# The Walmart Bike



## bloo (Mar 13, 2022)

Back in January there was a thread @Sven posted about a headline on Vice that was as follows:


> Mechanics Ask Walmart, Major Bike Manufacturers to Stop Making and Selling ‘Built-to-Fail’ Bikes “The problem with budget bikes is everything. They’re literally built to fail.”




Well that thread covered all the issues and angles you would expect it to cover, with opinions all over the place as you might expect. The thread is here if anyone is interested in adding to it, though I believe it has run it's course:

https://thecabe.com/forum/threads/walmart-asked-not-to-sell-bikes.202522/

Several pages in the discussion turned to what is actually wrong with them. We have all seen the clips on youtube and pictures on the internet showing the crappy assembly, forks on backwards, bearing failures because of no grease, etc. Opinions varied about whether assembly was the main problem or whether they are crap to the core. Well, I have  a free one I drug home last fall. In that other thread I promised to tear it apart and document what it is really made of as soon as the snow was gone.

Without further ado, Here is the Walmart bike. It is a Next Power Climber. This thread will be about the teardown.






I had never heard of this brand. It sat out with a huge "FREE" sign on it for several days by some garbage cans last fall. It wouldn't roll. I had to carry it. I was thinking there could be some good parts. Maybe some 26" alloy rims (nope, it's a 24"), maybe some 7 speed indexing parts (nope, its a 3x6). Googling lead directly to Walmart, although it is possible this brand could have been sold elsewhere too. It is a sub-$100 bike. Time to tear it down and see what is inside.


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## J-wagon (Mar 13, 2022)

Inside nothin but dried brown grease and rust. Have fun! 😄
Note: I like fixin these throwaways to give away or sell for lunch money.


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## bloo (Mar 13, 2022)

Much to my surprise the tires were up, low but not completely flat, and beads stil seated. That is nothing short of a miracle as this town is so infested with goatheads. The back wheel was out of true, and as I recall the reason it wouldn't roll last fall was a sticky freewheel. Off came the back wheel and off came the tire. Tires are a bit weathercracked, they are Kenda knobby-ish tires in 24x1.95.





The tubes were stuck to the inside of the tires, badly. I finally got them out. They were stiff. They look like thornproofs, but stiffer.





And the weirdest part, they are not simple thornproofs. I had plenty of those growing up. These seem to have a tire-like ply vulcanized to the top. Could it be Kevlar? I admit living under a rock, but I have never seen this. The Kenda number inked on the tube lead nowhere. *Have any of you seen this?*





Maybe not original equipment, who knows? They are the same brand as the tires though.

I pulled 54 goatheads out of the tire and 4 more out of the inner tube. I wonder if the tube still holds air? I'll have to try it at some point.

The freewheel, which seemed to be stuck last fall was working perfectly, but had a lot of slop in it. It is a "Falcon" 6 speed. Rust? Wear? Incorrect adjustment? I'm going to take it apart and find out.





This is supposed to be an indexing freewheel. It has no ramps, and I don't see much twist in the teeth either. Most aren't twisted at all.





Also, this bike was made in 2007. A 6 speed freewheel on a mountain bike in 2007?! Really? I admit being out of touch, but is this in any way normal? It looks right out of the 1980s to me. As you might expect the rear axle was bent.





Maybe I shouldn't be calling it a mountain bike. The manufacturer calls it a "scooter".





"This scooter is not designed for stunting or for off-road use." 🤣


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## J-wagon (Mar 13, 2022)

bloo said:


> These seem to have a tire-like ply vulcanized to the top



Such fun. That look like tube protector strip to ward of thorn punctures etc. It should peel off but looks harden.


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## J-wagon (Mar 13, 2022)

I'm waiting for you to report grip shifters.... 🎉


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## 49autocycledeluxe (Mar 13, 2022)

I like Grip Shifters. have them on my 1996 Gary Fisher Hoo Koo E Koo.


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## The Spokemaster (Mar 15, 2022)

Low end Falcon parts


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## Fritz Katzenjammer (Mar 15, 2022)

The poor thing doesn’t look too beat up. I’ll be interested to see if it died because it was abused to death by its owner or because its just a POS.

nasty styling... bikes just aren’t as pretty as they used to be.


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## Fritz Katzenjammer (Mar 15, 2022)

Here’s a question, my son had a not inexpensive hardware store grade Raleigh mountain bike with full suspension a few years back and I was amazed at how quickly it turned into a wobble monster as every joint in the suspension developed obscene clearances. It also had some really questionable material choices such as plastic cranks.

How about recording your observations on excess wear and iffy materials on this work of art.


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## bloo (Mar 15, 2022)

That is exactly my intention! This has suspension too, and I am wondering what the hinge is going to be like. Plastic cranks?! Really? That's gotta be a new low. No plastic cranks here. It has a one-piece steel crank.


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## Fritz Katzenjammer (Mar 15, 2022)

bloo said:


> That is exactly my intention! This has suspension too, and I am wondering what the hinge is going to be like. Plastic cranks?! Really? That's gotta be a new low. No plastic cranks here. It has a one-piece steel crank.



They were nylon, fairly soft at that, likely nylon 6 as its quite tough. They were shaped just like a nice Shimano set and painted grey so they looked like aluminum. I only twigged to it when the kid put a few miles on the bike and some of the paint rubbed off. They likely contributed to the wobbly overall nature of the bike once the pivot bushings on the suspension went oval (after about one low mileage season where it went off road maybe once, to cut across a field to get to the video  game store)

what a turd it was.


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## hatz4katz (Mar 15, 2022)

Fix the bike, get it rideable and donate it to a children's cause.  There is some kid out there that would be thrilled to have it.  It will make you feel good, also.


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## bloo (Mar 15, 2022)

That has definitely crossed my mind. At the moment I am still planning to put it back together and make it rideable assuming I don't run into any showstopper problems.


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## bloo (Mar 15, 2022)

Here is the crank. A steel one piece, and it doesn't look like a forging so I am suspicious of it. I saw these chainrings and thought I might want to "borrow" them for the Raceline if that guard is alloy. Nope, plastic, and the chainrings are riveted together. There is probably nothing functionally wrong with them.






The bottom bracket set is like a lot of the Chinese ones you see on ebay and amazon these days. It has 9 bearing cages, cups, and cones like a postwar Schwinn, but instead of 28 threads per inch it has 24 threads per inch like a 10 bearing non-Schwinn. This combination was non-existent when I was working on bikes as a kid, but it seems by far the most common now.





