My GF's new bikes direct bike Dawes Lightning DLX
09-17-10, 08:15 PM
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My GF's new bikes direct bike Dawes Lightning DLX
Been trying to get my gf into cycling. Rented a comfort bike once, rode her moms comfort bike once. kinda liked it but didn't love it. Tried to hammer into her that a decent road bike that fit her would let her keep up with me and probably be more enjoyable since she is fit and likes to workout. Recently she suffered a minor meniscus tear so running is out so after borrowing a friends road bike she decided to take the plunge.
It came down to the Gravity Liberty 1 which is a new bike for them this year or the lightning DLX. In the end, she didn't want a white bike so the Lightning in blue was the winner.
Obviously the order process was easy enough. We went online and ordered on Monday.
On tuesday we got an acknowledgement of the receipt of the order. Later in the day we got acknowledgement that it would be shipping. It shipped out tuesday night and we got it today. The box was in good shape, looks like UPS didn't do us wrong. Opened it up and everything was there and it was well packed.
Assembly was pretty simple. I've heard many say they had issues with the amount of grease on items. There was plenty of grease on the headset and plenty of grease on the crank arms. The bottom bracket threads definately could have used some more grease.
in terms of a clean build, the cable housings are a bit long and could use some trimming down, I assume they have a std length they cut all these housings too for all bikes or certainly for a range of sizes. With this bike being the smallest they make for this frame at 44cm (compact style geometry) it makes sense that the cables are a bit long. We will probably end up putting flat bars on it for her so I'll clean them up at that time if needed.
The bike weighs in at 23.2 lbs. not bad for a $400 entry level bike. The primary reason for choosing between these 2 bikes was the Microshift Brifters. I have them on my bike and the cost is cheap but they work great and are WAY better than SORA in my opinion. You can shift from the hoods or the drops with ease. This bike has a triple and it shifts fine.
AS for the quality of the components, the front brake weighed in at 180 grams with the pads on. They seem to work just fine. The handle bars are 25.4 diameter and were wrapped nicely. An unexpected bonus was the interrupter brake handles which are on the bike she recently borrowed and makes her more comfortable because she likes riding on that part of the bar. The worst part of the bike is the cheesy adjustable stem. IT weighs almost 400 grams and the finish on it reminds me of my cast iron frying pan! nevertheless, it will help us dial in the bar height and reach to some extent and regular stems are cheap so we will swap it out. The wheels are alex rpd15 and the tires are cheap piece of crap kenda k152's rated at a max of 90psi. The saddle is a bit beefy without looking like a granny seat. She has been riding a borrowed bike once a week for the last 2 weeks alogn with riding the statioinary bike at the gym so her butt is starting to get conditioned anyways.
I'm quite happy with this purchase. The avail 3 (ladies version of Giant Defy 3) is $750 + 8.875% New York Sales tax so it's over $800. It also comes with pretty crappy stock wheels/tires as well. If your a lighter rider, the stock tires should work okay for you, ride them til they wear out and then replace them. If your over 200lbs, you'll probably want to swap the tires out right off the bat. This bike came with 700x25 tires but has plenty of clearance for wider tires.I did have a snafu when she wanted to take it for a quick ride around the block and I told her not to shift it all the way in each direction. the rd wasn't adjusted yet and she shifted all the way down and it went into the spokes and broke! I didn't realize that Sora RD's are half plastic! I took it over to my lbs to have them double check the hubs and see what they had for RD's. they put an Acera on there, adjusted it as well as the FD and checked the hubs for me for $40.
The final thing is that I had an extra truvativ Elita crank kicking around that I got from an ebay seller clearancing them for $35 bucks with matching cartridge bottom bracket. I took out the stock crank that is a cheapo heavy aluminum crank and put the elita in. This shaved about 375 grams and cosmetically it looks nicer as well. So all told this bike has cost us $480. My gf probably won't turn into any type of serious cyclist but you never know. At the very least, she'll come along with me for some rides on the weekend.
Time will tell how this bike holds up but I'm very happy with it. We can easily upgrade components if we feel the need with the next thing probably being lighter wheels since she only weighs 130lbs and I need another set of wheels. Even if I had to have the lbs build up the whole bike for $150 it still would have been a pretty signifcant savings over buying a big name bike.
Sorry if i'm a little all over the place with it, just excited to have her be able to get out and ride with me on a whim. We will give her it's maiden voyage tomorrow!
The geometry on this bike is fairly relaxed which is good since she isn't really trying to be a speed demon but did like the added zip that the road bike she borrowed from her friend gave her. She really would benefit from flat bars but now having her own bike to learn on and not be in fear of crashing should help her get comfortable.
Lastly, no I'm not a shill. Just a guy trying to save a few bucks. This bike is way better than any department store garbage and can easily be upgraded and at $400 shipped to your door, so what if you have to pay a few bucks to your lbs to get it up and running.
If your a lighter rider, the stock tires should work okay for you, ride them til they wear out and then replace them. If your over 200lbs, you'll probably want to swap the tires out right off the bat. This bike came with 700x25 tires but has plenty of clearance for wider tires.
It came down to the Gravity Liberty 1 which is a new bike for them this year or the lightning DLX. In the end, she didn't want a white bike so the Lightning in blue was the winner.
Obviously the order process was easy enough. We went online and ordered on Monday.
