Tommaso Monza Endurance Aluminum Road Bike, Carbon Fork, Shimano Tiagra, 20 Speeds, Aero Wheels, Matte Black, Blue

I have ridden bikes for years, but this bike (Tommaso Monza) is my first road bike. Before settling on this bike, I tried to buy a Schwinn bike, believing that’s a more established brand. After Schwinn seller failed to deliver the product twice, I started looking for alternatives. I was attracted by the good customer rating and high road bike sales rank of Tommaso bikes on Amazon. So I made the purchase. One month later, here are my initial impressions of this bike. 1) The bike represents good value for entry level road bike. I am looking for a lighter bike with good gears, so I can reach better speed than using my current mountain bike or other leisure bike. With a weight of little over 20 pounds this bike is much lighter than my current bikes, the Shimano gear also works well. Other brands (like Schwinn) selling at higher prices with lower quality gears. I immediately got a 15% boost in speed from my first serious ride on this new bike. I think more improvements will come. 2) The manufacturer delivered product on time and in good condition. With all the supply chain issues caused by the pandemic, this is not a given. 3) I was planning to let a bike shop put bike together for me, but after watching an instruction video on the company’s web site I feel it’s easy enough to assemble the bike myself. The bike came in ready for assembling, just need to put the handle bar and front wheel in and tighten the screws with Allen keys (not included with the bike). I did need to watch more YouTube videos to learn how to adjust the brakes, but I feel that’s good learning experience for me to have a little bit more knowledge about bikes in general. 4) One reason I chose this bike is it’s size. At 5’7” I normally fall between size Small and Medium. That leaves the question of which size I should choose open. With Tommaso I happen to solidly fit into size Small according to the company’s sizing chart. I verified the detailed geometric information (like the length of the top tube, seat tube, stand-over height etc.) and compared them with other brands. I felt confidently enough that the bike size will fit me well to make the online purchase without actually trying the bike. So far I feel the new bike size fits me well. Whenever you change the bike you need to adjust your posture a little bit, that’s normal, you will get used to it, and that doesn’t necessarily mean the bike is not the right size for you. I will use this bike’s size as benchmark for other future road bikes. 5)
The bike comes with an owners manual which in my opinion is useless because it’s designed for multiple different types of bikes. There are some miner parts (mostly light reflectors) in the package, that the company did not provide any instructions on how to put them on. I think the company can do a better job in assembling, maintenance, usage instructions to make people’s first encounter with a road bike more smooth experience. For me I don’t even know how to change gears with a road bike —- I have to look on line to find out. But overall I am happy with the purchase. I will find out more about the bike as I put more miles on it.

I purchased the Tommaso Monza and was not paid to write this review.

First off let me state that there is a tremendous value for what you are getting with the Monza if you are just starting to dip your feet into the complex world of road bicycles. The foundation for any bike is the frame and in this case it’s made of 6061 aluminum with a carbon fork; it does a good job of absorbing most road imperfections such as bumps, small potholes, and light gravel but anything bigger you will definitely feel. The frame is pre-drilled with spots for 2 bottle cages and a bag rack in the rear. All brake and gear cabling is routed externally. I got the metallic blue color which is very captivating when you see it in person and I’ve received many compliments from my fellow riders.

Moving on to the wheels, Tommaso provides their self branded Corsa TC-40 wheel set which are quite heavy but passable in my opinion. Where they really drop the ball are on the tubes and tires – within the first week of riding I got three flats while on fairly smooth tarmac and little to no debris. I chalk it up to the pretty terrible rubber compound and slim 23c size. They were promptly replaced with Continental GatorSkin 25c tires which greatly improved the comfort of my ride and eliminated any issues with flats.

The value I mentioned before really comes in the form of the full Shimano Tiagra 4700 drivetrain (crank, cassette, front/rear derailer, STI shifters, brakes, and chain). Tommaso should be praised for figuring out how to integrate Tiagra at such a reasonable price point rather than going with the Claris groupset. Regarding performance, I’ve found that shifting has been smooth and consistent in all road conditions with the occasional stutter under heavy load. In my opinion if you are a novice to intermediate rider then Tiagra will suite you just fine, but advanced riders should look towards the105 or even Ultegra groupsets for improved performance.

Lastly, unless you intend to race with this bike then I strongly recommend that you replace the saddle (seat) with one that has more cushion. There is virtually no padding with the one provided and I could barely get through a few minutes before I started feeling numbness in my anatomical areas. I understand their intention but I feel that they under delivered considering the main use of this bike for most users will be commuting or touring. Overall this is a really fun bike and I recommend it with the mentioned caveats.

For frame of reference I am a 6’3″ guy weighing 225lbs.
In the last 5 months of riding the bike I’ve logged about 800 miles.