OP Balloon Tire Beach Cruiser - good bike to buy used ?

[horsefarmer]

I guess this is like a 4 year old wallmart bike. I see when it was available new it had pretty good reviews on the WM site. Even some RRB members bought them and seemed to like them. (Steve's pic here)

There is one for sale near me, looks good in pics. Asking price pretty much what it sold for new. Is this a good bike today? How did they hold up? If you have one what did you have to change out on it?
I'm about 225 and 5' 10" 30" inseam how do you think bike would fit me, never had a pedal forward bike.
Oh, and one more thing - will this frame take a 1 1/8" steerer?

 

[KJV]

I like mine.
Works great for me:
260 lb

 

[horsefarmer]

So these were better built than most "Big Box" store bikes?

 

[Dr. Tankenstein]

I always thought these would be a great base for an Electra Relic clone.
The frame geometry is almost identical.

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

[KJV]

Ez to lift: very light.
When I first got mine:
Rode it 40-60 miles daily.

 

[metalchewy]

Mine came with a skyhawk bolted to it. Very light frames, so much so that the dropouts are also aluminum. Very solid fork.

Mine came pre damaged from over torqueing on the axle and I got about 200 miles out of it before the little engine tore the dropout off the bike on the drive side.

Sans an engine, good bike. Currently in the scrap trailer till I braze some steel dropouts onto it.

 

[metalchewy]

Muscle biked, after I got it...

 

[Bicycle808]

So these were better built than most "Big Box" store bikes?

I never owned one of those specific bikes, but in my experience, if you're getting a dept store bike, a coaster-only singlespeed is the way to go. The wheels will need some love, and the coaster is pretty crap, but at least you're not worrying about the worst derailers, ineffective single-pivot calipers trying to stop wobbly steel wheels, which are often painted, making the brakes even less effective, etc. Less to go wrong typically means that less will go wrong.

 

[horsefarmer]

This bike sounds interesting, But if I go look at it I better give it a close inspection. The pictures look like it was never ridden - home it isnt because of defect.

 

[Bicycle808]

I've seen plenty of dept store bikes that get donated to the co-op with the price tags still on them, ridden one or 2 times, or not at all. Be wary of any actual defects, but there's a very good chance that the only defect was the previous owner. (Especially given most of these stores' very generous return policy.)