24" DK General Lee Unisex BMX Bike, Orange

The bike itself is decent. DK has really cut cost on this product over the years. Brakes did not work and had to replace them. Packaging and shipping was pretty awful. Front rim was bent pretty badly. I had to man handle it to get it true. Paint scratched in a lot of places. Rear rim has a slight bend also.

Hitting my mid 40's, I could not afford the usual toys that more financially well off middle age guys get, like a Corvette or a Harley. I wanted something that reminds me of the olden days when life was so simple and traveling to 7-11 to get a Slurpee and play a game or two of donkey kong was a big adventure for my friends and I. What was the vehicle that bought us to that great adventure?... You guessed it!!!... The BMX bike. Unfortunately, at 5'9", I am a bit to big to bust out my old 1977 Mongoose with the motomag rims and be able to ride it with some degree of comfort.Although I have much respect for the mountain bike and its abilities, I never got over seeing one for the very first time and laughing at the first generation mountain bikes back in the late 70's - early 80's. Even though I think MB's are awesome, I just never developed a place in my heart like I did for the good ole BMX bike and Beach cruiser. After shopping around and doing some research, I came to the decision to buy a BMX cruiser. I started off by buying a DK Xenia 26" and came to the conclusion that it was a great bike but was to big for me to evoke the similar riding experience of riding the old BMX of my youth. I wound up giving it away to my nephew and trying a 24" cruiser. I will confess that I was drawn to the DK General Lee 24" because I was a big Dukes of Hazard fan and Orange was the color of my very first bike, ... An orange huffy that was a copy of the Schwinn Sting Ray.(The part you've been waiting for: THE REVIEW):I regret not buying the older model because it had black accents, came with a better seat, had a better paint job and better looking decals. The model I purchase was the 2014 model and it came with a thin layer of flat orange paint, U.N. blue accents, and lame kung-fu style graphic lettering for the letters spelling out "General Lee". (DK!!! If you're reading this, bring back the older model!!!) I was going to get the DK Sprinter but it cost over double the price of the General Lee 24" and I wanted to have money left over and the fun of customizing & personalizing the bike. As soon as I got the bike, I spared no time replacing the handlebar with an 8 inch high black BMX bar, the plastic pedals with metal wellgos, and the seat post / seat with a more comfortable seat configuration. As soon as I was done, I fell in love with this bike and could not stop riding it all over the place.One thing to remember for you fellow older guys who haven't been on a BMX for years and may have forgotten the riding characteristics of these bikes, is that you've got to get back to getting used to riding most of the time standing up. Remember, that this is a BMX and not a true comfort bike. I obviously am too old and out of shape to do tricks on a bike so if you're like me, you need to remember that this is not a race bike like the older traditional BMX's so the gearing is small. This bike is quick off the line with no top end. This bike caters to the newer generation of park and dirt jumping riders so if you grew up in the early days of BMX and you want something similar to the bikes we rode in the late 70's - early 80's you are going to have to play with gearing and replace the front sprocket and rear freewheel gear with bigger size (more teeth) gears. That also means replacing the chain. Though I like the bike the way it is, I am going to do more upgrades. I will be up sizing the gears to more of a race configuration which I find better for my purposes of riding on the streets and on local trails, and will be replacing the rims with 24" SkyWay nylon mags, a homage to my motomags. Because the SkyWay's rear axle diameter is old school at 3/8, I will have to run an adapter with the newer 14mm axle diameter to get them to fit. Just something to think about if you are thinking about changing the rims to old school rims. I also am adding some front brakes because I am a heavy bastard and the set of rear brakes barely stopped the bike when I bomb the many hills of my neighborhood. Keep in mind that some of these modifications take this bike away from doing tricks and make it more of a traditional old-school BMX dirt bike from the olden days when the rotary phone and AC/DC reigned supreme, which is fine for me because I am way past the prime of mastering BMX trics for the park and track. Lol!Although I love this bike, I could not give it the full 5 stars because the paint job really sucked to the point that I received the thing with scratches and saw how thin the paint was. The seat it came with seemed like something you would find on a Fisher Price kid bike and the older model was much better looking, had better paint, and a better look at the same price.Remember that I bought this bike with the intentions of customizing it out of the box so I am not as picky as others who would just ride the bike the way it was sold. Keeping that in mind that it was a project bike from the start, I am very happy with this bike as a basic core BMX cruiser to build a nice bike from and would recommend it to those who have intentions of gradually customizing it in the future. On-the-other-hand, if you are willing to spend more money and have no intentions of modifying a BMX to death, I recommend that you check out the DK Sprinter 24", Diamond Back Session, or the GT Interceptor.Other than then that, buy it!!! It's less than $200 bucks and ride it like it was yesterday!!!