Hello guys,
I would like to give a brief review of my first and only road bike I have bought a few weeks ago:

(Note: I took the pictures a bit too late, when the sun was already on its way to the other side of the world, so it may seem a bit dark, and keep in mind that colors may also seem blander, for instance, the red color of the bike is actually a much stronger and bright red in real life)
First a bit of background:
(If you would like to skip to the actual review just scroll down to the next image)
A few months ago I bought a used Mongoose Deception Mountain bike at my local flea market. Prior to buying the bike, I hadn’t ridden a bicycle in years. I was looking for a road bike because I was looking for speed, and I had plenty of roads to ride on.
Unfortunately, most road bikes, even at the flea market were out of my price range. I had saved up for quite some time to buy a bike that was at least functional. I saved up around $70, which I know it may seem strange, but right now I am unemployed and am a student.
So basically I ended up taking the Mongoose home with me, and for a few months I was ok with it. I was always trying to go as fast as I could, and I thought it was relatively fast for brief moments. But I would always challenge a few local road bikers to races and that’s when I realized that either road bikes are much faster, or they are better conditioned, or probably both. I desperately wanted a road bike at this time.
Regardless, I fell in love with cycling. My gears would always malfunction, chain would pop off and bend horribly, and it’s in a pretty bad shape right now, but amazingly I can still clunk it back into a ride-able condition.
My brother rode my bike a few times, and later decided he too wanted to buy a bike. Lucky for him, he was able to start with a much better budget than I, but he’s not in college yet so he can save up from birthdays and such and choose when to spend it.
Long story short, we went to the flea market again a couple of weeks ago and there were bikes of all sorts, Specialized BMXs, Huffys, and many big-box type bikes. I brought whatever money I had saved up ($25) just in case anything happened. He wanted a BMX, but then decided he wanted a mountain bike. Nevertheless, he didn’t come back home with a bike.
Rather, I approached a guy with a few other bikes in pieces and fixing some wheels, and saw what I believed to be a red vintage road bike. It had no decals, no handlebar tape, a cut up saddle, rear brakes without stopping power, (the rear brakes needed a lot of adjusting to do, and was WAY too loose) and riddled with dents and scratches all over the frame.
I said: “ok, I’ll just ask to ride it to see how road bikes feel”, because I hadn’t ever ridden on a road bike, so I was very curious. When I got on the bike, everything just seemed to click. The frame size was coincidentally perfectly sized to me, and in the drops I felt relaxed. I rode around, and really enjoyed it.
So when I ask him how much for it, he tells me $35. My heart sank temporarily, because even though my brother has money, I am not the kind to ask for money or borrow when I won’t readily able to pay it back promptly. I offered him $25. His face turned to a combination of “are you serious” and “what in tarnation?”. He said that was just way to little, and I thanked him for his time and went around. After going around the flea market, and having my brother try some other good bikes, I went back to see if the road bike was still there. And it was.
“So, you want the $25?” I asked the owner. Long story short, after trying to persuade him for a prolonged period of time, he finally accepted $25. I got my $25, shoved it in his hand, and grabbed the bike frame so hard not even a pry bar would have separated my bike and I. I thanked him for his generosity and went happily back home.
And so here she is:


The lock and rear light that you see are mine, they didn’t come with the bike.

The crankset was noticeably larger than the one on the mountain bike.

The pedals have some sharp teeth, I hope I don’t get bitten by them anytime soon…

The pedals have a faded out cat-eye, by still feel solid and robust when pedaling hard.

The crank set has two gears only, but I only use the larger one when riding.