An Ornate but Poor-Quality Product
I’ll cut to the chase, I bought this bike for my girlfriend to introduce her to cycling as she found this online somehow and fell in love with the looks and the style. The bike is super cute, and my girlfriend loves it, but I want to share some thoughts as an experienced cyclist and amateur mechanic. I didn’t expect something that competed with a Giant, Specialized or Cannondale, but the bike received is far from perfect.
While this bike looks really cool and actually rides and handles much better than I expected, these bikes are really only about a half step above a Walmart bike in terms of overall build quality and the components used, yet retail at a significantly higher price. If you are new to cycling and are not an experienced mechanic, you would be well advised to visit your local bike shop as there are name brand bicycles at similar price points that are available in different frame sizes to suit your body type, with better quality components, that will ride better, last longer, and be ready ride right out of the door without having to modify the components to fit and work properly. I really couldn’t imagine most novice buyers assembling this bike properly without visiting a professional mechanic.
The front fender was bent and had to be “modified” with vice-grips, so it didn’t rub the tire and still doesn’t line up with the fork or wheel despite my best efforts. The chainwheel on the crank is out of round and rubs through half of the crank’s rotation. The tubes in the tires have leaky Schrader vales and don’t hold air well. There are scratches, blemishes and paint chips all over the bike. The handlebars are abraded and scuffed. The water transfer polka dots are hazy in spots, and the luggage rack is ill fitting and the struggle of installation caused even more cosmetic damage.
The generic microSHIFT derailleur indexes and shifts pretty well for a $13 part, but the range of gearing is far too narrow to contend with actual hills on a 44-tooth crankset. The springs in the brake calipers are of dubious quality and take great care to center on the rim but work well when adjusted properly.
Upon unboxing and assembling this bike I felt ashamed for spending as much as I did for something so many cosmetic and functional issues, but my girlfriend loves and gets tons of completements on it. She had very little interest in bikes I preferred to spend this level of money on, so I’ll concede that the marketing and style of the bike worked in this case and has fostered an interest in cycling that would not have been the case otherwise.
Leave it to influencers and affiliate marketing to get her to swing her leg over a bicycle, but I can’t tell you with a straight face that this is a $700 or even a $550 bike given the experience I’ve had. Just the same I don’t have the heart to return it as she loves the color, looks, and the polka dots so I’m going to upgrade some of the components as she really does love it.
