Firmstrong Bella Classic Single Speed Beach Cruiser Bike - Comfortable & Stylish Women's Bicycle for Casual Riding, Commuting & Beach Cruising

This review is for two FirmStrong bikes purchased at the same time. One Bella Fashionista Woman's and one Urban Men's. I will post the same review for both of them.My wife and I decided we wanted another form of exercise besides running. We rode around to the local bike shops and test drove a few bikes and decided a cruiser style was most comfortable and since we weren't commuting or planning on doing a tri anytime soon, we'd go with that style. The LBS cruisers ranged between $500 to $1200 depending on how they were equipped. That seemed a bit steep to me for a hobby I'm not sure I'm even going to stick with so I started my usual internet search.After reading countless reviews and stumbling through just as many websites, I decided to go with a FirmStrong bike. It seemed that for the money, overall it was the best deal. We like not having gears to shift and cables running all over the place so we decided to go with a single speed with coaster breaks. We found MUCH better availability of colors with the single speeds than we did the 3 and 7 speeds. To make it a little more useable, I purchased SRAM Automatix 2 speed hubs that I'll have the LBS lace into the rims (not done yet). With these we'll get the advantage of an extra gear while keeping the ascetics of the bike in tact.The bikes came from two separate suppliers with two different shippers. Usually Amazon Prime orders go really smoothly but lately many of my orders have been coming USPS instead of UPS or Fedex. I worked from home on the delivery day and around noon I got notification that USPS had tried to deliver my bike and nobody was home. Clearly that was a mistake as I hadn't left the house and there was no "We missed you" sticker on my door. After running around to two different post offices, and dealing with surly, unhelpful government employees, it turned out that my mail lady and her supervisor arbitrarily decided not to even load it on the truck! She was just going to come by and stick the notice on my door without even trying to deliver it! So much for home delivery! PATHETIC USPS SERVICE! Once I found where it was and convinced them to allow me to pick it up at their "no public service" facility, I had to load it up and take it home myself. Good thing I drive a truck and not some little car. In sharp contrast, the other bike came FedEx. It showed up exactly on time and the driver carried it into my garage and was friendly and cheerful. I wish I could click to decide which carrier delivered my prime deliveries. I'd pay more for that service just to avoid USPS at all costs.The bikes were packed well although the Urban was packed significantly better. Neither had any damage. Assembly was simple and straight forward apart from a missing fender screw on the Fashionista. I got it done in about a half hour for both bikes with a crescent wrench, a philips screwdriver and a 6mm hex key. No instructions, but if you've ever done anything with a bike, these are as basic as it comes.As for quality, that's another area I'll have to ding these bikes a bit. Here's the run down on the areas it looks like they shaved a little cost off compared to an Electra or other LBS bike. Cranks - They are forged steel one piece cranks and are functionally fine, but the forging is rough. It's not so rough it would snag on your pants, but it's close. They paint them so its not really obvious and they work fine, it's just cheap. The paint - The matte black was smooth but very, very thin. When I say thin I mean one coat sprayed on thin. If you look at it sideways, it's going to scratch to bare metal. I got the Urban in Emerald Green and from a distance it looks great. But when you get up to it, it’s a different story. It has a bit of metal flake to the finish and it leaves a rough to the touch texture on it. I quick buff with some polishing compound and the roughness is gone. The grips are foam garbage, be ready to replace them immediately. Lastly is the construction. I found loose bolts, over tightened bolts, missing screws, and little to no grease in the bottom bracket. All easily correctable, but it’s still more time you need to invest.I did have one big problem with the Fashionista. When my wife took it for it’s first ride down the street she commented that it didn’t pedal very smoothly. I figured the bottom bracket bearings were dry. When I took it apart to grease them, I found that the right side bearing was bent and missing two of the bearings. They weren’t rolling around in the bottom bracket so that means that it was installed that way! No harm done and $2.16 invested at the bike shop for a new bearing and a liberal application of grease and it’s smooth as butter.I guess the moral of the story is and has always been, you get what you pay for. If you buy a bike from the LBS, you will get all the same components and basically the exact same bike for