Cheap Walmart mountain bike>one and done

[working on it]

from an earlier thread (S.Central group DinoValley>Cleburne SP thread)...

... Hey Working, my baby daughter who just moved to Plano, called and wanted me to bring her bike. My Son loaned me one of his old motorcycle helmets . Maybe we can take a tour of the park before she shows up to claim her bike. Still planning on leaving around four Friday morning.

I'm bringing my new, cheap bike & a lightweight helmet I picked up for $25 at Wallyworld (didn't want to use the Snell rated racing helmet-too hot/heavy). Take it easy on me, I haven't ridden since '90-'91 (prior to my divorce; she sold my bike!), when I lived in Plano (loved their bike trails- one started 50 feet from my condo). Plus, my Dr. said Tuesday that I'm hypertensive- who woulda guessed a laid-back youngster like me...ha,ha. I'll be there Thursday.

Like I said in the thread, I bought the cheapest bike I could. It worked great, at the park, but the rear tire went flat, later. One ride, and done??? Then again, at home, twice more, it went flat. I put fix-a-flat in, and it was good for a week, Took a short ride today, and it went flat again. I pulled off the wheel, then the tire and tube, and found the reason for the recurring flat...a sliver of metal sticking inward from the inside rim wall. Whoever assembled the tire/tube/wheel must've used a screwdriver and created the sliver. You get what you pay for, I guess. I smoothed the rim, and now that the tube has been pieced twice, I'll go ahead and get a new one (maybe a flat-free Slime tube?).

[Mojave Bob]

Ah, yes, welcome to the world of garbage bikes! I predict that you will experience flats on a regular basis. I have had a number of cheap bikes over the years, simultaneously with having a couple of reasonably good Trek and Giant bikes. The good bikes get a flat if I run over something - once every several years. The cheap bikes, I average at least one repair per season, per bike. I have polished the rims, replaced the spoke guards, you name it. Cheap rims eat tubes. They will put a hole in the tube whether we ride the bike or not. I have replaced the tube (I only buy good tubes), put the bike in the shed and two weeks later, it won't hold air anymore, and I haven't even ridden it yet! I even had one explode one time, and it was not over-inflated. It was just sitting there, and BANG!

Other than that, cheap bikes are fantastic, as long as you don't mind having lousy brakes, lousy derailleurs, lousy cranks, and a life-span of a couple-hundred miles.

I hope my bias didn't show...

[wareagle1996]

I will have to second the thoughts on cheap bikes. I bought my Trek 820 new when I started college in 1995 and still have it today. Never had any real problems with it, and still rust free except a few spots on the seat post. My wife has gone through a plethora of cheap ones in that same time because she will not let me spend the money on getting her the right one that is fitted to her.