YATES

I've got a buddy that's tryng to get a road bike so that he can ride with me and he doesn't want to spend a lot of money. So of course he got on wal-mart.com and found this bike. I'm no expert on what makes certain bikes good and what them bad. so all of your opinions would be greatly appreciated.
https://www.walmart.com/catalog/produ...uct_id=3663046

magic8ball

what kind of bike do you have?

voltman

How tall is he?

nova

back away very slowly and dont look it directly in the brake levers.

Last year i seen probably a dozen of theser bikes in the trash. Various types of failures in the fram breaks at the welds cracks in mid tube read dropouts torn loose etc.

Go to the thrift stores and find a good used bike for much less money and a much better bike.

caloso

What in the world does the 26" refer to? Those look like 700c wheels and in fact they are listed below as 700c. 26 inches is 66 cm so if that's the frame size, I your friend is very tall.

YATES

i ride a 2005 specialized allez.. only been bikin for like 6 months though

voltman

It says it's a 57cm frame.

msheron

I have always said, "You get what you pay for, for the most part." This would be no different. Why not get a bike from BikesDirect which have some decent entry level bikes for around $500 and then he will at least have a bike that he could resale for a few dollars compared to the Wal-Mart bike.

I just find it difficult to buy from a retail superstore unless your buying a Huffy BMX styled bike for your child to play in the dirt or on trails with that you know will get beat all to heck.

If he wants I will put him together a decent frame and build and bet I could do it for around $350-$450 and give him at least a Shimano Tiagra if not a 105 drivetrain. I pride myself on finding some great deals on components.

In fact I am getting ready to buy a new cheap aluminum frame to build my wife a road bike to do some riding with me. The frame is $139 new and is by Leader. Not a household name but will be what she needs to do small rides with me. I will probably even do 105 drivetrain and come out around $375 if my math is right on mid level components and ability to look for them and shop around for a cheap price.

Cypress

Given, but it still says 26" Mens Kent Denali....

caloso

Oops. Left out a verb in my post (hope). Anyway, I should have mentioned to do a search on the subject of Wal-Mart bikes. You'll see that most BFers would not recommend such a purchase, to put it mildly.

bmclaughlin807

26" wheels, because that's as close as their system comes to 700c

They're programmed for cheap mountain bikes, not cheap road bikes.

My take on the bike is this: If you know what you're looking for, you can find a good used bike for the same or less, and have a better bike.

Take a look around... Craigslist, newspapers, garage sales, thrift stores.

That said, the bike will probably work, if you're not overly hard on it. I rode a Walmart bike for 2 years, put many thousands of miles on it, and gave it away still functioning when I went into the Navy. Others have not had such great luck with them. They are cheap, and cheaply made. If you DO go that route, make sure you give it a good once over. (And then a second) to make sure it's assembled properly.

DocRay

I'm amazed that cheap retailers of crap bikes have not been sued to death.

Cypress

Take him to a bike shop and let him play with the bikes there. Then take him to the wal marché and do the same.

Argument finished.

If he still complains about price, grab the brake lever on the Denali and snap it off with your bare hands, throw it on the floor and tell him he is a terrible friend.

msheron

Dude.......your not right! LMAO...................oh dear God my side hurts now!

barba

The price is terrible for the quality in my opinion. Used bikes are the way to go for first, on the cheap road bikes.

nova

Lol what he said is true. Hell i bet i could bend or snap the frame with my hands by bending on it over my knee. These things are not like the old last forever road masters or even the old kents from 12 or 15 years ago.

I had a old kent ambush years ago that bike just would not die. I litterly destroyed the wheels crank etc on jumps but the frame was undamaged. New rims crank etc and still the frame stayed intack and undamaged. Good rims or junk the frame would not die. Then i see these gmc crap heap road bikes laying on the road totaly trashed less than 3 months after showing up on walmarts site. They use get this grip shifters on a road bike. Why not use downtube or even stem mounted?

I had grip shifters on a mtb and liked them well enough and they work well and last. But ask your self how they put them on a road bvike with drop bars. Answer is simple instead of the caseing being 1 peiece they are made from 2 halfs and screwed togather strait in to the plastic. This means that with any amount of force like a kinked cable the shifter will break.

Any thing this badly designed is done so that it will fail so you need to rebuy the junk.

