Posts Tagged ‘bike’
If you are going to read only one book this year, make it this one. It grabbed me from page one. The characters are so visual you can almost see them going about their daily business. You end up feeling like they are your friends. It’s been a long time since a book got ahold of me like this one did. All my friends have read it and we all agree that it’s a keeper. I envy anyone who has not read it…what a story.
Bike | Bicycle Streamers | connectedtofinland
Great bike for the price. I received the bike today and wasn’t sure what to expect from a $235 road bike. I was pleasantly surprised. The bike has an appealing look with its blue and silver paint job. These colors don’t combine to have the most expensive look to them but Schwinn Prelude Mens Road Bike looks better in reality than the pictures on the internet which I didn’t think were to bad in the first place.
The bike was a good size for me and I am 5″11. The parts that were already assembled needed tweaking, tightening and checking. The additional parts like the front wheel, front caliper, handlebars and shifters you will have to install. This is easily done by following the easily explained steps in the manual. Getting the wheels to turn smoothly without catching the break pads is what took most of the time setting up the bike.
When I was assembling the bike I found the positioning of the shifters to be inconvenient, they just take up too much room on the handlebars and would require a whole body straightening movement to get to them from the normal riding position. The shifters are attractive with there thumb up and down plastic control switches; they also shift smoothly; these are not the worst Shimano have to offer. The aluminum band that ties them on to the handlebars looks cheap. The other cheap looking parts of the bike are the pedals and the seat is cheap. It has little to offer in padding and I will upgrade that this month.
For now the Schwinn is the most reasonable bike on the market. In a year or two if I get into road biking more I could see myself upgrading because there is a noticeable weight difference between this bike at 25lbs and a $700 Trek 1000 which I just know by lifting it is lighter. However, this bike is 3 times cheaper and all I need to get myself fit.
The perfect green stunt bike for 8 yr old.. I got this for my 8 year old for Christmas. He loves Mongoose Strike BMX Bike and can’t wait to go out and ride every day. The bike is sturdy and perfect for his crazy stunts. 
Terrible Assembly Direstions. Mostly I just want to say how terrible the assembly directions for this bike are.
I went through the manual probably 10 times looking for the brake assembly and finally found Disney Girls Bike not actually in the manual, but on a separate loose page.
The brake assembly was extremely difficult and following the directions was extremely useless. I finally had to go online for help and discovered that you actually need to loosen the cable from the wheel to get enough slack to have any hope of getting it to reach the handbrake itself. Once I figured this out, there was a lot of work involved getting it to the right tension so that the brake would grip easily, but not drag on the tires.
Really frustrating assembly experience, but my daughter does love the bike.
First Look at Schwinn 220 Recumbent Bike. Please note that this review is written based on only ONE WEEK of use, so Schwinn 220 Recumbent Exercise Bike can’t possibly address performance over the long term. If I remember to, I’ll come back in a few months and give a more complete review.
First, the machine was shipped promptly and arrived on time. The package was somewhat damaged, but all the bike parts arrived in good condition. It appears to me that the Chinese manufacturer packaged the bike for containerized shipment, and not for individual transport. Nevertheless, all was okay.
Assembly is straight-forward. I was interrupted (neighbor’s horses got out), but total assembly time was probably about one hour, working alone. Note that I’m an experienced assembler, having put together many wagons, carts, bikes, trikes, etc. in the wee hours of Christmas morning. Also note that Step 5 (page 11) calls for REMOVING the seat rail bracket; the bracket on my bike WAS NOT already installed, and, not reading the instruction, I installed the bracket, as that’s what the diagram suggested. No big deal, but you’ll have to remove it later. Other than that glitch, all went smoothly. By the way, all the tools that you will need are included in the package – nice touch.
With only one week’s use, the machine has been absolutely silent in operation; I certainly hope that continues. By default, the bike starts at intensity level 3. Stepping up to level 4 is detectable but not severe. Further steps seem to increase resistance at a higher level.
I cannot grasp the front handle bars while sitting with my back against the backrest; in fact I can barely touch them with my finger tips. To grasp the handles I must lean forward. Not a biggie, but I would prefer them to be located in front of the electronic display, rather than behind it.
As to the electronic panel, it appears to me that the MPH shown is high; at 80 RPMs it registers 16 miles per hour, while my old bike showed 13 MPH. The display registers about 25 calories per mile at resistance level 4. The heart rate monitor shows about 5 beats per minute higher than my Polar unit, but I can’t say for sure which one is closer.
I do not like the way the “time” feature changes between “elapsed time” and a one-minute countdown display at 6-second intervals – I would prefer it to stay on the elapsed time screen. If there is a way to reset this feature I haven’t been able to find it.
Also, my old bike stopped the elapsed-time clock whenever I quit pedaling, but this one continues to run – a stop to answer the doorbell reflected 5 minutes of exercise time while I was away.
I have not used any of the programmed workout programs, because I exercise at 78-82 RPMs for 30 minutes, varying pedal resistance during the workout (I’m a 70-year-old male, and I’m not trying to build endurance.)
