2006 Schwinn Varsity at Wal*Mart

I saw one last night at my local wallymart. I was rather surprised to
see a 'road bike' there. Actually two road bikes. The other was a GMC
Denali.

First the Denali. I saw one last summer on Ragbrai when it came in to
the bike repair shop with a flat. It had long stem Schrader valve
tubes. Nothing we had would work. The shop owner tried to sell them a
new wheel. I thought these bikes came packaged with new SUVS. I'm
guessing wal mart is dumping them now. $149

Okay the Varsity. Bare naked 'alloy' (aluminum) frame. Tig welded. A
sort of polished look. Fat aero down tube. Fastback seat stays.
Vertical rear droputs. Bolted on rear wheel. QR front but no plastic.
Skinny steel handlebars painted black, just straight thru the front
open stem. Weird butterfly shifters on the handlebars next to the
stem. Old fashioned aero brake levers. Fork is steel shaped and
painted black to look carbon. Aero rims with very long stem Presta
valve tubes. Good luck to the typical wall mart customer trying to
figure those out. $199. One size fits all! No mention of sizes but
it looked to be about a 23" frame. And of course the handle bar stem
was soooo loose I could easily turn the bars while the wheel didn't
move. Typical department store poor assembly. Overall this bike looks
great from 50 feet away but up close is pure crap. All non-branded
parts. Non existant quality. Bad finish on most parts. But it has the
Schwinn name on it so it must have Schwinn's legendary quality and a
Varsity to boot. Who wouldn't want one? Okay, not me.

wrote:
I saw one last night at my local wallymart. I was rather surprised to
see a 'road bike' there. Actually two road bikes. The other was a GMC
Denali.

First the Denali. I saw one last summer on Ragbrai when it came in to
the bike repair shop with a flat. It had long stem Schrader valve
tubes. Nothing we had would work. The shop owner tried to sell them a
new wheel.


How about a grommet/adapter with a long-stem presta valve tube, or
slipping a piece of tubing over a long-stem presta valve tube, or even
wrapping said stem in electrical tape, etc.?

A new wheel sounds a little over the top.




I thought these bikes came packaged with new SUVS. I'm
guessing wal mart is dumping them now. $149

Okay the Varsity. Bare naked 'alloy' (aluminum) frame. Tig welded. A
sort of polished look. Fat aero down tube. Fastback seat stays.
Vertical rear droputs. Bolted on rear wheel. QR front but no plastic.
Skinny steel handlebars painted black, just straight thru the front
open stem. Weird butterfly shifters on the handlebars next to the
stem. Old fashioned aero brake levers. Fork is steel shaped and
painted black to look carbon. Aero rims with very long stem Presta
valve tubes. Good luck to the typical wall mart customer trying to
figure those out. $199. One size fits all! No mention of sizes but
it looked to be about a 23" frame. And of course the handle bar stem
was soooo loose I could easily turn the bars while the wheel didn't
move. Typical department store poor assembly. Overall this bike looks
great from 50 feet away but up close is pure crap. All non-branded
parts. Non existant quality. Bad finish on most parts.


Geez, no name parts with a bad finish. Sounds like a cheap bike. Oh
wait, it *is* a cheap bike!

BTW, what does your shop have in the way of a new, derailer equipped,
non-suspension bicycle for $199 (or even $249) that's a better choice?
Anyone?

And regarding assembly quality, given some of the pure s*** I've seen
come out of some LBSs, I'd tread carefully.


But it has the
Schwinn name on it so it must have Schwinn's legendary quality and a
Varsity to boot. Who wouldn't want one? Okay, not me.

parts. Non existant quality. Bad finish on most parts. But it has the
Schwinn name on it so it must have Schwinn's legendary quality and a
Varsity to boot. Who wouldn't want one? Okay, not me.

Are you saying that there are people who look back fondly on the
Varsity?

Werehatrack wrote:
GM has
apparently not been trying to emulate VW's Jetta/Trek marketing
effort; no GM vehicle comes with a bike as an accessory.

That's not entirely correct.
The Hummer division has a co-branded mountain bike (Montague folder)
and there are a range of Cadillac branded mountain and road bikes. From
the pictures and specs, they appear to be decent quality for but I'm
sure they are overpriced by at least 100%.

The Hummer bike is listed as an accessory under "wheels" on the
hummer.com website and is also shown at hummerbikes.com. I don't know
if the Cadillac bikes are available direct from the dealers as
accessorys.

All this really means is that GM is willing to whore out its brands as
part of some crazy scheme to increase market awareness. As if someone
would be convinced to purchase a Hummer, Cadillac, or Yukon after
seeing one of these bikes. In the case of the Denali bike, I'd rather
try my luck with a Yugo.

If your going to lower level to buy a bike
Walmart,Costco,ect. Bring tools along and go over the bike to be safe
and not sorry.

On 15 Feb 2006 14:42:00 -0800, "amakyonin"
wrote:

All this really means is that GM is willing to whore out its brands as
part of some crazy scheme to increase market awareness. As if someone
would be convinced to purchase a Hummer, Cadillac, or Yukon after
seeing one of these bikes.

