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I saw one last night at my local wallymart. I was rather surprised to
see a 'road bike' there. Actually two road bikes. The other was a GMC
Denali.
First the Denali. I saw one last summer on Ragbrai when it came in to
the bike repair shop with a flat. It had long stem Schrader valve
tubes. Nothing we had would work. The shop owner tried to sell them a
new wheel. I thought these bikes came packaged with new SUVS. I'm
guessing wal mart is dumping them now. $149
Okay the Varsity. Bare naked 'alloy' (aluminum) frame. Tig welded. A
sort of polished look. Fat aero down tube. Fastback seat stays.
Vertical rear droputs. Bolted on rear wheel. QR front but no plastic.
Skinny steel handlebars painted black, just straight thru the front
open stem. Weird butterfly shifters on the handlebars next to the
stem. Old fashioned aero brake levers. Fork is steel shaped and
painted black to look carbon. Aero rims with very long stem Presta
valve tubes. Good luck to the typical wall mart customer trying to
figure those out. $199. One size fits all! No mention of sizes but
it looked to be about a 23" frame. And of course the handle bar stem
was soooo loose I could easily turn the bars while the wheel didn't
move. Typical department store poor assembly. Overall this bike looks
great from 50 feet away but up close is pure ****. All non-branded
parts. Non existant quality. Bad finish on most parts. But it has the
Schwinn name on it so it must have Schwinn's legendary quality and a
Varsity to boot. Who wouldn't want one? Okay, not me.
see a 'road bike' there. Actually two road bikes. The other was a GMC
Denali.
First the Denali. I saw one last summer on Ragbrai when it came in to
the bike repair shop with a flat. It had long stem Schrader valve
tubes. Nothing we had would work. The shop owner tried to sell them a
new wheel. I thought these bikes came packaged with new SUVS. I'm
guessing wal mart is dumping them now. $149
Okay the Varsity. Bare naked 'alloy' (aluminum) frame. Tig welded. A
sort of polished look. Fat aero down tube. Fastback seat stays.
Vertical rear droputs. Bolted on rear wheel. QR front but no plastic.
Skinny steel handlebars painted black, just straight thru the front
open stem. Weird butterfly shifters on the handlebars next to the
stem. Old fashioned aero brake levers. Fork is steel shaped and
painted black to look carbon. Aero rims with very long stem Presta
valve tubes. Good luck to the typical wall mart customer trying to
figure those out. $199. One size fits all! No mention of sizes but
it looked to be about a 23" frame. And of course the handle bar stem
was soooo loose I could easily turn the bars while the wheel didn't
move. Typical department store poor assembly. Overall this bike looks
great from 50 feet away but up close is pure ****. All non-branded
parts. Non existant quality. Bad finish on most parts. But it has the
Schwinn name on it so it must have Schwinn's legendary quality and a
Varsity to boot. Who wouldn't want one? Okay, not me.