Customer Reviews
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12 of 14 people found the following review helpful.
nice for the price you could buy four for the price of a "real" one
By GROG
I like the looks of the "dutch" style bicycles but did not wish to pay $500-$1800 for one. The next least expensive option I could find above the Hollandia Opa was the "Flying Pigeon" which is likely a more "genuine" option but at $199.00 plus $150.00 shipping it is a bit more expensive (and to my understanding) would require much more assembly and adjustment. Now to the Hollandia bike itself. Un-boxing: Mine arrived in its box which appeared to have been previously opened. Looking in the box made me think that this had been previously unpacked and then repacked haphazardly. Inspection: I carefully inspected all of the parts and the only damage I could find was some deep gouges in the paint of main parts of the front package carrier. (More on this later) I decided to go ahead with assembly of the bike as I was not going to send it back for those scratches and was confident that Amazon would resolve this to my satisfaction. Assembly: The assembly guide included with the bike is indeed rather generic so some mechanical ability and/or experience assembling bicycles would be helpful. Assembly consists mainly just of putting on the front wheel, seat and handle bars and stem, for me, this went very smooth. There are no instructions for the front package carrier but I found looking at the pictures on line (zoomed in) to be adequate guidance for assemble and installation. Just remember to assemble with the all nuts and bolts finger tight first, before wrench tightening it after installing it on the bike to allow for adjustment. Once it was all together I adjusted the front brake (expected) and inflated the tires as well as adjusting seat height and angle. Details of construction: The frame tubes are butt welded (tig?) together like most low end bikes. The welds are of quality consistent with a bike of this price range. If you really must have a lugged and brazed frame you are going to have to pay allot more. The handle bar and stem are a welded together unit, I have never encountered this before, but it works well on this bike. The crank is of the three piece variety, (not cottered) , rather than "one piece" found on most low end cruisers and looks to be better than I would expect. The seat stays are bolted to the top if the seat post rather than welded (I do not know if that is good or bad). . The top tube angles down slightly from head tube to seat tube, I have a 28" inseam and my "parts" just cleared it when straddling the bike. The front and rear package carriers seem reasonably sturdy for carrying normal stuff like groceries, books etc (not pigs or bales of hay for instance). The other accessories are functional but not much more. The seat is like that found on low end beach cruisers and to me kind of spoils the retro looks of the bike, it is functional and reasonably comfortable, but I plan on replacing mine with one that looks more early 20th century. The pedals are of the solid plastic type found on lower end bicycles, sturdy but not much to look at. The "dress guards" are rather thin vinyl but with a sturdy metal frame, the full chain guard is of similar construction. I would say that those two parts have been the most compromised by the bikes price point, but they have nothing to do with making the bike go or stop. Judgment on long term durability of these items will have to wait and see. The bell is metal and would be fine except that it has a plastic gear in side that seems to make it jam up easily ( another price compromise?); this too will be replaced with a higher quality more antique looking example on my bike. The light is indeed plastic, but good looking and functional. The bike has both a rear coaster brake and a front cable operated rim hand brake, this is exceptional on a coaster brake bike of this price range. The ride: the riding posture is very upright with the handle bars reaching back to the rider. It felt like to me that my legs were more forward of my body than I am used to. I did not find myself missing the ability to adjust the handle bars in the stem. The bike gave me a smooth leisurely ride on well maintained dirt road and hard top road. The gearing is more toward easy peddling than for speed. The scratch issue: I contacted Amazon about the scratched package carrier parts, stating that I would rather not send the bike back but would rather be given replacement parts or a partial refund. They promptly responded stating that could not send me parts but would give me a partial refund. I found the refund to be satisfactory and it promptly showed up on my credit card statement. Summery if you are looking for the "look" of the "dutch" style bike but do not want to spend $500+ and are willing to accept the compromises of a lower end mass market bike, that comes with allot of accessories then this is a viable option. I am a casual bicycle rider, I have assembled and "customized" several bikes in my day and am a back yard mechanic with above average knowledge and skills.
24 of 31 people found the following review helpful.
VERY LOW QUALITY JUNK
By Rom
This bicycle arrived in a large sturdy box. It needs quite a lot of assembly but I didn't bother to even start. A cursory glance at the construction and low quality of materials used to build it let me know immediately that it was going back. The picture on the Amazon site makes it look way nicer than it actually is. The black chain guard is actually a vinyl bag (not metal). The skirt guards are also soft vinyl (not metal and not even a hard plastic). The lamp, bell, seat, peddles etc are the cheapest plasticy rubbish I have ever seen. It screams china cheap cheap cheap. The packing box said it weighs 49lbs. I hope not because it is going to cost me an arm and a leg to send this sorry excuse for a Dutch bike back to the vendor.
