Walmart, the new home of the hipster, is selling yet another fixed-gear bike. While not as stripped down and handsome as the not-that-bad Mongoose Cachet, the Genesis 700C Mens Fixed-Speed Track Bicycle is a little more versatile, and costs the same $150. Better still, the low price seems to have been achieved by skimping on the accuracy of the product description rather than the bike itself. Take a look, remembering that this is a bike with just one gear:
Thankfully, running that description through Google Translate's new de-moronizer filter gives us the real specs. "Direct-drive track style" actually means fixed gear, so combined with the "single-speed freewheel drive" you have a flip-flop hub. Considering that a wheel with a flip-flop hub, a fixed and a freewheel cog can easily go for a lot more than $150 and you have a deal right there. Just make sure you tighten the spokes when the bike arrives and you have yourself a cheap wheel, with a bonus free bike attached.
The steel-framed, aluminum-wheeled bike looks like a pretty good bargain all over in fact. Despite what the boutique, vintage-framed fixed-gear vendors would have you believe, a single speed bike is about as simple as it gets, and should be cheap. I'd rather spend $150 on a bike with almost no parts to go wrong than I would spend $250 on a full-suspension mountain bike that will never keep its gears in adjustment for more than a day at a time.
Good job, Walmart. It's just a shame about those awful decals on the frame. It looks like they read "crack one".
Genesis 700C Mens Fixed-Speed Track Bicycle [Walmart via Cyclelicious]
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