Hyper Mountain Bike Review

there’s a new bike in town and it’s $199
at your local Walmart
this is the hyper hydro form ultra
lightweight full suspension mountain
bike it’s a bike with 29 inch wheels and
because Walmart likes to sized bikes by
their will said it’s aimed at rider six
feet and taller though I’m 510 and it
fits me perfectly well in the past a
hang tag on some Walmart bikes
Hyper’s in particular have made some big
claims and they’ve walked them back
recently but in the case of this one
they’re reverting to the grandiose
statements like rough downhill trails
so aside from outlandish claims what are
you gonna get for $199 with the hydro
form for starters you get a Threadless
headset with bars that are on the narrow
side and on those are Shimano easy fire
trigger shifters the grips are lock-on
and these are the same grips that came
on my hyper carbon ex the frame has a
straight steer and we’ve recently seen
some trickle-down of bike components but
we’re far from seeing a taper at these
prices
the suspension Fork is branded hyper h
PRS but it’s made by zoom and that’s
present on the top caps there are no
preload adjustments but it does look to
have possibly ample travel with long
stands we saw it earlier and you can see
by the will card this has a 29 inch
wheel set but sadly the rims on those
wheels are single wall the tires are
knobby and they’re generic they have
that cheap plastic look and smell and
have dimensions of 29 by 2.35 the Hydra
forms fitted with jaeik a super Britax
I’ve seen these a lot recently and more
often than not I’ve had contamination
issues out of the box but we’ll see how
these go they’re fitted on both the
front and the rear with 160 millimeter
rotors the frame on this bike looks
practically identical to the Mongoose XR
Pro which is currently the king of
Walmart bikes the finish has an anodized
look to it though I suspect it’s just
painted and the graphics are simple and
not over-the-top but they did make sure
you know this is a hyper no matter what
angle you look at it from let’s take a
closer look at that suspension has the
same pivot rocker as the XR pro but the
coil shock is noticeably longer in the
spring has a higher rating for the most
part shocks like this have always been
springy with near useless adjustment but
this one
a lot of adjustment range so we’ll see
how that works out
drivetrain wise the pedals aren’t
plastic but they are cheap the crank
arms are forged Pro will and those
connect to the standard cheap riveted
three by setta
fortunately the derailleur up front is a
Shimano torn II and that’s matched up by
having a Shimano torn II also present at
the rear note that when it comes to the
rear derailleur my bike came out of the
box with a hanger almost up against the
spokes and that could be bad so make a
mental note to check that if you buy a
hydra form for the money this bike could
go either way but it’s probably fitting
that like the carbon acts the HUD reform
has a snafu branded saddle I actually
like these and still run one on my
carbon acts but below that snafu is a
factory snapper or what you could call a
discreet reflector it came like this out
of the box so there’s some good in the
hydro form and some not so good
but how does that all relay out onto the
trail and can it compete with the
Mongoose XR Pro surprisingly it’s decent
on the local trails and at two hundred
dollars I would say sands a clearance
bike like the redline Xander there’s not
really anything else in this price range
that I would ride regularly here the
Hydra forum though it’s somewhat usable
as a trail bike out of the box and the
first thing I noticed is that I’m
comfortable at least in most aspects and
that tells me that this bike has a
better geometry at least for me than the
XR pro at least in its off-the-shelf
form now remember the XR is three
hundred and fifty dollars
this is 199 now it’s not perfect and it
does make a lot of noises that rear
tornado you’re slapping around like
there’s no tomorrow and the front
suspension has a lot of creaks and
noises coming from it as well and
climbing is an absolute nightmare thanks
to two things number one is that three
bus seven drivetrain that I’ve never
been a fan of and number two is the fact
that even though this is called an ultra
lightweight bike it weighs 37 pounds but
there is the good or at least the
acceptable considering the price that
outweigh any negatives and the most
obvious factors gotta be the suspension
and Walmart bikes are known to have a
pogo stick ride yet the hydro at least
initially felt almost like a hardtail
because it turns out that coil shock can
be adjusted to be very stiff it took a
little bit of minor tweak
but I finally found a sweet spot and
what’s dialed in I’m sort of impressed
at least for what it is now a shock is
still on top of the upgrade list but I
keep coming back to one word that
describes this bike and that’s usable
going back to that front suspension
while it is usable it’s also very stiff
and then it gives away quickly and
there’s limited travel it feels almost
like a hybrid suspension like my old
Trek dual-sport one and this is one area
that the XR pro is better out of the box
another surprise was the traction that
I’m getting with these cheap generic 29
inch tires I’m not having any problems
and I usually do with tires on bikes
like this but I’m not having any
problems now some of this may be likely
due to the better geometry giving way to
better angles of attack and the
dialed-in rear suspension is helping as
well
I mentioned geometry let’s talk about
that for a second now I’ve made no
measurements to back any of this up so
take it for what it’s worth but I’ve
never been a fan of that 29er field
especially on big box 29 errs the XR pro
included and that’s why it’s mostly a
bike that I’ll own out but my opinion
here is that though this looks like an
identical frame the angles are almost
certainly different and that makes the
ride at least to me Phil above the price
range if you can look past the noises
and gearing now don’t let me mislead you
into thinking that this is some
outstanding bike this is still a big box
bike and in no way especially with the
off-the-shelf components is it going to
out ride a local bike shop buy for the
most part with bikes you get what you
pay for but if you have a budget of $200
and you’re shopping at Walmart there’s
nothing wrong with getting the best you
can get for that price so what’s my
initial experience with the hyper
hydroformed tell me well first that the
bars are very narrow 635 millimeters
narrow like a hybrid the lock-on grips
seem to be working well and doing what
grips are supposed to do then there’s
the front suspension which proves looks
can be deceiving because behind those
long stanchions is only 63 millimeters
of travel down to the wheel set where
those generic tires did unexpectedly
well with zero traction slips that’s the
high point of the wheels because you get
down to those single wall rims and
you’re not gonna be able to give them
much punishment and also ironically even
though these are 29 inch wheels the
inspector sticker says 26 and sitting at
the center of those
the JK super breaks that stop as well as
any mechanical disc brakes are going to
stop at 37 pound by and I really like
that there’s finally a sub $200 Walmart
bike with quick-release on both the
front and rear wheels for the price that
Tory based drivetrain works except ibly
well albeit a little bit noisy though
you will need to get used to a workout
with the narrow gear range of those 21
speeds and finally we get to what’s the
real eye catching features of this bike
the full suspension in that hydroformed
frame and the suspension is surprisingly
usable and it can be adjusted it’s leaps
and bounds better than the factory XR
pro rear suspension even though it looks
cheaper that hydroformed frame seems to
be well-made but after reserve judgment
on just how light it is
until I can strip it down all things
considered at the current time this may
be the best you can get off the shelf at
Walmart 9 clearance for under $200 but
we know that recently there been lots of
small surprises working their way into
Walmart bikes and hopefully this is a
sign of what’s to come
for me I like this enough that it’s
gonna be my next project bike I’m
calling it project hydro and I’m gonna
compare it to the project XR which I’ll
have complete in the next month so stay
tuned so what do you think comment below
with your opinions on the hyper
hydroformed thanks for watching be sure
you are subscribe so you don’t miss
anything and have a great day