Saturday, February 6, 2010

For Sale! Lamborghini Rapido Road Bike (50cm Frame, Red/White)

Lamborghini Rapido Road Bike (50cm Frame, Red/White)







Product Description
Lamborghini Rapido - the traditional road bike has been the pride of Italy for decades. This is a classic example with custom tube aluminum frame, that absorbs road shocks, with the drivetrain composed of custom Shimano RS41-Shifters and TX-30 derailleurs. Customer care at 1-800-451-5368 (or) www.kentbicycles.com

Feature
  • Custom designed 7005 Aluminum Frame
  • 700C CS-9217 Steel fork
  • Drive train: Shimano RD-TX30D rear derailleur, 21 speed grip shifters matched with an Alloy crank
  • Wheels; 700C High V profile alloy silver rims
  • Brakes; Promax alloy caliper brake front and rear

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CustomerReviews

Pretty Good Starter Bike
It was easy to put together and only needed minimal adjustment. I think it took about 30 - 40 minutes tops. I switched from a mountain bike so I was familiar with riding. I like the lightness and the gearing. The brakes are mounted a little awkwardly. I am thinking about changing that so i can brake from a seated upright position. Otherwise, a great bike for the price.

50cm is unrideable unless you rebuild the whole thing
Main issue on 50cm frame: can't turn front tire or it hits the pedals. Not the toe of your shoe, as in many road bikes, the actual pedal. This isn't a problem when riding at full speed or coasting through turns, but it's a huge problem when you're at an intersection and need to pedal around a turn. 2 things will happen: 1) either the tire won't turn as much as you thought it would because it'll hit the inside of the pedal outside the turn; or 2) your pedal will cycle around and hit the tire yourself, suddenly braking you, mess up your steering, and causing you to almost fall.



To fix this you'd need to get smaller tires. Small road bike tires are 26", these are around 28" edge to edge. It'd be barely enough to clear the pedal, but all the overhang of your foot would still hit the tire while turning. Incredibly poor design and totally unacceptable (and dangerous). Unless you buy smaller tires and change out the pedal stems for much shorter ones (which means you won't go very fast and will have to pedal harder since you get less leverage on the pedals), it's un-rideable.



Second problem: on 50cm bike the front brake won't reach the rim. The calipers only hit the rubber. Their solution was to mount the brake on the inside of the fork, but the problem with the side pull brake is when you'd turn the wheel to the left, it'd stop because the brake side pull would hit the frame (if not the pedal). When mounted correctly on the front of the fork, like the picture shows, it won't reach the rim. Neither brake would reach the rim on smaller tires. So, you'll have to splurge and buy different brakes either way on this bike.



Third problem, the handlebar mounts onto the fork using an expansion bolt. You're only supposed to tighten to 20lbs of torque, but doing that little means the handles can still move independently of the tire (they aren't actually bolted together, a little nut expands inside the fork tube, but doesn't expand enough so you get "play" in the handlebar and tire). To take care of this, you have to tighten w/more torque. Problem is, they use a small allen key nut, and you won't be able to untighten it since it'll just strip. Make sure you get the right height before tightening, it'll be on there permanently unless you drill it out.



I'd agree that the shifting needs to be adjusted, and you'll need to adjust brake alignment also (mine were rubbing and way out of alignment).



Summary:

From what I could tell, the frame seems nice and the bike looks attractive. The other defects, however, just couldn't save this bike from being sent back. I think this is pretty much almost the same bike as the GMC Denali Amazon sells, with differences in some of the shifters and handlebars, so take a look at those reviews too. A reviewer there also complained on the defect of the tire hitting the pedals, and sent his back too.



For those wanting to venture the 50cm size, it's a stand-over height of about 30.25". I'm a 5'6" male and I could just stand over it on the balls of my feet, so I'd not recommend anybody under 5'8" get the 50cm size unless you're very long legged.

My 14-year-old is thrilled with this bike!
When my son outgrew his mountain bike, he decided he wanted to switch to a road bike. I bought him the Lamborghini Rapido for his birthday and he loves it! It comes somewhat unassembled so I took it to a bike shop to be put together. The man that did it said it was a really nice bike for the money that I spent on it. My son finds excuses to just go ride and says it's "sweet!"

A reasonale priced road bike
This road bike is reasonably priced. It took me about 45 minutes to put the bike together. The bike weights about 29lb. For a road bike, it is not light.



I have compared this bike to some other bikes within the same price range. The Schwinn prelude and GMC denali road bike. Both bikes mount the shifter on the handle bar. I was not very comfortable with this setting initially. But I do not want to spend another $150 to get something like Shimano sora. Actually, in my opinion, the GMC denali is almost idententical to Rapido except paint, shifter, rear derailleur. After all, both bikes have 21 speed. But GMC is $100 less.



The front tire was flat when I pumped air into it. It turned out the tube has a hole. After I patched the hole, another hole showed up. I had to contact the Kent international. Their support line was easy to access. I had several phone calls with them. The new tires came in fast. However, the replacement tire was 700CX40. My bike has 700CX28. That is a disappointment. Kent claims the replacement tires will work. They may be right. But I want narrow tires.



After riding the bike for more than 100 miles, I would appreciate a lighter frame, alumium handle bar and different tires. So far, I have achieved 14 mile/hour avg speed, 33.4 m/h top speed. The chain fell off twice. It seems that the chain has to stay in 3rd, or 4th cog in order to shift to the largest chainring. Otherwise, the chain will be stuck between the chainring and plastic cover. For exercise purpose, I have learned to live with it. I will be extra careful when I purchase next bike.



Finally, I noticed something about the freewheel. Yes, it has the 7 speed mountain bike screw on freewheel Shimano MF TZ21. Almost all the current mountain bikes have the casssette instead of the freewheel. It is not very easy to get the replacement part. My plan was to replace the 14-28 freewheel to 11-28 to speed up. I could not find any because Shimano stopped the 11-28 freewheel production more than a decade ago. Now only 13-28 is available. With less than 10% speed improvement, I will save the money for my next bike.



Fast, cheap, great for beginners... what more can you ask for?!
I've had this bike for about 2 months now and have had no mechanical issues with it. It came in the box about 95% assembled and it took about 10 minutes to put the rest of it together! I was on the road in a matter of minutes. I am beginner cyclist, and this is my very first road bike, and I must say this bike is easy to operate. Once I got used to shifting gears up and down hills and matching speed, riding it was a breeze.





PROS:

-cheap and affordable

-sturdy frame, yet pretty light

-smooth gear shifting

-fast, fast, fast!



CONS:

-brakes slip a little (just needs simple do-it-yourself tuning)

-chain came off twice (probably because I shifted wrong, hasn't done it since)

There aren't really any major cons to this bike, besides me being a novice shifting gears and being lazy to tighten up the brakes myself.



It's only been a couple months with less than 50 miles on the bike, and so far so good. I'll be back hopefully to write a review for the long terms usage of the bike. But for now, I recommend this bike to any novice rider who wants to enjoy having fun and getting a good exercise in at an affordable price. Enjoy!








More Info: For Sale! Lamborghini Rapido Road Bike (50cm Frame, Red/White)

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