Okay don't kill me
I seen a few bikes at Target that caught my interest for a few reason which I will explain.
Before I say anything here is one of the two bikes that interested me,
Schwinn Mens Ascension 29" Mountain Bike - Black : Target
I will just break down my overall question first, for the bikes at Target that cost $300 and more, shouldn't they be of some quality? Because what else would you be paying more money for it those bikes too are nothing but low quality. Now I do realize compared to expensive bikes they are low quality, I just mean as a working bike that does what it does and needs to do what it needs to do, when the price point is ait $300 or more should I expect at least some quality compared to those cheaper $150 bikes???
First I will explain what caught my attention of that bike
- It has disk brakes, I am not expert on bikes, but I always herd disk brakes are superior, I even though disk brakes are not seen until like the $400 range on most bikes, so is this a good deal, would these brakes be superior to regular brakes and would they be of at least working quality.
- The bike has 29 inch wheels, 21 Gears which is obviously common in 2014 compared to back then, and overall I thought the bike LOOKED like it was at lest decent quality just by looks alone. I know you can't go based on looks but I was eyeing it up.
Now if you want to know this is why it caught my eye.
I am 22 now, when I was a teenager I remember my mom bought me a bike for Christmas, I remember it was from Walmart and it was only $150 max. It has regular brakes, it has 21 gears, the wheels are only 24 inches and I think on Ebay the bike is now worth like $600 if you had it brand new. Now about 6 months ago I went into my shed and got that bike out to play with it. Surprisingly I rode it for months until up to this date where its going to be snowing. The bike is easily at least 6+ years old and was kind of ruffed up but not too much since it was in the shed.
Now mind you I did all of these things on that bike, I rode around town, I shifted through MOST gears fine although sometimes it would skip like ONE gear, one day I tuned it myself it worked in all gears fine but then went back to skipping at least ONE gear. Overall I am saying it went in the general gear you were trying to get too, the front gears all 3 always worked fine. The brakes always worked fine. The main problem with that bike was just the one skipping of a gear or two.
Now I have went up very big and steep hils with that bike on low gears and have made it to the top with decent effort, on regular hills that are not super steep its very easy to get up even on that cheapo bike (Unless the quality was magically better back then then currently).
I rode it around town and on trails, but the bike was probably a bit too small for my age now since I got that bike back when I was a teen and didn't know about tuning bikes up and making sure everything works. Overall the bike worked and did was a bike should do, I do not consider it a great bike but just a bike that you ride almost anywhere with the only probably of the gear problem missing one or two gears in the back.
This is the reason the more expensive $300+ bikes at Target caught my attention
Because in my mind I am thinking, well if that bummy $150 bike could do that then surely these more expensive $300+ bikes should be a bit better and I should not expect lower results? I mean why else is the price higher if the bikes are still just as bad or as cheap.
I want to know what can I expect out of a bike like this that cost $300 or more.
Assuming that everything was put together correctly or assuming I took it to a LBS and they said everything is set up how it should be, would thinks bike go up hills fine, would it brake fine, would the disk brakes be fine, would the shifting be fine, would the bike overall be a bike and be of at least better quality then my older bike that was $150 cheaper???
I am getting many things for Christmas, I can't get something very big, I was thinking for the hell of it I could maybe pick up a new bike for when its not snowing or cold out. I figured that since it was $300 I could at least trust this bike to do well and I was thinking $300 at least isn't dirt cheap, I understand its no where near a high level bike, But I was hoping it could be semi-decent.