Saw this on campus today, ha.
(http://imgur.com/xVfdP1d.jpg)
There is a nice genesis 2900 I've been wanting to get my hands on.
If you spend 200 on a bike, vs spending 2g you know what the difference is ... The quality and type of bearings, the quality, quantity and type of grease on those bearings, the markings on the odd parts and the brand name on all the parts.
For example, I am putting this aluminum frame Ozone POS back together - OK I first took it apart. The rear wheel bearings has no grease and they were those crappy caged ball bearings. Ok That was a $500 POS.
On a $2000 trek, sealed ball bearings. On a $200 bike - loose balls and barely enough grease to hold them for assembly, and a grease that causes it to rust.
That Ozone had no marking on the left threaded bottom bracket collar - should have a Slot cut in it somewhere or say L, and worse yet, no anti seize on both ends of it.
Obviously $2000 trek has antiseize and it says L on left threads.
Anyway its all apart, a homemade "elastomer" shock going in place of the rear spring shock and a slew of powdercoated parts on it.
Anyway buy a Walmart bike and clean and lube all of it and it will be awesome. Throw on some bearings where it has balls and you're good.
Cool.
Buddha.
There's a Harley / horsepower / trade embargo joke in here somewhere....
Also bicycle clowns aren't happy unless every part of their bike is a different brand.
Like tioga, cane creek, bontrager, Klein, crank brothers (the make cranks LOL), oval concepts, Sram, Shimano, Marzocchi, and that's just the front end. All the rest has even more brands. There has to be 50 different stickers on it at least, and they will complain about the weight. A bike that weighs 3 grams more than another will be looked down upon.
Cool.
Buddha.
Buddha when I was younger I had a Puch 12-speed bike that I bought new old stock for half price, so I got a new old $350 bike for $169. I used to do 20-mile rides that I called "Tour de West Seneca" which meant a ride around roughly the perimeter of my home town. I would routinely pass guys dressed like the FTD flower guy on $2000 bikes. Many years of hockey made me hard to keep up with.
(https://scontent-dfw1-1.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xlf1/v/t1.0-0/cp0/e15/q65/s320x320/1915408_10208582749149474_446069610555066778_n.jpg?efg=eyJpIjoiYiJ9&oh=cb0854f1eb8e156dfdfd4f1724ed9b40&oe=576A8BCD)
ive been riding this specialized back and forth to work for a few months now,...i rode my old walmart mongoose until i broke it (again). Seems like I've broken about every part on the mongoose except the frame since Ive had it.
This specialized is ok. Replaced the ultracheap cassette and wheel, terrible tires, chain so far. I think the crankset and bottom bracket are going to need replacing soon. I love riding back and forth to work through HOuston traffic though! Blast to leave all the 'work' stuff behind and race home. :thumb:
The walmart crap - you buy it, take it all apart and grease and lube everything with the same grease you use on your motorcycle (and BB needs antiseize if its aluminum or other material frame, if steel - grease is fine) and put it back together correctly - and you will be surprised how well it works and how long it lasts.
Neck and BB are the worst IMHO in a walmart bike - not even a spritz of wd 40 on it.
The wheel bearings, pedal bearings etc also need repacking, and the brake levers and pivots and derailleur and shifters need that thinner Teflon based lube, as do the innards of cables.
True the wheels and adjust the shifters and try it.
Yea yea its cheap crap material, but its still going to last a long time, cos a cheap crap bearing without grease has to be better than if it had grease LOL, for it to even last a few rides.
As in - If Suzuki said, we build this GS500 so cheap, and throw it out without any lube or oil so we saved 100 man hours on labor, and so its very cheap. The riders then ride it and 4-5 weeks/months it breaks. LOL, I'll say OK, I'll take one of those, and trailer it home, take it all apart and lube everything, and put motor oil in it and ride it. See how long it runs.
Cool.
Buddha.
Um. There is more than just the difference
Quote from: The Buddha on January 29, 2016, 04:07:09 PM
If you spend 200 on a bike, vs spending 2g you know what the difference is ... The quality and type of bearings, the quality, quantity and type of grease on those bearings, the markings on the odd parts and the brand name on all the parts.
And the weight of those parts.
And the durability of those parts.
And the warranty on those parts.
And the better assembly of that $2000 (presumably) bike store bike.
And getting properly fit for said $2000 bike.
For light/occasional use or if you don't mind rebuilding/want to learn how to work on a bike, box store bikes can be ok.
If you plan on commuting daily, riding for fitness several days a week or just don't want to deal with a lot of problems to be fixed, a good used bike store bike or even a new entry level bike store bike is a better buy.
