Tour De France Stage One Jersey Bike (Sports) I ride a cheap ($250) Vilano road bike that I got on to and from work every day. It's starting to show premature age but still hanging in like a champ so i thought i would buy another "cheap" bike for my bother. I got this one, the Tour De France Stage One Jersey Bike, thinking that even though it's cheaper and a little heavier it would still be an ok beater bike.Turns out it's actually completely useless. The tires that come on it are made of very soft material and don't have a hard lip on the edge. Good tires have this and it's usually reinforcement by a metal cable inside the rubber. As soon as I inflated the rear tire it bubbled over the rim in one spot so bad the wheel couldn't turn through the brake assembly. Not to be out done the front tire kept its shape but its tube deflated after one day of sitting motionless.I figured the tires and tubes would by garbage so I was only disappointed they didn't last a month or at least a couple weeks. I ordered some Gator Skin tires and Avenir tubes since I use that combination on my bike and it's been great for months. This brings the cost of this bike from $220 to $320 before it has even moved. I changed the front tire and tube yesterday and was trying to work the nut off the back one today when the front tube loudly blew out.... you know, form the stress of sitting properly inflated and motionless for one night. I suspect this is actually what happened to the first tube and I just wasn't there to see it.Maybe the rim has some sharp defect and I can get it replaced, maybe i installed the tire poorly and the next tube will hold, maybe somehow this thing will actually ride down a street one day. However the tires aren't even the only trash parts on this thing and it's already cost enough money and time that while "cheap never is" isn't always true, I can tell you it is with this thing.Don't buy this lump of metal unless you envision it without any tires, with rims that need inspection and finishing, and with assorted clips and pads that need immediate replacement and it still seems like a deal to you. Because that's what you're probably going to have to do before it's road worthy.
Angela Kane - Well built and fairly comfortable shoes, but the distressing is totally synthetic and obvious. The parts of the shoes that look lighter in the picture actually have a silverish paint sprayed on them. More heavily and noticeable around the seams. Had I known this I would not have bought.
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