twice the cost. BUT, you will also get a competent bike mechanic to put it together and test it before you pick it up. You will get someone local who will stand behind their work and none of these nagging little issues will become your issue to fix.All that said, I am satisfied with these bikes. For what we want them for, they are fine and look good. I’m pretty handy and these bikes are pretty basic so getting them up and running correctly and maintaining them will be no issue. Even with the little bit of aggravation and unexpected surprises, I still have an extra $600 in my pocket from what I was going to spend at the LBS and frankly, my bikes look better and now ride just as well. So, if you are handy and mechanically inclined, go for it. If you want something that you can take out of the box and just ride, do yourself a favor and give the LBS some business.This bike is very cute. The ride is very comfortable, and I feel that is in part to the tire size and the seat.I like how far the handle bars are apart, if you are large chested you don't feel like one of the girls are going to get in the way of steering. That was an issue years ago on a mountain bike.The position for ridding is great, I have had two back operations, and this causes no pain. I have not been on a bike since 1990. Yes I am older, over 50, and this is my first brand new bike. All my bikes I ever had were used from someone or found in a dump and fixed.I knew I wanted more than one speed, but did not want a lot of them either, so I got the three speed. I don't like speed one, it just is for trying to get up the hill, or in my case the little knoll in the road. On level ground I use third speed, I can go best with that one, after I get out of my driveway, they paved our road last year and I have to push it over the hump.The instructions were very bad, it gave all wrong sizes of tools to use, but was able to figure that out fast. I did get this out together wrong on the front tire. Like a kid and in a hurry, I did not pay attention to how the front spoke was facing. So I had to take it all off and start over, that was after going crazy for half an hour trying to figure out how I was going to ride this. I happen to set the peddles and seat pole on my tv stand in the garage and could not find them.When I was trying to figure out how I could ride this with no seat and peddles, I was on the phone with my mother in law. That was where I goofed, I should have been trying to concentrate on this and could have saved me grief.I have purchased a basket for the front and a horn along with reflectors for the spokes. It looks very sharp or some could say crazy. The only reason for not giving this five stars is the seat is in the lowest position and I barely reach my tip toes to the ground. The bike stated it was good from 5-6 feet, and I am 5' 2" .If you are thinking of this can be a good bike, you bet it is and once you get on you don't want to get off, at least me. I put in my basket a tablet, a Bluetooth speaker, water bottle, battery charger, and cell phone. There is what keeps me happy, the music, and I don't want to stop.Being a former bike shop manager/mechanic, I was surprised at the value of this bike which was on sale for about $200 (with Prime delivery) at the time of purchase. This bike is still a good deal at $300 if it's put together correctly.Although the bike is mostly preassembled and has the potential of being put together within an hour, I took my time and went over every piece/component (gift for my daughter). It took me about 3 hours from opening the box to dialing it in.Given the price point, the wheels are true (rims are alloy, btw), the shifting is crisp (can't go wrong with Shimano) and no missing parts! Not the best hubs and bottom bracket, but on par for the price.Although I am very pleased with the purchase/price, it revealed a limitation in purchasing a larger item from Amazon. That is, how do you resolve problems like scratches? I called Amazon to see if they or the manufacturer could send me a little touch-up paint, but only provided two options: 1) Return the bike; or 2) Accept a $5 credit.Given the size, the effort required to repackage/return and the time constraint (X-mas present), returning it for a few scratches didn't make sense. A $5 credit wasn't gong to help in this scenario. I even offered to purchase the touch-up paint, but that was not an option. So the lesson is, you have to factor in these risks when purchasing a bike from Amazon.Pros:1) Quality of parts2) Styling3) Nice PackagingCons:1) Although packaged well, arrived with scratches2) Very heavy and unusually large - even for an adult cruiser3) Brakes, due to the long cable housing, routing and no brake bosses, are mushy (within par for price)Me gusta esta bicicleta porque tengo artritis en los manos y no puedo usar los frenos en otras. Tambien tiene asiento muy cómodo. Solo deseo que ella esta disponible en otros colores (como rosa). Pero, es muy buena.todo bien graciasExcelentes bicis ?