Primos Mono Review: Not My Monkeys, Not My Circus
21d 6h ago by sh.itjust.works/u/_haha_oh_wow_ in micromobility from bikepacking.com
Fuck me. I just bought a Salsa but 800 bucks I might have to buy another bike. He is right though. The 40t chainring for the Asheville area is too big. And looking at the website I see they are sold out.
and that the $100 Walmart bike probably isn’t going to cut it
Depends what you want to cut. My $200 Walmart bike handles trails just fine. Not the lightest thing ever, and the suspension only really matters on midsize bumps, but it does "cut it".
And my $10 garage sale bike is my favorite bike ever for on-road commuting.
Garage sale bikes/Craig's List bikes can be 10/10 if you're patient and willing to do some work. I would recommend that over a Walmart bike any day. For $50-200 you could get a really solid bike that can last you the rest of your life as long as you know what to look for.
That said, for the parts on this bike, the price is within the ballpark of reasonable for a new quality bike, and if you get one from a bike shop, it will be properly assembled (unlike Walmart bikes, which are pretty much guaranteed to be fucked up in some way, so if you buy one, you would be wise to reassemble it/check everything closely yourself before riding).
it will be properly assembled (unlike Walmart bikes, which are pretty much guaranteed to be fucked up in some way, so if you buy one, you would be wise to reassemble it/check everything closely yourself before riding)
Bought my walmart bike through their online store anyway, which means it came to my house in a box, and I had to do all the assembly myself in the first place. Which is fine -- because, yeah, I too have seen walmart bikes assembled horribly wrong by their underpaid and under-trained workers.
There are some bikes (like the Ozark hardtail MTB) that will probably be relatively OK if you make them and know how to build a bike, but you would still get better bang for your buck buying a higher quality used bike for the same price, especially if you're already handy with bikes.
but you would still get better bang for your buck buying a higher quality used bike for the same price
Yeah, but higher quality used bikes for the same price are few and far between. Most higher quality used bikes are still more expensive than that $200 walmart bike ... and on top of that may need repairs and replacement parts, driving up the cost a bit higher.
I looked, believe me -- I looked. For fuck's sake, I found somebody selling the exact same walmart bike used for $400. Deals can be found if you try hard enough, perhaps, but the vast majority of stuff on the used market was just absolute junk or significantly more expensive than a brand new walmart bike.
And like I said, yeah ... I know my walmart bike is pretty shitty, and nowhere near as refined (or theoretically as reliable) as 'real' mountain bikes. But for the light trail use I want, it gets the job done just fine. Goes up the trail, goes down the trail. Only issues I've had so far are a couple tires popped by thorns and that the rear suspension gets an odd little squeak to it for a while if you use it hard.
Maybe it's just that my standards are low? This $200 walmart bike is by far the most expensive bike I've ever owned. I'm aware that it's not the best bike ever ... but it is still a full suspension 29er with disc brakes and modern-ish upgradable parts, and it does things I'd expect a bike like that to do.
(Honestly, most of what I do with it isn't "mountain biking" in the sense a lot of people would mean it. I do ride it on mountains, sure, but I have little interest in hitting jumps or shredding downhills as fast as possible. For me, it's an off-road exploration/touring bike. I like to call it a 'trail cruiser', which is a bike classification I entirely made up. I've fitted it with a very tall handlebar riser to allow a more comfortable upright stance, and a wide cushy seat. The suspension helps with the ride too, of course. The idea is a casual 'cruiser' bike that can comfortably cross lots of miles at relatively low speeds, but still handle the occasional section of difficult trail, and also won't make my ass regret choosing to ride over miles and miles of bumpy rocks and roots. My main daily bike is very much a 'cruiser', and I wanted to replicate those ergonomics in a bike that's also capable of handling difficult terrain.)
800 ... Budget?
For the parts on it yes it is. The same parts on a Surly would put it at 2000 bucks.
My bike was £600 and that felt like splashing out on something nice
£600 You know that comes out to be a little over 800 bucks here. What really matters is do you like the bike and are you satisficed with what it does for you? Price does not matter as long as you like it and ride it. And the fit. That is really important. I got tired of racking my nuts on the top tube.
I wish products actually followed the exchange rate. So often see our price is much closer to 1:1 than the exchange rate would have it.