That was until they decided to come out with these puppies!
Smell that? Thats 100% hand made rubber or err tire from Germany. You know the Germans always make good stuff, and usually over charge.
I mounted these puppies and off I went. They are amazing tires (a review on them later.) My average speed went up by at least 2 mph! /sarcasm They ate up the Texas chip seal like it was pudding! Rolling smooth on my 25 mile stretch of chip seal was delightful. However, they were no match for a small piece of metal, roughly the size of a hair.
Visting my parents in rural Texas, the place where carbon fiber does not exists and bike shops close at 5pm Friday and open 12pm Monday. This left me little choice but to try my other LBS, Walmart. I figured they would sell some crappy tubes that would last maybe a week, wtf more do you want for 99 cents? To my surprise, they have a pretty nice selection of bike related products, about 200 bikes, most of them cruisers. Towards the end of the bicycle section they even have accessories.
YAY! TUBES! BAR TAPE! and other junk like that.
But this is where the story turns sour.
Walmart is suppose to sell everything for dirt cheap. But this does not apply to bicycle crap. What gives man? $7.99 for a tube? $29.99 for some shitty road tires? What ever, I need it so I buy it. After shuffling through some boxes of tubes I realized that only have one type of tube for road bikes. It's made by Bell and labeled "700C Universal Bicycle Tube."
hmm...
Okay, we got the wheel size, 700C but what about the valve? Am I to assume that this will fit my rim? What is even worse is that the "Universal Bicycle Tube" is wrapped in plastic packaging, I have never seen this before on a bicycle tube. I guess we don't want something to go missing. Being an idiot that I am, I bought the tube. thinking that I could try it on, hell it might really be universal. The my surprise, it was not! Shock!
Before walking out, I saw something that struck me, the "Walmart Fixie." You know the one.
Behold, the Mongoose Cachet!
After riding it around the store, I was excited to show my mom. She was less than excited, as soon as I rode by the chain fell off. I didn't get "Shlecked," but rather the master link fell off. I frantically started searching for the link to put the chain back together before a Walmart "Expert" came along. I never found the entire link but just one piece, however a nice fellow came by and helped me.
The bike is not bad, but is a heavy, and contrary to popular belief, it does not come as a fixed gear but rather a single speed. But these are not really problems with the bike. A big problem is that the chain does not come lubed, I don't know why, and the crank seemed to be loose. These are just poor assembly problems. There isa high change that the person tht put this together has never seen a fixed gear bike.
The problem arises from when someone decides to buy this bike and realizes it's not what they thought they bought. Most likely, the entry level rider or more likely the teenager that buys this bike will have limited skill with this type of bicycle. It simply defeats the purpose because putting a fixed cog on it will require at least 50 dollars of investment for the cycling noob, not only will they have to buy the bicycle but it is more than likely that they will not be able to put it on themselves.
And the lube problems?
Oh, that will be a problem, trust me.
Worst yet, what if the loose crank comes off?
Needless to say that a "euro cool" cyclist or the avid fixed gear rider will identify these problems right away and correct them as need. However, my mom once rose with breaks rubbing for over 200 miles, and my dad rose without his front feel fully tightened. If they ought this bike, there would be certain death.
So, did Walmart do a good job of being a LBS?
Fuck No!
Where the fuck is my mom going to take her Cachet when it breaks down and I am not here to fix it?
On a side note, my mom totally digs the Cachet. I will have her write a review.
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