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:
The Track One from Genesis is a brand new dual drive bicycle that features the best of both worlds – single speed and direct drive. Simple in concept, but not execution – this one-speed bicycle has plenty of features. Tried and true steel frame, alloy wheel set, front and rear handbrakes, and a choice between direct-drive track style or single-speed freewheel drive.
21 speed Shimano Tourney drive train with dual lever shifters
Triple ring alloy crank with low hill climbing gear
Top tube cable routing keeps shifting and braking smooth
[emphasis added]
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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