Venture/Ventura(?) Milemaster £70 at local shop - any good?

crofter said:

apparantly on special offer, i am looking for a sturdy new (ceap!)
bike..

18 gears rigid frame. twist gear change, brakes look a bit weak tho...

any help appreciateed.

I've got the Venture Tempest (Asda, 100 quid), which looked very similar to
the Milemaster. It has an alloy frame, alloy rims, cheapo suspension fork
(which does actually cushion bumps).

Assuming the brakes are the same on both bikes, then I'd say that they're
fine - I think the 'V' arms are some sort of resin, but I guess that's what
you get in this price range. They could always be upgraded later if you felt
the need, but, like I say, mine have been fine so far - no complaints.

The twist gears are generally okay, but took a bit of setting up on my bike.
I'd rather have the push-button style, but these'll do. The handgrips feel a
bit weird because they have a bulge where the twisty-grippy bit is - a bit
hard to get a comfortable position for the hands when just cycling along,
not changing gears.

--
Wally
www.artbywally.com
www.wally.myby.co.uk

in message <[email hidden]>, crofter

(') said:

x-no-archive: yes

apparantly on special offer, i am looking for a sturdy new (ceap!)
bike..

18 gears rigid frame. twist gear change, brakes look a bit weak tho...

Check out what you can get locally second hand. New bikes at under about
£150 vary from dreadfull to atrocious.

--
[email hidden] (Simon Brooke) http://www.jasmine.org.uk/~simon/

;; my other religion is Emacs

in message <[email hidden]>, Wally

(') said:

The twist gears are generally okay, but took a bit of setting up on my
bike. I'd rather have the push-button style, but these'll do.

I've changed both my mountain bikes from trigger shifters to twist grip
shifters, and find it much better. I think it's partly a matter of taste
and partly a matter of what sort of riding you do, but when you've come
off a descent onto a sharp rise or a bit of very tricky singletrack, the
ability to change a lot of gears in one gesture is often useful.

--
[email hidden] (Simon Brooke) http://www.jasmine.org.uk/~simon/

;; So, before proceeding with definitive screwing, choose the
;; position most congenital.
-- instructions for fitting bicycle handlebars

Simon Brooke said:

I've changed both my mountain bikes from trigger shifters to twist grip
shifters, and find it much better. I think it's partly a matter of taste
and partly a matter of what sort of riding you do, but when you've come
off a descent onto a sharp rise or a bit of very tricky singletrack, the
ability to change a lot of gears in one gesture is often useful.

I don't find it a problem to flick in a series of downchanges on trigger
shifters - you don't need to wait for each change and you can count the
number of gears changed. I prefer the ability to do that and still be
braking which is quite difficult with twist shifts. But its a bit like
Campag/Shimano. Neither is right, people have their favourites and the
discussion can go on for a long time.

--
Tony

"I did make a mistake once - I thought I'd made a mistake but I hadn't"
Anon