WalMart Mongoose Fixed-Speed Bike
For those of you who may not know yet, WallyWorld has come out with an urban “fixed-speed” bicycle made by Mongoose.
Yes. You read that right. WalMart.
An aluminum frame with a steel fork, this bike comes with 48-hole rims, sealed hubs, riser handlebars, and a chain tensioner. All for the surprisingly low cost of $149.
For what it’s worth, here is my two cents.
We got our first one in the shop the other day. Dude clearly wasn’t a “cyclist” and was curious about a $150 bike. He said why not and pulled the trigger online (we don’t have Wally World here in NYC).
The one positive thing people seem to say about this bike is that it is getting more people into the saddle. For that price, any one can have a pretty cool looking single speed. This guy was a case in point about getting more people on bikes. Dude was stoked to be riding and I could easily see that this bike could be the gateway drug for him.
Except he DIDN’T get to ride it.
The nondrive cup was cross threaded into the frame and was sticking out about 1.5 centimeters beyond the BB shell because of it. His freewheel was also incorrectly installed. It was not properly aligned to the hub and was threaded on at an angle. So much so that the bottom of the freewheel was rubbing on the drop out.
Bike was dead out of the box.
His solution was to drive to NJ, return it, buy another one, and get the free assembly offered by all WallMart stores.
I shuddered. To have a bike assembled by someone who also sells dish towels is a god awful scenario.
It seems like a whole lot to go through for something that clearly wasn’t going to last more than six months, even if it was properly assembled. He is going to go through this huge hassle for a bike that he would eventually fall out of love with. Trip after trip to the bike shop. Trip after trip to the ATM. Eventually, he will give up on it. He’d be stuck with that experience in his mind. Possibly so frustrated with the whole ordeal that he would throw his hands up with the whole scene.
My opinion: thumbs down. The bike supports a big box store and not a LBS. It supports a throw away mentality and not a renew reuse recycle mind set. Convenience in this case, and rather unfortunately, trumps quality.
He could have walked out of my shop with a schweet Schwinn for $200. Made in America. Steel. Shop warranty. Boom Boom and Boom.
It gets people in the saddle, yeah, but are bikes really that inaccessible that it takes WallMart to give them to the masses? Should they be given that responsibility?
