The latest Wal-Mart Road Bike



I saw one of those the other day and I wish I had taken a picture because the put the handlebars on upside down. I pointed it out to my boyfriend and said, "See, thats why you don't buy bikes from Wal-mart!"
 
I was looking at the picture of the Varsity on the WM website and it seems like the neck is on upside down, it's like the handlebars are too high. Is it just my imagination?
 
mikesbytes said:
Why would the medium frame be more expensive than the small and the large?
Most ppl will buy the medium. As a budget bike, you'd imagine lotsa mums n dads will buy these for their adolescent kids.

That way they can advertise a cheap price but still make more $ on the more commonly sold size...
 
brad g said:
I'm just wanting some opinions on this one, not that I plan on buying it, but the the thread about the Schwinn Varsity at Wal-Mart was fun and informative too, so what do you all think?
http://www.walmart.com/catalog/product.do?product_id=4994756
actually, doesn't look too bad of a deal. and if you order from their website you can put it together yourself (without having a walmart associate do it for you)
so that you can make sure its put together correctly...

I also know that if for some reason you don't like the bike you can take it back to a walmart store and get a refund (minus the shipping cost)...
 
Lonnie Utah said:
Sounds like a tank....

It might make an OK commuter, in a high crime area.....
if the frame is anything like the "denali" a more low end version of this bike
then it is a tank. But I also remember having an 12 speed x-mart bike that
had friction shifters and the 26'' wheels that I put over a 1000 miles on with
no problems. It was a tank but also got me interested in cycling.
 
you can prob pick up a out of season trek 1000 for about 450 and you will know what you are getting
 
djk202020 said:
you can prob pick up a out of season trek 1000 for about 450 and you will know what you are getting
that may be a possibility, but I havent seen anything like that here in NJ...
the cheapest road bike that I have seen here is at the "sports authority" sporting goods store that carried a K2 road bike for about 400..
 
Schwinn has a few low end offerings better than the Varsity or Denali, though. Like the fastback, which can be had on sale for $450 or so.

All in all though, why do road bikes have to be so expensive??? Those Denali pix show a Tourney derailleur and what looks like a freewheel rear wheel, making it useless for anyone over 170 lb.!

I got a Raleigh trail/mountain bike, new, for $335 and it came with acera components. Why won't someone build a road bike the same way? Those low end road bikes are built like a $49.95 Wal-Mart mtb!
 
It does seem like a tank, and wouldn't be a good choice for the serious enthusiast, but for a commuter it wouldn't be bad. A few things I noticed that make it different than the other Wal-Mart offerings are:
Intergrated shifter/brake lever, like on the better bikes at the LBS.
Appears to have a replaceable hanger bracket, haven't seen this on any other WM bike.
Cranks don't look as cheap as the others
Decent looking handlebar wrap.

On another note, I have a Schwinn Aluminum Comp that I've ridden for a few years and put through hell, considering I weighed about 250 the whole time, the bike held up well. It has the same rear derailler (Shimano tourney) as this road bike, and it has never failed me. I can't complain about the quality of a bike that stood up to all that I threw at it. I don't know about the quality of the Kent brand name, but if I were commuting in an area that bike are frequently stolen, I would consider it before risking a good road bike.
 
The Denali has gripshifters (yes, you heard right) and is has the weight and efficency of a real GMC Denali. My freinds dad has one and does training crits on it.
 
brad g said:
I have a Schwinn Aluminum Comp that I've ridden for a few years and put through hell, considering I weighed about 250 the whole time, the bike held up well. It has the same rear derailler (Shimano tourney) as this road bike, and it has never failed me. I can't complain about the quality of a bike that stood up to all that I threw at it. I don't know about the quality of the Kent brand name, but if I were commuting in an area that bike are frequently stolen, I would consider it before risking a good road bike.
Did it have a freewheel style rear wheel? I just can't seem to get more than five or six hundred miles out of one of those before the axle bending causes the bearings to take a ****. I'm not talking pitted; once I wore a cone completely through the face hardening and it looked like someone carved a new groove on it with a round file. That was only after 250 miles of road riding. I even buy chrome moly axles online.

BTW, I had a theory that a shorter, aluminum MTB frame would help prevent axle bending because it is more rigid. If you have a bolt on style rear wheel, the axle can't bend unless the RH cone, spacer, and locknut can cause the right rear dropout to twist. Who knows, maybe I can't keep a freewheel axle alive because I like the taiwan made 1980's Schwinns with the wispy steel seatstays. Who knows...?
 