The only gripe I have with this so far is the threads on the outer cone are extremely loose. I don't know whether it is the cone's fault or the crank's. It tightens up though, and the threads are not damaged so maybe it's fine. Maybe I can find some 24tpi spare parts and figure it out. Lots of shims under the inner cone, I assume because of the triple. It will be interesting to see what the chainline is like because it appears they might have been paying attention.





The pedals are plastic, but I guess that has been a thing for a while now. The wrench flats are 15mm, like they are on 9/16 pedals for a 3 piece crank. I've not seen that on 1/2" pedals before.





The axles are bent. The pedals are rebuildable though, and that puts them miles ahead of the non-rebuildable crap Schwinn, Huffy, Murray, etc. were sometimes pushing in the 70s. I can't hate them. If I can get the axles to run straight, I will rebuild them. The cap isn't threaded, you have to forcibly pry it out.





They had grease inside. It was getting pretty bad at the threaded end, almost gone, but no rust. Like some other Asian made pedals I have seen they run loose balls, and more of them at the threaded end than the far end.





I got the "Falcon" freewheel all apart too. As you may remember it was a little floppy. This really isn't worth screwing with because I could go down to the LBS and buy a new cheapie Shimano one for less than 20 bucks, and it would probably have ramps. Never mind that though. I have a 7 speed Dura-Ace all torn apart that I am rebuilding for the 81 Raceline, so I'm in a freewheel fixing mood.





Internally, it looks very Shimano-like, with those split pawls held in by a wire spring wrapped around the outside. I imagined it was a clone of some Shimano but I can't figure out what. That's the Falcon on the left and a Shimano Dura-Ace 7 speed on the right.





As you can see, the method of retention of the sprockets is quite different. The old Shimano 5 speeds had a method similar to the "Falcon" but not exactly. Those freewheel bodies were bigger around. Maybe it isn't an exact copy of anything.

One thing interesting in this picture is that you can't even see where the bearings were running. The Dura-Ace has a polished race, but you can clearly see where the balls were running. Not so on the Falcon. They haven't even worn through the black oxide. It appears this Falcon may have never left the nest.





I took the front wheel off and removed the front tire. It had another one of those odd tubes in it, stuck to the tire casing. I cant quite believe that thorn protection thing was put in separately. It really looks like it was made as part of the inner tube. I removed 50 goatheads from the tire and 2 from the tube. This one had green slime in the tube. I had a tough time getting the valve core out, and when it finally came it shot across the room. What is this stuff all over the tube? Dryer lint? Paper fibers? Weird.


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## Jeff54 (Mar 15, 2022)

I think, tons of kids who get new bikes, are not assembled well, tires loose air, wreck the rims and spend the rest of the time rusting until trash day B/C Parents don't know how to keep em going. .  Old days there were gas stations with free air. These days tubes are crap and hardly a station with air. Wally should make decent bucks on pump sales but it never looks like they fly off the shelves as much as their crap bikes do. 

An option I've considered for some time; If selling a good used bike for regular use, include a pump in the sale.


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## J-wagon (Mar 15, 2022)

Jeff54 said:


> Old days there were gas stations with free air.



Here California gas station by law provide air and water for free. So I don't put quarters in machine, just ask attendant to turn air on. They always do. They know.


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## bloo (Mar 17, 2022)

I got the freewheel back together. I reused the old bearing balls since it was in such good shape. Removing the second thinnest shim tightened it fight up. It has 2 evenly spaced pawls and an even number of teeth inside, so it must engage both pawls at the same time. Good for durability, bad for people who like a bunch of clicks.









Here it is back together.





Here's the bottom bracket cups. Looks like they painted the frame with them already installed, and let the crank bearings grind the paint up. 🤣 The bearings seem in great shape anyway.





Turning my attention to the wheels they are... not bad. They are somewhat out of true and the rear axle looks bent. The rear hub is.. Steel?!





Yes steel. Heavy I guess, but it won't break. The spokes appear stainless, and they are laced cross 3 and interlaced. 36 spokes in a 24 inch wheel. The rims are single wall tubular construction, and look almost identical to Weinmann 519. At the price point it is quite a bit stronger than expected in my opinion.









The steel threaded hub isn't the oddest part either. The dust covers are attached to the cones, and there are cages inside, no loose balls. It uses the same cages and cones as the front wheel. The front hub is also steel, no surprise there. The front hub is narrower than you might expect and has been widened out to a 99mm over locknut distance with extremely thick locknuts, presumably for a 100mm fork. The rear over locknut distance was about 128(?)mm, I'm guessing they meant 130mm. What is 130mm? 6 speed road maybe? Was there ever a 6 speed mountain bike standard? The axle bearings all look really nice. Axles are both 3/8" 26TPI.





Now that it is all apart and clean, the rear axle does not look bent. That is odd because it seemed obvious before. I may need to take it over to a friend's house and roll it across the mill table. I cant see anything wrong rolling it across my countertop.

What is this? STEEL NIPPLES? Is that a thing now? I assumed they were brass.





There's no rust like this on the other wheel. I guess steel isn't a horrible choice when you consider that the spokes are stainless. You wouldn't want stainless on stainless because it would gall up and seize. I hope these aren't stuck too bad.

Here is the rear derailleur. "Falcon Indexing System". It looks like a copy of some old Tourney (TY-15?). the parallelogram is not all worn out and loose, so I assume it will clean up and work.









Disreali gears has a page on Falcon. They are Taiwanese, and have been around since 1972. They once made better stuff, but more recently they seem to be clawing for the bottom. Disraeli gears noted the point when they stopped stamping the parts "Taiwan" and speculated that they moved production to mainland China. Falcon's company history suggests that is probably the case.


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## razinhellcustomz (Mar 17, 2022)

bloo said:


> Much to my surprise the tires were up, low but not completely flat, and beads stil seated. That is nothing short of a miracle as this town is so infested with goatheads. The back wheel was out of true, and as I recall the reason it wouldn't roll last fall was a sticky freewheel. Off came the back wheel and off came the tire. Tires are a bit weathercracked, they are Kenda knobby-ish tires in 24x1.95.
> 
> View attachment 1588293
> 
> ...



That's just a GENERIC sticker they all use for bikes. Seen lots of these before...


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## razinhellcustomz (Mar 17, 2022)

49autocycledeluxe said:


> I like Grip Shifters. have them on my 1996 Gary Fisher Hoo Koo E Koo.



Sure you don't mean "COCO BANANAS"?


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## 49autocycledeluxe (Mar 17, 2022)

razinhellcustomz said:


> Sure you don't mean "COCO BANANAS"?



Hoo Koo E Koo is a trail in Marin County where the original mountain bikers rode. it is also an Indian Tribe from the area.

