BIG 3 UPGRADES - The best Walmart bike upgrades might be cheaper and easier than you think!

There are 3 simple upgrades that can transform a Walmart bike (or any other bike) from drab to fab! These 3 upgrades are not only easy, but super affordable. Grips, Pedals and Seat (saddle) can liven up a bike and make it comfortable and confident for the rider.

Example affordable grips that are an improvement:

Pedals:

Saddle:

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[fatbikearcticnomad]

I love cheap bikes and cheap parts. It’s fun to build and upgrade big box MTB’s. It’s a great hobby. Thats why I love this channel so much. 👍👍

[SonjaTheDork]

The biggest thing that I've found for me is going for the "oversized" grips like the Wolf Tooth Fat Paws, but I do have larger hands. Huge for comfort and grip alike. I've also thrown some road bar tape on my bar ends because I use them a lot for climbing, and it just feels natural

[noisepuppet]

Side note: thanks for the caption about audio glitches so that we don't think it's something screwing up on our end 😊

[aaronbehindbars]

My take on contact points is not to think of them as bike upgrades. They are comfort/control upgrades for the rider. They can easily be swapped from one bike to another, so save your original parts for when you ever sell the bike.

I also recommend not going cheap on these. I have seen a lot of Amazon saddles with bent rails and pedals with snapped axles. Ibthink the Fooker pedals are probably safe since they have heat-treated crmo axles. Some of those lower cost "sealed bearing" pedals use questionable metals for the axles. Probably fine for street riding, but I'd get nicer pedals.

Contact points are moat definitely the first things you should change, followed by decent tires, and then finding what height/width/sweep handlebars work best. That makes a huge difference.

[JaredUnashamed]

Great advice. I upgraded my seat and grips on my mountain bike pretty much right out of the box. A good saddle that fits you makes a huge difference in comfort. I tried out two different saddles before picking one that fit me. I needed one that was not as wide. As for the grips I recommend Oury Grips. I've been using them for years.

[dasjeepmtblife]

Race Face peddles are great, but Fooker for the budget win. I run both.

[hokehinson]

Great logic! Need & want!
Most over want their need!
Reliability though increases costs...

[ryanscott]

I found the fookers with needle bearings from Amazon warehouse. They were brand new still and only like $15. 3 years of use and like 1000 miles still going strong. Outlasted the stock ones on my Axum DP by 980 miles 🤣

[The_RC_Dude]

I can recommend PNW Loam grips. These grips are epic; grippy, durable, affordable, and cool looking, and just a good grip.

[MissingLinkMTB]

Can't wait to see you get ahold of an Ozark Trail 29'er. Loving mine. First upgrades of course was a Cloud 9 saddle, Fifty Fifty pedals, and Ergon knockoff grips with that fin. Already sitting on the next batch of parts... 180mm rotors and adapters, and a dropper post. Otherwise it's been pretty solid! And this is coming from a guy who's regular ride is a YT Capra.

[JiorujiDerako]

Been riding my Trouvaile on some "proper" trails (read: not black diamond, but also not just a paved walking trail through a park) just recently, and yeah, it's shocked me how well it handles so much basically out of the box! I did change out grips early (and will soon change them again because I realized the ones on my old bike are my favorites now, and I might want a second pair), put on Fooker pedals (no more re-adjusting my foot position on sketchy stuff), the fork upgrade _was_ a big improvement but honestly I feel like the Suntour coil fork it had would totally handle some of that stuff, it's just heavy.
I'm totally fine with the drivetrain, the tires are fine for gravel and packed dirt as far as I can tell - I haven't ridden anything knobbier, and I *do* take it on the street often enough to not want tires that can't handle both - and everything else, you could just ride it until it breaks.

That said, brakes are something I'm upgrading next chance I get, the ones in the box work fine but I do have to deathgrip on steeper hills if I actually want the bike to stop. Honestly could maybe just get better pads and/or rotors, but MT200 hydraulic brakes are surprisingly cheap (just be aware you'll need to route them internally, so that's either a trip to the bike shop or buying hoses, fittings, and a bleed kit). And I feel like the wheels might be a weak spot for the bike too, some squeaks and creaks starting to appear after a few rougher rides, but it doesn't feel like things will _break_, just wear out a bit early. Awful lot of stuff on the bike that isn't great, but will absolutely work for you until it's obvious you _need_ to upgrade.

TL;DR: what the video said. Comfort upgrades absolutely made the biggest difference, and I'd just put forks, brakes, and possibly tires as the next in line as things you can actually feel a difference on (but don't need to upgrade until you do actually feel like it's holding you back).
Oh I'll also add crank length as comfort upgrade #4, my Large Trouvaile came with 175mm cranks and they absolutely felt too long for even my long legs, pushing my knees too high even while my seat is as high as it'll comfortably go. Different length cranks aren't especially cheap if you're not in the common range but if you can, that's definitely another comfort thing to look at if you're feeling leg problems! (Luckily for me the cheap IXF cranks everyone seems to like swapping to are 170mm, and that small decrease in length did the trick)

[superadok]

Great vid and content! Regarding the Fooker pedals, do you prefer the 3 bearing or the needle bearing version?

[pagan]

I got a salsa rangefinder. At REI for 599$. It came with Shimano deore drivetrain. Shimano hydro brakes. Tapered headtube and internal routing and maxxis tires. I can't believe what I got for the price. Love the videos

[jbstillman]

LOL I have those exact same blue/white/black swirl grips on my matching color MTB :D Thanks for this video, this kind of stuff goes a long way in helping out friends when you can just point them to videos like this.

[tomrichards]

I'm currently running Foundation pedals (composite), $12, Foundation lock on grips $8. I believe Foundation is Jenson USA's in house brand. They were on sale at the time. They've already held up for 2 seasons of hard riding in Colorado. I've got a set of their alloy pedals too, in reserve. $18 on sale.
Beware of Walmart's lock on grips. Maybe SNAFU branded. I bought a set a last year that were defective. They were lock ons that wouldn't lock on. No matter how much I tightened and eventually over tightened they would just slide right off. Potentially very dangerous if a beginner rider just assumed that once you tightened them down sufficiently they were good to go. They would literally just slide right off.
Initially bought mainly due to the blue anodized color to match the color accents on my Trek Fuel EX7 29er.
Needless to say I returned them the next day. Hopefully nobody bought these and face planted 5 seconds later.
Maybe it was just a defective batch?

[dmac]

I would upgrade the bottom bracket too with sealed bearings it's so smooth and less maintenance

[bulletproof]

I agree with your big 3 then change the tires and brakes

[joeldavila]

Like the intro good job. I forgot about the seat as an upgrade 👍

[philiprayner]

have you ever considered an upgrade to a huffy Parkside bike ?

[luigiprovencher]

Is there such a thing as wide grip lock on handlebar grips and can you put something underneath them to thicken them up? Like more rubber or a piece of inner tube?