For someone wanting to learn their own bike maintenance, something like bikesdirect.com becomes an interesting option - generic frames with dead name brands stuck on the side and parts quality from cheap up to spendy name brands.
If you care what somebody who has ridden for fitness, fought with NYC cabs for space and bought a few bikes to work on and sell has to say...
Yea weight, but you see the parts from a box store vs the ones from a bike store only brand corresponding model - usually that weight is like 2 lb. Wont make any difference, but the increased friction will. Plus increased friction = lower life, a lot lower life.
Usually the better made parts are not just lighter, they are stiffer (or better in the way that makes them better) so there it makes a bigger difference.
For example cheapo brake calipers and levers vs the better ones of same design say we're comparing dual pivot caliper style - the cheapo may only be a few grams heavier. But NO matter how much you lube it, there is too much slop in the pivot on the lever and the caliper. You dont get that smooth action and that good bite. But if brakes are your pet peeve - like me - get those brakes that float your boat. I actually think the V brakes and cantilever brakes are nearly indistinguishable for low vs high end except in looks and weight. Caliper brakes and disk brakes are the ones where better quality is immediately obvious.
I've been digging in to these of late. Much like a GS, we can make it a better GS500, you wont be running down GSXR's anytime soon though. The whole point is, given that its a GS, does it feel like it will fall apart anytime ? or does it feel solid, does it not want to start and run, or does it, and are you always fighting it with what its doing vs what you want it to do ... clean all that up, and it makes for a ride where you forget about the fact you're not riding a GSXR.
That reminds me - gotta fix the GS for the up comming commute months.
Cool.
Buddha.
LIke my walmart bike,....I forgot to mention i've had it for about 14 years and beat the hell out of it :technical:
Quote from: cbrfxr67 on February 22, 2016, 08:22:14 AM
LIke my walmart bike,....I forgot to mention i've had it for about 14 years and beat the hell out of it :technical:
I've been taking those apart. Except for the utter lack of grease or lubrication of any kind, they are actually very very good.
They don't feel as slick and solid as some others, but for having found these lying face down in the dirt and removing everything and cleaning and lubing and putting it back together, I'd say, I'll happily buy a Walmart bike any day and dedicate a day to lubing everything over spending 3 X as much on a Brand name. I'll admit though my trek navigator 200 (low end) did have sealed wheel hubs and a few other parts a walmart bike would never have.
Cool.
Buddha.
I modded a Diamondback yesterday. Yea yea its a Chinese POS, barely a step above walmart crap. OK given that ...
The job took a lot longer to do it than I thought.
The worst part was the cables that were exposed, they were all rusted. I drilled out the cable stops and passed the new cables through. Lovely.
Brakes work a lot better too.
I seriously think the companies that call their stuff "high end" are lying if they have exposed inner cables. I'm like ... yea yea its high end, but dont mistakenly carry the bike or when you put it on a bike carrier, - be very very careful you dont snag the cable on something.
Cool.
Buddha.
Theres my scott waimea TT bike. had 24" graphite wheels, traded my first motorised trek for it. a good trade, this bike i could carry with 2 fingers. after motorising it, i got warned lol by local PD for excessive speed ( clocked at 55) after a few times it cracked the rear wheel. still have the frame, sold off the front wheel and speed bars. may build it back up again if im able to ride at some future point. (put the bars on knee scooter) THAT was a solid roadie. bearings are STILL in great shape. got a pic of thatpig somewhere. the trek 4300 i traded for it, had 25 in it. a good trade. that one nearly got me a sppeding ticket in oak ridge on NY ave. ( 45 in a 25..on street tires) always tried to get my paws on bike shop bikes. mainly used.
Aaron
Wow! It's like it's not even a motorcycle :icon_mrgreen:
Rebuilt a lot of Walmart bikes and wow they are cheap, but can still be a good ride for regular commuting with good maintenance. But everything is plastic, carbon heavy steel, horrible tolerances, just agh to work with
For MTB (my choice of poison in the Maine woods) I would flat out replace the rear derailleur before anything else, chains are easy, no brakes no biggie, but a trashed derailleur 15 miles in the woods really sucks! :icon_eek:
I've noticed the walmart steel bikes are more POS than the aluminum ones.
Anyway I've spent all day polishing the ozone silver canyon 600's frame. The swingarm is still to be done, and the bloody thing is immaculate, I have 1/2 a mind to use it as is. Frame is bad enough with the larger tubing. Tiny tubing is a PITA to polish.
Cool.
Buddha.
pics lol pics
Aaron