I put my bike together! Yep, I put it together myself -- impressive, no? Ok, so it's easier than it sounds, but you didn't hear that from me.
There is a bit of a problem though -- there's no way in HELL that thing is even going to pretend to fit in my car. It's
huge! Seriously, who knew bikes were so massive? Even if I took the front wheel off (and it's not one of those easy to remove ones), it still wouldn't even come close to fitting. That bike is like 6 feet wide -- not exaggerating. It's even wider than my car, I think. I swear, it's a girl bike -- it's just a
really really big one.
I'm very happy with my choice. After I got it all adjusted and put together, I took it outside to blow up the tires and ride it a bit. It's a good fit for me and very comfortable. I wish I could take it to UAH to ride it or to go ride with my friends! That'll have to wait until I get a bike rack for the Beetle -- which I might be able to afford next month. Until then, it'll sit in my living room and be ridden around my apartment complex. I'm super happy with my choice to buy it and I'm really proud of the awesome deal I got (~80 dollars when all was said and done).
So how was putting it together? Well, it was easier than I thought -- but then harder than it first appeared. The instructions are not nearly detailed enough. First, they're made for the whole class of bikes -- not this one specifically. Two, I could have used a lot more detail, thanks. A lot of it was kinda winging it and going "I guess they mean this..." And lord help, I played with the brakes for an hour and I still don't have them right. Also, Huffy could have detailed the gazillion adjustable parts for me. Not to make me happy with my purchase, but so I would know that it needed to be adjusted and tightened BEFORE I hopped on it. The seat has like 5 different tilt positions -- didn't know that till I started riding it. Thanks for cluing me in there.
The only things I need to tweak a bit more are the brakes and the seat. It has a quick release seat and I can't seem to get the nut tight enough to hold my big butt high enough (hey, I'm WELL below the max weight limit, thank you). I also am a tad unhappy that I can't find a bike where I can both touch the ground and also get my legs decently straight when bottoming out on the pedals. This was the case with every other bike I rode while shopping so I'm willing to just deal with that. The pedals can't touch the ground and I have to be able to at least reach it with my tippy toes -- if I had the fit in the pedals that I wanted, they'd have to be right above the ground and I'm just not going to find that on a mountain bike. Other than that, I'm extremely pleased. I like it even more than I expected to! I like it much better than all the (way more expensive) bikes I tried in the store and I'm even happy with the color (didn't expect to actually like it). And it fits me! YAY!
Now I just need to save up for a bike rack on the back of the Beetle so I can haul it around with me -- I'm so disappointed that I won't be able to ride it much at all until I get a rack :(