# "Roland" brand mtn bike- poor, fair, good, better?



## UncleStu (Jan 18, 2008)

Is anyone familiar with a "Roland" brand bike? If so, is this a super-cheapie quality-wise, on par with Wallyworld bikes? Maybe a little better, maybe good, maybe better than that? I can find *No* info Googling/Dogpiling for Roland bikes/bicycles.Top tube is kinda long for frame height, which should be a good thing for me. Any help appreciated, thanks.


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## JimC. (Dec 30, 2003)

*generally speaking*

if it's not a recognized brand name like Giant or Kona etc etc etc., then it's probably a second brand dept store ride (Dept store guy says to mfr...make me 2,000 cheap bikes with 25% margin and brand them Roland). Key will be price. If it's cheap with an unrecognized name, then steer clear.

Check the sticky post top of "Beginners'" forum on dept store bikes.

Good luck, Jim


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## Ricko (Jan 14, 2004)

UncleStu said:


> Is anyone familiar with a "Roland" brand bike? If so, is this a super-cheapie quality-wise, on par with Wallyworld bikes? Maybe a little better, maybe good, maybe better than that? I can find *No* info Googling/Dogpiling for Roland bikes/bicycles.Top tube is kinda long for frame height, which should be a good thing for me. Any help appreciated, thanks.


Dogpiling? You folks from down yonder say funny things sometimes:lol:

.


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## DSFA (Oct 22, 2007)

Rolands are Dept. store doorstops/paperweights/boat anchors disguised as bicycles. 

But hey, good luck with that.


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## Jwiffle (Jan 26, 2004)

I see one on eBay. It appears equivalent to a Walmart special. It also looks old.


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## SHaRKTooTH (Jun 18, 2008)

UncleStu said:


> Is anyone familiar with a "Roland" brand bike? If so, is this a super-cheapie quality-wise, on par with Wallyworld bikes? Maybe a little better, maybe good, maybe better than that? I can find *No* info Googling/Dogpiling for Roland bikes/bicycles.Top tube is kinda long for frame height, which should be a good thing for me. Any help appreciated, thanks.


I've done some research on this brand and there are a few brands all under the Roland Distributing company. North Star and Roland are two of them. The bikes are made by a guy named Roland Lo in Houston, TX. From what I've been told, he goes to China and picks the frames he wants made, has them shipped to his warehouse in Houston and builds the bikes under his own label. The ones I've seen have fairly decent hardware and wouldn't call it a bigbox store bike.

It was very hard to find information about this, but since he is local and helps out with the Elves and More charity I finally tracked some info down.


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## Treybiker (Jan 6, 2004)

SHaRKTooTH said:


> I've done some research on this brand and there are a few brands all under the Roland Distributing company. North Star and Roland are two of them. The bikes are made by a guy named Roland Lo in Houston, TX. From what I've been told, he goes to China and picks the frames he wants made, has them shipped to his warehouse in Houston and builds the bikes under his own label. The ones I've seen have fairly decent hardware and wouldn't call it a bigbox store bike.
> 
> It was very hard to find information about this, but since he is local and helps out with the Elves and More charity I finally tracked some info down.


I used to ride with Roland at the shop I worked at back in the day in Houston. He was funny as hell and loved bikes. He did our Thursday night pub crawls all the time. He wanted to be able to provide a decent bike at a lower cost than the bigger brands. His bikes were nothing to race, but for entry level enthusiasts. Nothing more, nothing less. They were good starter bikes without getting a dept store bike.

To answer your question, it's probably not something you want, but it is what it is.


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## UncleStu (Jan 18, 2008)

Thanks for the info. Since posting this thread, ~4 months ago, I've seen several more Roland bikes listed in Craigslist ads in Texas(Dallas, Austin, & Houston). They seem to have had more than just mountain bikes, at least one was a "hybrid"(mebbe home-modded into one though) and two with drop handlebars that looked like road or touring bikes.

Re: Dogpile: It's a search engine "cluster-glomerate"!  Link: http://www.dogpile.com/


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## TXST8tj (Oct 13, 2008)

i have a Roland "Mountain Series" MTN bike that i got back in 1999. i still ride it today and have liked it quite a bit. it was a less expensive bike at the time, but it had all of the same parts that the comparable Trek, Giant, and Specialized had when i picked the Roland out, but it was a good deal less. the frame is chinese, which i imagine is where part of the lower cost comes from (other than not having the 'name brand' on it). 
i met Roland in the shop i bought it from down in the Village in Houston. although it is a chinese frame, i feel like i got more bike for the money...which i needed at the time. 
i'm a fat kid and need a strong chromoly frame, and this one does what it needs to, so i plan to do some slight upgrades in the future.


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## halpo (Oct 20, 2008)

*I love my roland*

I ride a Northstar 29er with an aluminum roland frame. I bought it when my '99 Schwinn got stolen. I love it. It's no downhiller, but it was a great deal when I bought it. The frame is tough, it's not going to get damaged, for the usual abuse that I dish out on it. The most important part when buying a bike is ride it and feel it. If you don't feel comfortable on a bike then it's not for you. When I bought mine I looked at lots of name brand bikes, specialized, giants, treks, etc. and this one felt the best and was the best deal. I got better components than I would have gotten on any of the name brands.


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## BMXrider92 (Jul 28, 2017)

Lots of misinformation floating around about Roland Bikes. Many Price points. Roland Bikes are far from Department store quality. I have this quote I got from gentleman who worked with Roland:

"To Whom It May Concern:

My name is Mark Chambers. I have been in the Bicycle industry in Houston, Texas since 1995. Over the years I have done business with Mr. Roland Lo of Roland Distributing. Roland has been manufacturing and selling bicycles for 41 years in Houston. I have sold a lot of Roland bicycles. Roland is a niche manufacturer. Over the years he has been able to taylor his manufacturing to correspond with the current trends in the bicycle industry. He has produced road bikes, tandem bikes, mountain bikes, bmx bikes, and children's bikes. In every example, if you compared a Roland bicycle to any other manufacturer at a particular price point, the Roland would be better quality. I still see 30 year old bikes rolling into the shop from time to time. A few years back a local charity needed 20,000 bikes for a Christmas bike giveaway. The organization had previously used mass merchant supplied bicycles. Roland supplied the bikes that year and they were the best quality bikes they ever gave away. The quality was better and Roland set up an assembly line to assemble them at the Astro Arena in Houston. Twenty thousand youngsters got new bikes that year. I still see them on the streets today

Mark Chambers"


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## mack_turtle (Jan 6, 2009)

you started an account to revive a nine year-old frame to tell us that?


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## CaptDan (Jun 26, 2013)

Thanks BMXrider92!


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