Great Bike for the Money
So, from the get-go, the process was great. Apparently people think used clapped out BMX bikes are made of silver and gold these days, and I stumbled upon this new bike on sale because of a Marketplace listing. They wanted like 250 clams for a used older model tri-moly Traildigger that needed a few things. When I googled the frame I found the black friday sale on this brand new full chromoly complete for just a little more. I doubt I would've been able to get that other bike up to 100% for the same money as this one on sale, so it's a very, very good price for starters, and that was the absolute cheapest non-department-store used BMX I could find out there. Next, I have to mention that the shipping experience was not ideal. I live in the eastern US, and since it's the busy holiday season, it took a minute to get here because it sat in the warehouse for a few days and then had to be ground shipped all the way from California. If you're on this side of the country, bear that in mind. Also, the packaging isn't the greatest. Mine arrived with both crank ends poking through the box, and they were marred up a bit. It's a BMX that's going to take a beating anyway, so not the biggest deal to me, but notable. If you want that super clean and fresh new bike to cruise over to school or the 7-11 with on the daily to impress your friends with, you'd be pretty disappointed in those scratches I'm sure. Which brings me to the next thing which started out frustrating but ended up being great because of customer service. I quickly assembled the bike the rest of the way after it arrived, which included only installation of the front wheel, handlebars and seat. I took it out to test ride and I immediately encountered a clicking noise when I got hard on the pedals accelerating. I brought it back in and noticed the chain was getting tight then loose throughout the rotation of the crank, and the sprocket was wobbling all over the place. Because of the above mentioned cosmetic damage, I thought it was a bent crankset. I contacted Eastern with pics and video of what was going on, and Robbie from customer service responded quickly with a no questions asked offer for a new crank, which is awesome. In the meantime I was too impatient to wait and discovered that the crank spindle hadn't been assembled correctly with insufficient bearing preload, so this allowed the sprocket to move quite a bit, which was actually my issue, not a bent crankset. I loosened the cranks, tightened the clamping bolts on both ends of the spindle, and re-tightened the cranks and sprocket location bolt. After doing that, there's almost no runout there now, so it's perfect to ride. I then replied that I didn't need a replacement after all. Excellent customer service there, but word to the wise: you need to nut and bolt the whole bike when you take it out of the box, not just the stuff that the stuff zip tied to the frame. This is something a bike shop would go over before you buy it retail. When you get it directly from the manufacturer or some other online retailer, it's on you. This is my fault because I've never been through this process before. I also noticed that the brakes needed adjusting as well (because they ship loose to allow assembly and adjustment at the final destination). Last issue was the handlebars. These hi-ten bars are fine, but you need to clean the paint off the knurling yourself before assembly. I assembled as it came out of the box and on my second bunny hop they moved (with a little scritch noise). I tried loosening and re-torquing several times and I could not get them to stay put, and I know from experience back in the day that you can't just he-man the bolts down with a cheater bar. That's when stuff breaks. I had to take the bars out to the shop, wire wheel off all the paint from the knurling, clean both sides up with brake cleaner and then reassemble. Now the bars stay put and I've torture tested them quite a bit since. I think the manufacturer should probably do this themselves, but with the value pricing, this is par for the course. Maybe they can work with their supplier and have them mask the knurling during paint. Despite the shipping troubles and the thick paint on the bar knurling, I have to say that given the price for a full chromoly framed bike, this bike is still a no-brainer. You would have a hard time finding something better quality for this price new in 1990, let alone in 2025. Just buy it. Now that I've got everything dialed, it rides super smooth and it holds up well to my 175 lbs no problem. Very rigid feeling and no movement of any components after I got the handlebar situation worked out. It's also very light even with the hi-ten components. Really close to that 25 lb mark everyone was shooting for back in the day even with rear brakes on it. It's so much fun to ride something with the new school geometry too. The bike likes to loop out on manuals and wheelies a lot easier, but it's also a lot easier to get the front wheel to come up than on an old school frame and much more responsive overall, so it'll just take a little getting use to and I think it'll be easier to ride overall. Again, great entry level but proper BMX bike. This bike would be perfect for someone just getting into the sport (or for an old amateur like myself looking to get back into it with my kids). I wish that something of this quality and affordability had been around when I was starting out.
