Whenever I shelved the 1987 Free Spirit Pinnacle bike due to constant tire issues, my uncle was kind enough to give me his Huffy Superia. If I can recall correctly, they did a group buy with other family members on a bunch of mountain bikes (the Superia) and they rarely rode theirs.
I haven’t had the best luck with modern bikes. Every time I’ve owned a modern bike of this price point (“Walmart bikes”), everything breaks. The gear selection mechanism, followed by the brakes, followed by the pedals, and then followed by the entire bike itself. (This is another reason I’ve decided to pour money into repairing the 1987 Free Spirit Pinnacle.)
The Superia is no exception to this rule. Tires were a slight issue due to riding the bike on trails that are littered with debris and sharp objects that may cause frustration when they get lodged into your tire. While tires were a normal wear-and-tear thing (as the bike was ridden nearly daily over the span of time I had it, as long as the weather was good), the bike started having other issues. One of the first issues I had with this bike was a flat tire after my grandfather massively overinflated (and blew) a tire with his air compressor.
While not as pronounced or as severe as other bikes of this price point I’ve owned in the past, the Superia did suffer from minor gear selection mechanism mayhem. But even though this was an issue from time to time, this wasn’t even the biggest issue of the Superia.
The end of the Superia came when things were starting to (literally) fall apart. The pedals, which were made of cheap plastic to begin with, finally cracked and broke to pieces while riding. I rode the Superia without pedals (just with the rod that would’ve connected the pedal to the crankshaft) for some time, but I found that wore out my shoes (and feet) in quick succession.
I tried to install a new pair of pedals, but then something else broke – and something else after that. The writing was on the wall.
The bike was later scrapped. A neighbor who helped me find tires for the 1987 Pinnacle lent me a nice mountain bike (Gary Fisher mountain bike – a very nice model) to use for the summer while I tried to figure out what to do with the Superia. I decided, partially from his suggestion, that the Superia was a waste of time/money and I pulled any useful parts off it for my* and his use, and the rest was sent to the recycler to be turned into new soda cans.
*The seat on the 1987 Pinnacle is actually the seat that came off the Superia, as the seat that I purchased back in 2012 for the Pinnacle wasn’t too comfortable and offered no cushioning for your bottom and “other” region. The new seat is much more comfortable and is shaped like a regular bike seat.