I don't think Fisher/Trek made a COCO BANANAS bike. there were definitely no Indian tribes by that name


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## razinhellcustomz (Mar 17, 2022)

J-wagon said:


> Here California gas station by law provide air and water for free. So I don't put quarters in machine, just ask attendant to turn air on. They always do. They know.



Here in the cheesehead state, they still have places with free air, but most newer places charge for air. I avoid those places like the PLAGUE...


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## J-wagon (Mar 17, 2022)

bloo said:


> The steel threaded hub isn't the oddest part either. The dust covers are attached to the cones, and there are cages inside, no loose balls. It uses the same cages and cones as the front wheel.



I've noticed the same integrated dust covers cones. Mostly from mass retailer kids bikes.


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## bloo (Mar 17, 2022)

I'll get to those shifters eventually. I remember thinking they were shot when I drug the bike home, but I don't remember why.


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## J-wagon (Mar 17, 2022)

bloo said:


> I'll get to those shifters eventually



Lookin forward to your thoughts. Falcon gripshift most rudimentary. I won't say too much except avoid crack plastic when you pry it open. And don't lose the metal spring goes flying when pop the thing open. 🎉


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## bloo (Mar 18, 2022)

J-wagon said:


> Lookin forward to your thoughts. Falcon gripshift most rudimentary. I won't say too much except avoid crack plastic when you pry it open. And don't lose the metal spring goes flying when pop the thing open. 🎉




Ok I got the handlebars and cables off. The shifters move and click, but I would say they were obviously having trouble. The cables were all frayed and one of them was wrapped around the pinch bolt. When I tried to slide one of the cable housing pieces, it bunched up one strand, so it had a strand broken between housing sections. Rust, too. It definitely needs shift cables.

Do I have to take the grips off and remove the shifters from the bars to do this? I slid the brake lever inward to get it out of the way, but there was nothing obvious except an allen screw I haven't pulled yet.


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## J-wagon (Mar 18, 2022)

bloo said:


> Do I have to take the grips off and remove the shifters from the bars to do this? I slid the brake lever inward to get it out of the way, but there was nothing obvious except an allen screw I haven't pulled yet.



🎉Yup, loosen Allen to remove grip shifters. Use thin flathead or similar to pry open shifter housing carefully don't crack anything.


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## bloo (Mar 18, 2022)

To clarify, do I have to take them off the bars? I was just plotting how I'm gonna get the grips off without destroying them.. And, yep that looks like the shifter.


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## J-wagon (Mar 18, 2022)

bloo said:


> To clarify, do I have to take them off the bars? I was just plotting how I'm gonna get the grips off without destroying them.. And, yep that looks like the shifter.



You don't have too. I just find it easier to remove from bars when disassembling/ re-cabling. As far as rubber grips, no need to remove. Just slide whole shifter assembly off bars


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## piercer_99 (Mar 19, 2022)

J-wagon said:


> I've noticed the same integrated dust covers cones. Mostly from mass retailer kids bikes.
> View attachment 1590652



New Departure did that decades before mass retailer bikes did.

Unless you include bikes sold by department stores from the 1920's on.


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## bloo (Mar 19, 2022)

I was referring to the use of cages and dust covers like that on a _rear thread-on freewheel hub_. I don't think I have ever seen that before. This bike uses a lot of ideas from an earlier time, like a one piece crank, threaded headset, quill stem, nutted axles, thread-on freewheel, etc., but that rear hub is odd to me. To the best of my recollection every freewheel hub that crossed my path back in the 70s or early 80s had loose balls and dust covers that had to be pried out of the hub body, with a strong possibility that the dust covers would get damaged by removal. As a kid, I hated working on them. They didn't get serviced much.

If this mass market rear hub is a copy of something from an earlier time, I would like to know what. The other day on bikeforums somebody posted a Maillard hub that was marked "sealed", but was not a cartridge bearing hub. It had the dustcovers attached to the cones like this, but turned out to have loose balls like most other freewheel hubs.

Nice blackout hub!


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## bloo (Mar 20, 2022)

Fritz Katzenjammer said:


> They likely contributed to the wobbly overall nature of the bike once the pivot bushings on the suspension went oval (after about one low mileage season where it went off road maybe once, to cut across a field to get to the video game store)
> 
> what a turd it was.




The pivots are tight on this one, so tight in fact they didn't want to move at all. The bushings are steel or cast iron or something. How long would that last? I don't know but I am not expecting any pivot trouble at this point.






The shock, on the other hand, was another story. It is completely hosed. I noticed the adjuster nut was all galled up from a channellock or vise grip or something. It was burred up so bad it felt like you could get cut on it. The nut didn't want to turn more than a few degrees. A closer look showed the bad threads. After a bunch of oil and having to resort to the channellock myself, it was off.





What a mess.





This will clearly have to be replaced if the bike is ever to work again. It's not really a shock by the way, there's nothing in the barrel. It's just a spring. There is a sticker warning you to make sure the nut is tight against the spring before riding. Unfortunately it is under the spring where you can't really see it. 





I wonder if someone missed that and caused the failure, or if the aluminum is so soft and crappy that it just can't hold back the spring. I suspect the latter, but I'm not sure. I saw an amazon review where a shock almost exactly like this one suffered a first day failure. No matter what I think you would want anti-sieze on the threads.


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## J-wagon (Mar 20, 2022)

The adjustment collar, 7 star shaped nut thing, is for coil preload and sag. The bike still rideable as long as collar threaded so snug up against coil not rattling around. Not that really matters functionally this bike.


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## bloo (Mar 20, 2022)

We'll see. I don't think it is going to snug the coil.


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## bloo (Mar 21, 2022)

I got the pedals back together after straightening the axles. Interestingly one of them had 11 balls on the inside and 10 on the outside. The other had 11 in both ends. I added another ball. Yeah I know I shouldn't have one ball from a different batch, but the jury is still out on these pedals. I put them on the 61 Speedster and took it out for a spin. They're better, but still bent. I'll probably have one more try at straightening them.

The next problem I found was with the "Falcon" front derailleur. When I took it apart, the cable was all frayed and wrapped around the nut, without even a washer let alone anything that looks like it was meant to hold a cable. I didn't think anything of it at the time, thinking it was simply misrouted. A closer look after the derailleur was off the bike told another story. The cable cannot go under the head of the bolt, because it will hit the limit screws. There is no hole in the bolt, as sometimes used by Shimano. Even if there was it would stick out too far with a cable threaded through. I started looking at pictures of old Shimano stuff from the Skylark era, as it seems that is what this is copied from. I looked at any Falcons I could find as well. Some Shimanos use a tabbed washer, but they also have a longer bolt. It is pretty clear that is not what is intended here.





Eventually I found the groove that was supposed to lock the cable in place. I don't know how I missed it the first time.





