18 speed Grand Peak Free Spirit mountain bike?

Question

Who makes the 18 speed Grand Peak Free Spirit mountain bike? Is it a good quality bike? I recently got a used one and am having a bike shop give it a tune up right now. I intend to use it to commute back and forth to work (approx 4 - 5 miles or so round trip).

Answer 1

Free Spirit was (for decades) the Sears bycicle...kind of like how Ridgid tools is with Home Depot. Sears was the main distributor.

They are slightly less than bike-shop quality, but were usually more robust than the ones offered at other department stores (huffy, murray, etc).

Most of the cheapness is in the hardware.

Many Free Spirits can be upgraded with "good" hardware (brakes, wheels, etc), but the additional cost can be more than a good, used "real" bike from a bike shop.

Answer 2

No it is not a good quality bike. It is awful. There are many models of Sears Free Spirit and all but two suck (and those two are mediocre at best). They are cheaply made of inferior material with poor workmanship and quality control. The components are terrible, and are always mongrels from different manufacturers with no consistency from bike to bike. Finally, they are almost always poorly assembled. The best thing you can say about them is that they are probably better than Huffys.

Biking is hard work and a bad bike is torture, especially for a novice. Go ahead and ride it after you get it back. If you make it three weeks with this piece of c**p you'll see (if it is still functioning and if you are still wanting to ride anything).

Don't let your great idea to bicycle to work go to waste in a self-fulfilling prophecy. If you try to depend on this beater you'll learn to hate cycling. Cancel the tune up and donate this POS to your church. Do some research. Ride a few different bikes and then go to Craigslist and buy ANY bike (that fits) from Trek, Cannondale or Specialized. Give yourself a chance by starting with a bike that won't handicap you.