Bought a bike for me and the wife off of Fb marketplace. These are our first bikes as adults. Been a while haha. Mongoose malus for $125 and then an argus for $75. I've done a little bit of research and seems like these are definitely bottom of the budget bikes, which is fine.
Some people are talking about upgrading the gears, brakes, and stuff like that. I have 0 bike knowledge so some of that stuff is hard to understand as far as how much better it will be. What kind of returns would you expect from upgrades such as these?
We don't plan on doing anything super technical and mainly will be riding on dirt roads / trails on federal land where I hunt.
by Even_Butterscotch418
2 Comments
Depending on budget, it might be worth taking it to a bike shop and having them do a tune up. Cleaning and greasing bearings, making sure everything is properly tightened. They’d be able to tell you what may need replaced. Maybe $100 per bike would get a good tune and evaluation.
Besides that, ride it for a while and see how it feels and what you think it needs. New pedals is always nice. That seat looks cushy. Maybe you’ll be like me and decide you want to upgrade to a better bike rather than put money into a budget frame.
Either way, put some miles on it and good find for the price.
I have a Malus and put about 2000 miles on it before upgrading. The key things I would look at first are the contact points (seat, pedals, grips) and replacing the stock grip shifter with a thumb shifter. The contact points will make the bikes more comfortable to ride, though looks like you already have a seat upgrade so may not need the rest right way. The grip shifter wore out quickly for me and shifting got sloppy. Would suggest a Shimano Altus or similar 7-speed shifter so that you don’t end up sinking too much money. Should be able to find that for ~$20. Easy to replace. The other thing I did was upgrade the brakes and put on bigger rotors. You may not need that though, depending on speed, terrain, and your size/weight. I would wait and see how the braking feels to you. Beyond that, just replace stuff as it wears out with basic low end parts.
If you ride and enjoy them a lot, you’ll probably want a higher end bike eventually anyway.