Customer Reviews: Read 9 more reviews...
 Good choice October 20, 2008
Flavio Van Deursen (Sao Paulo-SP Brazil)
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
Sony VAIO VGN-NR385E/W 15.4-inch Laptop (1.83 GHz Intel Pentium Dual Core T5550 Processor, 2 GB RAM, 200 GB Hard Drive, DVD Drive, Vista Premium) White
 very poor breaks October 7, 2008
Peter Banks (North West Arkansas)
I bought both the women's and men's models. The break pads refused to stop the bike even with professional adjustment. I replaced all the break pads with Shimano pads ($32.00), and lo and behold! the bikes now stop properly. The gears work fine, but the suspension on the forks is weak. If you can find a bike with Shimano parts, and a better "name brand" I would go for it...the Mongoose we bought at $99.00 is a much better bike without changing anything - it acutally works as it should.
 Good for learning about bicycles... October 7, 2008
J. Horton (Bloomington, IN USA)
... because you have to learn all about them to get it working.
Shipping was fairly fast, taking a couple weeks to get to my semi-minor town.
Firstly I notice the tires were twisted funny on the wheels. Very cheap. I had to adjust the tires to get everything roughly symmetrical while gradually putting air in. This took half an hour.
From here I followed the instructions and put on the front tire, seat and handlebars. No problems here. Took another half hour because I'd never done it before. Well, just be sure to tighten the handlebars REALLY well. I fell the first rut I hit because I lost my steering.
The next unofficial thing needed is truing the wheels while gradually tightening the brakes. The included instructions make no mention of how to do this, and you'll have to find out via google. I found it's important to adjust the brakes while truing, or else you'll go nuts trying to figure out why the brakes don't work right. I lost probably 3 hours on this.
Next goes on to derailleur adjustment... this is where my nightmare truly began. The instructions tell you what to do, but leave out a critical step: NOTICE THE ORIENTATION OF THE ADJUSTMENT WIRES AND FLIP THEM AROUND AS NECESSARY TO MAKE SHIFTING EASIER!! I found I couldn't operate the front shifter at all with all the strength I had. Then I just unbolted the adjustment wire and spun it around the other way on the bolt. Suddenly shifting took less than half the oomph of before! Too bad the derailleur actually BENT in this experience. I torqued the shifter so hard it ripped and bent a metal part. I emailled the company and they got me a new one in a couple weeks.
Then I realized I couldn't install the new derailleur without using a chain tool to temporarily break the chain -- a tool I did not have. So I ordered a $20 tool to do the job. That was another week of delay. I think I spent upwards of 8 hours just on the derailleurs.
So over approximately 5 weeks and 12 hours of active effort, I now have a finished bicycle I don't really trust so much. If I hit a bump or shift gears fast, the chain pops right off. But hey, at least it was cheap and looks nice. I do like the shock system too -- it is a fairly cushioned ride.
 Good Value, Awesome Look October 1, 2008
Barleys
Purchased this bike ealier this summer. Assmembly went smoothly, brakes took most time( as I see in other posts). After 20 minutes of brake set up it was good to go. I am not a mechanic, but putting the bike together was rather easy. Would agree that bike is not recommended for off road mountain biking but rather street riding and light trails. Looks great and affordable. I brought it into a shop for a good tune and since then works great! Good value.
Money Pit September 13, 2008
Landcruiserguy76 (Kansas)
I bought this bike thinking it would be a great entry level bike. I put the bike togther, no problems. However, the brakes would not adjust correctly. I ended up taking the bike to a Bicycle shop to get the adjustments. 73.00 dollars later after many, many adjustments the bike is usable. The bike shop said it's a very cheaply made bike but hey i paid 100 bucks for it. I wasn't expecting the Mercedes of bikes. However, unless you are certain you can do all the adjustments yourself don't buy this model. Go to a bike shop and buy a little more expensive bike and save yourself the trouble. Not to mention extra money!
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