But that won't work. The head of the bolt will hit the limit screws. Here is a picture of an NOS falcon derailleur of the same type that was on ebay.





As you can see if you look close it also has that same dogleg bend that puts the bolt head closer to the limit screws, but on this NOS one there is a couple millimeters more clearance. That should be enough. I looked all over mine to see if it could be bent. It isn't. I even took it apart to see if there was anywhere a bend could be made that would fix it. Nope. I believe it was mis-manufactured and probably never worked.

I did find another pic of a falcon derailleur, but this one is not the same model. The cage is a different stamping, and it is probably older and not for a triple. It has that tab bent out at a wild angle, probably 45 degrees or so. No dogleg in the stamping. The mechanism is similar, but this one has a built in cable stop.





I'm going to bend mine out like that to get clearance and run the cable up into the notch from the outside.


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## J-wagon (Mar 21, 2022)

Interesting. I see dogleg but piece looks flipped. My red squiggle dogleg. Factory error?


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## Boris (Mar 21, 2022)

Great thread! And not even my area of interest.


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## bloo (Mar 21, 2022)

J-wagon said:


> Interesting. I see dogleg but piece looks flipped. My red squiggle dogleg. Factory error?




Wow. How did I miss that? You nailed it, it's backwards, and it is part of a much larger piece, so can't be on upside down.


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## J-wagon (Mar 21, 2022)

Definitely goofy. Here's a junky falcon and dogleg piece proper. My eyes still see flipped dogleg on yours.


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## bloo (Mar 22, 2022)

I kind of like the cable routing on this thing. It's pretty tight and clean.









The brake cables seem to be in great shape, but the shift cables are a mess. I picked up a couple of new cables at the LBS, and a bunch of cable endcaps, because the ones on the shift cables are aluminum and they are disintegrating. Maybe they contributed to the frayed cables.





The jury is out on the housing. It might be all rusty. The cable that came out was. I figured the frayed cable was probably steel, so I put a little chunk of it in water to see if it rusts. If the cable is stainless, then the housings are steel and shot. The rust had to come from somewhere. They are marked "SIS". They have the same OD as the brake cable housing. Isn't shift cable housing for indexing supposed to be a millimeter smaller?





I finally got the shifter apart on one side. The grip was separate, so I did have to remove that to get the shifter off of the bar. I might have clobbered the plastic tab a little. Hopefully not too much. These are a pain to get apart.









On the other side, I was able to move the shifter away from the grip, rotate the shifter all the way back, then just pull while rotating it further back. It came right apart. I'm soaking the grip now, I'm gonna pull the shifter off of the bar anyway to I can clean it out and lube it.

I measured the chain and it wasn't stretched, so I cleaned it up. I had a couple of cups of mostly spent evaporust, so I soaked it in that, washed it off in hot water, then lacquer thinner, then dunked it in hot wax. It's nice and free and feels like a new chain. Is this really for an indexing system? It looks like a tenspeed chain from the 70s.





Before:





The headset had grease in it.





The only thing that looked like a problem, that top cup has a dent in it. It is not as it seems though. It appears to be an upside down top bearing like a Schwinn deluxe headset, but it isn't. The top cup in the frame is conventional, and that top piece that screws on is a cone, the outer bit is just a dust cover. I should be able to knock the dent out with no effect on operation.





I took the brakes off of the swingarm to clean themup. Brakes are one thing that at least seemed to be working correctly.





One side was assembled backwards. I wonder which way is right?





And now it's time to work on the wheels......


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## J-wagon (Mar 22, 2022)

bloo said:


> They have the same OD as the brake cable housing. Isn't shift cable housing for indexing supposed to be a millimeter smaller?



Not too surprising, mtb shift housing often same diameter as brake house, 5mm. Since marked sis, probly at least proper compressionless housing. I've noticed cheaper bikes use spiral wire, brake, housing for shifters. I guess to save money. Paired with junky grip shifters it just compounds poor shifting.


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## The Spokemaster (Mar 26, 2022)

The spokes are NOT stainless

They are UPC finished steel = brite finish / plain steel = cheap


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## The Spokemaster (Mar 26, 2022)

Inexpensive KMC chain on your bicycle = Kuei Meng

At one time they were the largest manufacturer of bicycle chains in the world -may still be

They make many different types of chains from cheap to very expensive


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## bloo (Mar 26, 2022)

The Spokemaster said:


> The spokes are NOT stainless
> 
> They are UPC finished steel = brite finish / plain steel = cheap




Hey @The Spokemaster  , you're a mile ahead of me. 🤣  I had to google that. Unpoloshed chrome? I had figured out that they weren't stainless, but was just about to post and ask what they are!

I bought a whole set of 72 brass nipples because the ones on the front wheel were rusty, and I decided to change them all and not fight it. While I was at the LBS, I bought 10 stainless spokes so I would have enough to finish. There were still 10 nipples extremely stuck at that time, despite being oiled up and sitting by a heater for a few days. In the end only one spoke broke, and that was on the back wheel, which wasn't rusty. Go figure.

When I got home with the stainless spokes they had the typical stainless color, and laying next to a wheel they were obviously not the same. I had no idea what the ones in the wheel were though. I figured they couldn't be galvanized because those turn dull in the car on the way home, and this bike is from 2007. As far as I know, nobody does cad anymore.

For what its worth, those UPC spokes did not rust, not even in the nipples that had scaly rust on the heads. The very tips of the threads turned dark gray, but that was all.


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## GTs58 (Mar 26, 2022)

Quote:
_Knowing the difference between KMC vs Shimano chain is crucial if you are a bike enthusiast._ They are both excellent bike chains that offer various upsides and downsides. Knowing the difference in features of these two brands is essential in looking for the chain for your bike.

Quote:
*KMC Chain Industrial Co., Ltd.* is a roller chain manufacturer headquartered in Taiwan, R.O.C. with corporate entities in the US, Continental Chain Company, and Europe, KMC Chain Europe BV.[2] They make cam driving chains, balance driving chains, oil pump chains, motorcycle chains, and industrial chains.[3] _They manufacture and market bicycle chains and master links under their own KMC brand and supply them to others, including Shimano._[4] KMC chains are used in the Tour de France by riders such as Gustav Larsson, Swedish time trial champion.[5] KMC was founded by Charles Wu in 1977,[1] and was the largest bicycle chain manufacturer in the world in 2011.