The “magazine rack” is merely a small ledge. It will hold a magazine, I suppose, but I place my very small MP3 player on it. I don’t believe that some of the larger players would stay on the ledge.
I knew this before I ordered the bike, so I can’t really complain, but I would much prefer the display unit to be powered by a battery, as my old bike was. The Schwinn 220 must be plugged into an AC outlet – without electricity you don’t get any readouts, and can’t vary resistance.
The Schwinn 220 seems to be pretty stout, and my overall impression, at this point, is favorable. If it continues to function like it does now, I’ll be pleased with my purchase. Time will tell
Schwinn 240 is GREAT!. I just purchased the Schwinn 240. It is the first exercise bike I have ever owned but have used others my friends had. This machine is light years ahead of what I’ve used before.
After having tried other brands I settled on this one due to how well Schwinn 240 Recumbent Exercise Bike is constructed, ease of use etc.
I gave it 4 out of 5 stars because the instructions as to how to use it to get the most out of it SUCK! I wrote the company concerning this. It was *kind of* easy to initially set it up. (Don’t set it up for Guest if you are the primary user or it won’t save your workouts.) It is alot of guess work for me to go from going to my name then getting to the actual workout screen.
I’m sure I’ll figure it out eventually but, why should I have to? That should be Schwinn’s responsibility to have already figured it out for me to make my life a little more simpler!
Also, all the parts to put it together come on two pieces of card board with plastic over them to keep them in place. There are numbers etc. under each nut and bolt but none of these letters and numbers match up with the book to put the machine together. You have to figure that out for yourself by looking at the pictures in the book. Another Schwinn blunder. They could very easily have put a number under each nut and put that **same** number in the book.
Other than these blunders, I really love the machine and am getting lots of use from it! I hope to have it many years and extend my quality of life for many years to come.
Schwinn, get a clue. We don’t want to learn this machine by trial and error. Put together a better manual on how to use this machine. Don’t make me have to put one together for you!
Love this!. Our five year old is pretty slim. He was struggling to get his bike going and really hated the wobble of the training wheels. He wasn’t biking much and we could tell he was scared of falling over, even though it was unlikely. Anyway, we wanted him to feel how to balance and to enjoy biking more. So we got the WeeRide. We’ve done a few family bike rides and wow! We’re all having fun and getting places. Our son loves it. No stigma attached – he’s helping pedal. It turns nicely and seems safe. I’d love to get another attachment piece so we could switch from my bike to my husband’s without tools. Other than that, we’re very happy with this purchase.
storage saver. After the headache of an install onto the ceiling of my garage (tall garage; drywall); these bike racks work wonders. I bought 2 after seeing a neighbor had a similar lift. Thinking it’d be good for our bikes I quickly got em and tried to install them (Note tried).
It took a little while to figure out the best way to get them onto the garage ceiling, though after the struggle in the install, I’m loving the space. They easily lift each bike smoothly and the lock mechanism is simple; just like a window blind. The rope so far has held up though is rough on the hands when sliding through your grip.
Overall, these bike lifts are great. They are well worth the hassle of installing them, and some may have an easier time with studs exposed in the garage.
great bike for the money!. i bought this bike for my girlfriend, and for the amount ~$250 Schwinn Volare 700C Flat Bar Mens Road Bike can’t be beat. it needed just a little adjustment to the derailers but that is normal for any new bike. since then it’s been running great and has needed nothing! nice lightweight wheels and very decent entry level components make this a great value for the money, and the flat bar is very comfortable for city cruising!
Very shoddy and poorly designed bike. I am scared to even ride this thing. The handlebars cannot be tightened enough so they keep twisting around. The front wheel is too close to the pedals, which makes turns difficult. The wheels were somewhat out of true right out of the box. Perhaps because of this, the brakes dont feel right. I havent ridden this enough to break the pedals yet, but reading the other reviews here, Mongoose Montana Mens Mountain Bike is bound to happen soon.
One more thing is the assembly. There are no instructions on how to assemble from “out of the box”. The ones available are needlessly detailed and often skip basics – useful for a mechanic, not for the typical user. The whole thing seems designed in a very ad-hoc fashion: for example, every allen bolt is a different size.
I’m going to count this as a loss and get my old secondhand bike fixed.
Edit: Thanks to the reviewer who posted that the front wheel could be backwards. This was indeed true. Think me a moron and I wont disagree with you, but the reason I did that was due to the wedge inside the front wheel tube that matches the one on the bottom of the handle being reversed (ie. the factory installed it back-to-front). There’s no way to get at it to turn it around without special tools so I just got a bodybuilder neighbor of mine to jam the handle in as-is. The handle comes a bit loose once in a while so I have to carry an allen key with me while riding, but given the trouble the bike’s been, it’s a small deal.
I still wouldnt recommend the bike or change my rating. Other things wrong with it: gears are not smooth at all. Chain comes apart. Balance is bad (cant ride it hands-free). Seat is uncomfortable. Also, very high friction – it’s like riding an exercise bike sometimes. I did a measurement: freewheeled it down a hill and see when it stopped by itself once it reached flat ground. My old secondhand bike which I’ve rarely oiled (it’s also a mountain bike but manifestly not a Montana) reached twice the distance.