I cannot afford to spend more than 500 Freedom Dollars on a bike. I will be living off it shortly and want to make sure it’s durable and can handle at least a 50 pound load plus my 210 pound ass. Is the Ozark Trail Ridge M2 good for this?

I have already been to local bike shops, their cheapest bikes are 900-1500 and are skinny specialized or treks, probably not even what I want anyway.

Don’t get me started on the cheapest Surlys or Salsas on FB marketplace being 1700. So anyway, the ridge. Good or shit? I cannot afford to spend more than 500 Freedom Dollars on a bike. I will be living off it shortly and want to make sure it’s durable and can handle at least a 50 pound load plus my 210 pound ass. Is the Ozark Trail Ridge M2 or the G1 Explorer good for this?

Yes I know >Walmart but they’re both in my budget and at least not huffy or mongoose, and the youtubers like them.

I have already been to local bike shops, their cheapest bikes are 900-1500 and are skinny specialized or treks, probably not even what I want anyway.

Don’t get me started on the cheapest Surlys or Salsas on FB marketplace being 1700. I figure if I’m gonna be on this thing for a few years and on paved+forest+whatever else, it’s gotta be an mtb or gravel. So anyway, which bike am I getting?

rogue milo unironically

A 1990's rigid 26" MTB is your best bet for something in your budget. If you care about durability don't buy anything from Walmart. The bearing surfaces will wear out in 500-1000 miles of heavy use and you're going to have to spend as much as you paid for the whole bike again to keep your shitpile rolling. From the questions your asking we know you don't have the knowledge or opportunity right now to learn how to do the maintenance to avoid this. Walmart bikes are disposable, they're meant for fair weather riders to take around their suburban neighborhood or local paths a few times and then gather dust in a garage until it gets in the way of the car too many times and gets donated to the Salvation Army or hung up in the rafters for 20 years for advanced dust gathering duties.

If you don't have the money to buy anything except trash, save your money and hike with a backpack instead. You'll be slower but you can put those funds towards food, shelter, and clothing rather than wasting it on a terrible bike.

fucked up my retyping because im schizo

appreciate the effortpost, I hadn’t considered just backpacking it instead of going the bike route. i suppose i’ll do that, no sense throwing money away for a gamble of making it easier on wheels. thanks

i would get a marin or kona
four corners nicasio rove etc
or if you want cheap 90's trek multitrack

>>2040653 (OP)

For that budget your best bet is to buy an old steel MTB from before they had shocks and fix it up. The Specialized from the 90s are the ones to get, they are some of the best mass market steel off-road frames ever made. And huge numbers of them were sold to people who never rode them. You can find them for 200-300 on CL where I live.

Many examples here:

https://bikerebuilds.com/search/specialized

>>2040653 (OP)
I bought a bike off a coworker for 500 today. This thing rocks. My last two, a trek 900-something, and a beautiful Cannondale super-v 1k in ketchup and mustard colors, were both under 400 US bones after repairs.

Facebook marketplace and the secondhand market are your friend, you just need the knowledge to see when someone is handing you a pile of shit.


I also bring a question. I'm getting rid of my old sticker-bomb bike. It's rusty, the forks don't depress, and it's taking up space since I got my new trek.

Which of my new ones should I be throwing all new stickers on? My daily, my cargo, or my fs MTB (this one has the most surface area)?

>>2041725
op here i ended up getting an rei bike on sale

try the Bike General Questions thread amigo. good luck

>>2040894
The only purpose of that black thing at the front is to hide the limp dick stem for pictures.
And yes, that's how it's actually called.