Both Beauty & Beast

I broke down this review into 3 parts. 1- The bike itself 2- Pre-delivery confirmation & Order/shipping 3- Post-delivery and setup This is my 1st Roadbike. Coming from Mtn. Biking, it's quite a different experience. So I can't really compare it to other bikes. I went ultimately with this one over the volo because I figured I wouldn't know what the road feels like, so I wouldn't know what the benefits of a carbon frame would be. Glad I made this choice.I went with Genius Build. The Bike itself gets a 5. Beautiful. Just friggin' amazing for eye candy. The first day I took her out for a ride, I got a couple of compliments. From people who were on $4000 bikes. I was worried only 2 front gears would hurt on the hills because I'm used to riding 30 speeds. But reading about the double compact, I figured this would be the best shot. This bike can charge up hills. It's very light. Maybe less than 20lbs. I am VERY glad it had SRAM components. I LOVE SRAM. Had the aggraziato come with the Force or Rival setup combo, I would have gotten that. I have since added a Wahoo Fit Package cadence/speed wireless sensor for iPhone, and I gave the stock tires to my cousin, and I threw on Continental GatorSkins. Looking at the website picture, the product looks cool, but being a dude, you wonder if it looks too feminine with the red. I took the risk, and it just looks really hot. I haven't seen other Tommasos on the road yet. Most everyone here in MB looks like they ride Trek, Specialized, or Fuji. so I guess for now, I will enjoy standing out and standing alone :D A week into riding, I just love the fact that I am now one of those guys who can fly by other bikers instead of being the one passed constantly on my Mtn Bike. This bike is light, fast, beautiful, and powerful. 2. If you only want to read about the bike, stop reading now. The rest is about the shipping/delivery process. Now for the process from ordering to deliver. 3 star. (I only marked 5 for the bike, but I feel everyone should know the shipping story) 1- When a product is assigned an expected delivery date, you have 2 choices. 1... deliver it on that date. or 2... WARN the person well in advance that it won't be there that date, and set a proper expectation. That's it. You let them know, and it's all good. I had to get it shipped to my parent's house. Long story short, my dad could have made other plans for work etc. instead of waiting around all day for it on the 3rd. Had he known 2-3 days before, he could have made plans for July 4th and left town. I didn't get a phone call until the day before July 4th that I wouldn't get it until the following Tues. The phone rep was nice, and I didn't give them a hard time or ask why it didn't ship. Working in customer service myself though, I could see really angry customers screaming and demanding things for an expectation not being met because it was set improperly. But I do want Giantnerd to understand that if you can't ship it by a certain date, don't submit that process for pickup. I used 3 of my lunch breaks calling FedEX and holding on line to talk to Giant nerd the days trying to find out what the status of my package was. It was disappointing to call FedEX 2 days into the process only to find out a pickup call was never initiated. Now for the delivery. Finally got the bike the following week. The box looked like it had gone through war. So naturally, you think the worst. The box wasn't even the nice cool looking box you see on the website here. It was a soggy, beat up, generic box and one side of it was opened up. The staples busted out and it wasn't even taped. So now I'm thinking... great. Something probably fell out during transit. All parts were there though in 1 piece and un-damaged. Put the handle bars on, the front wheel, put some air in, loaded up my bindings, and the relationship between me and the bike was made. The box came with the needed allen wrenches. Something didn't feel right in the shifting though. Everyone I know who bikes, told me that it just needs to be broken in. After three 8 mile rides, I wound up taking it to a LBS, and they adjusted both the front and read derailleurs for $10.00 I Guess there was some stuff that was really off. Once they fixed it, I haven't had a problem since, and have been in Cloud nine for the last 2 weeks. I recommend this bike to anyone. I leave the genius build up to you to order. I suggest it, but be prepared for a possibility of minor adjustments that need to be followed up with. I will buy from GiantNerd again. Phone rep was nice over the phone and helped out. But, it was a call that could have been made MUCH earlier in the week. Only ask to consider this feedback though... set a proper expectation, especially for delivery date. Everyone knows that when you wait, time slows downs by 90% and everything feels like forever. Then when you wait that long, and it's not coming, it doesn't settle well, then all the negative comments start to arise and all the sudden you have a bandwagon of negative people in the same category. So If I could rate the service... 3.5-4 stars. Other than that, yes, I'd say I'm a going to keep ordering from GN and I recommend this bike to all.

