Review of the Ozark Trail 700C G.1 Explorer Gravel Bike.
I have read and watched a few reviews on the Ozark Trail 700C G. 1 Explorer Gravel Bike and I am typing it out by full name becuase I think that has the best chance for my review to be read. Anyway I am writing this review after watching and reading other reviews becuase there is something very odd that I have noticed with them. Either this bike is the best bike on the market for the money or its should go straight to the trash becuase its the worst. I feel that both of these types of reviews are just wrong but they do all have good points about the bike. I have put 500 miles on the bike and I have thoughts on it as well as the discourse about the bike.
So this bike cost 250 dollars before taxes. For that 250 dollars you get a heavy gravel bike with cheap components. One of the complaints I have heard about this is that Walmart sells bike shaped objects and nothing is pretentious than a cyclist saying that a place sells bikes really sells bike shapped objects. If you recommending not getting a bike to someone asking and they are asking specifically if a walmart bike is good bike and you start going off about bike shapped objects then you have lost your whole argument about the bikes from Walmart. From all of the people asking online that I have seen it is either their first gravel bike or they are getting back into biking and looking for something that works and is not going to cost 2,000 dollars. They are not going to take anyone seriously that says something like bike shapped object. That is a bit of a rant to say that normally I would also not recommend a bike from walmart not just because of cheap components, odd designs for the frames, or bad set up from the store but I would explain those things to someone asking before getting pretentious about it and telling them to save for a real bike or buy used.
Now after the minor rant there I looked on craigslist, facebook, and a few other places for used bikes in my area with in 50 miles. I personally think 50 miles would be too far to drive to pick up a bike unless the deal is way too good and this is where I think I found the first point about the Ozark Trail 700C G. 1 Exploerer Gravel Bike that makes me want to recommend it to someone. All of the stock of used bikes in my area were still 500 dollars or more and or they were 10 years old or beat up newer bikes that needed some minor love to get them back to their glory days. If the options are new 250 dollar bike or 500 dollar used bike where both are going to require you to double check before riding why choose the 500 dollar one? Also you can get the Walmart bikes shipped to you in a box or ask the employees for one in the box not set up and then set it up yourself. That is what I did and nothing was set up wrong because I set it up. For the 250 dollars you get a decent bike and one that you might be able to get right away instead of wating for the right bike to show up used somewhere. It also has more modern components than most of the stock of used bikes I saw in the cheap price point. Just a personal preference rim brakes are not something I want on a bike they never seemed to stop as well as disk brakes even cheaper disk breaks.
After setting mine up from the box I did notice a few things that needed minor adjustments and a few things that are just never going to be the best. The front derailleur rubbed the chain a bit in some gears and its not cross chained grears and trying to get it set was a bit annoying so I got mine 99 percent set and left it at that. Also one thing out of the box that I did not notice until the other day was the cable for the front derailleur is too long at the end and pokes into my leg sometimes when wearing shorts. Last thing out of the box that was a bit annoying were the brakes squeeked even after bedding them in. These things being said the bike changed gears fine, the bike moved when pedaled, and it stopped when I squeezed the brakes.
The first few rides went just fine with no issues what so ever but I was not pushing the bike just mainly getting used to it and taking it on small easy rides. I decided to try and go harder with the bike and this is where a problem with cheap components came up. The front derailleur broke...
Now this broken part does not stop the bike from shifting but it did make the chain rub a little worse and there is really nothing I can do about it now other than get a new front derailleur. New derailleurs can be fairly cheap for an much better one and the bike total cost would be under 300 dollars. Having a part like this be broken so shortly after buying the bike is points off but it is something I expected to happen as it was cheap. This would be something I would mention to anyone before recommending the bike to anyone.
Other things that have gone wrong with the bike in the 500 miles I have taken it is the brakes. I started noticing the other week that stopping times were increasing and I was not slowing down as fast as I should have. After looking at what the cause could have been I saw that the brake pads were awful so I replaced them. Here are the old pads.
They still had enough pad on them where they should have stopped but they were covered in stuff and chipped at the bottom for some unknown reason. Brake pads are something that would have to be replaced on a bike anyway but I should have had more miles on them than I got. This might have been my fault as I decided after the front derailleur that I was going to just ride this bike through what ever and see what fails. If it was raining out I was still riding my bike. I had to ride through some mud or other obstacle that I will have to clean off later and might ruin the bike sure what ever I am taking it through that too. That has been my mentality on this bike now. I still don't think the brake pads should have needed replacing yet.