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## bloo (Mar 27, 2022)

Remember that rear hub I said I liked? Not so great after all. The axle was bent, no big deal. I was toying with the idea of ordering a chrome moly axle because they hang out a mile and get bent on freewheel bikes. I decided to try and straighten it first. It was really hard to bend. Maybe it is chrome moly. When I put it back in the hub it was still bent. So, I tried again. Still off center on the freewheel side. WTF? Two or three more straightening attempts later, on bends so small I had to use feeler gauges because I couldn't see the bend, it was... still bent. Bah.

I have never had so much trouble straightening an axle. On close inspection I realized it really couldn't be the axle. After some wheel spinning while feeling the edge of the cones, I had about convinced myself the cones were machined wrong. I tried the ones from the front wheel because they are identical. No improvement. WTF? After spinning the wheel a little more with my finger against an unlocked cone I realized the bearing cups were not parallel. The are the pressed in replaceable type, so I put a punch through the back and tapped on the lowest spot. Massive improvement. I dribbled in some wicking loctite from the back side. I wonder if the freewheel threads will be straight?

I replaced all those steel nipples, and one spoke that broke in the back wheel, greased up the bearings and trued the wheels. Things are finally looking up. I put the tires on and pumped them up. Remember, I removed over 50 goatheads from each one(!). The back one stayed up. The front didn't. I couldn't find the leak at first, after all it is full of green slime. It is split by the stem. No LBS today, it's Sunday, so I picked up the only thing I could get today, a slime tube from walmart.






I don't think that kevlar(?) thing was supposed to come off of the old tube, but I peeled it off anyway and put it back in.





And finally, I have wheels.





The dork disc didn't make it.





Unlike most bicycle fans I don't hate dork discs, at least the metal ones. The plastic ones are garbage. I couldn't find anything approptiate in my junk and IIRC all the ones at the LBS are plastic, so I guess it will have to do without.

The rims remind me of something even more than the Weinmann 519. Maybe some 1990s Araya? I think so. Anyhow they are "HJC". They seem slightly oversize, and are a little hard to slip the tires on.





I took the derailleurs apart and cleaned them up. On the front one I straightened half of the z-bend. That puts the bolt out at a goofy angle that looks about like the older model Falcon I posted earlier that had a built in cable stop. I think it will clear and work fine now.









On the rear derailleur the top pivot post was loose on the claw. A little 56% silver solder fixed that.





Ready to go back on the bike.





I'm not avoiding those grip shifters, I swear. 🤪


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## bloo (Mar 29, 2022)

I had a go at straightening the fork today. It was indeed bent. Heck it looked bent. The axle was about in line with the steerer. I don't know how far forward it should be but there is a bike like this on the local craigs. The pictures aren't good enough to really tell anything much about fork rake except that mine is definitely wrong. It has rubber boots on the fork, and mine doesn't look like it ever did. Maybe a slightly different fork? Craigslist bike as an example:





The fork is made by "SHIN FERNG CHERNG", and seems to be part number(?) Ø2111. Check out their logo, it's a little bicycle.





There is a bit of natural rake in the fork because the tubes are set forward of the steerer tube at the crown. You can kind of see what they did at the crown in this pic.





I might have a little more rake than just the crown offset now. Does anyone have one of these bikes laying around who could check if the fork tubes are parallel with the headtube or if they are raked forward a little?

Look at those cantilever bosses. I'll have to take another good look at the brakes that go on here but shouldn't these posts be parallel? They point inward.

And the ones on the swingarm point outward... WTF? Am I missing something here?





Meanwhile on the swingarm, the kickstand bracket is completely clobbered.





There is no kickstand. I would have guessed the kid pulled it off as soon as he got it home. That's what I would have done when I was a kid, but no. This bracket has had some trauma. Somebody has re-welded one side and patched it up with silver paint.





And the other side is cracked.





It's being held on with a tack weld from the inside





I decided to pound it straight and if it breaks it breaks. There's no kickstand regardless. Looking better:





But, definitely cracked. I'm not sure if the crack is in the tube or just the weld. The right answer is to mig weld it like the other side, but I don't have a mig. Brazing it would burn off more paint than I would like. It probably doesn't matter. This swingarm feels really solid. It is sort of heavy. It might be thicker tubing than a normal department store frame. The area is blocked by the chainwheels, Maybe I could use my smallest tip and silver braze it without taking off too much paint. Hmmmm......


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## J-wagon (Mar 29, 2022)

bloo said:


> Does anyone have one of these bikes laying around who could check if the fork tubes are parallel with the headtube or if they are raked forward a little?



Yup, junky nonadjustable, pogo stick suspension fork. The tubes stanchions made offset forward of headtube. When daylight I can post example.


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## Jeff54 (Mar 30, 2022)

Good news! I was at Wally's today and its clearance time again. All the returned rusting Huffy's, Kent and a couple more I never heard of, are awaiting some lucky shoppers. The Huff's look pretty slick too: Some kind of mock multi-speed fancy trail bike Rusted scratches, chains and disk brakes, a bunch of cables and do-dads where, for half price, U might, maybe, with a hope and prayer, get enough parts to fix somebody's Huff clunker from last Xmas's sales.


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## J-wagon (Mar 30, 2022)

Here pic fork stanchions offset Walmart mongoose mtb.


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## bloo (Mar 31, 2022)

Thanks for posting those. The forks look like they could have easily came from the same source. In this one, it looks like the fork tubes are parallel to the steerer tube, and 100% of the fork rake is a result of the fork crown offset:





But, on this one it looks like the fork tubes are angled slightly forward (green line).





I am guessing the second one is camera distortion. Any thoughts on which way it really is?

When I straightened mine, It was tough because one side bends easier than the other, yet somehow the original damage was about symmetrical. It's close, but one side is slightly forward of the other. I'll probably start by working on the leg that is most wrong, whichever that is. First I need to verify that the steerer tube isn't bent. I don't think it is, but I couldn't find a top headset cone to check it. The one that goes with the bike has that silly dust cover on the outside, and it's bent. It isn't much of a measurement reference LOL. I guess I could take a bike apart to get one. I'll dig a little more tonight.

A quick check with Sheldon's strings suggests the frame alignment is decent side to side. I've not checked it for twist yet, but I suspect it is fine.





I'm off to dig for a top cone. More later.


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## J-wagon (Mar 31, 2022)

bloo said:


> I am guessing the second one is camera distortion. Any thoughts on which way it really is?



Yup, camera distortion. 

If you want, pop off the fork stanchion top caps and check out what's inside them tubes. Should be long allen head bolts or similar holding the upper and lower stanchions together and probly find springs like pogo sticks in the lowers.


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## vincev (Mar 31, 2022)

so are these 6 pages trying to say "Cant make a silk purse out of a pigs ear"  ??
​


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## bloo (Mar 31, 2022)

I'll leave you to draw your own conclusions. LOL.🤪


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## J-wagon (Mar 31, 2022)

😃Nutty but interesting thread, @bloo very systematic documenting findings 👍.

