Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

These are mass market bikes for regular people and not hard core bikers. That makes them a good fit for my wife and me and they add to a long list of Schwinn bikes that I have owned over the last 5 decades. They are made from nice components and have decent fit and finish. They are a pleasure to ride and once I got them working I love them. Except for the issues below, I would have ranked them 4 stars. I recently purchased two of the Schwinn Network 3.0 bikes through Amazon: one men's and one women's. I had no trouble assembling them and while the assembly instructions are generic and apply to many different types of bikes with different features I had no difficulty figuring out which sections to read. It took more time getting the packaging materials off of the components then it did to put them together and make the necessary adjustments. The men's bike I managed to ride for about 150 feet before I got a flat tire. I've read some other reviews with similar complaints so apparently this is a common problem. The bike shop guy said that the liner between the rim and the tube was out of place and allowed a burr on one of the spokes to puncture the tube. Poor assembly quality control at the factory. The woman's bike made a loud grinding noise the very first time I spun the rear wheel. This should have been noticed at the factory because clearly something was wrong. The local bike shop ended up replacing the free-wheel sprocket which resolved the issue. Again, poor assembly quality control at the factory. All and all, parts, labor and tax, it cost me $72 dollars at the bike shop to get the two bikes working properly. I suppose I could have sent them back to Amazon but it is a lot of brain damage to try to disassemble two bikes, wrap them back up and put them back in the boxes and drop them off at UPS. Were I to do it again, I might try to buy locally and I might buy some other bike besides Schwinn. Maybe they should consider moving their manufacturing process back to the USA. In any case, two stars is my revenge.