>>1379793>Should I just get a shitty mountain bike from Walmart?Bike mechanic reporting: At my shop we refer to those things as "bicycle shaped objects" or BSOs for short. Occasionally I will stroll through a Walmart and check out the bikes, the sloppy way they are set up, and so forth. The biggest variation is the front brake, which the mechanic must set up as part of the assembly process. Usually this is done really sloppy. The people who do this work are roving crews paid on a piecework basis. They put bikes, barbecues, and lawn furniture together as quickly as possible, and the bikes are evidence of this. When we get them in the shop they are much harder to work on than a decent name-brand bike, because the components are crap. The linear pull brakes can hardly be kept even. No matter how hard you try, one side will be rubbing the rim, no matter what. The rims are shit, with ripples in them, variable width, making them impossible to true, which can impact braking performance. These things are unsafe. I could go on and on...
Watch out for used mountain bikes. Carry a Park Tool CC3.2 chain checker with you while shopping for one, available at larger bike shops or online. If the chain is stretched to 0.75 percent wear, the rest of the drivetrain is shot, about a $250-300 parts and labor job. Don't buy a bike with more than 0.5 percent chain wear, and test ride it on a hard uphill. If the chain starts skipping over the rear cogs, you are probably looking at a drivetrain replacement. The problem with mountain bikes is that the front wheel kicks up a constant shower of dirt onto the drivetrain. This is less of a problem with road bikes, or mountain bikes which never see dirt.
