My wife, after extreme persistence from my seven year old son, purchased a bicycle from Wal-Mart for my Father’s Day gift. Keep in mind that I am not at all a Wal-Mart fan, it was their gift to me and I graciously accepted it. After supper, my son and I loaded our bikes into my truck and went to town for some father/son QT. An hour and a half and several miles later, my new bike had serious issues. The rear brakes were in pieces and the handlebar was about to come off!! We had ridden only backstreets and sidewalks!! Can anyone offer an inexpensive alternative bicycle? This model is an XR-35. Please advise!! I really enjoyed riding with my son and would like a better bike without spending an arm and leg as I am by no means a rich man, well at least in the way of money 
LOCAL BIKE SHOP!!
If u can get away with taking it back to walmart
for a refund, Go to a couple bike shops and look around a little, Ride 4 or 5 bikes to get a feel for a few of them. I think it’s safe to start out look’in at bikes in the 375.00 to 575.00 range. It’s a O.K. starting range and you can get replacement parts if needed, unlike the wally bike. Make sure the bike fit’s!!!
Front shock is nice,Quick release wheels(front and rear)Get a small saddle bag?,Spare tube or repair kit?,Frame pump?,Water bottle and cage?,
Or hydro pack?,HELMET!..
I worked in a bike shop …
for a year and heard horror stories of bike assembly at places like WalMart. Backward forks, incorrectly assembled brakes, loose bolts, you name it. Definitely, go to your LBS (local bike shop). They might be a bit more expensive, but you always get what you pay for.
Don’t blame Mongoose – my first mountain bike was a Mongoose (I eventually sold it), and now I have two titanium steeds (one mountain, one road) in my stable.
Poor Assembly, ditto on the bike shop
Back when I had more interest in biking, I heard people say that Mongoose was an entry-level brand, but that is NOT why it fell apart on you. It was put together by someone who had no clue what they were doing. ANY bike shop will not only put the bike together properly, they can make sure you get one that fits, can replace parts that eventually wear out, and they can do a host of other things Walmart (or even "reputable" big-box stores like REI) can never do.
Not an expert by any means…
…but last year bought my first “good” bike, a low end Trek (7100 $275)and can’t believe the difference from the big box store bikes. I am a bike path rider and a better bike makes it so much more fun…
It’s sort of an “elite rec” bike and I am afraid to try a higher end bike :-)…
And this is a “paddling question” ?
Cheers,
JackL
I think it is a peddling question Jack.
>:^)
Mick
Think Hobie.
Get him an ‘off road’ kayak instead…or
start from scratch and rebuild the bike, fore and aft. The bike and it’s quality isn’t the problem. Walmart dorks are NOT qualified bike wrenches and have no clue how to build, fit, or advise on bikes. However…
You can take a cheapo bike and with a little tuning and tweaking, make it plenty rideable, and it will last a life time. If you don’t know how, there are some very good books on bike repair. It would be an insult to bring the bike to your local bike shop, which is where you probably should have started…but they’ll fix it for a price.
Actually it’s a “pedaling” question
"Peddling" bikes is what bike shops and Walmart do. “Pedaling” bikes is what cyclist do.
i collect junk bikes
i have a couple of bikes i rescued off the junkpile. i have rebuilt murrays, huffys, off brand wallybikes etc. my feeling is if one knows/learns how to tune, even a wallybike can be serviceable.
Bikes vs bikes
I’m not an elitest but Walmart bikes are crap. You’ve likely heard the expression “you get what you pay for” You can have the best trained bike mechanic work on that bike daily & it’ll still be crap. Return it to Walmart !
As explained Mongoose used to have a well deserved rep but then they sold out.
If you’re gonna have even a semi-serious future in cycling & have a local bike shop, they’re the folks to see. Don’t insult them or waste your money by having them assemble or do the constant expensive repair required to keep the junker rolling.
If you really have to save on the initial purchase check out bikesdirect.com. No shp & no tax. A good bike @ a great price will come almost fully assembled (by pro’s) It will be of much better quality (as will anything from LBS) but will still require regular maintenence if you ride it. Cycling’s a great compliment to paddling but you need a good bike to appreciate the experience
mongoose bicycles.
I saw the thread title and thought it would interest me so I opened it instead of moving on to the next. Lol. After years of riding all types of bikes I firmly believe LBS is the way to go. Dealers like to support the products they sell which in the long run overrides any value you may have gained from a department store. Many shops will give the bike a go over after a month or fifty miles of riding. Many shops also initialy give small (5-10%) on acessories, (tubes, pumps etc.) Depending on local terain entry level MTN bike or 3 speed cruiser will be great for riding with the kids.
Rob
After many months of looking
at Wal-mart, K-mart, Sports Authority, etc., we went the bike shop route and are happy owners of Jamis 2.0 Explorer bikes. Not exactly cheap at $375 each, but they have a good warrantee from the shop. And what a pleasure to ride after 20 years on a cheap, heavy bike that didn’t fit.
Good bikes
Head on down to your bike shop and take a couple test rides. If you’ve never ridden a quality bike, then you will be totally amazed at the difference! It really is huge. A few hundred $ will get you a good entry level bike that is worlds above those “things” Wal Mart sells.
easy solution
get a good USED bike… many bike shops sell them. I have an old Bianchi Victory, its old but would still run rings around the Wally world bikes, in quality… I mean its got Down tube shifters and is made of STEEL… It would be right at home in that “breaking away movie”!!! Of course my MTBs are state of the art stuff…
???
I hate this type of post. I bought a such-and-such and took it out and after just a short while it started to fall apart! So? That doesn’t tell us anything about why it was falling apart. Things need to be checked over before they are used for the first time, especially when you know they were probably assembled by some minimum wage kid.
Yeah
Good point, its not like building/maintaining a bike is “Rocket Science” and we don’t even know if wall mart assembled it… I mean do they do that? or do you just get a box of bike parts and instructions the size of a phone book written in 37 different foreign languages?
Peddling pedaling to paddlers? (NM)