balindamood

My recollection is that he was injured, but not seriously. The bike was totaled.

mike

I agree that the cheap Chinese made X-Mart bicycles are not made as well as higher-end products found at a local bike shop. Still, you should be able to get much more than 500 miles out of a cheap bike.

As beautiful and efficiently designed as bicycles are, they really are pretty simple machines. The most complicated part of it is the engine - the human body which, of course, is the most incredible machine of all.

For all the bad-mouthing that the cheap department store bicycles get, it absolutely astounds me that they can manufacture those bicycles, ship them to the USA, put distribution costs and retail mark-ups on them and still sell them for under $100. That is really amazing. Nearly any single component of the bicycle would seem to cost that much. I have often been tempted to buy a department store bicycle simply for the wheels. Surely, we will one day be telling our grandchildren about the good-old-days when you could buy a brand new bicycle for nearly the price of a tank of gasoline.

I believe that most of these department store bicycles suffer most from loose fasteners that just need simple adjustments. All bikes need maintanance, no matter how much you pay for them. The low-cost bicycles just warrent a bit more scrutiny.

Give her a good look-over the first couple weeks of service.

1) Grab the cranks and pull/push sideways. If there is play, tighten the bottom bracket. Most of them are the old ashtabula cranks - anybody can figure them out. just don't overtighten.

2) Squeeze the front brakes and push the bike back and forth. If there is play in the handlebar stem, Tighten the headset. These are still mostly the old-school headsets - very easy to tighten. Just don't over-tighten

3) Check the brake calipers. Are they secure to the frame? Give them a little tightening if needed.

4) Grab the wheels and push them from side to side. Are the rims hitting the brake pads when you do this? If yes, the hubs maybe sloppy. Tightening the cones of a hub is at least half art. You will need the proper size cone wrenches and some instruction to get it right.

5) Check the brakes to make sure that they stop the bike quickly. If not, check it out. This is not rocket science. Follow the mechanics of the braking from the brake lever through the cable to the brake.

Surely, there are some junk parts out there that will fail under even modest use, but I bet many of even the low-cost machines will provide reasonable service if they are given some good preventative maintanance.

wahoonc

Good points Mike,
I am convinced that for whatever reason(profit margin and price points?) the quality of the x-mart bikes is getting progressively worse over the years. In my accumulation have a couple of 25-30 year old Huffy's as well as some almost new Next bikes. Cheap as the Huffy's were they are better built with heavier components than the current crop of stuff. I look at bikes that are for sale every chance I get and it confirms my beliefs. Over Christmas I was able to get a good look at the current Huffy on sale at Kmart. The fenders are very thin with small wire braces, and the current no name brand coaster brake hub is only about 1/3 the size of the old Bendix that Huffy used to use. The Huffy Baypoints (3speeds) came with Weinman alloy brakes up until around 1985, after that they went to stamped steel pieces.

Aaron

genec

Technically poorly designed bikes last forever. They are generally designed for planned obsolescence but usually the buyer gives up long before the bike actually fails, and the bike then resides in the garage forever. Thus the bikes last forever.

genec

You're right, because those that supply $80 bikes don't stock parts. Therefore you have to buy a part that might fit from a source that does stock parts, and that part will probably cost a lot more.

mihlbach

True. Sadly, incompetent assembly is often what limits their mileage. My kid's 12" bike is from ToysRus..same product you can buy at Walmart. When I got it you could hardly spin any of the components and the hubs, bb, and rear coaster hub all made nasty grinding noises. So, I dissasembled and rebuilt the entire thing. The grease (what there was of it) was some really nasty stuff that stunk up the whole house and is apparently carcinogenic according to the documentation that came with the bike. Anyways, I rebuilt that sucker with all the attention and care I would give to any of my other bikes, repacking everything with good grease and everything spins like a dream and the bike has work flawlessly without needing further adjustment.

mike

I am sure you are correct, Aaron. Things change. The department store bicycle is being dummed down to a toy. That said, today's cheap department store bicycles are probably still a lot better than they need to be for today's market. Today's bicycles cost less than a pair of shoes and they see less mileage than a pair of shoes and they end up in the trash like a used pair of shoes long before the life is ridden out of them.

