Bicycles at Costco --- seeking advice

Hello all,

This is my first posting to this newsgroup. Let me also mention that I
like bikes, but I am not a pro... I ride my bike for fun (work schedule
permitting, of course).

Since it's the time that I replace my 12-year bike, I stopped at Costco
in Dallas and checked out the mountain bikes. I liked a dual suspension
Cephas Fever 7.7 TG mountain bike with 21-speed Shimano gears,
thumb-shift, RST front suspension, FormulaAero spoke wheels, etc. for
$199.99.

I know that this is not the coolest and the lightest bike out there,
but I feel that it would be sufficient to satisfy my needs.

Does anybody out there know anything about this bike? I can not find
anything related to it on the Web.

Thank you all!

:-)

wrote:

Since it's the time that I replace my 12-year bike, I stopped at Costco
in Dallas and checked out the mountain bikes. I liked a dual suspension
Cephas Fever 7.7 TG mountain bike with 21-speed Shimano gears,
thumb-shift, RST front suspension, FormulaAero spoke wheels, etc. for
$199.99.

Not to throw cold water on this, but I would NOT buy that bike.

What kind of riding do you plan to do? If you ride mostly on paved roads or
dirt/gravel paths, you don't need any suspension. The weight and low quality
of the suspension will be more of a liability than an asset. For serious
off-road riding, you'll need something of much higher quality.

If you're doing casual riding on roads and paths, a low-end hybrid bike from
a local bike shop would be a better choice. It may cost a little more, but
it will be assembled and adjusted much better than at Costco.

Art Harris

Arthur Harris wrote:
wrote:


Since it's the time that I replace my 12-year bike, I stopped at Costco
in Dallas and checked out the mountain bikes. I liked a dual suspension
Cephas Fever 7.7 TG mountain bike with 21-speed Shimano gears,
thumb-shift, RST front suspension, FormulaAero spoke wheels, etc. for
$199.99.


Not to throw cold water on this, but I would NOT buy that bike.

What kind of riding do you plan to do? If you ride mostly on paved roads or
dirt/gravel paths, you don't need any suspension. The weight and low quality
of the suspension will be more of a liability than an asset. For serious
off-road riding, you'll need something of much higher quality.

If you're doing casual riding on roads and paths, a low-end hybrid bike from
a local bike shop would be a better choice. It may cost a little more, but
it will be assembled and adjusted much better than at Costco.

Art Harris


Art,
You are the third guy in a row to tell him he made a bad choice. If he
likes it then it becomes a good choice. If it saves him the expense of
buying a more expensive bike and finding out he doesn't like it, then it
is still a good choice.

And what is up with the paranoia about doing your own wrench work? Buy
some tools and you have them for life. Go to a shop and you learn
nothing about your bike. Truing a wheel is actually kind of relaxing,
and you don't have to take the bike to the shop, most likely in a car.

Bill Baka

On Sun, 20 Mar 2005 15:55:13 -0500, "Arthur Harris"
wrote:

wrote:

Since it's the time that I replace my 12-year bike, I stopped at Costco
in Dallas and checked out the mountain bikes. I liked a dual suspension
Cephas Fever 7.7 TG mountain bike with 21-speed Shimano gears,
thumb-shift, RST front suspension, FormulaAero spoke wheels, etc. for
$199.99.

Not to throw cold water on this, but I would NOT buy that bike.
i wouldn't either. i think it costs too much
for casual riding. and that's 200 US.

here in canada, cdn tire has their bikes on for 1/2 price
twice a year. i got one last year for 150 dollars for my
daughter. full suspension. grip-shift. looks like everything
on it is basically stamped but it'll be ok for road riding
and light trails.

there's no way i could justify spending more for something
that'll be used less than 10 times a year. it looks
good, she likes it and i'm happy cause i'm not
wasting too much money. a few years ago i spent
250 on a better bike from Skies and Bikes. they took
about an hour to "set it up' and said i could come back
every year for a free "tune-up". well, that'll never
happen cause when i got it home, it would hardly
shift and the brakes were awful. i tidied up the
shifting, cleaned the rims, adjusted the pads
and it worked great.

lesson learned: spend a lot or don't spend much.
....thehick

On Sun, 20 Mar 2005 11:19:33 -0800, human_fish wrote:

Since it's the time that I replace my 12-year bike, I stopped at Costco
in Dallas and checked out the mountain bikes. I liked a dual suspension
Cephas Fever 7.7 TG mountain bike with 21-speed Shimano gears,
thumb-shift, RST front suspension, FormulaAero spoke wheels, etc. for
$199.99.

Does anybody out there know anything about this bike? I can not find
anything related to it on the Web.

