Reddit reviews VTSP Upgrade XC700 Road Bike Red Road Bicycle for Man 56CM 700C 14 Speeds Mechanical Disc Brakes Bicycle Gift for Man (Red)

The best part

Shit. Someone actually bought one of those visp bikes?

I found this "review" of the bike:
http://www.foldingbikeguy.com/visp-a01-road-bike-review/

The reviews on amazon are good for a laugh:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00RQNRTUS?tag=viglink27304-20

You know, I want to hate it so much, but the hilarious Amazon reviews make its existence 100% worth it.

This guy gets it! If you read the review section of this bad boy, you can see that weight does not apply to these beautiful aero beasts. Someone reliably reports stealing 188 KOMS on one as well as getting a speeding ticket from the local police. Try doing that on a ḈḗṛṽḝḮṏ!

Maybe they were going for the Machete look? It's got rave reviews.

This is the VTSP "High Fashion Red" model in case anyone wants to add it to a wishlist... www.amazon.com/dp/B00RQNRTUS/

http://www.amazon.com/VISP-A01-Fashion-Bicycle-Mechanical-Brakes/dp/B00RQNRTUS

VISP is getting much better with their Amazon bikes.

Non-mobile: Machete

^That's ^why ^I'm ^here, ^I ^don't ^judge ^you. ^PM ^/u/xl0 ^if ^I'm ^causing ^any ^trouble. ^WUT?

Its a fixed-gear Machete

Avoid a good deal of the Amazon bikes as well if they're not from well known companies.

I saw some poor kid at a college once who bought a Cyrusher road bike after reading all of the hype reviews. Crappy, heavy frame, garbage components (including these totally wonky stem shifters), gaudy. The bikes sell for entry level road bike prices, but you get what is essentially Walmart tier bikes.

Avoid any bike named after a car manufacturer (GMC Denali is the one most commonly seen). Same thing for bikes named after beer or drink manufacturers.

On a related note, some guy kept trying to sell a Snapple-branded MTB for what felt like years. Lousy rear suspension, no name front fork, plus he ripped the wheel cover on the back wheel. That's not really a "brand" so much as just a hopeless idiot trying to make a buck on garbage.

Murray hasn't been manufactured in at least ten years, and their stuff was always low quality.

Prices do seem reasonable at the shop assuming you get proper service and it's not like a big box store.

>I'm pretty sure I want a road bike (or hybrid?).

If you aren't sure on this (drop bars or flat bars) you are best off finding out which you prefer before you buy a bike, and while everyone has their preferences, there's no substitute for test riding bikes.

My advice would be to go to the shop and see if you can get a couple of demo rides to try flat bar vs drop bar - if they're a good shop they should have at least one each of flat bar and drop bar demo bike in your size that you pay a small amount to take a longer test ride on (that should be refunded if you buy a bike). A good shop should let you take a much shorter test ride on a particular bike you're considering buying too.

There aren't any bad bikes as long as you're spending enough to avoid them, and $800 is enough to avoid bad road bikes or hybrids unless you went looking at fake carbon bikes on Aliexpress or monstrosities like this (which you'd only ever see online).

For a hybrid $800 is probably overkill really unless you want disc brakes (make sure they're hydraulic if you do), otherwise the sweet spot is probably about $600. Recommend avoiding hybrids with suspension forks.

Road bikes are more expensive but $800 can still get you a decent entry level one like a Synapse or a Trek 1 series.

In other words you can't really go wrong unless you get the wrong type of bike, and the best way to avoid that is by test riding bikes.

Have a look at this beauty! Who says Amazon doesn't sell awesome bikes!?!!

(Just kidding!)