanjuro

sanjuro

Tube Smuggler
Sep 13, 2004
17,373
0
SF
skyst3alth said:
There is a big place called vietnam out here in massachusetts, for all you westerners.

-Adam
Click to expand...
Don't get so uppity. You act like you paid for it! ;)
 
Spunger

Spunger

Git yer dumb questions here
Feb 19, 2003
2,257
0
805
If some of these people that want a bike at K-mart or Walmart just walked into a bike shop they'd see that not everything is ubber expensive. There's plenty of less than $300 priced bikes that would last most a lifetime (depending on what they used it for) but what do you expect on a sub $300 bike, open bath shocks/disc brakes/strong rims? It's a cheap investment to buy a $300 and figure out if MTB'ing is for your or not.

I was at the shop when I was first getting somethings done to my bike and someone had brought in a Costco bike and asked them to fix it. The shop guy explained as best as he could why he can't really fix anything on it that would make it cost effective. He just told the guy that they are sorta disposable in a way. The guy got it though, he just thought Costco wouldn't sell junk. Infact at one point I saw some pretty expensive bikes at Costco (about $1400) and was amazed. I dunno if they ever sold them or what but I was shocked to see a couple decent bikes in their section.

I dunno, if DH was what he wanted Iron Horse probably makes one of the better DH rigs you can buy with decent parts and such. Hell Supergo was blowing the lower models out a while ago for pretty cheap ($1400-1500 I think?) which was a steal.

My brother bought a Honda racing bike from K-mart after I told him not to. My parents never bought me a bike from K-mart (well maybe my training wheeled bike :) ) but now the bike is too small, the brakes don't work, and shocks stink........and now he needs something larger/stronger because he grew. I think he spent $200 on it a couple years ago. I guess that's not too bad because he's in the growing stages and such but now that he can fit a 16" MTB frame it's time to switch.

Maybe this year he'll get a Kona or something that might work for him. The funny thing is people that know squat about bikes think full suspension is the answer to all when in fact the cheapo full suspension bikes suck, and for someone who rides pavement all the time it's a mistake. Like you really need to take the edge out of hitting a crack or pothole in the road? That stuff really only shines on downhill/backcountry stuff.
 
sanjuro

sanjuro

Tube Smuggler
Sep 13, 2004
17,373
0
SF
Spunger said:
If some of these people that want a bike at K-mart or Walmart just walked into a bike shop they'd see that not everything is ubber expensive. There's plenty of less than $300 priced bikes that would last most a lifetime (depending on what they used it for) but what do you expect on a sub $300 bike, open bath shocks/disc brakes/strong rims? It's a cheap investment to buy a $300 and figure out if MTB'ing is for your or not.

I was at the shop when I was first getting somethings done to my bike and someone had brought in a Costco bike and asked them to fix it. The shop guy explained as best as he could why he can't really fix anything on it that would make it cost effective. He just told the guy that they are sorta disposable in a way. The guy got it though, he just thought Costco wouldn't sell junk. Infact at one point I saw some pretty expensive bikes at Costco (about $1400) and was amazed. I dunno if they ever sold them or what but I was shocked to see a couple decent bikes in their section.

I dunno, if DH was what he wanted Iron Horse probably makes one of the better DH rigs you can buy with decent parts and such. Hell Supergo was blowing the lower models out a while ago for pretty cheap ($1400-1500 I think?) which was a steal.
Click to expand...
Buying a cheapo is not an easy decision. I am buying a bike for my sister. She does not ride much, but she has such a piece of junk right now, I felt obligated to get her something.

It is funny about the value on things. $200 on a crankset, $500 on a fork, would not bother me in the least. Spending $350 on my sister's bike gives me fits.

Anyway I found this from Costco. Typical non bike mail order:
http://www.costco.com/Browse/Productgroup.aspx?prodid=11042400&whse=&topnav=&cat=&s=1
 
J

J5ive

Guest
Oh man, I just have to find the article 'australian mountain bike' mag did a few years back. Features a very young Jarad Graves in XC mode. Funny as.
 
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