mirfi

Hello All, bought a Vilano Urbana from Walmart((RoadBikeOutlet). $199. Arrived today. Initial findings.

Seat post 31.8 FU FENG, seat tube has sleeve in it. Contacted customer service for size without shim.
Tires INNOVA (47-406) 20x1.75 35PSI 240K 2.5BAR
Prowheel crankset 170.
Crank 52t Cog 16t Gear inches 60.7
No name folding pedals, expect to last a couple hundred miles.
Packaged nicely, lot of tape, foam, zip ties, cardboard.
Reflectors for front, for rear and one on each wheel.
28 spoke wheel, look like steel.
Has three threaded holes on each side of rear frame for rack/fender.
Threaded hole in fork for fender mount.
Two threaded holes on top tube for bottle holder.
Extra two foot long Velcro strap excellent for holding folded bike together.
Quick Release on seat post, fold, handlebar stem and handlebar height.
Everything is tight, except seat post tube which is incredibly loose.
Tires needed American air, they flat don’t care, will be upgraded soon to 65psi wheels.
Bike needs to be disassembled and greased.
Rear hub is too tight. With bike upside down, cranked pedals until rear wheel was spinning fast, on its own it slowed down quickly and stopped. i.e. NO RIDING until greased and adjusted.

Unloosened rear lug nut to adjust coaster brake, needed a three foot breaker bar, also needed it on nut adjusting brake.

Unloosened the threaded headset (25,4mm?), needed a one foot pipe on end of long hex key.

What is going on with this "new" forum? My PC, (Win7) is struggling with everything, including text formatting.

Pictures, more info to follow.

Bonzo Banana

Interested to hear how it rides compared to your other compact and folding bikes.

Bonzo Banana

8lbs heavier is a significant difference I'm assuming that is steel and likely a basic high tensile steel frame. There is so few components on single speed bikes that the frames make up a more significant part of the overall weight. I don't have a problem with the weight difference, likely stronger, more long lasting and the extra weight is a better workout getting it up the hills.

Bonzo Banana

I guess its an impressively low weight but with so little fitted to the bike and an aluminium frame it was never going to be heavy. Decathlon do a basic Hoptown/Tilt folding bike with steel frame. I think with gears its 15-16kg but is down to 12-13kg in single speed. So that's a 2-3kg loss approx and if you apply that to many aluminium geared folding bikes which are at 12-13kg you can get down to close or below 10kg. The Urbana sheds the weight of brake levers, brake cables, brake calipers, derailleur, cogset, gear shifter, gear cable and many other sundry parts like rear rack, mudguards and kickstand. The only weight it adds over a conventional geared folding bike is the coaster brake rear hub. The only way you could go much lower is perhaps make the bike fixed gear and maybe run the tyres tubeless unless you start changing components for lower weight parts llike handlebars, seatpost etc.

It seems all the low weight benefits of the Dahon by removing all those gearing parts has been nullified by the use of a heavy high tensile steel frame.

mirfi

Hello,
Apologize for lack of photos, (new phone, old brain).

The headset (NECO 842-2) had a film of oil, steerer had zero grease/oil.

The handlebar height adjustment is kinda flimsy but functional (RoadBikesOutlet has an instructional).

Seatpost is 31.8, but seat tube has a shim(?), without the shim I measured 34mm (with a ruler, will follow up with micrometer), so that would be close to the DAHON/Tern 33.9. I'm interested because I will upgrading to a longer post and would prefer without shim.

BTW, the bike in the gray color looks great, really nice finish and the fold locks really tight.

Yesterday evening I took it for first ride, YAY!! it stops and brakes fine, but after about 20-40 feet(?) I really noticed the rear bearings grinding. Oh well.

I sent an email to customercare, so we will see how that goes.

Saw some YouTube videos from EsquireBiker and one had rear wheel issues

Schwinnsta

Thanks for the review. Hope things turn out OK.

mirfi

Update : Called customer care, supplied my order information details, discussed issue. Real professionals. Being sent a replacement wheel.

A product is only as good as the support team. They are grading at five star plus for me right now.

And mtb addict, yes, I will take apart, just didn't want to in case they wanted it back. My guess is the race(s) are damaged.

mirfi

Yep, 21.5 lbs


Just out of the box, cardboard is hiding wheel reflector.
Had time to load pictures; one shows the high tech scale that confirms the weight 21.5 lbs. The other shows the very nice looking bike.

Bonzo Banana

I reckon if they are quick to send out a replacement wheel it could be a common issue especially in light of that youtube video.

mirfi

The arm of the old rear wheel is stamped POWER LC-101R

mirfi

All, more updates. Been out of town/work..

1. Customercare sent me a new rear wheel. It's a little 'sticky' and tight, backed bearing off 1/4 turn, will be testing later. Note: I had recently uncovered some ancient rusted department store 20" wheels from a Cinderella bike in the back of my shed, tire held air so I have been riding Urbana with one of those.

2. Needed seatpost to be taller, didn't see any thing I like on the market. So, I cut the 'sphincter' (bottom?) off the end of the seat post (left the saddle end on). and found a 28.6 post would fit in it, but also realized it is 16 gauge metal. A little thin for my hugeness.

Note, old seatpost is 'welded' so it has a noticeable internal seam.

Raleigh Tube 28.6(1.126, 1-1/8) fits inside Urbana Tube 31.8(1.252, 1-1/4), that means the Urbana tube wall is 1/16, (.06) inch thick or 16 gauge

Decided to go with a thicker walled tube. Went to a local Metal Superstore with my bike and the three current seatposts I had lying about.

