Right then.
I have built up the Proteam folding bike. It took me about 90 mins. The bike came with all the bits, (cos I was expecting stuff to be missing) and it even came with a carry bag.
It is fitted with a rear pannier carrier, front and rear metal painted mudguards and came with a bell also.
I had to go over everything to check for safety, fitted the pedals and seat to the seat stem and adjusted the brakes and gears. That's it.
My 1st impressions are as follows:-
+ves
- It folds very small. It's really easy to fold, it's compact and appears even more convenient than my Downtube FS to carry, fold and unfold. It took me 30 secs to unfold the 1st time, but more like 20 secs the 2nd time.
It fits perfectly in it's bag and is about the size of a mid sized suitcase when folded and put in it's bag. Cool...
- The brakes are V-Brake type brakes, but i snapped off the adjuster bolt and now the front brake doesn't work. Should be pennies to fix though, just inconvenient.
- The gears are entry level Shimano, but they appear fairly robustly made and they seem to shift fairly cleanly.
- The frame seems fairly solid and when i rode it (with my 84kg 5'11" tall frame) it felt comfy and didn't make any creaking noises. The wheels are 16" and turn sharply, but allow quick acceleration. I didn't want to go flat out though as i only had the back brake working.
-ves
- Cheaply made brakes (but what do you expect for the money).
- Supplied pedals don't fold.
- That's it so far...It's early days, so if anything else crops up I'll post it on here.
To summarise, I think I've got a bit of a bargain really at £60. The lass in the Morrisons store told me they have been selling like hot cakes and when we bought ours there was only one left afterwards.
All the parts appear upgradeable, and the frame seems solid enough to be a good base to upgrade on if we wanted to later.
Recommended to anyone wanting a cheap commuting folder, with lots of convenience and not that heavy (13kg it says on the box). It certainly doesn't feel heavy to carry for me and the wife didn't complain about it when she picked it up.
Regards,
Rubber
