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Dunlop Mens and Women's 18 Speed Mountain Bikes - $60 at Big W

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This bike probably has more solid steel than my car which is pathetic actually(for me).

Just bear in mind that steel makes a bike very HEAVY and you don't get nice light alloy at this price.

However, it is an excellent price for a budget mountain bike and can be easily disposed of when it starts to wear out because the servicing costs and repairs will inevitably cost more than the bike(unless you are mechanically inclined and can perform the work yourself).

Furthermore, if someone steals your bike, kicks/slashes the tyres in or causes extensive damage which happened to me you won't be crying. If you collide with a vehicle, then I think human life might take precedence, more-so than a $60 bike :P

Don't really need one at the moment as I have several working bikes but am thinking of buying one and hoarding it somewhere in my house, still inside the unopened box for when I need it(Yes, I have a problem).
The difficult part would be trying to hide it from family members, there you need an excuse such as "It's a 'christmas present' for next year, don't touch it!"…That usually works.

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closed Comments

  • It appears to be normal price.

  • +6

    All steel bike? Mount a Victa 4 stroke on it.

  • +4

    I recently bought a couple of bikes.
    I looked at these bike shaped objects and they are garbage.
    What I ended up getting on ebay were a GIANT iguana in very good condition and a Kojima, also in very good condition.
    21 speed,chrommoly frames, centre pull brakes all the good gear, these were $500 plus machines in their day and are amazing to ride. Both were purchased for under $40 each

    • i wanted to disagree on the "they are garbage" part when you compared a $60 bike to a Giant, until i saw how much you paid for this second hand bike. luck you!! :)

    • With that admission I hope you are propositioning to sell that bike to me for cost price ;)

      • +1

        I'll pay $1 more than this cheap bugger!

  • +3

    agreed, these things are seriously pieces of cr@p. they are no fun to ride. i bought one to ride 1km to the bus stop each day, and it was miserable. I also bought a helmet and a lock, which cost the same as the bike and were better value in my opinion.
    unfortunately the bike was stolen from the bus stop one day. I wasn't sad about the bike, moreso that I had to walk home. also the loss of the helmet and the lock made me sad.
    in summary, don't waste your time on this P.O.S buy a second hand machine off gumtree et al instead.

    • +18

      Sounds like the lock was a P.O.S. too.

    • +2

      i am curious about who the heck steals a cheap bike these days? homeless ppl?

    • +1

      1km, it would of been quicker to walk.

    • yeh the lock might've been a POS. they would have instantly regretted their choice to steal that bike as soon as they rode off on it and their adrenalin rush subsided.

      1km - quicker to walk? Not sure how you arrive at that. it only takes a few seconds to hop on the bike and a minute or less to lock it up at the other end. and you ride at least 4 times the walking speed

    • Machine?

    • Lucky you didn't have a better (more expensive) bike as you have lost that instead! This is the perfect bike to be parked in risky places ;-)

  • Can't complain for 60.00 of entry level bike . I used to have the samilar Dunlop for 199.00 from home to TAFE which did the work well .

    • +3

      $60 is a good investment to find out how you really like biking and when you think you really want to be serious about biking, then you can invest in a really good light weight bike. Best investment is a good comfy seat which could cost more than the $60 bike itself.

      • +1

        I am sure that $60 will make most of the people finding themselves don't like biking. (in terms of hobby)

        But for a transport level use instead of walking, $60 is a good investment.

        • Think of all the potential $100s(hundreds) of dollars you will potentially save in fuel costs.
          Although you might end up paying alot more in medical costs if you get hit by a car LOL!

      • As well as the Giant and the Kojima that I bought for under $40 each as mentioned in my above post (far better bikes for less money) I also bought someone's Dunlop Bicycle Shaped Object on ebay for $13.
        This had a new aftermarket comfy seat on it as well as 2 brand new tyres, still had the little rubber mould lines down the centre of the tires.
        New seat for the Giant thanks and new tires for the Kojima, bicycle shaped object on the fiootpath - seat and tires.

  • +1

    You've got to feel a lil for the poor local bike store when the chain stores are passing this kind of thing off as an acceptable bike and at $60 a piece. Any LBS will tell you of the dozens of folks they get in each week asking for tuneups/servicing/fixing of their ultra cheap bikes and having to explain to them it's going to cost 50-100%+ of what they paid for it new a few months ago.