Those 40 year old Huffy's you mentioned were expected to ride thousands of miles and be passed down to at least three kids in the family. Finally, it might be sold as a second hand bicycle maintaining about 1/3 it's original price. Today's bicycles are thrown away before the treads on the tires see any wear. Can you imagine someone trying to sell one of today's used $80 department store bicycles for $25.00?

So, I agree that today's department store bicycles aren't made as well as the old department store bicycles. Still, for the price, they are one heck of a bargain. I don't think we have yet seen how poorly bicycles can or will be made as we go forward with the dumming down of bicycles for the throw-away folks.

wahoonc

Around here they try to sell them for more than that! I stopped by my local flea market today and they had a couple of odd brand European market low end bikes and two Next full suspension MTB's they were asking $65 each for the Next and neither one was fully operational. Because the Euro bikes were older and a bit rusty they were only asking $35 for those I have bought from this flea market before, with my two best purchases being a 1984 Huffy Baypoint for $12 and a 198? Raleigh Sprite 10 speed for $15.

Aaron

ad6mj

Same thing I've noticed in my area. The thrift stores are asking outrageous prices for used POS bikes. I know it's for charity but prices need to be realistic.

b_young

I say stay away from the xmart bikes but I had a mongoose MTB for 6 years and just gave it to a nephew. It is still in decent shape. Definitely do not get the bottom end of the xmart bikes though.

ralph12

The thrift store here that sells bikes pretty much just sells completely broken ones.

LittleBigMan

To me, a department store bike is like a Bic lighter: disposable. Once it's ready for professional maintenance, it would be cheaper just to buy another.

On the other hand, if I had one in the garage (and I do,) and I had nothing else to ride, I'd fix it and ride it until it dropped, then fix it and ride it again.

I_bRAD

We stock low end parts for cheap commuter bikes. I'm sure we're not the only ones.

wahoonc

Just for reference what does a low end rear wheel cost?...I would bet close to 90% the cost of a new low end bike. I had someone contact me the other day needing a replacement wheel for a year old WM MTB, kid had taco'ed the old one. They had gone to the LBS but the $70 price tag for a new wheel was more than the bike cost. I didn't have one so they were headed to WM to buy another disposable bike.

Aaron

relyt

My parents both got Walmart bikes, my dad got a cruiser with a coaster brake and my mom got a "mountain" bike.

I have already had to replace the bearings in my dad's rear hub, since the retainer broke open while he was riding and the hub was starting to clunk and chew itself up inside. Then his handlebars came loose and twisted around while my brother was riding it, which nearly caused a crash.

The shifting and braking on my mom's bike was very badly adjusted when she got it, and the suspension fork is absolute crap.

They got each bike for about $50, and they probably got their money's worth, but if it wasn't for me being around they would have had to spend several times that amount at bike shops for repairs.

johann435

I'd say, if you do your own work and take good care of it, maybe three years. Maybe more. Go to your library or on line and read about bike repair and apply it your machine. Buy junkers, go through dumpsters and work on them. Practicle knowledge is the best way to learn, but, you do need a few basics, so read.

mike

Remember that Walmart is not a brand.

Not all Walmart bikes are created equal.

If you were going to get a bike at Walmart, stick to the Schwinn bikes.

They are the best of the Walley-World bikes.

PlatyPius

Nah. Cannondale has replaced Schwinn as Pacific's top brand.


We actually have customers who will buy a bike from Wal-Mart and then bring it to us to disassemble and re-assemble properly. For $60. Then, the next spring, they're back with the bike for a tune-up. For $60. We would have gladly sold them an entry level hybrid for $300 and given them a free tune-up with it. I don't see the benefit of the Wal-Mart bike.

And a general FYI....
I applied for a job once as a bike assembler for Wal-Mart. They use an outside contractor, and that's who I interviewed with. The job entailed building the bikes, as well as assembling grills, lawn mowers, and weed eaters. The pay was $3.50 per unit, with an expectation of 4 units per hour. For emphasis... 4 BIKES PER HOUR. Now you know why the brake levers point to the sky, the forks are backward (we get TONS of those...), and the bearings are over-tightened.

