First ride review: Schwinn Sidewinder from Walmart 20.6 mile ride.

keep a log.
come back after 1000 miles
and after yawl take the hubs apart to check bearings and cones.

On Wed, 05 Jan 2005 14:26:14 -0500, PSB <[email hidden]>

Quoted message said:

Bought this bike from Walmart when I returned the Roadmaster Mountain
Fury. Checked Schwinn Sidewinder out at Walmart before buying. NO
problems noted and yes, I checked the pedals this time. Took it home,
adjusted the seat, added $9 Schwinn cyclometer from Walmart and my GPS
mount for the Garmin Etrex Legend. Pumped tires to 65psi. Bike weighs a
ton and is a few pounds heavier than the Roadmaster Mountain Fury. But I
did not buy this bike to ride in pelotons, I bought it to commute and
for exercise.

Did the 20.6 miles today including a several 100 feet climb within a
mile and some dirt roads. Bike performed almost perfectly. Gears shifted
without any problems, brakes worked outstanding. Bike rode real quiet
except for the 26x1.9 tires humming on the road. Bike seemed faster on
the dirt roads than the paved roads but probably just my perception. The
bike has a front suspension fork but I really don't see the point in it
on this bike. Only minor problem was the end of the front derailleur
cable stuck out a little bit and kept hitting the pedals making the
annoying (click, click, click sound each time the pedal hit). Corrected
by taking a taking a trash bag twisty and connecting the cable to the
frame. Might have to adjust the seat angle slightly. This bike performed
great in my opinion on this first ride. Maybe I got a lemon for the
Roadmaster Mt Fury as someone else had good reports on it. I'll report
after I reach 100 miles on it.

Dear PSB,

At first I considered challenging you to a duel over your
boast that your Schwinn Sidewinder is a few pounds heavier
than my Fury Roadmaster, but then I looked at the
specifications:

http://www.walmart.com/catalog/product.gsp?product_id=1913343

Good God! Your Sidewinder's shipping weight is 50 pounds,
while my poor little Fury ships at only 40 pounds:

http://www.walmart.com/catalog/product.gsp?cat=61903&dept=4171&product_id=2073252&path=0%3A4171%3A61903%3A61904%3A4180%3A4183%3A5304#long_descr

My trusty steed tipped the electronic scales at a veterinary
office at a svelte 34.2 pounds with its sidestand,
water-bottle frame, and reflectors stripped off.

I long to know whether your Sidewinder exceeds forty pounds.

Carl Fogel

Quoted message said:

http://www.walmart.com/catalog/product.gsp?product_id=1913343

Good God! Your Sidewinder's shipping weight is 50 pounds,
while my poor little Fury ships at only 40 pounds:

http://www.walmart.com/catalog/product.gsp?cat=61903&dept=4171&product_id=2073252&path=0%3A4171%3A61903%3A61904%3A4180%3A4183%3A5304#long_descr

Quoted message said:

My trusty steed tipped the electronic scales at a veterinary
office at a svelte 34.2 pounds with its sidestand,
water-bottle frame, and reflectors stripped off.

I long to know whether your Sidewinder exceeds forty pounds.

Carl Fogel

Doesn't the Salvation Army have any Raleigh roadsters available ?
$132 is way too much money, unless WalMart is charging by the pound.
For $450 you can get a nice 54 year old Phillips, should be good for
another 100 years.
<http://www.sellwoodcycle.com/bicycles/1458.gif>
Now that is a classy ride, God save the Queen, 1066 and all that.
Scott Goldsmith
Not Related to Mr. Sellwood.

