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The Walmart Bike

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bloo

I live for the CABE
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.

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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.
 
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.

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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.

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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?

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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.

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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.

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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.

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

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