5 of 6 people found the following review helpful.
I love the bicycle! It's a great value! =)
By Daniel
Hi...I have read some reviews on here and else where and it's really sad when you hear bad reviews on this bike. I feel from my own personal experience that this bike is not as bad as people state it is. I feel that the people that have harsh comments for this bike are very picky and expect perfection on anything they buy. Nothing is prefect that's what makes life so unique. Also consumers need to be more educated on how each bike is built and what set budgets they have to adhere to. If you buy a 100 dollar bike do not expect the bike to have high end parts. If you buy a bike for 1 thousand dollars expect the bike to have more high end parts. Also the majority of bicycles today hire companies from Asia. Hard to escape that in today's econonmy. I gave this bike a 4 star rating and not a 5 because the only weak point on this bike is the brake calipers front and the extra adjustments on the chain guard and wheel guard.Now, I am a bike builder and I love bicycles so obviously this bike caught my eye. At first I did not want to buy because of some of the harsh reviews. But I took a chance out of curiousity. Oh boy!...I am glad I did. Well boxed. First glance I was impressed. Overall design is great! The frame structure seems great! The paint on this bike is flawless...seems like a black underbase with a nice clear coat. Could be powered coated but I did not double check. I love it so does not matter. The graphics are silk screened on self stick clear material and stuck on frame. Stickers are just fine no probably there other than it could have been nice to silk screen on the frame. The racks very strudy both front and rear. The light it's plastic than again what is not plastic today. Despite that the light is very nice. Very retro looking and better it's battery powered. The seat not too bad. Has foam under padding with a brown vinyl covering and stapled underneath. Has a spring support underneath for added comfort. Seat is good enough to do the job so no real big issue there. However, it would not hurt to upgrade the seat later. No hurry.The wheels are great. The rims are aluminum. The spokes are chrome and thick. Not sure of gage at moment. Hubs standard steel off shelf type. Rear hub is a generic coaster. Not the best but works fine. Here you probably could turn it into a single speed or maybe upgrade in future to a Sturney Archer 3 speed. The tires are 700c by 32c I believe. And pretty nice tire. Nice tread design. All black. You probably can upgrade to a nice white wall tire or gum wall could not hurt but the black wall looks nice.Nice touch on the pin strip on the fenders. Fenders are steel and pretty durable. The Fender supports are good. Another nice touch on the white accent on rear fender.As far as the plastic parts some reviewers really bad mouth...let me say that they are not as bad as some say. The plastic parts are on the wheel guard and chain guard. The plastic thickness is right on. Not to thin and not too thick just right. Also plastic is smooth and not wrinkled. Nice graphics pin strip. Well sewn on wire frame. Now, the only down side on the plastic parts is some of the seams could have been better made. Some areas pleat off just a bit. Also you need to adjust the chain guard and the wheel guards some so it will not hit on the rotating parts. Other than that okay. The one reason they made this part plastic is to keep the weight down. The other reason I feel is to keep the production time down in order to stay within the manufacturers budget.The handle bars and stem are brazed on so you can not adjust but than again this handle bars are only meant to go up or down. So it works here.The only real weak point on this bicycle are the brakes at front. These brakes calipers are very economical to put it mildly. I mean they can work with some adjustment. However, it's best to upgrade to a better quality brake to get the best braking power. You do not have to really since you have the coaster brake rear...but it's advisable that you do. I know I will.I would recommend that you take this bicycle to a bicycle shop and have them assemble it for you if you do not have alot exerience building bikes. Because there are some adjusts that need to be made so the bike can ride better. Some adjustment that are needed are the bottom bracket cup adjustment needs to be a little looser and maybe add more grease to bearings, the handle bar stem need to be adjusted just right and tigthen correctly, the front brake calipers need to be upgrade and the chain guard are needs to be adjusted so it will not hit the moving parts. Please keep in mind that this is a very unique bike (retro custom) and this is expected. Anything unique and custom always need to be adjusted a few times to get it right. Most new bikes always need adjustments. So this is normal. However an experenced bicycle mechanic is needed in these cases. ( NOTE: Some bike mechanics and bike shops sometimes have a habit of saying dumb things about department store bikes. So beware of that. Remember the bike is yours and is beautiful and it's your bike not theirs. They have a job to do so they should just do there job and not have so much opinions. Be proud of your bike no matter what bike it is.Last, I am glad I bought this bike. From a display point of view the bicycle is a beauty and a piece of art to me. I love this bicycle. And I am glad it has a retro rear kick stand. No worries of the bike falling over hear... I will certainly ride it alot in the future. I am glad Cycle Force imported this bike to the USA. Yeah!!!!That's my review. Good lucky and happy riding! =)Bike Builder
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Great for the price
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