[email protected] (Walter Cronkite) wrote in message news:<
[email protected]>...
> <http://www.thesportsauthority.com/product/index.jsp?productId=1441290&cp=1160099.886959&clickid=body_bestsellgcat_txt&parentPage=family>
>
> Will ride street only back and forth to work. Is this a much better
> bike then say the 60.00 ones at KMART, Walmart and Target?
I started riding about 18 months ago, when a friend convinced me to go
with him. This guy has gone through phases of wind surfing, scuba
diving, roller blading, road biking, drag racing, duck hunting, bass
fishing, air boating, go-kart racing, and currently sky diving. I
figured the mountain biking was just another phase, and wasn't ready
to buy into it.
So he bought a second WalMart Mongoose and finally convinced me to
ride with him. It was fun. We beat the **** out of those bikes, but
couldn't break them. They lost the reflectors, chain guards, plastic
covers over the crank bolts, and everything else that would crack or
fall off. Also a couple chains and derailleurs, which were easily
replaced. I'm 6'4" and he's almost as tall, and those bikes are
medium-sized. We were so far forward that we spent a lot of time
going over the handlebars.
After about four months Rob finally bought a no-name carbon fiber
full-suspension off eBay, and immediately began riding away from me.
I had to keep up, so I got the first of many frames off eBay and built
it up. What a difference. Mostly just because it fit, and I wasn't
launched over the bars every time I made a little mistake. And in a
couple months we learned about rebound dampening, and how to adjust
our rear shocks so we didn't go bouncing away after every log
crossing. That was a big difference too.
So what's my point? Heck, I don't know. I guess it's that I would
never have gotten into this if I had to pay the big bucks right at the
start. No shops around here rent mountain bikes, and at the time I
didn't know anyone I could borrow a decent bike from. We didn't know
the difference between our POS Mongooses and the high-end stuff, so we
just kept riding.
There is a large community of central American immigrants here, and I
see them on the Wal/K/Mart bikes all the time. They're little people,
so the bikes fit fine, and the spring in the back cushions the ride as
they bounce over curbs while pedaling along on the sidewalk.
More about my bikes at
www.davewilson.cc/Bike
Dave
