Features
Diamondback Bicycles Womens Classic Comfort features is:
- Aluminum alloy frame is light yet built to last
- Comfort geometry for perfect pedaling position
- Suspension fork and seat post for added cushioning
- Shimano 21-speed drivetrain provides wide range of gears
- Step-thru frame makes getting on and off easy and unintimidating
Reviews
Below are some critical reviews about Diamondback Bicycles Womens Classic ComfortI've been a bike enthusiast for 45 years. An engineer by trade, I am also a crack bike mechanic. I've owned $200 bikes and $3,000 bikes. As a dad, I've built, repaired and adjusted 40 or 50 bikes over the years. I can true a wheel better and faster than any bike shop I've ever used.Dollar-for-dollar and (especially) pound-for-pound, this is the best deal on a quality comfort bike on Amazon today, IF you know what to look for after it arrives.My wife loves it. I am very impressed with the frame quality, the AWESOME adjustable quill stem, and the cable routing through the frame. The seat and grips (both Diamondback branded) are just excellent. The bike came VERY well packaged with all the painted surfaces well protected. The bike is extremely light-weight for a bike at this price. The manuals are excellent (with one small oversight, below).Sadly...- The front derailleur was mounted off-kilter, at about a seven-degree angle compared to the chainwheel. Shifting was noisy and adjustments didn't help. This is not as easy a fix as you might think, because you essentially need to start the alignment/adjustment process from ground-zero. Not easy when you don't have the little plastic alignment block that comes with a new derailleur. What a pain in the neck!- One of the four brake pads had come loose in shipping, fallen off of the bike, was found loose in the bottom of the box with two critical parts missing. I had to cannibalize another bike to get it together and working.- All four brake pads were installed incorrectly, with the 6mm spacer/washers installed on the inside (shoe-side) vs. outside, in the wrong position for this particular frame/fork.- Both wheels spun true on initial inspection, but immediately after inflation and the first test ride, the front wheel developed a 3mm 'bump' and needed to be trued again. Any time you true a bike wheel, you need to finish by inflating the tire to full pressure, put a load on the wheel and then re-check. Either that or check spoke tension with a special tool. Neither of these were done before this bike shipped.- The rear-brake cable is very stiff. TOO stiff. This cable is quite long and has a lot of snake-turns. Sadly, Diamondback used a cheap cable here and the effort to operate the rear brake is FAR too high for the smaller female riders and smaller hands this bike is designed for. A good replacement cable will cost me a few bucks and take 10 minutes to install.- The shift lever reach was set for larger (men's) hands. Most riders don't even know this adjustment exists, but it is critical for smaller hands. This should be discussed in the assembly manual.- Worse...in all my years I have never seen a bike with the front brake cabled to the right hand brake lever. The right-hand brake lever should ALWAYS be cabled to the REAR brake, this is for safety and ergonomics, but mostly for safety. Why? (a) The left hand is used for signalling, and will not be available for braking. (b) The front brake should NEVER be used alone. (c) The right hand is typically stronger than the left (even for lefties) and you always want the majority of braking force at the REAR, not the front. (d) riders EXPECT the right hand to operate the REAR brake. The right-hand-rear rule is an industry standard going back as far as I can remember. I didn't notice this until I almost crashed the bike on my test ride -- never even thought to check something so silly.- The more I got into the project of building this bike, the more problems I found. Both wheel (axle) bearings were over-tightened. The front was so badly over tightened that the races in the hub were deformed and the bearing (even after re-adjusting) had that 'rough' feeling after the balls had made impressions into the race. The front hub is still serviceable but I will need to keep an eye on it for the next year or two, and this part will probably have a shortened lifespan.During the process of assembling this bike I became so nervous about all the poor assembly practices I was finding, I wound up needing to double-check every last screw, bolt, cable attachment, bearing and assembly to make sure the bike would be safe for my wife to ride. What should have been (for me) a 30 minute assembly wound up taking more than four hours, and I still need to re-true the front wheel.Diamondback, I hope you are reading this. Diamondback has been a respected, quality brand for many years. This is my first Diamondback. The quality of the bike itself is very good, but I expected far more in terms of quality control and basic assembly. It is very dissapointing that I had to fix so much to get the bike where it should have been when you shipped it.I've bought great bikes over the years from big-box retailers and from bike shops. I fully expect to find and fix a few little things, but what I found was way beyond 'normal'. All of these things are easily remedied, if you care to address them in your assembly plant.For now my five-star rating will stand. Whether I revise this will depend totally on how your customer service responds to sending me the replacement parts (and a better rear-brake cable) this bike needs. If Diamondback is the company I think you are, you will hopefully find some way of compensating me for my time in assembling and fixing your product, as well as for the time I am spending writing this review.Fellow Amazonians...if you are buying this bike and you are NOT a bike-mechanic, take it to a bike shop to get it fully checked out and bring a copy of this review with you. It will still be a good deal even if you have to spend money to get it FULLY checked out!
