Schwinn Men's Phocus 1600 700C Drop Bar Road Bicycle, Silver, 18-Inch

Schwinn Men's Phocus 1600 700C Drop Bar Road Bicycle, Silver, 18-Inch

CUSTOMER REVIEW



First off I will come back after a little time and travel on my new purchase to update this post.



I am a returning OIF/OND combat infantry veteran with a bad knee, I cannot run anymore because of pain in my leg so I decided to get into cycling. I went out to Academy and bought a bike that I thought was decent enough not knowing anything about the sport and decided that if I can't run at least I can ride. The bike that I bought from Academy was the Schwinn Volare 1300 (on a side note, if you're thinking of buying that bike...DONT). It did not take me anytime to realize that purchase was just me pissing money away, if you're truly looking for a good training bike and a way to get into shape this is your bike. The bike I had before constantly tried to skip gears on me, it was only a 14 speed so climbing up tall bridges was nearly impossible for me because I am just getting back into somewhat decent shape, and the shifters were thumb shifters attached to the center column of the handlebars. Some of the things that I have learned from my terrible purchase were that you want a bike with drop bar brake / shifter levers so that you will not have to sit up and readjust every single time you want to go up or down a gear. You want a bike that has at least 16 gears, the lower the gear goes the better it will be for climbing if you're serious enough to get out on the road and ride 25 miles at a time like I do. You want a bike that has both front and rear tire quick release feature rather than one that is just front tire and the rear tire is not. All of these things that I just mentioned are on the Schwinn Men's Phocus 1600. I am a clyde, I am 6 foot tall and weigh in at around 218 pounds, for me you also need a bike that you can lean forward on and not feel as if you are having to reach behind you for the handlebars when you're trying to get under the wind. This bike came fast, took 3 day's for me to receive my order and was fed-ex delivered. The packing was good, double boxed so as to protect from damaging any material and the bike was pretty much already assembled. When I opened the box the rear tire, chain, rear deraileur, front deraileur, crankset, cassette, brakes were all already on the frame and properly tensioned. The handlebar cables were attached but they did need to be mounted and the front forks were just slightly off center from the frame so I had the re-adjust that part. the seat was wrapped up and placed carefully beside the bike in the box as well as the foot pegs and the front tire. This bike did not have any instruction manual on how to assemble it from this point but unless you're a total nimrod, it shouldn't take you but about a half hour maybe. I gave this purchase only four stars at this time for two reasons, 1) Even though I am mechanically inclined and did not need them it seems to me that they should have had some sort of instructional reading on how to assemble to bicycle out of the box and 2) Even though this was very well packaged the tensioner torque bolt for the front brake cable was slightly bent because it is made out of aluminum and easy to manipulate. this did not cause me any added grief really but only a few seconds, I am a welder I deal with metals all day, at just the sight of the torque bolt I knew it was aluminum and could be bent with my thumb and that's exactly what I did. I tightened it in a little and then placed my thumb against the curve and forced it straight... the bike is great.



I am very happy with my purchase and will keep you all updated soon