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In the last video, we took our Walmart Mongoose to the mountain bike trails, and verified
that it would hold up to the short term needs of a beginner riding novice trails. I say
short term because the hubs on this bike are wearing at an alarming pace. The headset is
awful too, and by awful I mean it sucks ***.
So now there's only one thing left to find out. What can I do on this bike before it
fails violently and catastrophically? Time to ride some street.
Now, keep in mind, an experienced rider can do pretty gnarly maneuvers on even an entry
level bike. It’s when you start crashing and taking hard landings that you can really
tell what a bike is made of. This bike is made of pure, liquefied garbage. It must be.
The parts bend very easily, but you can just bend them back. I’m not sure how I feel
about that.
We kept subjecting this bike to increasing levels of abuse, bending and tweaking it back
into place as we went along. You’ve gotta admit, it shouldn’t have survived this drop.
The
chainring can’t take a hit, but we’ll let that slide.
After getting the Mongoose running again, I was pretty sure that any more damage would
require tools to correct. So, I decided to attempt a 360 on it.
After dicking with the wheel and front brakes, I was able to limp home on this bike, but
I think it's safe to say you shouldn’t be riding street trials on a Walmart Mongoose.
There actually exists a discussion board all about buying, repairing, and modifying department
store bikes. That’s cool. These guys are hobbyists and they know what they’re getting
themselves into. As for the average joe or jane who’s looking to start mountain biking,
you’re probably better off at a bike shop that can stand by their assembly. Even in
the short term, it’ll save you money and frustration. Thanks for riding with me today,
and I’ll see you next time.