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 Lightweight with braking issues Jul 23, 2010
Like a few of the other reviewers, my girls really struggled with the drop bars and included brake levers. I purchased two of these, one for my 9 year old and one for my 8 year old. We live in the mountains of Colorado and brakes are pretty important. I swapped out the drop bars for a midrise bar and bought a couple sets of Avid reach adjustable brake levers. I should point out that for maximum braking power, the brake pads should be sanded with a medium grit sandpaper to remove the factory shine. Once the new bars and levers were installed and the brakes were adjusted, the bike worked great. Know that you will need to plunk down an extra $50-75 to make this bike safe. Beyond the brake issue, this is a nice quality bike for the price. Not knowing how fast your kids are going to outgrow a bike, it's really hard to justify spending $500 or more for a 24" wheeled bike. Don't hesitate to buy one of these for your kid!
2 of 2 found the following review helpful:
Good bike for smaller child -- need to add inline brakes. Apr 10, 2010
First of all, a Thank You to the previous reviewers. The bike arrived 3 days after I ordered it and was exactly as I expected. Assembly required, brakes and shifters needed to be adjusted, but the frame was reasonably well put together, and everything worked. And the brakes were useless for small hands. I added inline levers the way others have suggested, but I moved the shifters to the barends. There is a "customer image" showing this. I also wrote a detailed web page with instructions, but I believe I'm not allowed to link to it. So I will quote it instead:
>>Finding a road bike for a small child turned out to be really difficult. I thought I'd make this page to write up what I learned in the process. The "GMC Denali," possibly the worst name for a bicycle ever, is made by Who Knows What company, and it's available at amazon and department stores. What's nice about it is this: It's readily available, the standover clearance is 21 inches, and it's inexpensive. What's not so nice is that it's definitely a department-store quality bike, so some assembly is required, and even then it's not ready to ride for a child with small hands.
Following the recommendations of some amazon reviewers, I addressed the problem by adding auxillary or "inline" brake levers.
Because there isn't room for the levers and the shifters on top of the handlebar, I messed with the shifters for over an hour, trying to get them off. By process of elimination, I finally figured out that the handlebar comes apart in the middle, and then the shifters slide right off.
It helps to have some experience working on bikes; even so I labored for about 4 hours total, trying things, measuring once and cutting twice... Tools you'll need are metric open- and box-end wrenches (8,9,10,15 mm), Allen wrenches (3,4,5,6 mm), good diagonal cutters for the cable housings -- file the ends flat after cutting -- and if possible, a cable cutter. Diagonal cutters squeeze the cable ends apart and make them hard to push through.
I bought Cane Creek inline levers for from the local bike store, plus 8 feet of brake cable housing and a couple of brake cables, because I didn't trust the stuff the bike shipped with. I reused the bar tape, but once I'm sure things will stay where they are, I'll put fresh tape on.<<
EDIT: The bar diameter is 22 mm, and the inline levers are available for 31.8 mm and 24.0 mm bars. I got the smaller ones and used heavy-duty aluminum foil to shim.
Bike project Oct 15, 2009
As advertised by others the handle bar and brakes don't really work for an 11 year old, espically a small 11 year old. After new brake grips, cables, handlebar and stem my stepdaughter loved the bike. She had been riding her sisters mountain bike which was too large or her own single speed kids bike, neither of which fit. If the manufacturer would convert to a straight handlebar this product would be a six star bike.
 Delivered with a cracked frame-- Jul 23, 2009
The bike came with a cracked frame, but Amazon did give a quick refund. So low rating is due to delivery condition.
1 of 1 found the following review helpful:
defective Jul 13, 2009
I bought this for my 11 yr old daughter. It looked nice, but when I got it put together, I couldn't figure out the front brakes. I brought it to a certified bike shop, and they told me the rear wheel frame was bent and not fixable, that it was defective manufacturing issue, as well as the front brakes which were not fixable. By this time, I had already thrown the box away so have to pay $40 for a big bike box to ship back. Very disappointed, I didn't want to risk another one being shipped and that being defective.
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