One more thing that I found about that bike that I do not like at all is the quick release for the wheels is very cheap and very bad. If you take the wheels off you have to make sure you put them back on just right and the exact right tightness or things will be off with the wheels and the brakes. This is kind of normal but other bikes I have I do not have to be so exact with and they will do just fine the Ozark Trail 700C G.1 Explorer Gravel Bike needs to be exact with the quick release. When I have to take the wheel off for any reason I triple check to make sure everything is properly tight and aligned which can be annoying with the quick releases this bike has.
Now that I have listed my problems with the bike I will say those problems are mostly minor to me. I know how to fix them and I know what I can need to do to make sure they are not major problems. Such as the wheel not falling off becuase I set the quick realse up wrong.
I think personally the bike rides well. I have taken it through a lot of things that I did not think it was going to handle well and it handled it all just fine. I do not like road riding as much as I like riding on trails and forset areas. The main place I ride this is a gravel path that has some areas where you can go off into the woods with single track and a skatepark as well. Do I think this bike rides as well as my Specialized Mountain bike on the wooded areas? Not even close but it does handle it and it is a okay ride for those parts as well. On the paved parts of the trails its a smooth ride and it shifts well. I can still shift the front even with it being broken and it does not have any issues shifting. I can climb hills in the lower gears with out wanting them to be much lower or having any issues with gearing up hill. I do end up getting in the top gear when on flat areas and down hill and according to Strava is about 20 miles per hour but I don't expect to go faster so that is a fine top gear for me. The tires are fine on the bike as well they will go over the gravel and the road with plenty of grip. The only issue I had was when I go too fast in the rain and take corners too fast. Even then I only slipped out once but did not fall off the bike it just slipped out a bit and then got grip again and corrected. They are not the best tires in the world but they work fine even in the rain.
I think the Ozark Trail 700C G.1 Explorer Gravel Bike is a good bike for a few use cases. If someone does not want to spend a lot of money on a bike because they don't know if they will like cycling this is a fine purchase as they can get out on a bike and if they don't like it they are not to invested into things yet. If they do like it they can save money and buy a better bike later. Another case where it is a fine bike is someone that does not want to wait for the perfect bike to show up on the used market. Again after looking at the used market near me I would not bother with a used bike in this price point. Another perfect use case for this bike is a commuter bike that you can add racks to and care less about. I ride mine in the rain and take it places I would not want to leave my other bikes for fear of them getting stolen. I would still be upset if this got stolen but its much more replaceable than my other bikes that cost 4 times this price. I also would not care about putting racks and other commuter things like a kid caddy to bike around with my kids in the back of it. I would not do that do my more expensive bikes for example because I would not want to ruin them or have issues with them when I take the racks or kid caddy off the bike. One last good use case for this bike is a friend bike. Not that I would go out of my way to buy it as a bike for a friend to use when they come over to go cycling together but I do have one and I do have other bikes so its a perfect bike for my friends to use.
Overall I do think this bike is worth the price and I think that if you know what your getting into with the cheaper parts its perfectly fine. If you own a gravel bike, a good bike store bike, or are a cyclist then you might not like this bike as much it is heavy and the cheap parts might annoy you. This does not mean I think it is the best bike in the world or there is not thing wrong with it. I stated there is pently wrong with it and personally I don't think it is worth upgrading all that much. Its a 250 dollar bike so I would only put about 250 dollars worth of parts into it before I ask myself what I am doing as I could have saved that money and bought a better lighter bike instead of upgrading. Same goes for replacment parts if I replace 250 dollars of parts just for wear and tear then I have used the bike enough for a better bike. The price point does get people into cycling and if you are looking at this bike because you are thinking of getting into cycling it will get you into it and you will find out if you like it. Just keep in mind that its cheap and may not be worth upgrading a whole lot.
7/10 stars for Ozark Trail 700C G. 1 Explorer Gravel Bike.
I am off to continue my exercising journey! I hope you enjoyed this review. Have a wonderful day and thank you very much for reading!
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