My wife bought this bike in 2008 in Thailand, mainly for commuting purposes, for $120 new. I was dead-set against buying it, because it seemed too cheap, but it has held up very well for 1.5 years of almost daily commuting and the occasional ride to dinner with me as the captain and my wife on the back seat (perfectly legal in Thailand).

The lugs are the crudest you'll ever see, the fork is a unicrown and an ugly one at that, the rear drum brake is a joke, especially combined with the plastic brake levers (but the stamped metal front sidepull works well), and the indexed shifting requires overshifting to get into certain gears (but at least it's easy to do with the thumbshifter). The nipples are plated steel and have started to rust (I just WD40 them on occasion), and the cranks, seat post, hubs, and bars are steel as well. The paint started out as a metallic turquoise but has faded to a much nicer bluish silver from 1.5 years of tropical sun exposure at her work. An awful lot of bike for the money!

earlgrey at gmail dot com