stevedans

Hoping to get some advice. I bought a walmart bike (Genesis V2100) and I'm not sure it's worth having setup. I found the Gravity bike on bikes direct and that seems a little better quality. My question is; should I return the walmart bike and buy the Gravity bike, then have that setup? Or are they both pretty much the same quality?


FYI: I ride 80% pavement, 20% jogging trails. Everyday, at least 6 miles a day. I definitely want a full suspension, that much I've learned. Thx in advance, looking forward to joining your community.

Juan Foote

I have purchased several bikes off BD that have worked out wonderfully. Gravity is not a bad bike, and have purchased one for a friend.
Make sure that you check the build over. Shortcomings include grease where it actually goes and proper assy and adjustment which is on you. You will get a box the same way a LBS does. It's really not a bad idea to take to a pro mech to have assembled and checked over. Just the same all of my experience with BD has been good.

With that said, where I am not familiar with your specific bike, Wallyworld does carry good bikes now. You might have to order it in, and the same things as above apply, PARTICULARLY about assy.

shelbyfv

Any suspension on a bike in that price range will be junk. It will never work properly and will quickly die. You will be left with extra weight and hinky handling. For something functional anywhere near that price, choose no suspension and as few gears as you can manage. A single speed would be good or a 3 speed internal gear if you have hills you can't manage otherwise. A used bike would be better but you'll need to learn lots more or find a local friend to help.

Toespeas

OMG return the bike , and maybe the gravity might be ok but i would pass .

IF you really need suspension for a trail i would look at some Craigslist bikes like a specialized rockhopper .

BUT if you can live without suspension and still need big MTB tires id go looking for again maybe an older rockhopper or a giant chinook for dirt cheap and make it into a road/gravel bike with a new fork and a few upgrades and used parts , i can go into detail if you need .
BUT if you just want the easy way out buy the gravity , it has to be better than anything they sell at walmart .

I personally could find a better quality bikes on Facebook or CL for a decent price fully customized and painted , i dont know your price range but lets just say under 500 , and personally i would never need suspension unless i was busting down MTB trails with huge rocks and jumps , you can get better suspension from beefy gravel tires set up tubeless than some cheap old suspension fork that will just fail or degrade in a few months of basic use !

Toespeas

i just puked my mouth and pooped my pants , this is just too much bike gore for me to handle

Gary in NJ

Suspension on a sub $1,000 (and most sub $2,000) bike will be garbage. Learn to use your shoulders/arms and hips/knees as suspension. If you are riding rigid no suspension in the world is going to make the ride compliant.

zen_

I would take a 26" steel MTB from the 90s with nice 2"+ tires as comfort hybrid over a Walmart, or very low end BikesDirect bike. The latter two do offer some serviceable bikes for $200-300, but there are extreme compromises at that price point.

Toadmeister

Even if Wal Mart had good bikes, I wouldn’t buy one on principle.

veganbikes

I would return the Wallymart special and avoid whatever they are selling on bike direct at similar low low prices.

If you are on the pavement you don't want or need full suspension, it is a lot of extra weight and a massive loss in efficiency. What you probably want to do is get a good comfortable steel or titanium frame with clearance for wider tires and of course one that fits you well. A lot of discomfort can come quite handily from a poorly fitting bike. If your bike fits and you have wide tires you can run them at lower pressures and have some added comfort there and more stability for a newer rider. If you want to add a little bit of bump isolation you might look at something like the Kinekt Seatpost from Cirrus Cycles. It is a heavy seatpost but a light lighter than a full suspension bike and really works well.

If you are dead set on full suspension save up your money and look at least in the $1500 range at your lowest but ideally at least $2000 and above. If you see a coil spring on there you are probably either looking at a really low end bike or probably a higher end gravity bike and I don't mean a company, I mean something designed for big jumps and massive hits like downhill and freeride bikes. Companies that make good suspension are: Fox, Rockshox, Manitou, DVO, Marzocchi, Cane Creek, Manitou, MRP, SR "Suntour" (though they make some cheap stuff as well), Ohlins, Formula and maybe a few others I forgot. If you see something else you probably will just want to avoid it unless sold at a reputable local bike shop that has some specialization in mountain bikes. Plenty of cheap knockoffs and low quality stuff that lacks proper adjustment and lockouts and other important features.

Trakhak

Juan Foote's post (#2) tells you almost all you need to know. What he didn't mention is that the bikes that he bought from Bikes Direct almost certainly cost at least two or three times (or more) what you're proposing to spend. I bought two bikes from Bikes Direct, and I'm still delighted with both, but I spent over $1,000 for each.

If you are determined to get a bike with suspension despite the warnings in the subsequent posts, you'll probably get reasonable service out of the bike if you stick to the uses that you described (paved surfaces and jogging trails). Ironically, entry-level suspension will hold up for pretty much any use except riding on trails where suspension is needed.

Synack42

Heh, relevant for that particular Walmart bike...

