Posts tagged Amazon

I’ll get the good out first. This is a great bike for the money; I looked all over in stores for a comparable bike and couldn’t find one for under $250. Once assembled, the bike rides fine, the gears shift pretty smoothly and the brakes are decent. The seat leaves something to be desired (it’s VERY narrow) but the handlebars are great (there’s a good layer of comfort foam). The frame is sturdy and well-painted (any decals are covered with a layer of clear enamel) with the only stickers being of the generic variety, like the standard “warning: always wear a helmet” one. It took me a little while to adjust everything to where I wanted it, but once there everything was hunky-dory.

The assembly, however, is a bear if you’ve never assembled a bike before (which I haven’t). I consider myself decently handy, and if you give me a good set of directions I can usually figure things out no problem. The instruction manual in this case, however, isn’t for this specific model of bike; it’s a generic that reads like one of those choose-your-own-adventure books that were popular back in the day. My first clue was the warning that “pictures may not match your particular model.” As I went on, I encountered a lot of “if your bike comes with this kind of…”, which became very frustrating very quickly, especially when I got to the brakes – maybe it’s just me, but none of those pictures look like what I was working on.

Since there are no pictures of this bike model in the manual, I had to do a lot of guessing. For example, I found out AFTER I had completed and ridden the bike that the gear shift goes under, and not on, the handlebar, and that was only from looking at the Amazon picture.

I spent roughly one hour and fifteen minutes putting the bike together, and I would say forty-five minutes of that was spent on the front brake. At first, it was set so wide that when you pulled the brake on the handlebar the pads wouldn’t even touch the rim. I adjusted it one, but then they stuck in the “closed” position. It took a lot of patience and a lot of work with my adjustable wrench, but I finally got it to a working state. With that exception, everything else pretty much went smoothly.

In short, if you’ve assembled bikes before or consider yourself pretty handy, this is a great value. If you are the slightest bit intimidated by anything I wrote though, just spend the extra money and get a pre-assembled bike, because this won’t be worth your time, and if you mess ANYTHING up, you don’t want it to be your brakes.

UPDATE 7/21/2010: Ten days ago I took this bike out for a 66.2 mile ride (the ACS Bike-a-thon in Philadelphia), and have also been riding it pretty consistently since my review, and have some new thoughts.

The handlebars tend to not stay straight, especially if you drop (even gently) the bike on its side. The first 20 miles of my ride were on somewhat bumpy roads, and by the end of it my handlebars were about five to ten degrees off center. The allen wrench included with the bike needs to be inserted in such a way that the handle is actually in the bolt (otherwise it won’t reach), leaving you very little leverage to turn it. This problem can probably be solved with a different allen wrench.

Also, the gears need to be adjusted regularly, because after about 10 miles they start to make noise as you pedal. Also, make sure you tighten the bolts around the seat and the post that holds it up, as a bumpy ride will stress them.

On the plus side, the stock tires held up excellently on a ride that saw about one out of every 20 riders get a flat on the less-than-stellar roads. The grips are as comfortable as my first impression, but tend to get a bit slippery with sweat (wearing gloves will negate this effect; I found out when I rested my forearm on them).

Still, for under $200, if you don’t mind a trying assembly experience and buying a new seat, this is a good bike.

Ok, to be honest, I have not yet ridden the bike, the 4 stars are for my impressions so far. I know that there are a lot more bike brands out there than there are bike makers, and most use the same components anyway. I wasn’t expecting a top of the line bike here, just something to ride to store and take some mid-distance rides on the bike trails. I was actually impressed when I unpacked it, everything looks great. Good paint job, the logos aren’t just stickers on top like a lot of inexpensive, (and some fairly expensive), bikes. The components are all very good quality, Shimano shifters, very good derailleurs, good brakes, excellent tape job on the handlebars. The frame is solid, good welds, beefy and still light enough to carry easily with one hand. I finished assembling it, and making all the adjustments. I’m not an expert here, but I am pretty handy in general, plus I have owned, assembled, refurbished and maintained bikes before. The assembly was a breeze, everything fit like it should, no problems at all. Getting the brakes, etc. adjusted correctly, well, I wouldn’t want to do it without any experience, and the manual included wouldn’t be much help to a newbie. I aired up one tire, then started the second, got to 40 pounds, and it blew. I took it off the rim to patch the tube and saw that the rim strip didn’t cover all the spoke holes. Well, this isn’t cool, and I’d be worried about the quality of the bike in general, but I called the number for product support, and had a very nice conversation, they laughed when I told them the problem, apparently it was a new one for them. Before I got around to asking what they’d do to fix the problem, they asked for my address so they can ship two new tubes and two sets of rim strips. I know anyone can make a bad product, and there will always be some lemons, but to me the difference is the support. I feel confident riding this bike knowing that the company offers such fantastic support.

More information on Victory Vision Men’s Road Bike here.