27.2 mm = 1.07inch = 1 1/16
28.6 mm = 1.125984 = 1 1/8
31.8 mm = 1.252 = 1 1/4

What I (and people there) found was that a 1 1/4" pipe that had .095 thick walls, could accommodate a 27.2" seatpost.

New seatpost vs old seatpost, both are 1.25 inch, note how much thicker the one on the left is.


27.2 fits in new pipe added cuts and clamp. 28.6 (or 27.2 with an old shim I had) fits in end of previous seatpost.

anybody know how/where to 'fix' my fonts(?!).

Pipe is steel and heavy, but only cost me $2, maybe after next trip I'll look for aluminum.


3. Upgraded to Kenda 406x1.75 60PSI tires, the white ones were like $12 a piece.




Could say I had a good day on the bike.

Next upgrade will be replacing front quill stem (25.4mm) with goose neck type and putting on Hi-Rise handlebars (IMO they are much more adjustable and fold away).

mirfi

Enjoying morning ride.
Took Urban on first vacation. Added ding-ding bell, drink holder, basket rack. Very pleased.

Bonzo Banana

That bike didn't stay long at original spec. Certainly looks an interesting result. I personally wouldn't like to go down a steep hill relying 100% on that coaster brake especially as it seems to have quality issues. Remember its not just yourself but any pedestrians that could be effected if the coaster brake fails. Those Kenda tyres look nice.

mirfi

This past week I probably spent 10 hours total on it in Ocean City, Maryland. Was doing slow leisurely rides on the boardwalk and the flat roads. Pretty much what I planned for this bike(and to be easily broken down for plane travel to beach destinations). I hope to never take this bike up or down a steep hill. That being said, using a pedal brake and no front/hand brake was a bit disconcerting. I can see a front brake in the future.

Bonzo Banana

It is illegal in many countries to have a bicycle with only one brake and use it on the road. The only exception may be a fixed gear where they accept the fixed gear drivetrain could be considered a brake so you only need a front brake in addition to that. Like most things though Police have more important things to deal with so it isn't always policed and I think here in the UK it would be rare for the Police to stop such a cyclist although the recent case where a woman was killed might make stopping cyclists more likely. To my mind a coaster brake is less effective than a fixed gear bike with regard braking because if the coaster brake mechanism fails you have no way of stopping where as a fixed gear bike doesn't have such a mechanism to fail and the rider dictates the cadence. However I think the main issue for either is the chain breaking in use which instantly removes all braking and while SS chains are more beefy in general they also have much heavier demands placed on them.

https://www.theguardian.com/lifeands...-of-pedestrian

Schwinnsta

Generations grew up here riding bikes only with coaster brakes. The bikes were heavy but not many knew that. I found freedom and broader horizons on mine.

DLBroox

tds101 

In the USA, which is where the OP is from, having ONLY a coaster brake is 100% legal. How would I know? I'm also in the USA. For world travel it might be different, but we have no such laws in place.

Personally I prefer hand brakes myself,...but I do have a 3 speed with a coaster brake. It's for slower speed, flat ground rides. Hills (big ones) aren't recommended for a coaster brake. It tends to overheat and fail.

mirfi

When I was 12 in1968 nearly all the bikes just had coaster brakes. Especially the ubiquitous 'stngray' style; 20inch tires, banana seat, hi-rise handlebars.

BTW, A cool thing to do and to impress your friends was to go real fast and do a hard sideways skid slide. Wasn't good for the tires.

Bikes with gears(?!?) and handbrakes(?!?!) were just overly complicated, alien, superfluous things that easily broke and were impossible for us to fix and needed adjustments. Impossible for us to fix as we might have had a pair of pliers and a flathead screwdriver and maybe a hammer.

Hard to believe we would do 30 miles rides with no support, gears or money.

Bonzo Banana

I'd agree about coaster brakes in general being robust but this particular bike seems to have a fairly high failure rate for its coaster brake.

Bonzo Banana

I understand the USA laws are different I was merely making the point that other countries have decided it is not safe which normally means they have assessed the risk and see it as too high. It could be they are overly cautious or it could be the USA laws are overly reckless but its clearly a borderline safety issue.

tds101 

Hey, no finger pointing on my part. I was just saying how it is in the USA. LoL!!!

n2thefold

I just recently purchased a vilano urbana! I also have a dahon speed 7. I found the bike on craigslist for $100. After tightening up everything and resetting the coaster brake I really enjoy riding this bike! I will post some pics as soon as I am allowed. I have done the following so far...
Serfas bar ends
MMS quick release pedals
Aluminum Seat post
My favorite saddle off of my touring bike
Durban rear rack
Kenda tires (100 psi)

n2thefold

[QUOTE=mirfi;20332454]Hello,
Apologize for lack of photos, (new phone, old brain).

The headset (NECO 842-2) had a film of oil, steerer had zero grease/oil.

The handlebar height adjustment is kinda flimsy but functional (RoadBikesOutlet has an instructional).

Seatpost is 31.8, but seat tube has a shim(?), without the shim I measured 34mm (with a ruler, will follow up with micrometer), so that would be close to the DAHON/Tern 33.9. I'm interested because I will upgrading to a longer post and would prefer without shim.

BTW, the bike in the gray color looks great, really nice finish and the fold locks really tight.

Yesterday evening I took it for first ride, YAY!! it stops and brakes fine, but after about 20-40 feet(?) I really noticed the rear bearings grinding. Oh well.

I sent an email to customercare, so we will see how that goes.



I fit a 33.9 Seat post after removing the insert. The fit is snug!

mirfi

Yep, I am seeing them on Craigslist, there was two, now one. In this case, as with all bikes, unless one can wrench it, it should go to a shop before riding.