Posts Tagged ‘prelude’
“Hey, nice bike!”. I bought this bike for my lady for a 1 year anniversary gift; as an entry level road bike. I’m an avid cyclist/urban commuter, but being that she only rode a MTB at the time, I didn’t want to commit to any road specific bike over $500 since she may not like the skinny tires and crouched stance. I stumbled upon the Schwinn Prelude, liked the price, and went for it.
She rode Schwinn Prelude Mens Road Bike for about 3 months before we replaced it with a Schwinn Super Sport. The reason for replacing it was because of the geometry and sizing, which would be my only beef with this bike, along with no rack mounts as said before. My lady is about 5′9″, but has long’ish arms and legs – and in this case, a properly fitted bike would be the correct way to go as opposed to trying to fit on a “one-size-fits-all”. Even after replacing the bars with MTB/hybrid flat bars, it still caused her pain in her neck and wrists.
She’s very happy with her current bike and instead of selling this bike, I took it (which fits me just fine) and converted it to a second urban/commuter bike, adding fenders, platform pedals and a singlespeed conversion (there is no conversion kit for the type of freewheel cassette that comes on the bike, so I had to use a little ingenuity to make it work). I kept the flat MTB bars and it works just great for me – in the asphalt jungle, sometimes bunnyhopping a curb is necessary! The freewheel is a nice break from my fixed gear bike that I mostly use.
I would definetely recommend this bike to anyone in the upper 5′ to lower 6′ height range: the parts are of very good quality and the frame is solid and light. However, I would also advise that any buyer should SIT on the bike and make sure it fits properly. Even after making bar and seat height adjustments, the frame just may not be right for you.