I would no more recommend a bike from Costco than fine china from there.
You have to recognize the relationship between quality of construction,
features, and price. This is clearly off the scale price-wise, so you
would have to expect either no features, or garbage quality. However,
this has all sorts of bells and whistles, including dual suspension. You
know it will be junk.

Decent full-suspension is expensive, since there are several critical
parts that need careful machining. You are not going to get that for $200.

If you need to stay in the way low price end, either patiently look for a
good used bike that fits you, or back off on the features. You can get a
good rigid (frame and fork) mountain bike for not much money at all. If
you want more features, expect to have to pay for them.

--

David L. Johnson

__o | And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all
_`\(,_ | mysteries, and all knowledge; and though I have all faith, so
(_)/ (_) | that I could remove mountains, and have not charity, I am
nothing. [1 Corinth. 13:2]

On Sun, 20 Mar 2005 17:22:56 -0500, frank-in-toronto
wrote:

On Sun, 20 Mar 2005 15:55:13 -0500, "Arthur Harris"
wrote:

wrote:

Since it's the time that I replace my 12-year bike, I stopped at Costco
in Dallas and checked out the mountain bikes. I liked a dual suspension
Cephas Fever 7.7 TG mountain bike with 21-speed Shimano gears,
thumb-shift, RST front suspension, FormulaAero spoke wheels, etc. for
$199.99.

Not to throw cold water on this, but I would NOT buy that bike.
i wouldn't either. i think it costs too much
for casual riding. and that's 200 US.

here in canada, cdn tire has their bikes on for 1/2 price
twice a year. i got one last year for 150 dollars for my
daughter. full suspension. grip-shift. looks like everything
on it is basically stamped but it'll be ok for road riding
and light trails.

Man you seem to be fostering the mis-perception of 'bikes' as 'toys', here,
don't you think? In addition you're actually diverting the thread from
buying an adult's bike with comments about buying a kid's bike (toy). You
probably don't mean to do that...I'm just sayin'... ;-)

If the bike is only going to be used as a toy, you spent 100 bucks too much
by your own philosophy. A $60 kid's bike, if you got lucky could probably
be ridden successfully by a 80lb child ten times without problems, ya know.
g

Why not have your daughter research a bike, save up half the cost and get
her to 'educate' herself, learn to use the net and learn the value of
money? Maybe she'd also come to value the bike and even end up riding it
more than 10 times. Don't mean to rag on ya, b/c it's common for people to
confuse 'bike' and 'toy', etc.

there's no way i could justify spending more for something
that'll be used less than 10 times a year. it looks
good, she likes it and i'm happy cause i'm not
wasting too much money. a few years ago i spent
250 on a better bike from Skies and Bikes. they took
about an hour to "set it up' and said i could come back
every year for a free "tune-up". well, that'll never
happen cause when i got it home, it would hardly
shift and the brakes were awful. i tidied up the
shifting, cleaned the rims, adjusted the pads
and it worked great.

Ah, ya might have just gotten unlucky here. There are probably some shops
that look like a LBS but in reality they're Mc-Bikeshops', quick sell -
good luck places.

lesson learned: spend a lot or don't spend much.
...thehick

I don't think so. Careful shopping, checking out thrift shops and used
bikes, and waiting for sales at a real bike shop in Oct and Nov and you get
huge bang for your buck.

jj

"bbaka" wrote:
Art Harris wrote:

What kind of riding do you plan to do? If you ride mostly on paved roads
or dirt/gravel paths, you don't need any suspension. The weight and low
quality of the suspension will be more of a liability than an asset. For
serious off-road riding, you'll need something of much higher quality.

If you're doing casual riding on roads and paths, a low-end hybrid bike
from a local bike shop would be a better choice. It may cost a little
more, but it will be assembled and adjusted much better than at Costco.

Art,
You are the third guy in a row to tell him he made a bad choice. If he
likes it then it becomes a good choice. If it saves him the expense of
buying a more expensive bike and finding out he doesn't like it, then it
is still a good choice.

First, we don't even know what he wants to do with the bike. The "full
suspension" thing is great marketing, but for street riding it's absolutely
unnecessary. Sure, if the bike's not going to be ridden more than once or
twice, he'll waste less money with the cheapo bike. But if it's really going
to be used, he'd be better off with fewer "features" and more basic quality.

And what is up with the paranoia about doing your own wrench work? Buy
some tools and you have them for life.

If he's buying a brand new bike, he shouldn't have to be doing any wrench
work just to make it functional. You have to think "value" not just low
price. In my experience (not just bikes), when I've paid a little more for a
better quality item, I've rarely regretted it.