I'll try to get a weight for the bike minus the rear rack I just put on
it. There's not doubt, my bike is a tank. Maybe it will last like one.

yeah, the log.
i have a bicyclists mag calendar.
gee, when did i redo the headset? june? Sept? hmmm

in the roadtest genre-
one uses a checklist for each part and system with categories following
for what it does
so at the time it used to do that, you'll see it happening and know why
it did it
not the secondary effects
(you know the expletive deleted drives a camino with the door bottoms
rusting out?
that's a secondary effect)
so when you ride, you can check the parts function and wear off-
rear wheel now 1/64th loose at rear axle, out 1/4 at rim 1/17/05
rear wheel now 3/32 at RAx, out 3/4 at rim 1.20.05
rear wheel falls off
1.20.05

Once upon a time, Schwinn bikes were incredibly durable and low maintenance.
You couldn't break them. We mountain biked the hilly trails east of Kansas
City long before mountain biking was officially invented. My friends Sears
or Huffy bikes were always falling apart.

But like so many products before, labels that meant quality over many
decades can be turned into big profits by slapping them onto junk.

The manufacturers of Department store bikes know the average cheap bike is
ridden about 75 miles in its lifetime. So if you design a bike that will
last 750, you are designing it for 10 times the average lifespan. I've seen
this with the bearings, cranks, etc. coming apart for the rare DS bike that
sees real use.

On the other hand, I've ridden at least 7,500 miles on my latest quality
bike. I've replaced one spoke. Speaking of maintenance, people obsess
about the few hours a year I spend fixing flats (I used to too, to be
honest) but will spend a few hours a month cleaning their cars. Cars get
dirty, bikes get flats, it is the way.

What saddens me is the masses think spending one or two car payments on a
bike is silly, so they buy heavy, poor handling, braking, shifting bikes;
which only reinforce the illusion that bikes are [censored] in general.

Saddest yet are these rules are applied in spades to kids bikes, because
they spend even less on a bike the kid will outgrow. So kids learn the myth
from early childhood. That's why you see parents hauling their little kids
in their cars to the park, where they drive around little electric cars.

I have often wondered how such people reconcile news about the Tour de
France, where cyclists zip all over France in two weeks, but somehow the act
like riding your bike 5 miles to work is like crossing the Andes.

<[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

keep a log.
come back after 1000 miles
and after yawl take the hubs apart to check bearings and cones.

Ron Hardin has more miles on his Huffys. I also know many roadies who
reguarly spend 100's a year just on maintenance of their $2,000 bikes.
In fact, if these expensive bikes were so unbreakable, LBS'es would be
out of business by the droves as repairs fuel the LBS, not bike sales.

I know the LBS in my area has a week long wait to repair bicycles and
nearly all of them are non-department store bikes. Sure seems to be a
lot of high ends bikes that need fixing doesn't it?

I am so glad you are an exception to the rule about high end bicycles.

:-)

"PSB" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Ron Hardin has more miles on his Huffys. I also know many roadies who
reguarly spend 100's a year just on maintenance of their $2,000 bikes.
In fact, if these expensive bikes were so unbreakable, LBS'es would be
out of business by the droves as repairs fuel the LBS, not bike sales.

I know the LBS in my area has a week long wait to repair bicycles and
nearly all of them are non-department store bikes. Sure seems to be a
lot of high ends bikes that need fixing doesn't it?

I am so glad you are an exception to the rule about high end bicycles.

:-)

My $300 Ibex Corrida is about a hundred times more well built and performs
better than a $150 Wal - Schwinn. I've seen bikes at my LBS for not much
more than at a big box store---I guess people don't research their
purchases. :-)

On Thu, 06 Jan 2005 02:37:29 GMT, "Gooserider"
<[email hidden]> wrote:

[snip

Quoted message said:

My $300 Ibex Corrida is about a hundred times more well built and performs
better than a $150 Wal - Schwinn. I've seen bikes at my LBS for not much
more than at a big box store---I guess people don't research their
purchases. :-)

Dear Gooserider,

Out of curiosity, is your Ibex Corrida about a hundred times
cheaper, a hundred times faster, a hundred times lighter, or
a hundred times more reliable than my $57.71, 19 mph
average, 32-pound, one-flat-in-10-months-and-1200-miles Fury
Roadmaster?

