Schwinn vs Huffy

PSB said:

Learning toward one or the other for buying a new dept store bicycle.

I

Quoted message said:

know what to look for when it comes to assembling them. The bike is
going to be used as a commuter. The Huffy's are about 30 dollars

cheaper

Quoted message said:

and both have Shamino gears. Just curious if I should spend the 30

bucks

Quoted message said:

more for a Schwinn or not. If you are going to reply that I should

buy

Quoted message said:

from an LBS, save your bandwidth.

So which would you recommend?

Neither. As commuters, they would probably do OK. But they are cheap
junk, and possibly like throwing money away. If you search in this
newsgroup for "Carl Fogel" "Roadmaster" and "Fury", you will find the
saga of a cheap dept. store bike.

You /should/ buy from your LBS. But not a new bike. A used one. A
decent, well-maintained, used bike can cost only a bit more than a new
dept. store bike-shaped toy, and is likely to have better components.
This means that you might get more life out of your used bike than you
would out of a new bike-shaped toy from some *Mart.

Locally, the LBSs have quite a bit of used inventory that they are
willing to make deals on because in our corner of North America, it's
winter, and bikes don't sell well here in the winter.
Good luck.

HAND,

E.P.

On Tue, 28 Dec 2004 16:47:35 -0500, PSB <[email hidden]>

Quoted message said:

Learning toward one or the other for buying a new dept store bicycle. I
know what to look for when it comes to assembling them. The bike is
going to be used as a commuter. The Huffy's are about 30 dollars cheaper
and both have Shamino gears. Just curious if I should spend the 30 bucks
more for a Schwinn or not. If you are going to reply that I should buy
from an LBS, save your bandwidth.

So which would you recommend?

Dear Dyslexic PBS,

I doubt [modest cough] that you will hear from anyone who
has wasted more time and bandwidth here extolling the
glories of such value-for-money steeds.

(I also doubt that anyone will recommend either brand.)

But I'm pleased with my <$60 Fury RoadMaster from Walmart
and its fifteen fierce Shamino gears.

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

As far as I can tell, the Fury rolls four miles along its
daily route with reasonable splendour, gnashing its teeth as
befits its name.

Most two-wheeled objects with pedals do the same.

Carl Fogel

My Huffy has 6 years = 48k miles of commuting on it. I haven't
tried a Schwinn, either the original brand or the current one.

You can order parts from Huffy for it as well, when they wear out.
Or if enough wear out at once, just buy a whole new Huffy.

I generally get 6 years before that happens, and the current one
looks to be going strong for more years yet.
--
Ron Hardin
[email hidden]

On the internet, nobody knows you're a jerk.

Ron Hardin said:

My Huffy has 6 years = 48k miles of commuting on it. I haven't
tried a Schwinn, either the original brand or the current one.

You can order parts from Huffy for it as well, when they wear out.
Or if enough wear out at once, just buy a whole new Huffy.

I generally get 6 years before that happens, and the current one
looks to be going strong for more years yet.

Dear Ron,

So much for another of my fearless predictions!

(I take it that you recommend the Huffy.)

At around a thousand miles per year, I somehow doubt that
I'll put 48k miles on the Fury RoadMaster, so now I'll try
to think of it as a delicate competition machine, the kind
that racers replace each season for fear of fatigue
weakening the highly-stressed frame.

Do you remember what your Huffy cost?

Carl Fogel

If the Schwinn has a frame mounted derailleur go that
way you won't regret it.

I MTB 2004

Quoted message said:

Learning toward one or the other for buying a new dept store bicycle. I
know what to look for when it comes to assembling them. The bike is going
to be used as a commuter. The Huffy's are about 30 dollars cheaper and
both have Shamino gears. Just curious if I should spend the 30 bucks more
for a Schwinn or not. If you are going to reply that I should buy from an
LBS, save your bandwidth.

So which would you recommend?

Bandwith is cheap, sorry. Look for a decent used bike. You could probably
find one for nearly free at a garage sale or thrift shop that would be far
better than the Huffy or Schwinn from a department store. If you have the
skills to properly assemble a bike, you can probably easily deal with a used
bike, and recognize a real gem that's there for the taking.

--Mike Jacoubowsky
Chain Reaction Bicycles
www.ChainReaction.com
IMBA, BikesBelong, NBDA member

Bicycling did a comparison of a bike shop Schwinn and a WalMart Schwinn.
Their consensus was the Wal-Schwinn wasn't nearly as nice as a low end LBS
Schwinn, but it was still the best department store bike ever. Caveat
emptor!

Ron Hardin said:

I generally get 6 years before that happens, and the current one
looks to be going strong for more years yet.

I was hoping you would ring in Ron.

The thing about the Huffy I was looking at has knobby tires. The Schwinn
didn't have knobbies.

What do you recommend Ron, knobbies or slicks?

Thanks.

I recommend slicks for a commute but if you also want to ride a MTB trail ocassionally get knobbies.