I maintain the family fleet of bikes, and have built up several bikes and
wheels from scratch over the last 25+ years. And I can tell you it's much
nicer working with decent quality parts than poorly made junk. I don't ride
high zoot Ti/Carbon bikes. My main ride is built around a 20+ year old SL
steel frame. Not sexy, but very good basic quality, reliability, and
functionality.

The guy asked a simple question. The purpose of this newsgroup should be to
tell him the truth. Someone not familiar with bikes may think this Costco
bike is a fantastic deal because it _seems_ to have all the features of much
more expensive bikes. What should we do, tell him, "yeah, that's a great
bike; go buy it."? I don't think so. So, you've given him your opinion, and
others have him their's. The ball is in his court.

Art Harris

On Sun, 20 Mar 2005 18:03:00 -0500, jj wrote:

....
Man you seem to be fostering the mis-perception of 'bikes' as 'toys', here,
don't you think? In addition you're actually diverting the thread from
buying an adult's bike with comments about buying a kid's bike (toy). You
probably don't mean to do that...I'm just sayin'... ;-)
....
no, of course, i didn't mean to do that. my daughter is a teen.
the bike is adult size. i'll ride it sometimes when she isn't.
i don't expect it to hold up if we were jumping logs
but that's not in our near future. and my few forays
into a lbs indcate to me that good bikes cost a lot.
say $500 cdn. that's too much for my purposes.

maybe not for yours. maybe not for the OP.
i don't know.

but this talk of thrift shops has got me thinking.
i'm gonna drop into one tomorrow. i never have
before so i'll ask them what they get. if they
tell me BIKES! sometimes, i'll leave my card.
....thehick

You are the third guy in a row to tell him he made a bad choice. If he
likes it then it becomes a good choice. If it saves him the expense of
buying a more expensive bike and finding out he doesn't like it, then it
is still a good choice.

The problem is that he can spend $199.99 on such a bike, and still be
precisely $199.99 (plus time & aggravation) further away from something that
he might find more enjoyable. Dual-suspension cheapie bikes are a category
that most LBSs generally frown on, for two reasons-

#1: You're spending a lot of money in the wrong place. Even a cheapie dual
suspension bike, for a given price, robs money from other parts of the bike
that need it more... such as wheels, fork quality, frame durability (ever
wonder how long those pivots last on a cheap dual-suspension bike? They
don't.) etc.

#2: We call them "Worker's Comp Specials" as in lift-with-your-knees. Even
on a flat road you can notice all that weight, and to what end?

If the original poster were to go to a bike shop, he could try out a few
different types of bikes (cheapie dual-suspension, entry-level mountain
bike, hybrid...) and see what would be more fun to ride. Also, people don't
come in just one size, like most Costco bikes.

And what is up with the paranoia about doing your own wrench work? Buy
some tools and you have them for life. Go to a shop and you learn nothing
about your bike. Truing a wheel is actually kind of relaxing, and you
don't have to take the bike to the shop, most likely in a car.

Some people have a knack for such things, others don't. I can work miracles
on nearly any bike in a very short amount of time, and yet you wouldn't want
me to touch a hammer and saw and do any woodwork.

More than anything, a really good bike shop is going to do everything they
can to keep the guy's bike on the road and not in his garage. That doesn't
just mean building it right; it means making sure it's appropriate for
riding opportunities in the area, making sure it fits right, and giving the
customer the feeling that they're there for him if anything doesn't seem
quite right.

It's not like this guy is only looking to spend $80 and there's no option
but to buy something at Costco or WalMart. He's spending good $$$ and ought
to get a good bike.

--Mike-- Chain Reaction Bicycles
www.ChainReactionBicycles.com

On 20 Mar 2005 11:19:33 -0800 in rec.bicycles.misc,
wrote:

Since it's the time that I replace my 12-year bike, I stopped at Costco
in Dallas and checked out the mountain bikes. I liked a dual suspension
Cephas Fever 7.7 TG mountain bike with 21-speed Shimano gears,
thumb-shift, RST front suspension, FormulaAero spoke wheels, etc. for
$199.99.

I know that this is not the coolest and the lightest bike out there,
but I feel that it would be sufficient to satisfy my needs.

and it's a piece of junk, assembled by someone who doesn't have a
clue about assembling bikes properly. i might consider a $200
bike without suspension, but one at that price with suspension is
a piece of junk, and the cheap suspension system won't last more
than a few months. plus it weighs a ton!

these are designed to make 13 year old boys nag their parents for
them, so that they can destroy them in a few months and demand
another. they are not designed for adults.

use the $200 to shop for a good used brand name hardtail mountain
bike. you'll be much happier with the results.