My conclusion junky grips shifters weakest link, failure prone and need Popeye forearms to engage full range. Not designed to be service or operator friendly and easly damaged when hacked for service.


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## Schwinny (Apr 1, 2022)

Whats most interesting to me is; the effort it takes to make one of these bikes, from all the parts to the assembly and packaging. Then the shipping it takes to get it here, and then the standard minimum 40% minimum mark-up that nearly every retailer in America uses as its bottom line. EQUALS less than $100 US. 
And US currency is pretty low in the value department in the world market.
All for a bicycle everyone including the owners agree is a real POS and a waste of human effort.

We are wasting Earths resources and then filling our oceans and every hole we make with the garbage made from wasted resources.
Heres where the "unbridled" part of Capitalism comes in.
UUUUhg.
I will _never_ buy a new bike, and here's another reason. Mindless consumerism


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## bloo (Apr 20, 2022)

Hey @J-wagon, I finally put those shifters back together. So far I'm not impressed. They are cleaned and lubricated and are still pretty hard to turn, so it is not the aging problem I have heard others complain about. Maybe they are better with the derailleur tension against them? Honestly, they seem pretty awful right now. The right has a rubber grip and the left has plastic.










And the brake levers, plastic, have a pivot distance of 30mm, putting them halfway between short pull and long pull levers I guess. Brakes are low-profile cantilevers.









The stem is TIG welded up out of tubing. Weird, but I don't hate it.





Look how they handled the top with a machined top hat piece:





It wouldn't bother me to use this piece in a good bike, outside of the fact that it looks modern, and my bikes are decidedly not modern.

*Does anyone know who this logo belongs to?*





It also turned up on the seatpost and some other part I can't remember right now.









I was able to clean the rear shock up enough to get it back together. The stripped threads were beyond the range of the spring. I suspect that someone rode the bike initially without tightening the spring. There was a warning sticker NOT to do that, but it was mostly hidden behind the spring, so no doubt easy to miss. I think it also stretched the body a little, as the threads don't quite line up anymore. Nevertheless after cleaninng the threads up I was able to get the nut restarted after getting it past the part of the body with the missing threads. The aluminum of the body is soft. It is very likely prone to damage anyway. I cleaned up the pliers marks on the nut with a Dremel. They were really sharp, probably sharp enough to cut skin.





This shock is a horrendous POS. Look at where the nut is set, and yes I cranked it down a lot, but even all the way loose, it is not going to reach the obviously stripped part. That means most of the threads are useless even when new. The spring is pretty short. I measured the stroke of the "shock" itself, and it may have to be this way. You couldn't have the spring bottoming out noticeably because that would put all the force into the threads, and they are weak. I measured the coils and added them up, and I couldn't get exact, but the distances were as expected almost the same, presumably to prevent damage.

Because of that, and because you have to press a bushing out to get the nut and the spring off, I doubt anyone changed the spring. Maybe they use this body for different stroke lengths and different springs? From what I see here I doubt it ever comes out well. Replacements are available, and cheap, but this spring rate seems to be hard to find, and sellers are terrible about including the mount dimensions, which can be wrong.





I stripped the covering off the saddle because It was shredded. VELO, made in Taiwan.





MATRIX ENER-GEL.





Staples in plastic? Really?





I guess if regular old yellow foam is "gel" then it's gel. Or maybe that .020" of white stuff is the gel.





No matter. We don't need no steenking gel.

Seat guts have this nifty stop to keep from slipping down. The teeth are sharp and the nuts do not feel like they are going to strip. I think this is better steel than the department store grade seat guts from the 70s by quite a bit.





Nice clean out of the way spot to mount a reflector.





*Satelite* not Safelite? LOL.





Now where was I when I left off a few days ago? Oh yeah, the fork was still bent. More on that in a bit.


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## The Spokemaster (Apr 20, 2022)

Not upc spokes ....they are ucp


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## bloo (Apr 20, 2022)

When I left off, I was looking for an upper headset cone to substitute to make measurement to see if the steerer tube was bent. I found one and quickly figured out, yes it was indeed bent but not that much. I also took the fork all apart. It came apart just like @J-wagon said it would. Finding something to fit inside the steerer tube to prevent damage was a little tough. A Schwinn seatpost would work, and I have a loose one, but I couldn't find it. Finally I found a rigid electrical conduit sweep that fit inside and soon I had the headset running true. Then I laid it on a really flat surface. I picked the leg that was furthest forward to bend. I may have mentioned earlier that one side bends easier than the other, although nothing on this fork is easy to bend. It really takes a lot of force to do anything to it.

The headset was fine, and although it is cheap looking it is pretty good. Even the crown race was good. There was some discoloration that looked like brinelling, but apparently not. It runs silky smooth, even tight. Knowing what a hit this fork must have taken to bend it, that is nothing short of a miracle.









The bolts are staked apparently to stop them and set the preload evenly.





Originally they had rubber bumpers on the head, but one had disintegrated. On test assembly, one leg was longer than the other. Quickly corrected by backing one side out about 1-1/2 turns. This is not a real world problem though, because it only occurs when there is no weight on the bike. I also thought it might correct itself with rubber under the bolt heads. Spoiler: yes. Still I wondered if they would be the same length with weight on, so I lashed this up, pulled up one inch of compression, and measured it. It is fine.





I got these rubber bushings from the hardware store. Too big, but I was able to cram them in there with super lube, and they do not grab the bolts so it's fine.





So, back together it went, and got installed on the frame. I aligned the dropouts to each other, they were only off a tiny bit. Then I put some threaded rods in, and some strings, and set the steering straight ahead by making the wheelbase exactly the same on both sides. This is looking pretty good.





And not too bad with the strings measured to the bottom bracket either. About 1/16 (so the error is about half of that). I think it will go straight.





Next thing is to get the bottom bracket, derailleurs, and chain on. More coming.


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## bloo (Apr 25, 2022)

Ok, so I got the bottom bracket assembled, and the derailleurs and chain and back wheel on and... The rear derailleur is out of line. I had previously lined the dropouts up to each other even though I forgot to get a pic, so that wasn't the problem. The derailleur was out in 2 different planes 🙄. This is a claw type derailleur (yes, in 2007!) and as you may recall I had to silver solder the post to the claw because the factory riveting is loose. I wondered if alignment would be a problem. Spoiler: yes. So, I took it back apart and lined it up, but with the chain tension against it another problem emerged. EVERY joint in this derailleur is loose. Well, every joint except the post riveting I silver soldered. Not just the parallelogram either, the bushings on both pivots are sloppy loose. This thing can be pointing in about any direction at any time. I don't know much about indexing, but it is difficult to imagine how this could work very well. Of course there is a good possibility It wasn't built like this. Maybe it got really clobbered later on. Based on the lack of wear everywhere else, I doubt it happened from years of use. Interestingly, the purple bike on craigslist I posted a pic of earlier has a guard over the derailleur. Probably a good idea. I see no sign that my blue bike ever had one.





