Spent half an hour this morning giving the Bike of Doom its 500 Km inspection. No adjustments necessary other than cleaning and lubing the drivetrain. Took the bike for a spin and it was silent. Amazing what a little cleaning and oil will do.
I have noticed an intermittent, very slight knock, either […]
So far, the daily commute on the Bike of Doom (SuperCycle 18-speed Mountain Bike) has been really good.� My typical daily route is a 22 Km round trip.� On days when I need to get to work quickly, I cut it to about 16.� If I’m in a hurry to get to […]
Okay, this is cool. I found a blog called “Maple Leaf Test Rides“, subtitled “The continuing saga of test riding a Supercycle SC1800 (Canadian Tire product # 71-1556)”. Yep, the very same bike I’m riding. This fella started riding his SC1800 back in December 2005. To date he’s put on 3,892 […]
On a recent ride Mike only half jokingly suggested that I contact Canadian Tire to tell them how well their $99 bike was doing, with an eye to becoming a spokesperson for SuperCyle. That’s not in my plan, though. I don’t really want to be a shill for Canadian Tire, or any other […]
On one of our weekend rides, Mike and I began to realize that Canadian Tire Supercycle bicicyles are ubiquitous. Everywhere we looked we saw Supercycles. New ones, old ones, kids riding them, adults riding them, entire families riding them. They outnumbered every other kind of bicycle on the street by a longshot. […]
Although unscheduled, I thought I’d give the BOD a good look over to make sure it wasn’t falling apart… you read enough bad news about department store bikes and you start to believe it!
Everything looks fine. Wheels remain true, spoke tension consistent. Gears are working properly and shift as well as can be […]
Bike guru Sheldon Brown doesn’t think much of department store bikes: “The average department store bicycle is ridden about 75 miles in its lifespan from showroom floor to landfill.” Click here to read everything he has to say.
Who can blame him? I own three bikes, two purchased from good Local Bike Stores (LBS), and […]
The streets were empty, almost ghost-townish today as I ran a few errands. Good Friday. It was also brutally cold. Very few cyclists out, and those bundled up. The pictures look deceptively bright and warm. You can see the river is still frozen, the riverwalks flooded.
Assinniboine River, looking toward […]
I’ve been scouring the Internet looking for blogs, websites, even forum posts of people who ride or have ridden department store bikes for one reason or another. I came across a blog by a young guy in Ontario named Tudor Costache. He has (or had) a cheapo Canadian Tire bike he calls The […]
I’ve been noticing other people riding the equivalent to my Bike of Doom. You nod at another cyclist and you see he’s riding a rusted, wobbly wheeled Supercycle, Huffy, Extra or other kind of department store trash. For the most part, these are diehard commuters. They don’t wear cycling gear. They’ve […]