IEatRice4Dinner said:
buying bikes at dpt stores is what puts real bike shops out of business.
oh please! that is not true... anyone that would purchase a dept store bike is
one that is just trying out the sport. Anyone that has bought one of those
dept store bikes would tell you that if they had the money to afford one of those expensive bikes they would have gotten one...

there is also a problem in the industry alluded to by one of the earlier posters.
You can't get a "good" road bike anymore thats affordable. I have a trek 7100
hybrid bike that I purchased from the LBS and I got a good deal. why can't they
have a road bike model with similar components for that?

it seems that at the bike shop there are two types of vehicles. the SUV version
i.e. hybrid or the sports car version and nothing in between.

well, I drive a saturn because I couldn't afford a Lambourgini (not that I would really want one of those anyway) and I don't want an SUV.

really, I think thats what the choices would be if the auto industry followed the bike industry... so I don't feel particularly sorry for the LBS, if I can find
an affordable "road bike" somewhere else.
 
Well, I for one think it would hold up pretty good (unless it's got a freewheel) but you might have a hard time getting it serviced.

The bike would not necessarily perform much better than a hybrid because of the weight and spoke count of the wheelset (cheap aero wheels are heavy!) and for your $300 you could get a simple front shock instead of riding on aluminum forks, densely spoked wheels, and narrow, high pressure tires. You'd also get altus or acera, and quick release wheels (but no brifters, I guess...)

You don't need that stuff; I've commuted on a humbler bike than this Wal-Mart Kent GMC Yukon; but why do you pay $300 when other bikes in that range come with the gear I mentioned?

This is a bike which is made to look like Lance and Floyd's machines. They should make the non-butted, thick aluminum frame livable by adding a shock...but they don't think joe six-pack will know that such a thing is not unheard of in road racing. They should also go light on the wheels instead of pseudo aero. And... it should be a good bit cheaper for the components. I concur that tourney is strong enough and just a bit heavier than acera but why pay an acera price for tourney?
 
garage sale GT said:
Well, I for one think it would hold up pretty good (unless it's got a freewheel) but you might have a hard time getting it serviced.

The bike would not necessarily perform much better than a hybrid because of the weight and spoke count of the wheelset (cheap aero wheels are heavy!) and for your $300 you could get a simple front shock instead of riding on aluminum forks, densely spoked wheels, and narrow, high pressure tires. You'd also get altus or acera, and quick release wheels (but no brifters, I guess...)

You don't need that stuff; I've commuted on a humbler bike than this Wal-Mart Kent GMC Yukon; but why do you pay $300 when other bikes in that range come with the gear I mentioned?

This is a bike which is made to look like Lance and Floyd's machines. They should make the non-butted, thick aluminum frame livable by adding a shock...but they don't think joe six-pack will know that such a thing is not unheard of in road racing. They should also go light on the wheels instead of pseudo aero. And... it should be a good bit cheaper for the components. I concur that tourney is strong enough and just a bit heavier than acera but why pay an acera price for tourney?
I agree with some of what you say. However given some adequate components a "road bike" type of setup will out perform a hybrid. I got a cheapie type of road bike (not the yukon...) that I really enjoy riding because I can go a bit faster on it compared to my hybrid...

I think that there ought to be a level of road bike that is comparable in cost/components to a hybrid that you can get from an LBS but I haven't found it... and there are some that say you can get some deals with older bikes that are sold on clearance... I haven't found that happen at all at my
LBS's so to me thats a myth.

and lets define what I mean with a "road bike". a bike that has the drop handlebars, thinner tires (700x25) and shifters (doesnt mean it has to be
bar end shifters, or the sti shifters but maybe a throwback to downtube, and
stem shifters... ). the frame could be the old "chro-molly" type of frames or
the ubiquitous aluminum frame (like my hybrid).
 
brad g said:
I'm just wanting some opinions on this one, not that I plan on buying it, but the the thread about the Schwinn Varsity at Wal-Mart was fun and informative too, so what do you all think?
http://www.walmart.com/catalog/product.do?product_id=4994756
if you look at the image detail of the fork/front hub, you'll notice that atleast one of the spokes are broken.

is that a standard feature of this model do you think?
 

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