Firmstrong Urban Man Beach Cruiser Bike, Mens Bicycle

A good cruiser for the boardwalk. Solid, simple, & dependable. Nothing fancy which is why it's perfect for the beach & other flat terrain. Easy to lock up and doesn't attract unwanted attention. The coaster breaks never need adjustment and are pretty much failsafe. I replaced the seat with a more comfortable one since I somtimes spend all day riding along the beach/boardwalk. The bike came mostly assembled, only needing the seat, handle bars, pedals and front wheel attached. These come in several colors to fit each individual preference. Recommended.

From top to bottom I've had a great experience with this bike and the vendor. I thought the price was reasonable, there were a large variety of colors to choose from (snagged mine in matte red), and it arrived quickly. I received an email from Dustin shortly after placing my order, welcoming me to the Beach Bikes community which I thought was very considerate and was unexpected to me. My order was placed July 27 and I received the bike on July 31, which is awesome. If I order something online, getting it fast is a huge plus. I live in CA so it didn't have to go far but still I was surprised when it was sitting on my door step today after getting home from work. The packaging was done well, no dings or scratches, and it looks great in person. Assembly was very easy, took me under an hour. If you have any experience working on bikes whatsoever you probably won't even need to look at the manual, I didn't. Really the only thing you need to pay attention to is putting the pedals on the correct side of the cranks as one side is clockwise, the other counter. You'll mess up the cranks if you put them on the wrong side so take notice of the stickers on the pedals indicating which side. I put it together, took it for a spin, made a couple adjustments to the seat height and the handlebars and that was a wrap. Like my title says, the cruiser looks great and rides smooth. I like the simplicity and comfort of the bike and it's everything I was looking for. Looking forward to the weekend to take a longer ride. I would recommend this bike to anyone looking for something aesthetically pleasing and comfortable to ride.

I put this bike together last night and I’m really happy about the purchase so far. I’m 6’4 275 so I do need to add some air to the rear tire. The cruiser was packaged very well no damages or scratches. I’ve yet to take it out for a spin but I’m looking forward to it. The seat in the photo is not what came with the bike. I also added the dice for wheel caps and a classic bell.

This bike is still holding strong, years later. It's stored outside and regularly used.

This review is for two FirmStrong bikes purchased at the same time. One Bella Fashionista Woman's and one Urban Men's. I will post the same review for both. My wife and I decided we wanted another form of exercise besides running. We rode around to the local bike shops and test drove a few bikes and decided a cruiser style was most comfortable and since we weren't commuting or planning on doing a tri anytime soon, we'd go with that style. The LBS cruisers ranged between $500 to $1200 depending on how they were equipped. That seemed a bit steep to me for a hobby I'm not sure I'm even going to stick with so I started my usual internet search. After reading countless reviews and stumbling through just as many websites, I decided to go with a FirmStrong bike. It seemed that for the money, overall it was the best deal. We like not having gears to shift and cables running all over the place so we decided to go with a single speed with coaster breaks. We found MUCH better availability of colors with the single speeds than we did the 3 and 7 speeds. To make it a little more useable, I purchased SRAM Automatix 2 speed hubs that I'll have the LBS lace into the rims (not done yet). With these we'll get the advantage of an extra gear while keeping the ascetics of the bike in tact. The bikes came from two separate suppliers with two different shippers. Usually Amazon Prime orders go really smoothly but lately many of my orders have been coming USPS instead of UPS or Fedex. I worked from home on the delivery day and around noon I got notification that USPS had tried to deliver my bike and nobody was home. Clearly that was a mistake as I hadn't left the house and there was no "We missed you" sticker on my door. After running around to two different post offices, and dealing with surly, unhelpful government employees, it turned out that my mail lady and her supervisor arbitrarily decided not to even load it on the truck! She was just going to come by and stick the notice on my door without even trying to deliver it! So much for home delivery! PATHETIC USPS SERVICE! Once I found where it was and convinced them to allow me to pick it up at their "no public service" facility, I had to load it up and take it home myself. Good thing I drive a truck and not some little car. In sharp contrast, the other bike came FedEx. It showed up exactly on time and the driver carried it into my garage and was friendly and cheerful. I wish I could click to decide which carrier delivered my prime deliveries. I'd pay more for that service just to avoid USPS at all costs. The bikes were packed well although the Urban was packed significantly better. Neither had any damage. Assembly was simple and straight forward apart from a missing fender screw on the Fashionista. I got it done in about a half hour for both bikes with a crescent wrench, a philips screwdriver and a 6mm hex key. No instructions, but if you've ever done anything with a bike, these are as basic as it comes. As for quality, that's another area I'll have to ding these bikes a bit. Here's the run down on the areas it looks like they shaved a little cost off compared to an Electra or other LBS bike. Cranks - They are forged steel one piece cranks and are functionally fine, but the forging is rough. It's not so rough it would snag on your pants, but it's close. They paint them so its not really obvious and they work fine, it's just cheap. The paint - The matte black was smooth but very, very thin. When I say thin I mean one coat sprayed on thin. If you look at it sideways, it's going to scratch to bare metal. I got the Urban in Emerald Green and from a distance it looks great. But when you get up to it, it’s a different story. It has a bit of metal flake to the finish and it leaves a rough to the touch texture on it. I quick buff with some polishing compound and the roughness is gone. The grips are foam garbage, be ready to replace them immediately. Lastly is the construction. I found loose bolts, over tightened bolts, missing screws, and little to no grease in the bottom bracket. All easily correctable, but it’s still more time you need to invest. I did have one big problem with the Fashionista. When my wife took it for it’s first ride down the street she commented that it didn’t pedal very smoothly. I figured the bottom bracket bearings were dry. When I took it apart to grease them, I found that the right side bearing was bent and missing two of the bearings. They weren’t rolling around in the bottom bracket so that means that it was installed that way! No harm done and $2.16 invested at the bike shop for a new bearing and a liberal application of grease and it’s smooth as butter. I guess the moral of the story is and has always been, you get what you pay for. If you buy a bike from the LBS, you will get all the same components and basically the exact same bike for twice the cost. BUT, you will also get a competent bike mechanic to put it together and test it before you pick it up. You will get someone local who will stand behind their work and none of these nagging little issues will become your issue to fix. All that said, I am satisfied with these bikes. For what we want them for, they are fine and look good. I’m pretty handy and these bikes are pretty basic so getting them up and running correctly and maintaining them will be no issue. Even with the little bit of aggravation and unexpected surprises, I still have an extra $600 in my pocket from what I was going to spend at the LBS and frankly, my bikes look better and now ride just as well. So, if you are handy and mechanically inclined, go for it. If you want something that you can take out of the box and just ride, do yourself a favor and give the LBS some business.