this is the Ozark Trail Ridge it's available in Walmart stores for 398 dollars
I think it might be a real mountain bike [Music]
[Music]
now just using the term real mountain bike carries some damning implications and implies
that other bikes I've reviewed are not in fact real mountain bikes but that's not coming from
me a lot of department stores including Walmart will actually put a sticker on the bike that
says hey congratulations on your new mountain bike don't ride it on mountain bike trails this
has no such sticker nowhere on the bike it's a mountain bike now it's hard to talk about this
bike without bringing up the Kent Trouvaille that is the mountain bike from Walmart that
we know best I've done a series of videos on it it appears all the time that's kind of the
one to beat and the Trouvaille is an especially good comparison because it too costs 398 dollars
it too is sold at Walmart stores and it kind of has all all the same features as the Ozark
Ridge but I think the Ozark Ridge is the one to buy I think it's a better bike overall at least
it is in the long term and actually it seems like somebody's listening to us or just all of
YouTube I'm not the only one who has reviewed the can Trouvaille every single criticism that
I had about it has been addressed on this bike it's like they're watching us [Music]
who is watching us well Walmart I guess this is not a cant it's not a mongoose it's not a
huffy this is made by Ozark Trail that's a Walmart in-store brand and somebody's been
making some smart decisions now although I am surprised about almost every feature
on this bike there is one thing I'm not surprised about at all [Music]
the handlebars were installed wrong on three axes which I didn't even know was possible the brakes
were pretty much locked up the derailleur hanger was bent and so I needed to align it it did have
a case of the whiskey grips which is uncommon with the lock-on grips the pedals would have come off
on my first ride and I would have died and the front wheel was installed by a five-year-old
no offense to five-year-olds I mean by now this is not a surprise we know you can't just take it off
the shelf and ride it you gotta check it over yourself or bring it to a bike mechanic that's
kind of a name in the game with department store bikes I'm gonna rate it based on what you are
getting for the money not on the assembly because we've we've already written that off let's start
with the biggest advantage the Ridge has over the Trouvaille it's available in multiple sizes that's
huge this is available in medium apparently and I did see a large at the store the Kent Trouvaille
was only available in large if a bike doesn't fit you I don't care what type of components it
has what the geometry is it doesn't matter if it doesn't fit you you're not going to be able
to ride it also you may remember the kickstand on the Trouvaille it came with a kickstand and
then when you take it off there's this big welded piece of metal hanging below the chainstay the
Ridge doesn't even come with a kickstand and so they must expect that you're going to be mountain
biking with it and all that's left are these two little M5 holes no big deal also when they can't
Trouvaille I tried to find a dropper post for it doesn't exist maybe it's out there I couldn't find
one it's got some weird seat tube size this has a 31.6 millimeter seat tube you can install a
dropper Post in it easy and it's got ports for internal cable routing for a dropper post the
only reason that you would have two holes over here is to route a dropper post cable and they
actually spent more money to do this to make it upgradable so that you could keep this bike into
the future you also might notice we got two water bottle cages here the Kent Trouvaille had plenty
of space inside the triangle for two water bottle cages but there was only a mount on the down tube
the Ozark Trail Ridge has mounts on both the seat tube and the down tube because they know
you're actually gonna go mountain biking with it and you want to bring enough water it's also got
rack mounts so you can install a baby seed a luggage rack paneers and a lot like they can't
Trouvaille it takes pretty normal Parts you can change out the crank set you can change out the
headset you can change out the fork it's got a tapered head tube it has a chain stay protector
just a clear plastic film chainstay protector the Kent your veils chains they just got massacred
the first time we took it out because there's no clutch on the derailleur there's no clutch
on this derailleur either as you would expect at around 400 but the chainstay has some protection
and that's a nice touch say what you will about press the valves but any mid to high end mountain
bikes going to have them easier to try and hack some kind of a tubeless setup here easier to find
tubes and the bike's got Kenda tires they're not special Kanda tires but the Kent Trouvaille didn't
come with special tires either they're just decent tires for the price there were also a
lot of good things about the Trouvaille that this shares in common with it for example it has a one
by nine drivetrain that's great great you don't need 18 gears up front or 21 years nine years
is better for a mountain bike like this because there's less stuff to break there's less weight
there's more ground clearance it also has a very similar Fork as the Kent Trouvaille did it has
