Wal Mart Bikes versus Pisgah National Forest

$149 bikes and rock gardens.

https://www.singletracks.com/blog/mtb-videos/watch-149-mountain-bike-vs-mountain-walmart-enduro/

 

Low prices. Everyday.

 

I'm gonna scratch that one off my list. It's a shame because they have they a purple/pink/white one in my size at my local Walmart that I've been eyeballing for a while now.

 

That warnin sticker they talk about...:.says that those bikes are toys and not intended for off road use. Too bad people are too dumb to notice that.

I like the quote "built to the lowest spec."

 

The bikes are also built and paid for by the bike. That is, $8-$12 per bike. This ensures that you get a "bicycle" that was thrown together by anyone who can hold a wrench. It is in the "contractors" best interest to build as many bikes as possible in the shortest amount of time. Safety be damned!
I have seen several of these "WalMart bikes on the trail" videos and they all end the same way...

I once asked RC, when he was editor of MBA, why they didn't do a shootout of department store bikes. He said they tried, but the bikes kept breaking and a couple of the test riders got hurt.

 

The way they were loaded into the truck was priceless.

That probably threw the wheels out of true right off the bat.

 

Rolling them off the curb in the parking lot was enough to do that.

 

They should have made another video or ended it with them trying to return the bike, that would have been some funny Sh!t.

 

Take them out of the box and they are already out of true. They are straight enough to pass through a poorly adjusted caliper with a minimum of rubbing. The steel rims are so soft, they are out of round and ride like hoopty circus wheels sometimes...

 

Yup....saw enough of them come through the shop. Always a can of worms.

 

I really like Seth's Bike Hacks. They are always entertaining and would be one of the few I would actually follow on his YouTube channel.

 

Seth's garage is pretty sweet.

I've seen a walmart bike up at Skyline. The rider was taking a good break pretty far in. At that bench where there's a trail that descends further South. Maybe between the helipad and clark's grade. Saw parts of his fork sticking on the upper part of the stanchion... also saw that he had the front QR that was prone to sticking into the rotors when the cam lever was fully retracted. All I could do is stuff his fork internals back in, ensure his QR was tight and pointing up/rearward, and remind him to ride safe.

I saw Skills with Phil do this earlier. I suppose this is one way to get more viewers, since everyone likes re-linking them, and watching a skilled rider destroy one of these mtb replicas.

 

Phil's first video was the best one.

 

I don't imagine anyone buys a Wal-Mart bike with the intention of going mountain biking. At most, they will be people riding on flat, perfect fire roads near their house. Likely by people who won't actually become riders.

First bike I ever bought, and I didn't consider myself a cyclist at the time, was a GT Outpost in '98 at a bike shop in Ketchican Alaska. I warped the rear wheel on the first curb I jumped off of. I used that bike several years later to cruise around during port calls, but nothing I would consider mountain biking.

While there will be misguided people on what kind of bike they need (ahem, XC hardtail hucks just fine...), no one is going into Wal-Mart thinking they can do Rampage.

 

People absolutely do go into Wal-Mart thinking they are getting a worthy bike for real trails. I've seen several people at Oaks riding them more than you'd think, often without helmets too.

There's a whole forum dedicated to them:

http://www.bigboxbikes.com/viewforum.php?f=1

 

That's awesome!
I wonder if they have an injury forum, or even a forum dedicated to bike carnage.
Those bikes can fail spectacularly.

 

I skimmed it and find there's far far more posts about old used bikes, than new FS $200 bikes that you find at Walmart. When they do talk about Wal-mart bikes, they're discussing upgrade paths.

The slogan seems to recognize that and states, "You don't have to spend over $1000 to enjoy cycling!"

Some popular topics on these bikes:


https://www.walmart.com/ip/27-5-Huffy-Elite-TR-745-Men-s-Bike/37300066

In the end, they seem to be able to spot value in these low price point bikes. I applaud them... no prejudice nor snobby attitude from me towards these folks. Sadly, it seems kind of a small community... there's far more ignorant folk out there, who could learn a thing or 100 from this forum, who started off simply using these bikes as transportation and chose the bikes for their style, rather than their engineering. As a result of buying based on style, they have preconceptions about mountain biking being extremely dangerous, based on their own experiences on these replica tier bikes.

I did find people showing support for their injured peppered throughout the various big threads. Don't have to imagine too hard to wonder what caused them to need shoulder surgery, etc. Bicycle industry shooting themselves in the foot by not reaching out to these riders, as injuries lead to trauma and people don't ride their bikes again, thinking they're merely toys. Lost generations of riders...

 

Took my (at the time) 11 year old nephew to Whiting a year or two ago, he had a magna flux mega something from a retailer. He crashed on Sage scrub and was afraid to get back on his bike. So I let him ride my bike and I rode his out. He ends up loving mountainbiking (on my bike) where he would have never gone again on his own bike. In fact, I would never have gone mountainbiking again on his bike. Downnright dangerous and unfun (and nothing on the bike broke even).