Or is its superiority only one order of magnitude?

:-) (This is a technical newsgroup, after all, so research
is a two-edged sword.)

:-) (I do expect that your bike is nicer.)

Carl Fogel

Robert Haston said:

...
On the other hand, I've ridden at least 7,500 miles on my latest quality
bike. I've replaced one spoke....

Robert,

Still riding the M5 Shockproof?

--
Tom Sherman - Near Rock Island

In article <[email hidden]>, PSB

Quoted message said:

Ron Hardin has more miles on his Huffys. I also know many roadies who
reguarly spend 100's a year just on maintenance of their $2,000 bikes.
In fact, if these expensive bikes were so unbreakable, LBS'es would be
out of business by the droves as repairs fuel the LBS, not bike sales.

Concerning the maintenance requirements of a bicycle, it's a mystery to
me why more cyclists don't take the chore upon themselves. Adjusting
derailleurs and brakes; chain, chainring and cassette replacement;
trueing wheels; adjusting cones; etc.; these can be accomplished with a
minimal investment in tools and learning. A beauty of the bicycle is
its sympathy to the backyard mechanic.

Quoted message said:

I know the LBS in my area has a week long wait to repair bicycles and
nearly all of them are non-department store bikes. Sure seems to be a
lot of high ends bikes that need fixing doesn't it?

Everything breaks, be it worth $20 or $2000. Perhaps, those that invest
greater sums in bicycles are more particular about their upkeep: All
those expensive two wheelers cluttering up your LBS may reflect the
fastidiousness and priorities of their owners rather than the true
states of disrepair of their bicycles.

luke

Gooserider said:

My $300 Ibex Corrida is about a hundred times more well built and performs
better than a $150 Wal - Schwinn.

So I assume you have owned a Schwinn from Walmart for quite some time
then to make such a statement? I didn't think so. We'll see if my
Schwinn holds up to the test of time. Maybe it won't. I'll keep posting
reports on the progress just like others have on their store bought bikes.

http://www.ibexbikes.com/Stacks/Series_Corrida.html

Shows your bike to be a road bike. While you would kick my ass on a
paved road, let's take your bike vs my bike on a dirt sandy road here in
South Carolina. You won't make it half a mile. See, I bought my bike
for the roads I ride on. A road bike don't cut it.

But the one thing I noticed, people who actually ride department store
bikes on this group have little problems with them. Carl Fogel, Ron
Hardin among others. Nor do they spend $100's of dollars each year at
the LBS for tune ups, truings, etc. like many of the roadies who ride
high priced bikes do.

In article <[email hidden]>,

Quoted message said:

My trusty steed tipped the electronic scales at a veterinary
office at a svelte 34.2 pounds with its sidestand,
water-bottle frame, and reflectors stripped off.

<Groan>. A veterinarian's scale is appropriate: That's some porker your
riding! In the online description, Walmart alleges the Fury's frame is
"handcrafted"!!!! Carl, please explain.

luke

Quoted message said:

Concerning the maintenance requirements of a bicycle, it's a mystery to
me why more cyclists don't take the chore upon themselves.

A. It requires fine motor skills
B. It requires patience
C. It's not fun
D. Actually, it's downright BORING. Boring, boring, boring.
E. It takes up valuable time that could be spent reading posts on Usenet.

I hope this clears up the mystery for you.

--
Warm Regards,

Claire Petersky
please substitute yahoo for mousepotato to reply
Home of the meditative cyclist:
http://home.earthlink.net/~cpetersky/Welcome.htm
Personal page: http://www.geocities.com/cpetersky/
See the books I've set free at: http://bookcrossing.com/referral/Cpetersky

Quoted message said:

But the one thing I noticed, people who actually ride department store
bikes on this group have little problems with them.