    I know a LOT of folks will think,"Its all I can afford" but seriously IMHO thats the universe telling you to save a lil longer. I think these are cheap in the short term but in the longer term are effectively more expensive than a marginally better/2nd hand bike for most users.

    Alas we'll never know but I'd be almost certain that within 18mths 80% of these bikes would be unrideable/out for council clean-up days. In the year 2012 do we really want to have whats essentially disposable bikes???

    I know for some people these will be acceptable but do be aware they're going to be pretty horrible & will rust/seize up etc far quicker than one would expect. :-) Each to his own I guess.

    • +1

      if we are comparing a $60 bike to a $600 or $1200 one, i will be very happy if it can stand for 1.5 yrs. as montemaj commented 30mins ago, $60 is a quite good investment to find out whether or not cycling is your thing. it will be absurd to spend hundreds of dollar only to find out you dont like cycling at all. if you can find a good deal like what Davros did, it is another story.

      btw, it is 2013 now….

    • +2

      My mum said "Dunlop" is a "good brand"(probably based on their long tradition of making those god-awful flat shoes). She must be right about the quality of this bike too. Case closed.

  • +1

    Just bear in mind that steel makes a bike very HEAVY

    No, a good quality Cro-Mo steel frame is as light as most aluminium frames. It just costs more these days.
    But the above bike is made from old iron water pipes.
    Will probably be OK if treated carefully. Cheap rims can buckle on the first crash, threads strip when trying to adjust the brakes, - that sort of thing.

    What are the rims? Steel rims are always a bad idea, especially if it ever rains an you want the brakes to work.

    • Just bear in mind that "old iron water pipes" makes a bike very very very HEAVY

      (I have 2 of them setting in my garage covered by dust :\ )

      • +1

        So they add 5kg to the bike's weight, big deal. (e.g. 3kg vs 8kg frame)
        That means going half a gear lower on hill climbs. I can easily carry 20 kg on a bike with only a small slow-down.
        Only a problem if you have to carry it, e.g. up stairs.

        I'd be more worried about how fragile parts of the bike are. Its probably OK for commuting a few km to the local train station, or the odd Sunday ride, if you are not a heavy person. Its amazing they can do anything for this price. Its has pneumatic tyres! gears!

      • I currently weigh over 110kg, so the extra 2kg in a steel frame is totally irrelevant in the overall scheme of things.

        • I currently weigh over 110kg,

          I seriously do not recommend this bike for you.

  • +14

    I crashed one of these bikes into a car once.

    It was a write off….

    I apologised and continued riding home.

    • LOL - I hope the driver had full insurance!

  • i rode this bike and accidently hit the curb. I notice the quality of the wheel is poor and spokes holding the wheel together are poorly installed/weilded. Now the wheel is bent and will make contact with the break at a certain point of a rotation.

  • +3

    I unfortunately purchased one of these bikes from BigW a couple of years ago.
    They are complete RUBBISH bikes and it sits forlornly in my garage gathering dust.

    The ride is terrible as the ergonomics are all wrong. It's a battle just to
    peddle these things in a straight line and the brakes are not what I would
    call life saving as they managed to fail day1 when braking into a corner at speed.

    I thought my life was more important than riding this death machine.

    Save you money and buy a decent bike (which I did).

    I'm surprised they even pass import restrictions on dangerous goods.

  • +1

    Are you sure you didn't setup the brake with the brakeline loose?

    Seriously, these bikes make good spare parts for biking enthusiasts.

  • http://www.rido-cyclesaddles.com/the-full-report-c279.html

    http://www.pponline.co.uk/encyc/sports-injuries-mountain-bik…

    Remember to wear well padded MTB shorts, especially if your going off road! Your grand children will thank you!

  • I once I bought a BigW bike for $200. Never again. Incredibly heavy and the front brakes constantly rubbed. Long story short, after returning it to the store for repair it was returned with the front wheel on so loose to 'fix' the problem it would have dislodged on the first bump. I was quite angry and got a full refund. BigW bikes? Never again. There's a reason why people pay more.

  • +1

    I bought one of these bikes last year.
    One Staurday afternoon will riding I ploughed into the side of a BMW coming out of a carpark.
    Result was I received a $7,000 repair bill from the BMW's insurer. True!
    My bike .. the front rim was buckled slightly which I straigthened by just standinging on it.

    Something there is be said for a set of solid drain pipes on wheels!

    • You may have snaffled a BMW poseur racer AND maybe an insurance policy for $7K. :D

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