And in the case of the Denali, any discerning cyclist would have the
firm association of that name with "cheap and cheesy".

In the case of the Denali bike, I'd rather
try my luck with a Yugo.

I still wonder whose foolish idea it was to brand a *road bike* with
the name of something that's bloated, huge, inefficient, lumbering,
incredibly heavy, and exemplary of everything that a road bike is
*not*. On first encounter, my inherent reaction was "Well, if you're
trying to find a way to tell me that this bike's exactly what I don't
want, you couldn't have picked a much better name."

With the Hummer, at least the image of off-road capability is
reasonably well-founded. With the Denali, which is a frilly lodge
queen if there ever was one, even a mountain bike would have suffered
by association.

As for Cadillac, they lost most of their slight remaining credibility
with me when they started rebranding a Suburban with their badge, and
the rest went away when they came out with their rebadged version of
the Chevy Avalanche, a.k.a. "the world's largest Tonka toy[1]".




[1] Apologies to Tonka.

--
Typoes are a feature, not a bug.
Some gardening required to reply via email.
Words processed in a facility that contains nuts.

On 15 Feb 2006 14:08:23 -0800, "Adam Rush"
wrote:

parts. Non existant quality. Bad finish on most parts. But it has the
Schwinn name on it so it must have Schwinn's legendary quality and a
Varsity to boot. Who wouldn't want one? Okay, not me.

Are you saying that there are people who look back fondly on the
Varsity?

Sure, why not? I bought one when I was 12 years old, I paid around $70
for it. This was in 1967 and it was the bike to have, when riding to
Jr high school. I had the twin sided rear baskets, to carry my books
and a very cool chrome cabled speedometer. It was a way cool metallic
blue.

Compared to my current bike, or even the French 10-speed that I bought
in 1976, the Varsity was nothing special. But when I was 12, it was.


Life is Good!
Jeff

wrote:
If your going to lower level to buy a bike
Walmart,Costco,ect. Bring tools along and go over the bike to be safe
and not sorry.

Most everyone else posts to bash the bike and cry about how horrible it is.
Not you, crazy. You post insightful information that actually adds to the
conversation.

The most insightful post yet. Bravo.
--
Phil, Squid-in-Training

The Varsity was never a high-end bike as I recall; it was their
entry-level road-bike-ish (heavy, clunky) unit if memory serves.
Schwinn's overall value (if not always its quality) moved from
"legendary" to "alleged" to "a legend" as it slid into trouble in the
years before it was borged by Pacific. The Schwinn name is now just a
marketing label IMO. Still, for $199, what road bike exists to
compete with it?

If you can go just slightly higher, I would suggest that a $249 hybrid,
available at many bicycle shops and (hopefully, though not always... shops
do vary, but we're not all as bad as one poster believes) a high-quality
assembly job. Plus a typically free 30-day check, on-site repair work, etc.

No, it's not a "road" bike, but it does a better job at being what it looks
like it is. A very functional bike that's reasonably efficient and will last
much longer than its department-store brethren.

*Properly* assembled, it's probably not a completely
horrible POS, and it might just get someone of limited means on to a
bike. Fit is an issue that a retailer like Wal-Mart is utterly
unprepared to deal with in a bike. Clothing and shoes, sure; the
customer knows what the sizes are about in that area, and all Wal-Mart
must do is put them on the rack. How many typical Wal-Mart customers
would pick the right size of bike if it was sitting there? My guess
is "not many".

But they take care of the sizing issue quite nicely, by only making one
size. :)

Yes, in a perfect world, people (both in the company
and its customer base) would care about that, and there would be a
guide to fit guesstimation, a salescritter who knew what it meant and
had the ability to assits the custoemr by explaining it in words of
less than one syllable, and a selection of frame sizes. In the real
world of what's possible in a market with limited demand for road
bikes, zero comprehension of them by the average Wal-Mart customer,
and no talent in the sales force, it's bloody well amazing that they
have two bikes that look like a roadie at all.

There's a certain irony that a move towards "road" bikes makes sizing much
more of an issue (than it is with "mountain" bikes). If *Mart applied any
intelligence toward selling bikes that would be more practical for the
customer, they'd stick to hybrid or mountain-style bikes, with low,
relatively-short top tubes and highly adjustable stems. But that's not what
they do. They sell BSOs- bike shaped objects- because they look like the
more expensive, more durable bikes seen in bicycle shops.

--Mike Jacoubowsky
Chain Reaction Bicycles
www.ChainReaction.com
Redwood City & Los Altos, CA USA

And in the case of the Denali, any discerning cyclist would have the
firm association of that name with "cheap and cheesy".

In the case of the Denali bike, I'd rather
try my luck with a Yugo.

I still wonder whose foolish idea it was to brand a *road bike* with
the name of something that's bloated, huge, inefficient, lumbering,
incredibly heavy, and exemplary of everything that a road bike is
*not*. On first encounter, my inherent reaction was "Well, if you're
trying to find a way to tell me that this bike's exactly what I don't
want, you couldn't have picked a much better name."

How do you know they didn't name it after the mountain in Alaska?