What model is this bike?

What are the model and price of this roadmaster bike in the picture?

• I am interested in buying a used roadmaster bike. Its picture is here http://bbs.hopkinscssa.org/download/file.php?id=2628 I wonder what its model and current brand new price are? Is it a mountain, road or hybrid bike? The seller said he spent nearly $200 dollars when he bought the bike in brand new, and paid for assembling, the helmet, the bike lights and the lock. But I guess it was not actually that expensive. Isn't the lights included in the bike usually? Do I have to buy light?

• Answer:

  That's a low-end MTB-inspired bike. Although at push, and some good will, I guess you could consider it a hybrid - it does appear to have smooth tires after all. But a quick net search would have told you - as it did me - that it sold for $119 new, and that the manufacturer considers it to be a "comfort bike". http://www.walmart.com/ip/26-Men-s-Roadmaster-Sequence-Comfort-Bike/13398138 For people with more than passing interest in bikes, items like that are known as BLOs - Bicycle-Looking-Objects. While it's unlikely to actually fail for you, it really is at the low end of the useability scale. Expect it to be horribly heavy, the saddle to be too wide/too plush for anything but short-range use, and that the pogo-stick suspension fork will make it unresponsive should you ever ride out of the saddle. At a so-called 21 speed, it probably has a freewheel design at the rear. Freewheels are fine for bikes with 5-6 sprockets at the rear, but at 7(which this bike has), it leaves the right side wheel bearing far inboard, making them prone to axles bending/breaking. Better bikes have freehubs, which has the bearings further out, and less axle problems. Another issue is that should you ever need to take it to a shop, pretty much any repair apart from fixing a flat, will easily cost 1/4 to 1/2 of the bike's original retail value. And apart from returning the bike to a useful state, that money won't do a thing for the value of the bike. Lights and reflectors are (usually) required for riding when it's dark, but aren't required for daytime riding. And they usually don't come with the bike. I'd rather spend, say $50-75 on an older bike of maybe 5-10 times the retail value of that one, then say another 50 on getting it fixed up. Odds are it'll get you a much nicer bike. And no sus fork unless you plan to take it off-road.