As i said back away from the bike slowly its not worth 50 bucks let alone 150.

YATES

thanks for all of the input.. i'm trying to find some good used road bikes on ebay for him.. however i'm not 100% trusting of ebay. If any of you are selling a good, used bike for under 400 give me a message

SDRider

I'd go so far to say it's not worth the trip to wallyworld to look at in the first place.

rockman450

Spend 50 bucks more and buy a schwinn varsity at walmart. I have one and I love it. Weighs 25 pounds vs. the 30+ of the denali.

grahny

Ditto on checking craigslist... atleast with that you can go look at the bike before buying it... ebay you may not know what you're getting until it's too late, then you've got another problem on your hands. Craigslist is sure to come through.

nova

all i got here is a spare frame. A old concord pretty nice steel frame but its huge. I road the ever living hell out of that bike loved it. If you was local id take you to some known used bike hot spots. Namly local thrift stores. My brother got a 80s schwinn near min includeing the steel rims for free. Another local one has a old trek mtb for 5 bucks another has a 80s bike not sure brand no badge but frame is lugged and similar to my raleigh (head badge from my granprix looks like it would fit so i asume same bike smaller frame) price on it 10 bucks. Decent but old parts diacomp 400 breaks derailer is shimano downtube clamp on shifters. Needs all new cables 2x new tires tubes presta 700c mavic rims. likly ma 4s decal partial gone. Bike price + 25 bucks and its on the road again.

Other finds many dozens of nice schwinns variaed paint job quality 10 to 30 bucks. all these are with in 15 or 20 miles. Im going to guess that there are similar bikes in your area. Might also want to ask some local farm owners if they have any old bikes in their barns

JLauren

Two guys I know, both clydesdales-going-on-mastodons, got these bikes as a way to try out cycling.

After getting some setup issues squared away, they were fine for a while, but, now with a few hundred miles on them, both are having bottom bracket problems. One guy has broken a couple of spokes.

I would say that IF you have someone who can help you get the thing put together and set up right, and only plan to use it for 500 to 800 miles, it's probably not a bad deal. But beyond that point you'll either decide that cycling isn't for you or you'll be buying a better bike.

Ostuni

good idea, although the shifters on those are kind of funky imo...

if you have large sporting goods stores in your area (dicks?), they often have budget road bikes on sale... also, i think target has similar road bikes?

but if your buddy plans on sticking with it, then better idea is to perhaps spend a little more and get a sora or tiagra equipped bike on ebay...

or, since you mentioned 'under $400', here's another option.

nova

Wich is what the manufacture wants you to think. Fact is a used bike of much higher quality that looks easly as good if not better is 10x as goog a deal.


What realy sucked one time i took a friend used bike shopping and found a realy realy nice bike. Newer model schwinn with freaking mavic tubular rims price 65 bucks. I tried every thing to talk him in to trading me even up for my nishiki that i never liked all that well no go. This bike was in absolute mint shimano 105 equiped etc Still old enough to have downtube shifters. I sill happen to like them esp when im riding with a ride partner who asks "how the heck can you stand those things? I hated my bike with them cause i always had a hard time shifting in to he gear i want" Id say somethign along the lines of "well ives never had a isue with mine (while im slowing down for a stop sign with my front breaks and shifting down to a lower gear with out missing a beat)" Their eyes always tend to get big lol


I guess i have such a easy time with them because most every bike ive had in the last shoot 20 years has had them.

Not to say i dont want to upgrade to brifters but dont be suprised if i end up putting them in the for sale forum .

Seriouly though there are just far to many better options than walyworld bikes.
If this was 10 years ago and some one asked about a kent mtb road bike etc id say go for it. Just be prepaired to replace front and rear dirs cause they are plastic crap and break realy fast. Back then you could get a 27 inchg kent road bike for about 90 bucks front ders for 10 to 15 each and end up with a fair road bike that would get you started and one you could maybe sell for 25 bucks to some kid a year or so later. Back then for a off the shelf bike kent was pretty damn good (see previous post about my experiance with a kent ambush bmx still kind of miss riding that old bike )

shakeNbake

Do a search on this forum, it's been covered a few times.

I've swing my leg over it at my local wal-mart, felt OK, didn't have the chance to ride it, the tire is flat and they don't have a pump with Presta head.