Schwinn Kettle Valley Electric 375W Bike

I got this for my wife to ride around the neighborhood. She is not really a biking person, but I am really into recumbent Trikes. That said, she said she would be excited to try this bike to see if she liked it. We both had a nice reminiscence of the Schwinn named bikes we rode as children. The lifetime warranty appealed to us and as such, I ordered the bike. Upon arrival, the shipping box was nearly completely destroyed, which is the fault mostly of the shipping company, UPS, in this case. However, upon inspecting the contents, I determined the only some denting and bending of metal resulted to include the rear fender and rear rack. The bike was only minimally protected in packaging and that indicated damage would like have resulted whether the outer packaging box weren't nearly destroyed during shipping. I set out to assemble the bike, but there were no instructions to assemble it, though the manual of operation is well written and comprehensive. That said, without assembly instructions I forged ahead as best I could. The brake pads were damaged in shipping or before so I had to sand them down as best I could to flatten and smooth them. The brake rotors were both bent, but not unusably so. The wires for the handlebars and the battery power center were terribly twisted and in some cases, improperly routed. I did my best to reroute them. The battery center and wire routing tube has a hole with a rubber grommet that will not stay in place. No matter what I do to re seat it, it always pops back out. The seat is nice and it has somewhat of a suspension feature to It. The front shocks function well. Getting the brakes adjusted took quite a time because the brake calipers were assembled incorrectly. I reset them properly and have adjusted them properly. As to once assembled, despite there being no instructions, it became apparent that there also were no instructions to actuate the e-motor and how to operate the bike itself. I figured it out and took the bike for a quick check ride before I let my wife on it. It rode fairly nicely but the tires at the stated 50lbs inflation were clearly far too low for safe operation. I increased the air to 60lbs and it improved substantially. The battery powered hub motor 250Watt powers nicely and smoothly, very smoothly. The power comes on only when you are pedaling and it is completely predictable. The bike is a very nice shifting bike and the derailleur was actually properly adjusted upon delivery and I did not have to adjust it for reliable shifting. I find for this price point, the wheels should be more stout, the packaging more sufficient and a simple step by step assembly instructions sheet should be included and prominently displayed. The charging port is quite flimsy and I don't have a lot of hope it will survive very long. It is a bit heavy despite being aluminum framed, some of that being the integral battery. While I am disappointed that the end user quality isn't better, I know my Wife will get some use out of the bike.