I have been eyeing this bike for months now, but mostly as a novelty. My fleet is pretty complete and most of my riding is commuting on city streets. For that I was alternating between my road bike, three speed and single speed. Then I got hit.
After that I decided I needed something that could go up a curb or bail off onto a soft shoulder and not fold up or make me eat dirt. I ended up with a 29er hardtail that at first was kind of fun, but man that thing is a pig and slow. So it was back on the road bike, but never really feeling comfortable. Every approaching car in my mirror gave my blood pressure a rise.
Enter the Zilla!
I ordered it on a Wednesday night and it arrived Friday afternoon, much faster than i expected and much appreciated. UPS had treated the box well and even if they had been a little rough, the bike was well packaged and protected. Let the assembly begin...
The tires needed to be aired up and the front wheel installed. After that I attached the bars to the stem and adjusted the headset. From there it was on to the brakes and gears, both needed quite a bit of adjustment, but once done, worked as they should. Most of this was done with only a 5mm allen. In fact I can't remember using anything other than the allen and a phillips screwdriver.
Definitely do your research on the geometry and sizing. BikesDirect size chart says I should have bought the 50cm, but I got the 46.5cm based on another review and some work with a tape measure on my road bike. Even sizing down, I still feel a bit stretched out, but that was easily fixed by a shorter stem and a bar swap.
At this point I've been riding it a week, commuting 9.5 miles to work and another 9.5 back home. The Zilla is exactly everything that I hoped it would be. It feels robust like my MTB but isn't much slower than my road bike. I have read complaints about the brakes and they were a bit finiky to adjust, but they work pretty good now that they're bedded in. Not as good as the hydraulics on my MTB, but better than the rim brakes on the road bike.
I did have to change a couple of things. The stock tires are not great for road work. I'm sure they'd be awesome on some light trail, grass or dirt road, but on the street they feel like you're peddling through tar. I put on a set of 35c semi-slicks and life was much better. The other change was I didn't like the ergo bars. I couldn't get them set to where i felt comfortable on the hoods and in the drops. The Zilla now has the Nitto's pictured above.
Just for fun I swapped front wheels with my MTB and sure enough the 2.1" Kenda Small Blocks fit with room to spare. I didn't check the rear, but I have seen a picture somewhere with a knobby MTB tire just barely fitting between the stays.
All in all I am very happy with this bike. Even with the semi-slicks I can confidently run off onto the soft shoulder if I need to and hopping up curbs is also a non-event. I'm just waiting for my rack and fenders to get here to complete the total commuting package.