'bent on ebay: Challenge Mistral SWB OSS



S

Simon Brooke

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Once again, not mine. Looks competent.

<URL:http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=3-
681751105>

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http://www.jasmine.org.uk/~simon/

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Simon Brooke wrote:
> Once again, not mine. Looks competent.

Looks very nice, and that's what I thought of the one I took
out to test =

from Amsterdam earlier in the year. Unfortunately a few
hours later the =

only really positive thing the test told me was that Magura
hydraulic=20 rim brakes were Really Very Good and I was a
bit underwhlemed otherwise := -(

Part of the problem was undoubtedly that the seat just
wasn't quite=20 right for me. Other people will feel the
same ****les about the=20 Optima/HPVel seats I personally
like as we're all slightly different=20 shapes, so this
isn't really a dig at the Mistral except in a personal=20
context. However, beyond the shape of it there's the fact
that=20 Challenge have the seat as effectively an integral
part of the frame,=20 and though that's quite neat as an
engineering solution it does mean=20 there's not very much
decoupling you from road shock from the front=20 wheel (no
suspension and it's only a 20" wheel so doesn't eat holes
and=20 bumps that well). If you're only riding on good roads
that's not a=20 problem, but I ride on some pretty poor ones
and on the block paved=20 roads[1] that seem common around
the Amsterdam area induced so much=20 vibration that the
bike was less comfortable than the hired vanilla=20 Batavus
roadsters we'd been using earlier in the day, and IMHO
that=20 isn't really good enough for a bike that's likely to
be bought (and for=20 a lot of money too!) because it's
meant to be very comfortable :-( You could probably work
around this by adding a Pantour hub or 20" sus=20 forks, but
either option is Real Money you'll have to spend on top
of=20 the purchase price.

The spiel says more versatile than the Hurricane from which
it is=20 derived. Well... maybe, but since it's higher it'll
be slower so not=20 much use if you want to tear up tarmac
low to the ground, and for=20 touring the comfort
limitations on poorer surfaces alluded to above=20 strikes
me as a definite problem. To cut a long story short, I
wouldn't =

give Challenge =A3600 (the eBay start price here) for a
brand new one, an= d=20 paying more than twice that for a
Grasshopper or Fiero strikes me as=20 better value for money
to be honest.

But some people seem to like them: 'bentrideronline seemed
rather more=20 complimentary than I've been, but as always
with these my advice is try=20 before you buy if you can. I
think Bikefix have a Mistral in, and=20 Norman Fay in South
Shields is a Challenge dealer IIRC.

Pete.

[1] think of those brick driveways, not cobblestones. These
provide no=20 problems at all on typical Dutch roadster,
and they didn't trouble the=20 Rainbow Lyner also out on
the trip. A subsequent NL trip saw worse=20 roads not
being a problem on a Nazca Fiero or Optima Lynx both
with=20 rigid front forks so it isn't just 'bents, rigid
front forks or 20/20=20 SWB configuration --=20 Peter
Clinch Medical Physics IT Officer Tel 44 1382 660111
ext. 33637 Univ. of Dundee, Ninewells Hospital Fax 44
1382 640177 Dundee DD1 9SY Scotland UK net
[email protected]
http://www.dundee.ac.uk/~pjclinch/
 

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