>>1126894That's the thing about bikes, it can be hit and miss even for real bike brands. When I was in HS, I had friends still riding their elementary bikes that never gave up. My other friends started driving while us bikers stuck to our rides. Me being a naive biker, I thought as long as it rolls, Huffy, Pacific, Next, Mongoose, whatever, it's a bike! So after my collision with the car that killed my Next Gauntlet, I was bikeless borrowing unused bikes from friends for a year or two until freshmen year HS where I found my next bike at a yard sale.
It was a yellow Columbia 10 speed flat bar road bike from either the late 80s/early 90s that I thought was shit tier because it was old, the color scheme was tacky, and my older sister's ex bf would shit talk my bike. He had a Specialized 29er with disc brakes who carried an elitist air to him... and I believed him because I thought he was a 'serious biker' coming from a high end bike from a big name brand that pros use. I was oblivious to what I had gotten myself for a whole $20 but my older sister's ex bf would be amazed I could keep up with his "aluminum monster bike" with my "yard sale pos." I abused the thing but never performed real maintenance on it because everything worked perfectly fine. They had non indexed friction thumb shifters and strong wheels. Eventually my sister's ex bf convinced me to step up to a 'real bike'
I saved up money and regrettably got rid of the Columbia to pick up my first brand new 'real bike,' a Trek 820 mtb. At first I thought it was a 'real bike' and super excited because it was smooth, modern, had a nice color to it, and indexed shifters. The novelty faded away when I realized I liked my Columbia more but it was already gone. No more than half a year after I got my Trek, the rim never kept true, the shifters never held indexing, and the hi-ten frame began to bubble and rust. I was highly disappointed I got convinced to get rid of my Columbia for a pos.