I ride 200 miles a week and I am going to begin my racing career soon.😎

I have to go now so I can train.😄

PSB said:

Learning toward one or the other for buying a new dept store bicycle. I
know what to look for when it comes to assembling them. The bike is
going to be used as a commuter. The Huffy's are about 30 dollars cheaper
and both have Shamino gears. Just curious if I should spend the 30 bucks
more for a Schwinn or not. If you are going to reply that I should buy
from an LBS, save your bandwidth.

So which would you recommend?

For my commuter (two chainring 5 speed) I bought the cheapest one I
could find. It cost me $50 and for 4 bucks more I put a shopping basket
on it. It also came with a rear rack for panniers. Been using it for 4
years. For low, low end go on price.

Kenny

Mike Jacoubowsky/Chain Reaction Bicycles said:

Bandwith is cheap, sorry. Look for a decent used bike. You could probably
find one for nearly free at a garage sale or thrift shop that would be far
better than the Huffy or Schwinn from a department store. If you have the
skills to properly assemble a bike, you can probably easily deal with a used
bike, and recognize a real gem that's there for the taking.

I know someone who purchased a lugged steel frame Trek with near perfect
paint for $10 at a yard sale.

--
Tom Sherman - Near Rock Island

PSB said:

Learning toward one or the other for buying a new dept store bicycle. I
know what to look for when it comes to assembling them. The bike is
going to be used as a commuter. The Huffy's are about 30 dollars cheaper
and both have Shamino gears. Just curious if I should spend the 30 bucks
more for a Schwinn or not. If you are going to reply that I should buy
from an LBS, save your bandwidth.

So which would you recommend?

Schwinn, because Huffy's in bankruptcy at the moment.

For a commuter bike, though, I'd look at the rest of the Pacific bike
lines as well. (Schwinn got borged by Pacific a while back, as did
Mongoose and several other brands.)

One of the regulars here may chime in with an observation that a $60
Roadmaster Mt Fury may very well serve your purposes just as well; the
empirical evidence here pretty much confirms the observation that even
the cheapest of the Mall-Wart units will stand up well under a daily
commute of a reasonable distance...as long as your demands in terms of
comfort and performance are modest[1]. (The former issue can often be
addressed by swapping seats, and the latter is presumed not to be a
concern given the parameters that you appear to be applying.)

[1] I will add one caveat of my own from direct experience, though;
if you weigh more than 180 lbs, and you buy a cheap unit, expect to
have to change the seat immediately due to the absolutely abysmal
mounting clamps used on most of the Marianas-trench-level bikes as
original equipment. Oh, and have Captain Overtorque tighten the seat
mounting clamp if you value your baritone singing voice.
--
Typoes are a feature, not a bug.
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Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

Bandwith is cheap, sorry. Look for a decent used bike. You could probably
find one for nearly free at a garage sale or thrift shop that would be
far better than the Huffy or Schwinn from a department store. If you have
the skills to properly assemble a bike, you can probably easily deal with
a used bike, and recognize a real gem that's there for the taking.

I know someone who purchased a lugged steel frame Trek with near perfect
paint for $10 at a yard sale.

And isn't there something noble about giving a bike like that a new lease on
life? But I'm beginning to suspect this is a troll, given the recent remark
from the original poster regarding knobby vs slick tires for a "commute"
bike.

--Mike Jacoubowsky
Chain Reaction Bicycles
www.ChainReaction.com
IMBA, BikesBelong, NBDA member

I took a close look at a department store Schwinn a month ago,

http://search.bikelist.org/query.asp?SearchString=%22Re%3A+%5BBOB%5D+Schwinns+at+Target+%3A+6x+cheaper+than+before%3F%22&SearchPrefix=%40msgsubject&SortBy=MsgDate%5Ba%5D

Specifically, the $108 schwinn hybrid at Target. Unlike earlier
department store bikes that had obvious manufacturing compromises
(e.g. cheap soft steel brakes that bent every time they were used,
steel rims, lead-pipe frames, suicide extension levers), modern
dept. store bikes have closed a tremendous gap with bike shop bikes.

Although I don't own one, these bikes are probably not fun or
practical to work on or tune. They are designed to be manufactured
cheaply, used until the parts fail or go out of the adjustment, and
then thrown away. Don't expect to get it fixed cheaply at a normal
bike shop. Work on it yourself, if at all.

Here is the best summary about "where are the bodies buried" on the
cheaper department store bikes of today :

http://search.bikelist.org/getmsg.asp?Filename=internet-bob.10411.2094.eml

With the US$ trading for 8 chinese yuan, and the average chinese
worker in the countryside earning $0.65 per hour, you may not see a
bike of this quality sold this cheaply another time for the rest of
your life.

If you buy, purchase the best model available, with all-aluminum parts.

- Don Gillies
San Diego, CA

Hi Carl, just curious to how well the thumb shifters on the Mountain
Fury act. Have you had problems with them getting loose? I thought about
getting this bike and perhaps changing the tires to slicks. I didn't
like the seat on the Fury but I got a good saddle from my old bike.

I'm also curious since nearly all my riding will be on roads or dirt
roads, will slicks give a much smoother ride than knobbies?

Thanks.