Bigbus

For what you're intending to do with the bike (pavement/easy trails) why not just find a fat tire bike with no suspension? The suspension on low end bikes is nothing more than a spring that collects rust and bounces a lot-really a lot. You sound like you want a bike that can handle anything you come across, but your budget sounds like you should be at Goodwill. Both of your considerations will be low end Shimano parts mixed in with no-name parts. They throw in a couple of Shimano parts just so they can add the name to the description to impress you. At this point, I would keep the wally bike, since you have 90 days to return it, hang onto the receipt, learn how to set up and adjust things. because you will find yourself constantly adjusting things on it, and then if you're still riding 2 months from now, you will know much more about what you NEED and not about what you WANT. Good luck

Maelochs

A low-end BD bike with suspensio0n will be worlds better than the Walmart bike you posted.

Because you don't really plan to work the suspension, even a decent low-end fork will work. But you really cannot buy a reliable sprung fork for less than $150 so if t he whole bike costs $175 ..... That Walmart bike is designed to be replaced every season. i doubt ot would last me that long .... just Way too cheap, crappy materials, bad engineering, low-quality production, incorrect assembly ...

I have had good experiences with BD. But still if you buy the cheapest whatever, it is going to be less effective, less well built, less durable .... Probably good enough for riding on roads, probably not good enough for really riding off-road.

Which Gravity model were you considering?

Milton Keynes

10:46 "To Walmart's credit, there are warnings on these bikes to not take them on mountain bike trails."

Yes, whoever heard of taking a mountain bike on a mountain bike trail?

stevedans

Thanks for the responses, everyone. It's pretty much what I figured. I'm gonna take my chances with the walmart crap for now. I just can't afford anything more and I really wanted to try a suspension bike. Tho I don't NEED it, I really am enjoying the bike just soaking up the little bit that it does. If I can get it to last me a year, that'll be fine. Hopefully by then I'll have saved up enough to get myself something quality. Worst case, I always have my trusty old school Trek to fall back on. thx again.

veganbikes

You have an older Trek? Just get that fixed up and then save your money and yourself by not buying the wallymart bike.

Russ Roth

A good set of tires with proper tire pressure will get you moving a lot faster on that old trek then you will on the new bike and can be just as comfortable. Remember, the tire pressure on the side of the tire is the max recommended, not what you have to put in there. My MTB tires say 65psi, I ride with them at 35 rear 30 front on pavement and 28/24 on dirt. My road bike says 130psi I ride them at 85psi, I'll go to 95 for a race but otherwise comfort wins. New, light, gravel tires with a good pressure setting will be fast and smooth and feel great as will a better seat.

Milton Keynes

That's what I've got, an old school Trek. If I were you I'd keep the $150 you'd spend on the Walmart bike and put that into the Trek. It'll certainly last a lot longer.

Thomas15

I love these kinds of threads. Poster asks for advice, poster gets lots of advice which is all in agreement, poster ignores advice.

Hey it's all good for me, even wen I was poor I had better sense than to buy this kind of contraption and since I really wanted a bicycle saved up to get one. But to each his own, live and let live.

Milton Keynes

All too often, people asking for "advice" on online forums only want people to validate their idea. I remember in a chat forum once for another hobby, someone was asking about a particular item they were interested in, and when I gave an honest critical review of it's flaws (because I had owned one in the past) they got mad and said I was just trying to make them not enjoy the hobby. If I were a psychologist, I'd come up with a name for that behavior if one doesn't already exist.

Maelochs

Funniest part, to me, is that OP could have bought an $85 balloon-tire cruiser at Walmart, and that bike would have lasted a lifetime---and those 2.25-inch high-volume tires would have provided better shock absorption than the hack "suspension" on the bike he bought.

And when that "suspension" craps out in a few months .....

Hondo Gravel

I’ve been riding Motobecanes for years with thousands of miles. NO PROBLEMS. Same maintenance intervals and replacing worn out parts the same as my Specialized and Cannondale bikes.

Maelochs

That is because vintage Motobecanes were completley normal bicycles, some of very good quality and all at least pretty good, mass-produced by a famous French company (which means the BB threading was .... well, French.) So, yes ... . the frames were tha same as all the other bikes, and the components were the same too so .... no special extra maintenance.

Motobecane sold its name to some consortium/conglomerate/corporate octopus a while back so ....


Modern Motobecanes are still completely generic frames with generic parts. Some have high-end frames, some more mediocre frames. Some have high-end parts, some have lower-range parts. in any case, the frames are produced in the same factories that make 90 percent of all bike frames, and the components are produced by the same handful of companies which mass-produce the components most of us use daily. So .... no difference in durability or special maintenance needed.

Fact is most bikes in certain price ranges are nearly identical except for the down-tube decal.

Motobecane is mainly marketed by BieksDirect in the US as far as I know .... and I have a lot of experience with other BD bikes (which could have been Motobecanes, except BD decided to call them something else for a little variety) and they were absolutely fine bikes. because they were basically to any other bike from any manufacturer in that price/component range.

However .... that Walmart monstrosity the OP displayed .... I have bought pizzas with longer life spans.

Hondo Gravel

Yup, I hear ya. All my Motos I have modified.. Ok with me I love tinkering. The non bike mechanic person would be better off with Trek, etc. anyways you have valid points.

Bigbus

I'm with Hondo on this one, if I owned a bike that didn't need constant tinkering I'd probably grow bored with it.