First Ride: Walmart Ozark Trail G.1 Explorer Gravel Bike
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- Опубликовано: 15 сен 2024
- Come along with me for a shakedown ride of the G.1 and hear my first reactions to riding this budget gravel bike.
I have a bicycle workstand and some mechanical skills, so the night before this ride, I gave the bike a once-over, pumping up the tires, setting the seat height, flipping the stem to increase the stack a bit, checking the wheels for any loose spokes, checking the shifting (using the barrel adjuster to add some tension) and making sure that the front and rear wheels spun freely - the front was delivered with the front disc rubbing a bit. While flipping the stem, I did add a little grease to the headset, which felt a little stiff upon delivery.
With those adjustments made, I took the bike out for a ride and these are my first impressions - it's a solid budget bike! I have the medium, which is listed as a 50cm. The reach to the bars is similar to my 53cm Cinelli Hobootleg touring bike. I'm 5'-8" with a 30" inseam and normal length arms and average flexibility. I'm used to drop bars so the bike feels good, but I can imagine a newer rider my height or a rider not used to drop bars feeling like the reach to the bars is a bit long. For folks my height looking for a more upright riding position, the small may be better, but I haven't tried one so that's just a guess.
I had the G.1 delivered to my door. It arrived within 24 hours of ordering and was delivered without a box in the back of a hatchback. If I had immediately gone for a ride without giving the bike a once-over, the front brake would have squealed, the bike would have felt sluggish from the low tire pressure, and the shifting would have been off. Considering the pricepoint and that many buyers appear to be new riders (and likely without bike-fixing skills), these small initial quality issues are a miss and could quickly sour someone to their new bike. All new bikes, of course, need a little breaking in and adjustment period, but Walmart should work on the quality at delivery and set buyer expectations accordingly.
I hope to do some longer rides this year and maybe a bikepacking trip or two with it and will update the channel with videos.
UPDATE: Here's a video of my second ride, 19 asphalt miles with some rolling hills - • Second Ride on Walmart...
#bicycle #bike #gravelbike #walmart #ozarktrail #2wheelsgood #gravel
I think the closing statement was pretty strong. I hope you're right and people can get into biking on gravel/road for $250. Seems like the best new option on the market in this price range.
Thanks for watching! There's a Facebook group for the bike and I did a poll - 60% of respondents have been riding for less than 5 years, with many not cycling since they were children.
Any way to get more people riding is ok in my book. #2wheelsgood
@@JohnMFlores Awesome feedback. It falls in line with who I thought the bike would appeal to.
A group ride on these would be awesome.
But I don’t play on Facebook.
Group ride would be awesome. Even seeing another one IRL would be cool!
How tall are y’all? Wondering if the medium will fit me, 6’1 with 32 inseam.
Bought mine a couple of weeks ago. They only had a medium and is a bit tall for me but everything else feels good. This bike is to fit between my old mountain and road bike.
Had no idea what I was getting into. With such a low priced bike I kept my expectations low.
It was assembled pretty good but like anything new everyone should check it thoroughly. Had to tighten bearings and a couple other things.
Seat is the really bad and changed it to the Charge. Not perfect but lots better.
I also raised the bars which made a big improvement.
Pedal bearings felt like they were completely shot. They probably would have lasted awhile but put new ones on anyway.
Overall it works much better than I expected. Brakes, shifting and tires worked pretty good and I don't see having to upgrade them unless they fail.
I'm enjoying it more every time I get on it. I feel it's one of the biggest bargains I've ran into in a very long time. But... this bike is not high-end and cannot take the abuse of one. Just saying.
Great value for a very comfortable riding bike.
Interesting....mine seems to be better assembled (I did a lot of the normal checks and adjustments that you do with a new bike). But I would not be surprised if there was a lot of variation in initial build quality.
But once it's given a once over, it seems like a pretty solid bike so far. I did some gravel riding with it over the weekend and am working on that video now.
Thanks for watching and commenting.
You are right John, I bought one, I don't have a lot of biking experience and fell in love with cycling.
Thanks for sharing your story - it made my day! Enjoy the ride!
