Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

My bicycling background: Up until last month, I commuted by bike most days. I had a 10-mile ride with a few mild inclines (no more than 200' elevation change over the ten miles). I'd been doing that for about a year. I didn't have high expectations for this bike, but I bought it with a specific purpose in mind: I work from home, now, and the nearest grocery store is a mile away. I want something that can get me around the neighborhood during the day, or for short (no more than three-mile-long) jaunts in the afternoons and weekends. The folding part is sort of speculative: I live about .7 miles from a light rail stop, and I can see periodically folding the bike up for rides into the city where I might want to bike around once I'm off the train, or where I can get off the train early and enjoy the miles of bike path around my house. My commuter bike is a Trek Crossrip Comp, which I like a lot but don't like getting around on for short rides since it has SPD pedals (requiring cleats) and doesn't encourage upright riding. The Loop arrived in fine shape. The packing was great. No dings or other issues. The only thing I had to do was cut off the ties holding it into its folded shape, screw on the right pedal, unfold it, and raise the seat to the proper height. The brakes were in good shape out of the box, but the shifter needed indexing. Since I'd read so many complaints about the saddle, I ordered the Cloud 9 seat that Amazon recommends along with the bike. I did do a few miles on the stock saddle, though, and I don't think it's as bad as people say. It's more cushy than the stock saddle on my Trek. That said, if you're not a regular biker or you're just starting again after some time away, I can see how the saddle might seem sort of hard and unpleasant. I'd recommend waiting to change it until you've put a few miles on the one that comes with the bike, especially if you're going to ride daily. Given a week or two, you might feel differently about it. If you don't see yourself becoming a regular rider, you should still hold off for a week and see what you think. I'll probably keep the Cloud 9 because it's very comfortable, but I don't think I needed it after all. Overall, I think I'm going to like this pretty well for what I bought it for: Grocery runs and pedaling around the neighborhood. It rides just fine, it's easy to maneuver, and at my height (5'11") it provides a more upright ride that makes it easy to look around. It's geared to provide a reasonable cruising speed. I'm taking a star off because: 1. It doesn't do anything to hold together when it's folded up. I'm pretty sure I'll just buy a few Velcro wraps and use them to hold it together for transit rides, but it'd be nice to have a built-in solution. 2. There's no way to adjust the handlebars. They're fine for where they're at, but it'd be nice to have an inch or two of play. Not knowing much about the folding bike market in general, I'd guess this is more of a three-star bike on a more honest scale. It's chunky and seems to be built more for being tossed in a trunk or stored in a small apartment than toted around for mixed-mode travel. I'm working back from five stars based on my own needs and expectations. Depending on how well it holds up over the next year, I'll come back and adjust the score based on durability. At this point, it looks very sturdy and solid.