front and rear disc brakes The Styling is pretty tasteful it doesn't have flames on it it's not
called like the Huffy aneurysm or something like that it's pretty chill but it is interesting that
this costs 398 dollars the same as the Kent Trouvaille it's available in multiple sizes
it has way better features all around there's been considerable inflation since we bought that
bike yet it costs the same where do they save the money well they did in a few spots I'll show you
foreign first of all the fork if you remember the Trouvaille had a little blue switch where you
could lock the fork out keep it from compressing for climbing this doesn't have that nobody uses
it and so I'd say that was a pretty smart place to save some money but also the pedals these are
plastic pedals the Nubs are already starting to get worn away from Rock strikes on this
first ride the Kent Trouvaille had metal pedals they're probably better the Kent Trouvaille also
came with a micro shift the drivetrain this does not it looks like L2 makes it I don't know who
that is but it looks about the same it's just a basic derailleur with no clutch maybe the
equivalent of Shimano Alivio this is something that you're probably going to upgrade anyway if
you start doing any serious mountain biking I did on the Trouvaille doesn't cost that much to do the
crank set and chain ring seem to be about the same they have this little plastic ring around it maybe
for chain retention I dropped one chain on this ride and on my first ride with the Trouvaille I
also dropped the chain so about the same there 160 millimeter brake rotors on the front and rear the
Kent Trouvaille had a 180 millimeter rotor on the front that helps with braking power but mechanical
disc brakes they're not that powerful anyway I didn't really notice that much of a difference
on this bike if you live someplace where you ride a lot of cross country I would replace the
derailleur first and if you live someplace with a lot of downhill I would replace the brakes first
these are going to be things that you probably want to replace in the future but like I said this
bike is ready for upgrades and those are kind of the only places where they saved money everything
else is kind of an upside I think overall all the places they saved money were smart places they're
the places that I probably would have saved money if I was designing this bike I will say I think
the Kent Trouvaille has better styling than the Ozark Trail Ridge this is nice flat black paint
really simple but it says Ozark Trail on the side like as big as they could possibly make
it nice to be proud of your bike and the brand but maybe you're trying to buy one of these and
blend in [Music] and so I think this is a pretty good bike I've been riding it all morning and it
still works just the way it did when it left my shop my criticism of department store bikes was
never that they're cheap it was always that they spent the money in dumb places let me give you a
little anecdote when I walked into Walmart it was not to buy this bike it was to buy towels
and I always walked by the bike section I saw this thing and started examining it and what I
guess was like the Sporting Goods manager started talking to me and he said man for all that money
you think they would put rear suspension on it and what he didn't like about this bike is what
I like about this bike they put money in smart places instead of dumb places because it turns out
that building a bike like this might not be the smartest business decision for a department store
very few buyers are going to be looking for this they're going to be looking for the cheapest bike
with the most features because I don't know how to say this nicely but like they're not experienced
cyclists they haven't owned a whole bunch of bikes and learned the ropes and so it's interesting that
Walmart is experimenting with something like this maybe there is enough demand for it to be a good
thing to carry or at least have one of them and they must notice that YouTubers make videos about
them and say how good they are and what upgrades you can put on them and so the reason department
store bikes are the way they are are not the decisions that Walmart and Target and Canadian
Tire are making it's because what consumers are demanding we're the reason that department store
bikes are so cheap and now it could be that we're the reason they're trying to make better ones
oh so what are we gonna do with this bike it's more my size than the Trouvaille was I
think it's time to call the herd there's a new leader I'm gonna give away the Kent Trouvaille
this weekend June 24th at the backcountry bash it's gonna be a lot of fun and we're celebrating
the opening of new trails above Berm Park and they're going to be contests and giveaways and
things there and so I think somebody's gonna get the Kent Trouvaille maybe on a rainy weekend I'll
upgrade this thing turn it into the Super Ozark we'll see so this is an interesting development
we've demanded better bikes we have one one that you can keep for a long time continue upgrading
I don't think the frame's bad and most of the stuff that comes on it is fine for a beginner
good job I hope you found this video interesting I hope you learned something and if you didn't I
hope you at least found it entertaining thanks for riding with me today and I'll see you next time
[Music]