I have over 110 miles in 1 month on my Ozark trail gravel bike after First 20 miles I put a Selle royal lagoon gel seat and it made the other 90 miles very comfortable and more easy the first seat made me really sore. I'll be adding a seat post suspension and phone holder for now. I would love front suspension just to absorb any bumps and to make ride even more comfortable I mainly use for daily commute to work. I might get street tires for work and keep the gravel for when I want to go off trail. The bike works really good also off trial rode a few dirt trail and big dirt hills performance is really good
Glad you are enjoying the G.1! For a more comfortable ride, you could first try lower tire pressures. I found that it starts to get comfy below 50psi. If you are looking for more comfort, I've heard good things about the Redshift suspension stems. Keep on keepin' on!
I’ve been enjoying mine.
Did swap the seat.
Other than adjusting to fit me, mine was dialed in.
Brakes and shifting were perfect.
Generally I have to really go through a box store bike and fix everything before I ride.
Definitely a pleasant experience.
Glad you're enjoying the bike! Yeah, every new bike needs a once over and a tightening up of things after the first rides. My G.1 was ok upon delivery but I did have to tweak some things that a newer rider might not have been able to do. Still, it's a really good bike. I recently uploaded my second video about the G.1 and am working on a third. Thanks for watching!
Just insane how much bike you get for $248. Picked one up the other day and having a blast
Awesome! It's a pretty sweet ride for $248. Enjoy it.
Great video .
I'm not sure but i was thinking of betting one of these bikes, but i was wondering how it would ride with a set of slicks.
Do you know what size slicks would be a best fit for the wheels?
Thanks. Appreciate the feedback. I answered your slicks question in your 2nd ride video comment.
Could this be a good budget long distance tour bike, bike rail trails, no rough terrain.
There is a guy currently riding from Virginia to California on a G.1. Last I checked, he was in Nebraska! His rack broke but the bike is holding up great. Check him out - instagram.com/neil.aneja/
The one thing I will say is that if your route has a lot of hills and you have bags and stuff on the bike, the stock gearing may be a challenge. But on rail trails with gentle grades and other flatter terrain, it's fine..
My big gripe with this bike is it has no clutch on the rear derailleur! Other than that huge negative, I really enjoy mine.
Glad you're enjoying your G.1. I am too. It's a lot of bike for the money. They really cut corners to hit $248, and the 2x7 drivetrain without a clutch on the rear derailleur was one of the places, unfortunately. I may upgrade over the winter. Thanks for watching!
@@JohnMFlores
I can deal with the drive train. I just hate a clutchless rear derailleur. I haven't found a derailleur with clutch for this bike without having to change the drivetrain and rear hub.
I make my chain slap my chain stay all the time. That sucks! But yeah, I otherwise like my Explorer a lot.
I have thought about getting a suspension fork for it too.
❤❤❤❤❤
My G1 Ozark Trail gravel bike ❤❤❤❤
G.1 FAM!
You assembled yourself? That would be my preference when buying. Dick's sporting goods, you assemble yourself, you void the warranty.
It was delivered assembled, actually. I immediately put it on the stand to check it out. It was mostly ok. The wheels bearing were good. Bottom bracket good. I had to adjust the front brake and add some grease to the headset. I flipped the stem while I was at it.
I did an informal survey of owners and most were pretty satisfied with how the bikes were assembled by Walmart. Pleasantly surprised at that result.
We Europeans are still getting shafted, no Walton family here to give us these bikes for these prices.
Best we got I guess is Decathlon but their Triban's are both still way more expensive and still have those yuck rimbrakes to boot.
I'm ok with good rim brakes - have ridden them my whole life. But yeah, crap rim brakes are really bad. Hopefully the apparent success of the G.1 will spur the development of more affordable options everywhere. Thanks for watching!
@@JohnMFlores Rimbrakes can work fine, are usually lighter and so on. But reliability wise, I wouldn't buy a new bike with rim brakes right now even if it's not performance but reliability and ease of maintenance.
Normally I'd say Decathlon has reasonable prices, but their gravelbikes are just ludicrous. Can't blame them, it's industry wide, I can get a decent mtb from them for reasonable pricing, but gravel it's just to small a market I guess for them to care about?