Originally Posted by mrodgers

Better yet, I don't even have something as nice as a Diamondback. I have a $100 Walmart job, extremely heavy with front and rear shock. It's 8 years old, spent many a overnights out in the middle of the yard, chain was completely frozen up this spring, cables are all completely frayed. Brakes didn't work, it wouldn't shift. Still doesn't shift very well. 26x1.95 knobbie tires. Way too small for me. Plastic pedals that my feet squirm all over. Hand grips are extremely uncomfortable. I was 230-250 lbs riding it with the kids, never broke a spoke. 7 years and I just replaced both original tubes. Wheels were never trued and when I look straight down at the front, I can read the writing on the right side of the tire. Bought for tooling around with the kids when they were learning to ride a bike, now 8 years later it is my daily exercise machine. Rode my first 25 mile ride on Monday, rode 200 miles last month. Instead of needing something to grab a hold of to lift myself up from a crouched position with my bad knees, I can now just stand right up as the biking has done wonders for my knees. Lost 10 lbs. so far and on the 17th I go to get my cholesterol checked to see how it's doing.

I'm not rich like it seems to me that 95% of the people on the internet are. I hope to treat myself to a nice bike next spring if I keep up the riding, but my $100 Walmart bike is certainly doing it's job quite well right now.