edwong3

I was surprised this morning when I heard a low knock on my door, and found a box sitting next to it. It was my new Victory Xtreme folder.

I'm sharing some photos. The bike rides pretty decent, and rolls well, but it has some issues that needs to be taken care of before I would take it for a ride of any reasonable distance.

It did come with a nice carrying bag as you'll see in the 3rd photo down.











On another note, I'm still waiting for my new rear coaster brake wheel for the Qile Duo. I can hardly wait!

Dynocoaster 

Congrats on the new folder. Do you have plans to accessorize it?

kamtsa

Or unacessorizing it (removing rack, fenders, etc).

Nice bike BTW.

Kam

DVC45

Looks nice!
The only thing probably needs changing is the chainwheel. Looks like its a 46t.

edwong3

Thanks "Dynocoaster", and "kamtsa",

I don't know if I am going to accessorize or "unaccessorize" the bike. It has a nice frame, good tires, a well designed handlepost, and shifts smooth right out of the box, but the brakes absolutely SUCK! It seems that no matter what I do, I can't get them to work right. They stick, and feel "mushy" when I pull on the levers. They're by far the cheapest, and crappiest component on this bike.

Also, the chain ring is out of true, so it wobbles when I pedal. Other than these defects, it is a pretty nice bike, especially for the money. Ironically, I will however have to spend some additional money to improve it's usefulness. We'll see how that goes.

edwong3

Actually, I think it's a 44 tooth, but tomorrow morning I'll check up on that. I will have to change out the chain wheel anyway because the one that came with it is out of round. Makes me wonder if the box was dropped sometime during shipping. I highly doubt a chain wheel comes out that way because of manufacturing or simply bad assembly at the factory.

TiberiusBTkirk

thank you for showing us your new bike.
I bookmark all your links for folder deals.
what kind of brakes are those? looks like bad copies of V-brakes.

edwong3

You're welcome! And yes, those are VERY bad copies of V-brakes! I will have to spend about $50-$60 to replace them with Tektro brand brakes, and that includes the brake levers. I would also replace the seat post, and the chainring, and I would wind up with a really nice bike.

Truthfully, I should have just spent the extra money and gotten a Citizen Gotham2 instead.

griftereck

thats a good looking bike. Sort of Twenty style frame.
think I would put a short cage mech on it. get the chain further from the ground.

JosephLMonti

Or a Downtube Nova = )

edwong3

Yea now that you mention it, that frame does bear a resemblance to the Twenty.

edwong3

Nova would have been good too, especially buying it at a discount through eBay.

neilfein

Congrats on the new bike. I'd love to hear how your first ride goes.

Dynocoaster 

Maybe you can get the Citizen or Downtube and sell this one on Cl? It may be cheaper to go this way when you are already looking at $50 in a brake upgrade.

TiberiusBTkirk

Can you just get just the brakes and not the complete set?
The levers look Ok, unless they're all plastic which it doesn't look like to me.
Dan's comp has some V-brakes that are cheap.

BruceMetras

If you have a bicycle co-op in your area, they usually have quite the selection at rock bottom prices... at least in my area of Northern California.

edwong3

Thanks! This past Saturday, I actually put 2-3 miles on it. I rode it the local mall to see a movie. Than from there, I went to Target to buy a CD player for my lady friend. I then went home, and found that the seat post had actually slipped an inch or two. It's made out of that chrome steel. But I did mention that the seat post would have to go too along with the crappy brakes.

I think the bike has good potential if I ever replace these bad parts/accessories.

edwong3

The brake levers are actually acceptable. I don't think they flex that much being alloy. I could keep them, but I figure buying the complete set of replacements parts won't be that great of a price difference than just getting the V-brakes by themselves. I could be wrong, but I will check up on Dan's Comp. Thanks for the advice

edwong3

I'm not aware of any bike co-op here in Orlando. Maybe I'll ask around. Thanks.

BruceMetras

Here's one ...

https://rustedchainbikecollective.blo...ted-chain.html

https://www.centralfloridafuture.com/...spin-1.2223423