Was already mostly assembled. Just front wheel, handlebar, pedals, and seat needed to be attached, then hooking the break lines to the levers. Now the actual review... I went from a cruiser bike to this one. I ride about 5 miles a day. My first impression of this was definitely how light it is. I could lift it over my head with one hand. It felt great to ride. The seat is a bit on the hard side, but the shock absorption is great! The color is a beautiful metallic teal. Placement of handlebars can be adjusted to accomodate your riding style. Pedals are a bit more forward from seat, making for easier pedalling.I could easily ride this bike all day...with padded shorts. Overall, i am very happy with this bike.
Great Bike... Easy to put together but DO look at the video on-line and DO read the assembly instructions first. This is the first quick release front tire I've worked with and it took me a while to realize that you don't loosen the nuts on the wheel to put it on the bike, you insert the quick release gizmo through the wheel.Solid Bike, looks great and a joy to ride from my daughter. Even the seat is comfortable for her.NOTE: We did buy a kick-stand for this bike as it does not come with one. That seems strange to me.
Below are some positive reviews about Diamondback Bicycles Womens Classic Comfort
I've been a bike enthusiast for 45 years. An engineer by trade, I am also a crack bike mechanic. I've owned $200 bikes and $3,000 bikes. As a dad, I've built, repaired and adjusted 40 or 50 bikes over the years. I can true a wheel better and faster than any bike shop I've ever used.Dollar-for-dollar and (especially) pound-for-pound, this is the best deal on a quality comfort bike on Amazon today, IF you know what to look for after it arrives.My wife loves it. I am very impressed with the frame quality, the AWESOME adjustable quill stem, and the cable routing through the frame. The seat and grips (both Diamondback branded) are just excellent. The bike came VERY well packaged with all the painted surfaces well protected. The bike is extremely light-weight for a bike at this price. The manuals are excellent (with one small oversight, below).Sadly...- The front derailleur was mounted off-kilter, at about a seven-degree angle compared to the chainwheel. Shifting was noisy and adjustments didn't help. This is not as easy a fix as you might think, because you essentially need to start the alignment/adjustment process from ground-zero. Not easy when you don't have the little plastic alignment block that comes with a new derailleur. What a pain in the neck!- One of the four brake pads had come loose in shipping, fallen off of the bike, was found loose in the bottom of the box with two critical parts missing. I had to cannibalize another bike to get it together and working.- All four brake pads were installed incorrectly, with the 6mm spacer/washers installed on the inside (shoe-side) vs. outside, in the wrong position for this particular frame/fork.- Both wheels spun true on initial inspection, but immediately after inflation and the first test ride, the front wheel developed a 3mm 'bump' and needed to be trued again. Any time you true a bike wheel, you need to finish by inflating the tire to full pressure, put a load on the wheel and then re-check. Either that or check spoke tension with a special tool. Neither of these were done before this bike shipped.- The rear-brake cable is very stiff. TOO stiff. This cable is quite long and has a lot of snake-turns. Sadly, Diamondback used a cheap cable here and the effort to operate the rear brake is FAR too high for the smaller female riders and smaller hands this bike is designed for. A good replacement cable will cost me a few bucks and take 10 minutes to install.- The shift lever reach was set for larger (men's) hands. Most riders don't even know this adjustment exists, but it is critical for smaller hands. This should be discussed in the assembly manual.