Bike reviews

GMC Yukon XL Road Bike

Nice Bike

The bike has definitely lived up to my expectations. It has great looks and equally good design. The rear gear shifters/derailleurs are excellent. It was pretty easy to assemble the first time it came. I have been to several rides/tours of about 50 miles and it has been a pleasant ride every time. A few warnings though. The front derailleurs are not working any more, however, I do not use them anyway. Also, I would recommend replacing the pedals with clips(mine did not come with them). Quite light and sturdy, it has all the bang for the buck. I go for 10 mile rides twice a week and the longer tours every fortnight and I would recommend this bike to everyone.

Great road bike for the money

Ok, first off, and maybe a general warning to folks around my height, I received a Kent GMC Yukon XL (the 20" frame) road bike a few days ago. I'm 5'9" with a 29" inseam (30" standover height). I think I probably should've gone for the 22" frame; the 20" frame seems a tad small for me, and there's at least 2 inches of standover clearance on this 20" frame. In any case, it's a good enough size, and this is the first bicycle I've owned or ridden in 10 years+, so I'm really impressed by the new technology being put into today's bikes. This bike is no exception, especially for its low cost, but there are a few problems buyers should be aware of; and maybe be ready to dish out a few more dollars in upgrades (and/or local bike shop assembly/tuning costs) to solve the problem areas. I'll get to these problems in, The Cons. For now, I would like to praise the bike and its + points. The Pros: The GMC Yukon XL is very sturdy, it's fast, it's responsive, it's light (seems light to me although more expensive road bikes can be up to 10 pounds lighter I hear). The caliper brakes work great, and when properly adjusted stop the bike quickly. The Shimano Shora STI shifters are really nice and their action is very smooth and easy to perform. The Maesbend Handlebar is very comfortable. The tires and rims are very sturdy with plenty of tread. And the bike looks great. I thought the product picture looked a little flashy, but the yellows are not as dramatic as they are in the picture. I would like to get rid of the logo brandings, but once again, can't argue with the price. All-in-all I'm very pleased, but I knew from other reviewers that I'd be getting into some upgrades almost immediately, so on to, The Cons. The Cons: The Suntour FD-XR05 Front Derailleur. Yuck, this thing is a real pain in the butt, and short of actually bending out/widening the derailleur cage, it should not be used on this bike with this gear set. I'm very mechanically inclined, and will tinker with adjustments for hours (which I did) if necessary to get something precise, but it seems it just can't be done with this combo. There's always some rubbing at chain/gear angle extremes on my Yukon. I tuned in the Rear Derailleur very nicely (invaluable site here - http://bicycletutor.com), but the front one, uh uhh. So first upgrade: A "matching" front derailleur for a 14-speed gear set. The Vitesse Pro black sadle. This is a very nice looking seat, but it's not easy on the tush, and I'm not sure I want to wait for my rear end to get used to this seat (like how your shoulders get used to supporting an Olympic bar for squats; hurts like hell first several times) before just replacing it with something more comfortable. The tubes. Be prepared for Schrader valves (the big car-type inflator valves). I was fully expecting Presta valves on a modern road bike, but not here. The good news is, along with what a few others have mentioned as a necessary upgrade to avoid inner tube punctures - cloth rim strips, you can purchase new Presta valve tubes for about $5 each from your local bike shop, and the cloth rim strips for around $4 each. The narrower Presta valve will accomodate the larger Schrader type hole opening in the rim. With high pressure (90psi and above) tubes, Schrader valves just don't cut it in my opionion. Any hissing when you unhook your tire pump means a 5-10lb pressure loss, and that can be avoided with the Presta valve mechanism. The VP-390 with toe clip Pedals. I'm not into having to insert my feet into a complete strap assembly each time I come to a stop/start situation. For city riding, there's way too much of that so I immediately purchased a $10 pair of standard hard plastic pedals and they work great. Adjustments out of the box. A word here about assembly and tuning. The GMC Yukon arrives needing a fair bit of assembly, and definitely a lot of fine tuning. The folks at Kent do a quickly-out-the-door type tuning on this bike, and most of the things that can be adjusted, need to be adjusted. If you're so inclined (both mechanically and in the time required to do so) even a total beginner can get this bike tuned pretty well in an afternoon. The instructions are pretty bad though, as others have said, so it will take some patience and possible internet research. I have a feeling on my Yukon that the wheel bearings are too tight on both the front and rear wheels and the next time I'm at the bike shop, I'm going to have them check that out. All in all, it's not a bad idea to let your LBS finish the assembly and tune the bike for you. I hear the average cost for this is between $50-$100, and you can have them do the, what I think, are required upgrades to make this a really nice road bike. In closing, I would've given 5 stars for this product. The price is really incredible for what you get, but due to the fact that Kent is using a front derailleur that really doesn't belong with a 14-speed gear set, I have to knock off one star. On my Yukon, that derailleur upgrade will be wholly necessary (while the others I mentioned aren't system-critical for a bike out of the box). Still a great buy though, and I'd do it again; I'd just know that I'd have to pump a little more money into it to make it really sweet. From the other reviews I'd read about this road bike, I was already expecting to shell out a little extra when I ordered the first one.

Great value - for money!!

I was planning to do STP (Seattle to Portland) Bike ride this summer and started looking for bikes. I didn't want to spend too much... but still wanted something reasonable - as per as components & weight of the bike & looks. To cut the story short, i bought GMC Yukon XL. and to tell you, it looks pretty fancy. I have had it for almost 3 months, and i have put around 1200miles on it. And it has worked great. No issues, shifters work excellent.. no problems until now. I have had few minor issues with breaks. When i see my other friends spend upwards of 1000$ to get a bike which is just 10 lb lighter..i would rather buy this one and loose 10 lbs myself. TO sum up, very good bike if you are not so worried about it being 10 lbs heavier than a 5 times costlier bike.

Its a pretty good bike

For the price of the bike, i think its a very good buy. Me and my dad had to assemble it, but we were able to do it. We both are pretty decent at building things, but i can imagine it to be difficult for some. We had to google some things to figure out how they fit together. I got the bike for my dad and its his first road bike. He likes it alot because its really light and works good. He had to get used to the handle bars and gear shifters though. On the downside, the bike came with a defective inner tube so we had to get that replaced a week after we started using it.

Great bike under $300

It is actually a great bike under $300. It is Made in TAIWAN which is better than Made in China. I have replaced front and rear derailleur with the Japan Shimano and it runs great now. I am 5'5'' and 51cm frame fits well for me. Buy it and enjoy your bike.

Keyword : road+bikes