My local bike coop is full of very dependable, freshly tuned bikes that average around $150, built with love and care by expiriend mechanics. If you have issues with your bike, those same mechanics will guide you through the process of fixing it and give you access to every tool you could possibly need to do so, all for free or suggested donation.
Some are actually decent from Walmart now, specifically their Ozark trail lineup. Basically the current CEO is really into trail riding, so they sell mountain bikes that are actually good for $400.
Huh, I haven’t tried them for years, but every Huffy I’ve seen is utter crap. Maybe the Ozark line is acceptable to get started.
That said, if you’re into mountain biking, the entry price is ridiculous, with $1000 being considered “borderline crap” for a hard-tail (no shocks). I probably wouldn’t trust a Walmart bike on downhill MTB (worried about tire slippage or the chain popping off), but it should be fine around town and on some gentle trails. Even so, I recommend a hybrid or “city” bike of you’re mostly sticking to pavement, they don’t have shocks to sap your power and they’re super simple to maintain. $500 gets you a great hybrid from a good company, and usually free service for a year or two.
I mean, I got used carbon full suspension mountain bike for $500 used a few months ago, there are plenty of decent hardtail bikes lightly used for $400-500 in my area.
My area seems to be $1k+ for lightly used HT, and a decent full squish is like $2k. I’m in an area where MTB is super popular (Utah), so there are a lot of enthusiasts that know what bikes are worth. It’s especially bad for me since I’m tall and need a less standard size.
I have seen a few good deals here and there though. I got my kid a decent Trek with front suspension for $250-ish, and I’m going to shop around for some upgrades (kids keep growing). But $500 is what I expect to spend for a decent bike, anything less for a decent bike is a steal.
My local bike coop is full of very dependable, freshly tuned bikes that average around $150, built with love and care by expiriend mechanics. If you have issues with your bike, those same mechanics will guide you through the process of fixing it and give you access to every tool you could possibly need to do so, all for free or suggested donation.
Oh yeah, if you have a local coop, do that. Just avoid stores like Walmart and Target.
Some are actually decent from Walmart now, specifically their Ozark trail lineup. Basically the current CEO is really into trail riding, so they sell mountain bikes that are actually good for $400.
Huh, I haven’t tried them for years, but every Huffy I’ve seen is utter crap. Maybe the Ozark line is acceptable to get started.
That said, if you’re into mountain biking, the entry price is ridiculous, with $1000 being considered “borderline crap” for a hard-tail (no shocks). I probably wouldn’t trust a Walmart bike on downhill MTB (worried about tire slippage or the chain popping off), but it should be fine around town and on some gentle trails. Even so, I recommend a hybrid or “city” bike of you’re mostly sticking to pavement, they don’t have shocks to sap your power and they’re super simple to maintain. $500 gets you a great hybrid from a good company, and usually free service for a year or two.
I mean, I got used carbon full suspension mountain bike for $500 used a few months ago, there are plenty of decent hardtail bikes lightly used for $400-500 in my area.
Nice!
My area seems to be $1k+ for lightly used HT, and a decent full squish is like $2k. I’m in an area where MTB is super popular (Utah), so there are a lot of enthusiasts that know what bikes are worth. It’s especially bad for me since I’m tall and need a less standard size.
I have seen a few good deals here and there though. I got my kid a decent Trek with front suspension for $250-ish, and I’m going to shop around for some upgrades (kids keep growing). But $500 is what I expect to spend for a decent bike, anything less for a decent bike is a steal.