I put the rest of the bike together, set the seat and stem to the maximum markeed height, and set up the derailleurs using the instructions for the Shimano units they appear to be copied from. I have seen a Falcon sheet for the rear one, but it appeared to be the same as Shimano with less detail as I recall. Then I put it in the lowest gear and took a lap around my tiny back yard. First impression: Not bad. I am 6'3" and knew this was going to be like a gorilla on a tricycle, if I could ride it at all, which I sort of doubted. My knees didn't hit the handlebars or anything. In fact, it doesn't even feel very crowded. I've owned 26" mountain bikes that were worse.

The next morning I loaded it up and took it down to a bike trail with a pocket full of tools to adjust everything. There are some issues, and the rear derailleur is the least of the problems. Firstly, these Falcon grip shifters are $%^&^%$%^ HORRIBLE!!! The rear one does index, sort of, after careful adjustment. The clicks are stiff and tend to feel like they overshoot. Maybe they do, but if you try to correct it you go down a gear, so maybe it is an illusion. It is shakiest shifting between the second and third tallest gear. With careful adjustment it works, thought noisy, and the indexing, if you can call it that, is nice to have.

The front shifter on the other hand is not indexing. I don't know what you could call it. Friction with some random clicks I guess. It is truly the most awful shifting I have ever experienced. The spring in the derailleur is extremely stiff and the clicks in the shifter are stiff to hold it. There is no possible adjustment that will make it shift properly. The shift from the middle to largest chainwheel is the problem. Any adjustment that will reliably initiate a shift will occasionally throw the chain off. The best you can do is set it so that it rattles and tries to shift for 4-5 revolutions of the crank, but usually will shift. It will still occasionally throw the chain off to the outside. When tearing this bike down I initially wondered why the plastic guard on the chainrings was so beat up. Now I know. It catches the chain. It is a good thing it is there, because when the chain gets thrown on an upshift you can reach down there and put it back on, rather than having it fall all the way to the crank. Oh yeah, and you can forget any notions of cross-chaining to if you even want it to work this well. I know cross chaining is not a good idea anyway.

The brakes are another problem. They were the only thing that seemed to work properly when I initially drug this home, but it wasn't rideable then so I don't know for sure. The squealing is horrible on the front, and LOUD. After a bunch of readjustment I got it so it doesn't make much noise until the bike is almost stopped, but that last little bit is pretty intense. I couldn't really get decent performance out of the back brake. It won't lock anyway. Earlier, before I went to the trail, the problem was the wheel wasn't quite true. Weird because I had just trued it before I put the tire on. I don't think it was spoke windup because I am aware of that, and also these are straight gauge spokes and wind up less. Whatever, it seems to be stable now. Back at the trail, even after a lot of adjustment, it just isn't very good. Also, the adjuster has bad threads. It isn't slipping, but since it was all galled up it was getting difficult to adjust and wouldn't stay locked because the hole in the plastic brake lever is spread. I wasn't doing any good so I went home. Even with the rather aggressive pull ratio of these levers, you run out of travel and hit the handlebar long before the wheel is locked. There is too much flex everywhere, including the cantilevers themselves. Maybe some compressionless cable housing would help. I don't know. I am going to pick up some new adjusters at the LBS, and maybe try straightening the cantilever posts, but I am pretty much done here. Even doing everything myself I have probably spent ~$30 on miscellaneous smalls at the LBS, and that might(?) be 1/3 to 1/2 of what this bike originally cost. To really work properly my best guess is it would need both derailleurs, both shifters, a modern chain, and maybe a new freewheel. That isn't even touching on the marginal brakes. Yeah that stuff is all cheap, as it would have to be bottom of the line Shimano to fit this bike properly, but it adds up. I'm guessing $100 with careful shopping. It would probably be half that if some of the parts could come from my junkbox. I don't need this bike, so this journey is getting very near the end.


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## J-wagon (Apr 25, 2022)

bloo said:


> Firstly, these Falcon grip shifters are $%^&^%$%^ HORRIBLE!!!



Yup. True dat! 



bloo said:


> I don't need this bike, so this journey is getting very near the end.



Enjoyed reading your updates. Very interesting!


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## bloo (Apr 30, 2022)

*Some final thoughts:*

In @Sven 's thread that inspired this one, there was a lot of discussion about "how bad are they?" Is the vitriol against them simply snobbery? After all, there have always been cheap bikes. Are they just bad due to poor assembly at the store? Are they crappy to the core and impossible to make work at all? I've often heard it said that if the dad who bought one for his kid had gone to the LBS and spent 3 times as much, he would STILL be money ahead by the time he had a working bicycle, and then it would probably still be heavier than it needs to be.

On some level, all of these things are true.

One thing that stuck out to me in @Sven 's thread was that people were saving parts off of these. If they are crap to the core why are people saving the parts? I get it now.

When I was a kid, one of several kids in my neighborhood working on a lot of bikes, there were a few brands that were just to be avoided. I'm not going to name names, and to be fair I had a terrible understanding then of who was manufacturing what. Nevertheless I could usually look at some department store bike and know that there wouldn't be much usable because the parts would be too soft. There would be bent steerer tubes, stripped threads everywhere, crappy stamped stems that couldn't hold the knurling on the handlebars, etc.

This Walmart bike was still crappy, but crappy in completely different ways. One thing that stuck out was looseness of threads. The bottom bracket to one-piece-crank threads shocked me, although after comparing with an old American bottom bracket, it wasn't as much worse as I thought. The thing that sticks out is that the threads weren't stripped. They didn't feel weak either, just harder to adjust. It works fine, runs smooth and the bearings were good. This was also true of axles. The cone threads were looser than expected. No thread damage, just a little harder to adjust. I had to straighten the rear axle. This bike has a freewheel, not a freehub. That's clearly a poor choice on a mountain bike in 2007 (oh wait, they called it a "scooter", didn't they?). The bent axle problem with freewheel hubs and heavy use is well known. I had trouble getting the axle straight. I think it is chrome moly. Even if it isn't it is a damn sight harder and tougher than the freewheel axles I used to buy for my own bikes way back when. The fork was bent on this bike, and although there were some things about that fork that could have been made better, straightening the steerer tube was hard to do, as was the rest of it. It is FAR stronger and tougher to straighten than any fork I encountered on a cheapo department store bike in the 70s. That must have been quite a wreck to make the mess I was fixing. It is pretty surprising, in light of the fact that Chinese steel takes so much heat for being horrible, that the steel in this bike is really good. The threads were all undamaged despite being looser than normal. The bearings were all good, even in the headset that obviously took a hit. I totally understand why people save the parts now.