Posted 07.23.12

Both Beauty & Beast

I broke down this review into 3 parts. 1- The bike itself 2- Pre-delivery confirmation & Order/shipping 3- Post-delivery and setup This is my 1st Roadbike. Coming from Mtn. Biking, it's quite a different experience. So I can't really compare it to other bikes. I went ultimately with this one over the volo because I figured I wouldn't know what the road feels like, so I wouldn't know what the benefits of a carbon frame would be. Glad I made this choice.I went with Genius Build. The Bike itself gets a 5. Beautiful. Just friggin' amazing for eye candy. The first day I took her out for a ride, I got a couple of compliments. From people who were on $4000 bikes. I was worried only 2 front gears would hurt on the hills because I'm used to riding 30 speeds. But reading about the double compact, I figured this would be the best shot. This bike can charge up hills. It's very light. Maybe less than 20lbs. I am VERY glad it had SRAM components. I LOVE SRAM. Had the aggraziato come with the Force or Rival setup combo, I would have gotten that. I have since added a Wahoo Fit Package cadence/speed wireless sensor for iPhone, and I gave the stock tires to my cousin, and I threw on Continental GatorSkins. Looking at the website picture, the product looks cool, but being a dude, you wonder if it looks too feminine with the red. I took the risk, and it just looks really hot. I haven't seen other Tommasos on the road yet. Most everyone here in MB looks like they ride Trek, Specialized, or Fuji. so I guess for now, I will enjoy standing out and standing alone :D A week into riding, I just love the fact that I am now one of those guys who can fly by other bikers instead of being the one passed constantly on my Mtn Bike. This bike is light, fast, beautiful, and powerful. 2. If you only want to read about the bike, stop reading now. The rest is about the shipping/delivery process. Now for the process from ordering to deliver. 3 star. (I only marked 5 for the bike, but I feel everyone should know the shipping story) 1- When a product is assigned an expected delivery date, you have 2 choices. 1... deliver it on that date. or 2... WARN the person well in advance that it won't be there that date, and set a proper expectation. That's it. You let them know, and it's all good. I had to get it shipped to my parent's house. Long story short, my dad could have made other plans for work etc. instead of waiting around all day for it on the 3rd. Had he known 2-3 days before, he could have made plans for July 4th and left town. I didn't get a phone call until the day before July 4th that I wouldn't get it until the following Tues. The phone rep was nice, and I didn't give them a hard time or ask why it didn't ship. Working in customer service myself though, I could see really angry customers screaming and demanding things for an expectation not being met because it was set improperly. But I do want Giantnerd to understand that if you can't ship it by a certain date, don't submit that process for pickup. I used 3 of my lunch breaks calling FedEX and holding on line to talk to Giant nerd the days trying to find out what the status of my package was. It was disappointing to call FedEX 2 days into the process only to find out a pickup call was never initiated. Now for the delivery. Finally got the bike the following week. The box looked like it had gone through war. So naturally, you think the worst. The box wasn't even the nice cool looking box you see on the website here. It was a soggy, beat up, generic box and one side of it was opened up. The staples busted out and it wasn't even taped. So now I'm thinking... great. Something probably fell out during transit. All parts were there though in 1 piece and un-damaged. Put the handle bars on, the front wheel, put some air in, loaded up my bindings, and the relationship between me and the bike was made. The box came with the needed allen wrenches. Something didn't feel right in the shifting though. Everyone I know who bikes, told me that it just needs to be broken in. After three 8 mile rides, I wound up taking it to a LBS, and they adjusted both the front and read derailleurs for $10.00 I Guess there was some stuff that was really off. Once they fixed it, I haven't had a problem since, and have been in Cloud nine for the last 2 weeks. I recommend this bike to anyone. I leave the genius build up to you to order. I suggest it, but be prepared for a possibility of minor adjustments that need to be followed up with. I will buy from GiantNerd again. Phone rep was nice over the phone and helped out. But, it was a call that could have been made MUCH earlier in the week. Only ask to consider this feedback though... set a proper expectation, especially for delivery date. Everyone knows that when you wait, time slows downs by 90% and everything feels like forever. Then when you wait that long, and it's not coming, it doesn't settle well, then all the negative comments start to arise and all the sudden you have a bandwagon of negative people in the same category. So If I could rate the service... 3.5-4 stars. Other than that, yes, I'd say I'm a going to keep ordering from GN and I recommend this bike to all.

Posted 07.23.12