Tom Sherman said:

Mike Jacoubowsky/Chain Reaction Bicycles said:

Bandwith is cheap, sorry. Look for a decent used bike. You could probably
find one for nearly free at a garage sale or thrift shop that would be far
better than the Huffy or Schwinn from a department store. If you have the
skills to properly assemble a bike, you can probably easily deal with a used
bike, and recognize a real gem that's there for the taking.

I know someone who purchased a lugged steel frame Trek with near perfect
paint for $10 at a yard sale.

A few months ago, I grabbed a group of five bikes for the total sum of
about $60 at the city auction; the lot included a Miyata Elevation
1000 that needed just a chain and cassette replaced due to wear. Of
the other four, two were absolute scrap. Those two were a mid-60s
drop-frame Schwinn tourer with tires rotted off, and a badly
ethno-engineered Huffy with a 24" rear wheel and a tireless EA3 front
wheel on a 559-wheel frame with a complete lack of brakes, shifters
and seat. The remaining two were reasonably servicable
department-store-level bikes in almost immediately useful condition; a
Pacific mtb with a missing dust guard on one front wheel bearing, and
a Roadmaster Mt Fury (alas, in the 24" size) with the most creatively
obliterated set of brake calipers I have ever seen. The front
caliper's arms were devoid of pads and had been twisted in between the
fork legs (I should mention that the fork had been turned around
backwards) as though the brakes had been suddenly applied while the
bike was being towed at high speeds with an overload aboard. Given
the presence of a trick-bike footpeg on the rear axle, that may be
exactly what was being done. There was also an impressive amount of
chain slap damage to the chainstay paint. Despite the apparent abuse,
however, with the substitution of some less twisted calipers from Le
Carton Du Junque, it became a useful bike which presently awaits a
suitable rider.
--
Typoes are a feature, not a bug.
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PSB said:

Ron Hardin said:

I generally get 6 years before that happens, and the current one
looks to be going strong for more years yet.

I was hoping you would ring in Ron.

The thing about the Huffy I was looking at has knobby tires. The Schwinn
didn't have knobbies.

What do you recommend Ron, knobbies or slicks?

For commuting? Slicks! Your wrists, elbows and shoulders will thank
you for the reduced vibration.

Note, however, that a pair of slicks for a 26" bike can be had for
about $15 (maybe less) at Mall-Wart, and they're not hard to install
on whatever you buy. A slick-tired Mt Fury could be concocted for
well under $100, even after sales tax.
--
Typoes are a feature, not a bug.
Some gardening required to reply via email.
Words processed in a facility that contains nuts.

On Tue, 28 Dec 2004 21:37:59 -0500, PSB <[email hidden]>

Quoted message said:

Hi Carl, just curious to how well the thumb shifters on the Mountain
Fury act. Have you had problems with them getting loose? I thought about
getting this bike and perhaps changing the tires to slicks. I didn't
like the seat on the Fury but I got a good saddle from my old bike.

I'm also curious since nearly all my riding will be on roads or dirt
roads, will slicks give a much smoother ride than knobbies?

Thanks.

Dear PSB,

Since the exciting mechanical adventure described in
merciless detail in this link, loose shifters have not been
a problem:

http://groups.google.co.uk/groups?q=fury+carl+honkin%27&hl=en&lr=&group=rec.bicycles.tech&selm=8bbde8fc.0403081633.20c40575%40posting.google.com&rnum=1
or http://tinyurl.com/3zpsn

Generally, the Fury uses high gear after rounding the street
corner at the neighbor's house.

I suspect that most department store mountain-style bikes
can be pedalled around reasonably level towns in high gear
like a single-speed, with a choice of fourteen or more lower
gears for any hills. Their high gear is a bit short of a
53x11 700c.

After a thousand miles, the Fury Roadmaster was treated to a
pair of new slicks, which seemed to perk it up about 9%:

http://groups.google.co.uk/groups?q=carl+fury+slick&hl=en&lr=&group=rec.bicycles.tech&selm=rcdoo0drhcn1oda17ic9grisvfo48sg65f%404ax.com&rnum=2
or http://tinyurl.com/44xm3

[A hideous typo requires the reader to imagine the word
"removed" between "already" and "584", somewhat in the
fashion of Theobald's famous conjecture that "a Table o'
green fields" was a misprint for "'a babbl'd o' green
fields":

http://www.bartleby.com/215/1113.html

Hmmm . . . I wonder why a quote about babbling came to
mind?]

Anyway, the slicks are certainly quieter than the knobbies.
They're also noticeably smaller, so the engine was forced to
rev higher.

Miserable weather set in shortly after the new tires, so
it's hard to be sure if the original speed improvement has
outlasted the usual two-week new-toy effect. The Fury
Roadmaster's engine often shows signs of flagging when it's
cold and windy.

Of course, without a cyclocomputer, stopwatch, and
mindlessly regular route, I doubt that I'd notice much
difference one way or another in terms of speed.

Depending on your height, a longer seat post might be needed
for almost any department-store bike.

Carl Fogel

I'm six foot tall and about 160. I'll check closer into the Roadmaster
when I go back to the department store and make my decision then.

One more question, does the Roadmaster have holes where a bike rack can
be attached easily? I know the Schwinn Sidewinder does.