There are basically three types that ride these bikes:
1. People who buy and never ever ride.
2. People who buy and ride the [censored] out of them commuting.
3. People (teenage boys) who buy and ride the [censored] out of them doing things
the bikes were never intended to do.

We get lots of #3. #2 come in once in a long time. #1 come in to have
their bikes fixed after sitting for a couple of years, usually scoffing at
the cost of repair. And then proceed to never ride them again.

So generally, I'd agree.

--
Phil, Squid-in-Training

"Luke" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Concerning the maintenance requirements of a bicycle, it's

a mystery to

Quoted message said:

me why more cyclists don't take the chore upon themselves.

Adjusting

Quoted message said:

derailleurs and brakes; chain, chainring and cassette

replacement;

Quoted message said:

trueing wheels; adjusting cones; etc.; these can be

accomplished with a

Quoted message said:

minimal investment in tools and learning. A beauty of the

bicycle is

Quoted message said:

its sympathy to the backyard mechanic.

Time and money are limited resources. Sometimes one resource
is more limited than another.

I don't change the oil in my car any more, either.

PSB said:

Did the 20.6 miles today including a several 100 feet climb within a
mile and some dirt roads. Bike performed almost perfectly. Gears shifted
without any problems, brakes worked outstanding. Bike rode real quiet
except for the 26x1.9 tires humming on the road.

$15 for a pair of slicks will take care of that. Your wrists and
shoulders will thank you if you ride very far.

Quoted message said:

Bike seemed faster on
the dirt roads than the paved roads but probably just my perception. The
bike has a front suspension fork but I really don't see the point in it
on this bike. Only minor problem was the end of the front derailleur
cable stuck out a little bit and kept hitting the pedals making the
annoying (click, click, click sound each time the pedal hit). Corrected
by taking a taking a trash bag twisty and connecting the cable to the
frame. Might have to adjust the seat angle slightly.

Be aware that while the Schwinn's seat tends to have a better clamp
that the ones used on many Roadmasters, these still tend not to grip
well if undertightened. Carry a wrench for the through-bolt on the
clamp for the first few rides, and check the tightness after the first
ride even if it seems OK.

Quoted message said:

This bike performed
great in my opinion on this first ride. Maybe I got a lemon for the
Roadmaster Mt Fury as someone else had good reports on it. I'll report
after I reach 100 miles on it.

My rash prediction: it will do just fine.
--
Typoes are a feature, not a bug.
Some gardening required to reply via email.
Words processed in a facility that contains nuts.

Robert Haston said:

Once upon a time, Schwinn bikes were incredibly durable and low maintenance.
You couldn't break them. We mountain biked the hilly trails east of Kansas
City long before mountain biking was officially invented. My friends Sears
or Huffy bikes were always falling apart.

But like so many products before, labels that meant quality over many
decades can be turned into big profits by slapping them onto junk.

[rest snipped]

Was it just my imagination, or was there a complete lack of actual
"sad story" in that post? A near-rant, yes, but nothing in the way of
current factual narrative.
--
Typoes are a feature, not a bug.
Some gardening required to reply via email.
Words processed in a facility that contains nuts.

In article <[email hidden]>,

PSB said:

Bought this bike from Walmart when I returned the Roadmaster Mountain
Fury. Checked Schwinn Sidewinder out at Walmart before buying. NO
problems noted and yes, I checked the pedals this time. Took it home,
adjusted the seat, added $9 Schwinn cyclometer from Walmart and my GPS
mount for the Garmin Etrex Legend. Pumped tires to 65psi. Bike weighs a
ton and is a few pounds heavier than the Roadmaster Mountain Fury. But I
did not buy this bike to ride in pelotons, I bought it to commute and
for exercise.

Well, I hope you get loads of enjoyment out of it.
That's the main thing.

cheers, & good rides,
Tom

--
-- Nothing is safe from me.
Above address is just a spam midden.
I'm really at: tkeats [curlicue] vcn [point] bc [point] ca