$149 Mountain Bike vs mountain - The Walmart Enduro

Welcome to the Pisgah Forest, home to a variety of remote and challenging

mountain

bike

trails. To get anywhere here, you need to climb a few thousand feet. To make it out alive, your

bike

must withstand roots, sharp rocks, and sustained braking. There is no cell phone reception here and the paths are too narrow for emergency vehicles. When your own life depends on your equipment, what value would you place on reliability? The fact that we're at Walmart is pretty irrelevant. It could easily be Target, Amazon.com, or even Canadian Tire. They all offer the same thing: bikes built and assembled to the lowest possible specifications.

With names like trouble, annihilation, ambush, and carnage, these bikes deliver on their promises, but today we remain optimistic. Alex and I are taking our time and weighing our options. Even in a sea of ​​super cheap bikes, we can choose the ones that best suit our priorities. We settled on a pair of Genesis V2100s, which had front discs, threadless headsets, and halfway decent saddles. When we checked out, reality began to set in. We would depend on these bikes for over 5000 feet of elevation change. We would need all the help we could get. Back home, I packed everything from plugs to gorilla tape, zip ties, and extra food so we wouldn't be stranded in the confines of Mount Mitchell.

We headed out with our new bikes in tow and had two main goals in mind; Travel the trail in one piece and finish with Mexican food. What started as a walk quickly turned into an exhausting hike. It wasn't the gearing, or even the weight; We just tried and couldn't. The tires had no traction and the bikes flexed like crazy under any kind of torque. Once the slope leveled out, we had a much easier time and started clearing some serious ground. We were enjoying nature and it wasn't long before we reached our first descent. Although it was only 50 meters, it was eye-opening.

Alex and I prepared for a long drive up the old Mitchell Turnpike, knowing full well that the climb might be the easy part. We were climbing at a snail's pace, carefully choosing our lines. Our cranks began to creak and our bushings began to eat themselves, but we continued down the toll road without encountering any major mechanical failures. In fact, we were enjoying it. For $149, Alex and I participated in an activity that dentists and jewelers enjoyed, with their nice $6,000 bicycles. What do those bikes do that these ones can't do anyway? On my

mountain

bike, this rock garden is a wonder.

On this bike, I couldn't wait for it to be over. As you can see, Alex was going much slower than me. He had the sense to do it. His bike had no damage, while I had a broken fork and no transmission at all. With this comparison it was clear that speed is the main destructive force on these bicycles. As I edit this video, my hands, arms, shoulders, and torso still hurt from this trip. On my trail bike, the brakes can be applied with one finger. On the Genesis, braking is a full-body exercise that leaves you sore for days.

We had reached the end, more or less... We still had to get to the car. Luckily, most of it was downhill and I was able to hitchhike in Alex's backpack. After punishing ourselves for the better part of 5 hours, we only had one thing on our minds. Playing on department store bikes can be fun and a game, but I found that riding one on an actual mountain bike tour is not fun and definitely not a game. Still, I'm surprised Alex's bike survived. Although he was using much more restraint than I was, everything from the gears to the brakes were running at the bottom.

To its credit, Walmart has warnings on these bikes telling him not to take them on mountain bike trails. After our trip, I would have reason to believe that on a flat dirt road, the Genesis V2100 would at best annoy you, not kill you. But like sushi, tattoos, and cosmetic surgery, you'll regret spending too little money on a bike you really intend to explore the mountains on. If you want to fall in love with mountain biking, try renting something first or save $400 for an entry-level hardtail. In the meantime, you can hike these trails for free. With one of these you might be walking anyway.

If you enjoyed this video, I have many others on this topic. Let me know what you think below and better yet, give me some ideas on what to do with these next. Thanks for traveling with me today and we'll see you next time.