Also.... our cheapest wheel - the absolute cheapest one we can get - retails for $35.00. That's about half the cost of a Wally World bike.

genec

Any poorly built bike lasts forever. No matter where you buy it.

Such bikes may be ridden enthusiastically for about 50 miles, but as they fall out of adjustment or wear, and cannot be properly tuned, they end up in garages gathering dust. Brakes, gear changers (internal or deraileur) and spokes tend to suffer first.

Apparently the dust protects the bike from further use, and the bike then lasts forever... usually until the next garage sale, where it is sold, then briefly is ridden again, only eventually to be stored in a new garage.

genec

Who is this "we?" And what sort of parts do you stock?

Pscyclepath

How long a Wal*Mart bike will last depends on a number of variables -- how long and how hard the bike is ridden; how well the bike was assembled (and subsequently maintained); and how much you park it by laying it out in the yard or driveway and leaving it in the rain, etc. When well maintained and cared for, and you don't go jumping off half-pipes, brick walls, and small buildings with them, they can last for a good while. But you have to take care of them, and they have some limits.

Obviously, when you pay around $90 for a brand new bike, you're not getting the highest quality or most durable components in the bike. Even with "normal" use they're going to wear or go out of adjustment faster than say, an entry-level brand-name bike from a reputable, bike-specific dealer. And when you have to fix or replace these components, you'll likely have to go to a bike shop to get the parts.

Wal*Mart sells bikes. They don't fix, maintain, or sustain them except under their return/refund/exchange policy, and at maybe one or two stores where they're experimenting with the idea of expanding their bike departments. Many LBSes consider Wal*Mart or other mass-market bikes to be beneath their dignity to work on, or unprofitable because they involve simply too much trouble and/or expense to reliably repair. Some charge an extra fee to work on these bikes. Maybe there's no LBS in your community at all, which is not an uncommon thing these days. So, you're going to wind up having to do a lot of your own maintenance and repairs on your bike.

Your bike has coaster brakes, which require periodic lubrication for them to work properly, or at all. Bike brakes work by friction, converting the kinetic energy of the bike to heat energy, which bleeds off into the hubs and pads for rim brakes and into the hub itself for coaster brakes. Sustained and/or hard braking can burn off your lube and literally burn out your brake and hubs. Another point to check is the cones and bearings in the hub to be sure they're not loose or worn down, and that they're properly lubed, too.

Hard to tell just what the problem is from your description, but the three most likely suspects (lack of lube, worn-out coaster brake, loose/worn out hub) are mentioned as a starting point to look...

MNBikeguy

There are a few dept. store bikes that are of some limited quality. The majority are worthless.
Just eyeballing the pencil thick hubs should be sufficient evidence. If you need more, hold the brakes and gently rock back and forth and watch the calipers bend.

nmanhipot

You're a good-natured soul, and this would be good advice if we were talking about a used Trek or Bianchi, but the following statement from the OP "but now a loud squeaking/scraping sound is coming from the rear tire hub" is indicative of a rather large learning curve to overcome, as well as an insurmountable lack of quality with the bike itself.

OP, look for a used hard-tail and/or ridgid fork MTB that looks new, doesn't squeak or scrape of a reputable brand from someone on Craigslist. Ride the bike first, and if it fits your body and you really like it, act disinterested, start to leave, change your mind, pull out your wallet, (which you should pre-load with exactly the asking price of the bike minus 20-25%) and start counting out the cash. Once you've counted the cash to yourself, announce, "I have $XYZ, will you take that?" If you have to go up on the price, fumble for additional cash in your pockets one at a time while mumbling to yourself. Commence making sinus noises and wipe your nose. I guaruntee a good deal.

nmanhipot

I'm amazed at Wal-Mart's lack of foresight in not having a for-profit bicycle repair department. All they need to do is keep cartons of opened bikes and sell wheels for $40 and new brakes installed for $50. Oh, wait, that's how much their new bike costs, how silly of me.

I_bRAD

"we" are the bike joint and we serve commuters in toronto. That's a long ride from san diego!