On tuesday we got an acknowledgement of the receipt of the order. Later in the day we got acknowledgement that it would be shipping. It shipped out tuesday night and we got it today. The box was in good shape, looks like UPS didn't do us wrong. Opened it up and everything was there and it was well packed.
Assembly was pretty simple. I've heard many say they had issues with the amount of grease on items. There was plenty of grease on the headset and plenty of grease on the crank arms. The bottom bracket threads definately could have used some more grease.
in terms of a clean build, the cable housings are a bit long and could use some trimming down, I assume they have a std length they cut all these housings too for all bikes or certainly for a range of sizes. With this bike being the smallest they make for this frame at 44cm (compact style geometry) it makes sense that the cables are a bit long. We will probably end up putting flat bars on it for her so I'll clean them up at that time if needed.
The bike weighs in at 23.2 lbs. not bad for a $400 entry level bike. The primary reason for choosing between these 2 bikes was the Microshift Brifters. I have them on my bike and the cost is cheap but they work great and are WAY better than SORA in my opinion. You can shift from the hoods or the drops with ease. This bike has a triple and it shifts fine.
AS for the quality of the components, the front brake weighed in at 180 grams with the pads on. They seem to work just fine. The handle bars are 25.4 diameter and were wrapped nicely. An unexpected bonus was the interrupter brake handles which are on the bike she recently borrowed and makes her more comfortable because she likes riding on that part of the bar. The worst part of the bike is the cheesy adjustable stem. IT weighs almost 400 grams and the finish on it reminds me of my cast iron frying pan! nevertheless, it will help us dial in the bar height and reach to some extent and regular stems are cheap so we will swap it out. The wheels are alex rpd15 and the tires are cheap piece of crap kenda k152's rated at a max of 90psi. The saddle is a bit beefy without looking like a granny seat. She has been riding a borrowed bike once a week for the last 2 weeks alogn with riding the statioinary bike at the gym so her butt is starting to get conditioned anyways.
I'm quite happy with this purchase. The avail 3 (ladies version of Giant Defy 3) is $750 + 8.875% New York Sales tax so it's over $800. It also comes with pretty crappy stock wheels/tires as well. If your a lighter rider, the stock tires should work okay for you, ride them til they wear out and then replace them. If your over 200lbs, you'll probably want to swap the tires out right off the bat. This bike came with 700x25 tires but has plenty of clearance for wider tires.I did have a snafu when she wanted to take it for a quick ride around the block and I told her not to shift it all the way in each direction. the rd wasn't adjusted yet and she shifted all the way down and it went into the spokes and broke! I didn't realize that Sora RD's are half plastic! I took it over to my lbs to have them double check the hubs and see what they had for RD's. they put an Acera on there, adjusted it as well as the FD and checked the hubs for me for $40.
The final thing is that I had an extra truvativ Elita crank kicking around that I got from an ebay seller clearancing them for $35 bucks with matching cartridge bottom bracket. I took out the stock crank that is a cheapo heavy aluminum crank and put the elita in. This shaved about 375 grams and cosmetically it looks nicer as well. So all told this bike has cost us $480. My gf probably won't turn into any type of serious cyclist but you never know. At the very least, she'll come along with me for some rides on the weekend.
Time will tell how this bike holds up but I'm very happy with it. We can easily upgrade components if we feel the need with the next thing probably being lighter wheels since she only weighs 130lbs and I need another set of wheels. Even if I had to have the lbs build up the whole bike for $150 it still would have been a pretty signifcant savings over buying a big name bike.
Sorry if i'm a little all over the place with it, just excited to have her be able to get out and ride with me on a whim. We will give her it's maiden voyage tomorrow!
The geometry on this bike is fairly relaxed which is good since she isn't really trying to be a speed demon but did like the added zip that the road bike she borrowed from her friend gave her. She really would benefit from flat bars but now having her own bike to learn on and not be in fear of crashing should help her get comfortable.
Lastly, no I'm not a shill. Just a guy trying to save a few bucks. This bike is way better than any department store garbage and can easily be upgraded and at $400 shipped to your door, so what if you have to pay a few bucks to your lbs to get it up and running.
If your a lighter rider, the stock tires should work okay for you, ride them til they wear out and then replace them. If your over 200lbs, you'll probably want to swap the tires out right off the bat. This bike came with 700x25 tires but has plenty of clearance for wider tires.
09-17-10, 08:21 PM
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I thought a high roller personal trainer could afford better for his girlfriend 
.
I kid, of course. Those BD bikes are screaming deals. We need some pictures.
.I kid, of course. Those BD bikes are screaming deals. We need some pictures.
09-17-10, 08:29 PM
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What makes me chuckle about the bikes direct debate are the people that say "if you throw crap components on a crap frame it's still crap" they don't seem to understand that for a lot of people these frames are far from crap. And just because a bike doesn't have race geometry doesn't mean you can't have carbon fiber and ultegra on it. Its a first bike and you want it to be decent, you aren't trying to determine how much flex is in the bottom bracket and how stiff it rides. I'm quite sure it's going to be a good bike for her.
09-17-10, 08:30 PM
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Well done ... 
Link for reference
Shimano/MicroShift 24 Speed 2011 Dawes Lightning DLX $399
https://www.bikesdirect.com/products/dawes/lt_dlx.htm
Link for reference
Shimano/MicroShift 24 Speed 2011 Dawes Lightning DLX $399
https://www.bikesdirect.com/products/dawes/lt_dlx.htm
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