- Worse...in all my years I have never seen a bike with the front brake cabled to the right hand brake lever. The right-hand brake lever should ALWAYS be cabled to the REAR brake, this is for safety and ergonomics, but mostly for safety. Why? (a) The left hand is used for signalling, and will not be available for braking. (b) The front brake should NEVER be used alone. (c) The right hand is typically stronger than the left (even for lefties) and you always want the majority of braking force at the REAR, not the front. (d) riders EXPECT the right hand to operate the REAR brake. The right-hand-rear rule is an industry standard going back as far as I can remember. I didn't notice this until I almost crashed the bike on my test ride -- never even thought to check something so silly.- The more I got into the project of building this bike, the more problems I found. Both wheel (axle) bearings were over-tightened. The front was so badly over tightened that the races in the hub were deformed and the bearing (even after re-adjusting) had that 'rough' feeling after the balls had made impressions into the race. The front hub is still serviceable but I will need to keep an eye on it for the next year or two, and this part will probably have a shortened lifespan.During the process of assembling this bike I became so nervous about all the poor assembly practices I was finding, I wound up needing to double-check every last screw, bolt, cable attachment, bearing and assembly to make sure the bike would be safe for my wife to ride. What should have been (for me) a 30 minute assembly wound up taking more than four hours, and I still need to re-true the front wheel.Diamondback, I hope you are reading this. Diamondback has been a respected, quality brand for many years. This is my first Diamondback. The quality of the bike itself is very good, but I expected far more in terms of quality control and basic assembly. It is very dissapointing that I had to fix so much to get the bike where it should have been when you shipped it.I've bought great bikes over the years from big-box retailers and from bike shops. I fully expect to find and fix a few little things, but what I found was way beyond 'normal'. All of these things are easily remedied, if you care to address them in your assembly plant.For now my five-star rating will stand. Whether I revise this will depend totally on how your customer service responds to sending me the replacement parts (and a better rear-brake cable) this bike needs. If Diamondback is the company I think you are, you will hopefully find some way of compensating me for my time in assembling and fixing your product, as well as for the time I am spending writing this review.Fellow Amazonians...if you are buying this bike and you are NOT a bike-mechanic, take it to a bike shop to get it fully checked out and bring a copy of this review with you. It will still be a good deal even if you have to spend money to get it FULLY checked out!
Was already mostly assembled. Just front wheel, handlebar, pedals, and seat needed to be attached, then hooking the break lines to the levers. Now the actual review... I went from a cruiser bike to this one. I ride about 5 miles a day. My first impression of this was definitely how light it is. I could lift it over my head with one hand. It felt great to ride. The seat is a bit on the hard side, but the shock absorption is great! The color is a beautiful metallic teal. Placement of handlebars can be adjusted to accomodate your riding style. Pedals are a bit more forward from seat, making for easier pedalling.I could easily ride this bike all day...with padded shorts. Overall, i am very happy with this bike.
Great Bike... Easy to put together but DO look at the video on-line and DO read the assembly instructions first. This is the first quick release front tire I've worked with and it took me a while to realize that you don't loosen the nuts on the wheel to put it on the bike, you insert the quick release gizmo through the wheel.Solid Bike, looks great and a joy to ride from my daughter. Even the seat is comfortable for her.NOTE: We did buy a kick-stand for this bike as it does not come with one. That seems strange to me.