It has been alleged that the main problem with these bikes is poor assembly by department store employees who understandably don't care. There are enough reports of failures due to over-tight and ungreased bearings on the Internet I am inclined to believe it is a thing. This bike however had grease in all the bearings. It goes deeper than store employees though. Take the Falcon freewheel on this bike for example. It was wobbly loose because it was shimmed incorrectly. The bearings were in fine shape, it had both pawls timed to land at the same time (a good design for strength), and it appeared to be brand new inside, with no bearing tracks visible in the black oxide. After reassembly with one less shim, it was rather nice. I feel safe in saying nobody took the freewheel apart. Even bike shops recoil when you suggest you might do that, and then where would the extra shim come from? A similar situation exists with the pedals. One pedal had one more bearing ball in it that the other. I don't believe some dad took this apart either. It is not obvious how to do it. Oh yeah, and they painted the bottom bracket cups with the frame and let the bearings grind through it. This sloppiness had to occur at the factory, and can't really be blamed on lazy or underpaid store employees.

Now lets talk about the drivetrain. The front derailleur was mis-manufactured and probably never even tried to work until someone wrapped some strands of the shift cable around the nut as if it were a wire on a terminal. Even now it doesn't work right. The left grip shifter is not an indexing one by the way. It is a bunch of random clicks. The chainwheels have no pins or ramps (in 2007!). The derailleur does not look like it is even for a triple. Maybe it doesn't need to be, because the chainwheels are 48-42-36. Thats only 6 teeth between middle and top, probably too close for most triple derailleurs, so maybe it needs to be a double derailleur? I'm out of my depth on that. The trouble is it will not reliably shift from middle to top, it will sit there and rattle, but on every third or fourth try it will throw the chain too far and it lands between the outer chainwheel and the plastic bashguard. Yes, it is adjusted correctly. The way I see it this could have never worked. Then there is the matter of expecting some kid to shift it. One of the most common complaints about grip shifters online is that the kid cannot twist hard enough, either in the beginning, or after the shifter starts to age. They allegedly get harder to turn. This one has just been torn down, cleaned, lubed, and has a new cable. The spring tension on the derailleur is high!. Getting this up into the top chainring takes a lot of twist. It's as good as it can be right now, and I doubt a lot of kids could do it, even if it could be trusted not to throw the chain off.

Then there is the rear. It IS at the moment working and indexing, barely, despite the rear derailleur being loose at every joint. It is noisy, but it does shift and it does sort of index. The shifter is a downright horrible feeling thing, but could have worked fine in the beginning if you aren't too upset about chain noise. It is easier to twist than the front, but I wouldn't call it easy.

Then there's the brakes. I bought some new barrels at the LBS, and heated up the plastic handles with a heat gun and un-warped the threaded areas. The front is noisy but stops well. The rear is not so great, although it might skid with a lightweight kid on it. You might get more improvement by straightening the cantilever posts (they aren't welded on straight, so It's hard to say if you could correct it without ruining the paint). You could try some Kool Stop Salmon pads. It might be acceptable as is right now if you aren't too picky.

Finally there is the matter of what it would cost to fix it. If you were some dad buying this would you have been money ahead to go to the LBS and spend more? Plainly yes.

If we assume that you are going to keep the chainrings (probably you are because the bike has a one piece crank, and something better may not be available), the cheapest derailleur I could find on Ebay that had an upper clamp for a 28.6 seatpost (IMHO shims suck), triple capable, down pull, was $25.

Realistically we need different shifters because they suck, and because basically every thread about them on the internet is "my kid cant shift them on his/her new bike" or "they're 6 months old and now my kid cant shift them anymore". The obvious solution is trigger shifters. But wait, this is six speed at the back. Trigger shifters apparently came into being with 7 speed indexing. For 6 speed, mainly more cheap grip shifters exist, and that's all, the good ones having been discontinued long ago. It turns out one company, Microshift, makes 6 speed trigger shifters. They are still listed on the Microshift site, but out of stock everywhere. To get trigger shifters it would need to be converted to 7 speed. In 7 speed everybody makes trigger shifters. One good thing is that the Falcon freewheel, which has no ramps nor twisted teeth, would go away, leading to better index shifting. The rear spacing is 130, and I believe that is road bike standard spacing for 7 speeds, so a 7 speed freewheel should screw on and fit.

There is also the shock, that apparently got destroyed because someone didn't tighten it. The warning not to ride it before tightening was mostly obscured by the spring, so realistically this is probably going to happen. A new one is about $20.

Shopping carefully, Shimano Tourney 7 speed freewheels are about $24-$26, depending on which one you get. The rear derailleur needs a claw mount, limiting your choices. Shimano has the TY-300 and TY-500, both with a slanting parallelogram and a b screw, 7 speed capable, and available in a claw mount version, for about $20. A pair of Shimano SL-M315 shifters (their cheapest triggers) for a 3x7 bike are about $42. Adding in the front derailleur ($25), that leaves us with 99.95 (bike) +25(fd) +25(freewheel) +20(rd) +42(shifters) +$20(shock) and we are at $231.95, and I have not included any tax or shipping on parts. I have not included the cost of any of the smalls I bought for the bike in this thread. I have not included a complete service at the LBS either. Lets face it, almost no one buying this bike is a bike mechanic, and it probably needs all the bearings greased and everything adjusted. It also needs the wheels trued, because these bikes are widely known to be delivered with the spokes too loose. For best economy, truing needs to be done right off the bat so the rims don't get bent. I don't know what that costs at a shop. If you are critical of the brakes you might also need some Kool Stops (about $21 for both brakes) and if that still doesn't make it stop the bike without shrieking, maybe some less flexy brake arms made of aluminum (about $32 for both if you are thrifty). No doubt I have forgotten some hidden costs. It is easily going to be $300-$400 or more by the time it is working well enough to really put some miles on. And yes, it will still weigh more than it should.

On the other hand, from the little I rode this, outside of the unusable drivetrain parts and dodgy brakes, I sort of liked it. If one of these fell into my lap for free that was 26", or better yet 29", I might try to fix it.


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## J-wagon (Apr 30, 2022)

bloo said:


> I totally understand why people save the parts now.



I confess....the 40t front sprocket on my 1936 Silverking klunker is from a girl's Walmart bike (Pacific brand) 👍


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