Dawes vs. Specialized

(Ekul Namsob) said:

My wife, Kate, is considering a new bike for commuting and leisure.
We've a budget around 250 quid and have narrowed the choice down to
something like the Dawes Kalahari or the Specialized Global Sport.

Edinburgh Bicycles in Manchester currently have 20% off so the
Specialized would be around GBP 240.

I've always in the past been a Raleigh person but have rather gone off
them lately so are these two good bikes? Are Edinburgh's own brand,
Revolution, also worthwhile?

Your opinions would be valued.

It depends, in part in what constitutes "leisure". Will this be
cycling on the roads, off road tracks, mountain biking...?

For a commuting bike I'm very keen on hub gears. The kind of budget
you're talking about kind of rules out a speedhub, but there are nexus
equipped bike that might be suitable - my son has a Decathlon Triban,
that cost about 350 euros and is pretty nice for the price (this was
bought in France, but AIUI they have branches hereabouts).

in message
<[email hidden]>, Ekul

Namsob (') said:

My wife, Kate, is considering a new bike for commuting and leisure.
We've a budget around 250 quid and have narrowed the choice down to
something like the Dawes Kalahari or the Specialized Global Sport.

Edinburgh Bicycles in Manchester currently have 20% off so the
Specialized would be around GBP 240.

I've always in the past been a Raleigh person but have rather gone off
them lately so are these two good bikes? Are Edinburgh's own brand,
Revolution, also worthwhile?

Raleigh have been putting their badge on the cheapest Chinese trash, but in
the past couple of years seem to have been getting slightly better. I
still wouldn't buy one, though. see if they carry on improving first.

Edinburgh Bicycle Co-op's own brands are on the whole among the very best
value for money in Britain at present. Dawes are generally OK but I don't
know the Kalahari model. Specialized Global Sport is OK, not

Just now, in the sale, you can get Edinburgh's Revolution Courier Nexus for
£300 which is an absolute steal - a low maintenance commuter. However, no
rack or mudguards in that price. The Revolution Streetfinder at £219
including rack and mudguards is also a remarkably good price (but check
out the Claud Butler classic at about £200 - not quite as good kit, but a
very nice bike to ride and really good value.

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

I'm fed up with Life 1.0. I never liked it much and now it's getting
me down. I think I'll upgrade to MSLife 97 -- you know, the one that
comes in a flash new box and within weeks you're crawling with bugs.

Paul Rudin said:

(Ekul Namsob) said:

My wife, Kate, is considering a new bike for commuting and leisure.
We've a budget around 250 quid and have narrowed the choice down to
something like the Dawes Kalahari or the Specialized Global Sport.

Edinburgh Bicycles in Manchester currently have 20% off so the
Specialized would be around GBP 240.

I've always in the past been a Raleigh person but have rather gone off
them lately so are these two good bikes? Are Edinburgh's own brand,
Revolution, also worthwhile?

Your opinions would be valued.

It depends, in part in what constitutes "leisure". Will this be
cycling on the roads, off road tracks, mountain biking...?

For a commuting bike I'm very keen on hub gears. The kind of budget
you're talking about kind of rules out a speedhub, but there are nexus
equipped bike that might be suitable - my son has a Decathlon Triban,
that cost about 350 euros and is pretty nice for the price (this was
bought in France, but AIUI they have branches hereabouts).

I'd second the point about hub gears. Edinburgh bike have the
Revolution Courier Nexus 06 on offer at 270 GBP - 80 quid off.

Quoted message said:

My wife, Kate, is considering a new bike for commuting and leisure.
We've a budget around 250 quid and have narrowed the choice down to
something like the Dawes Kalahari or the Specialized Global Sport.

Edinburgh Bicycles in Manchester currently have 20% off so the
Specialized would be around GBP 240.

The vouchers have been 'disappeared' from the shop, so if you haven't got
one already it'll be difficult to get the money off. I might have one
squirreled away in my locker thobut...

Quoted message said:

I've always in the past been a Raleigh person but have rather gone off
them lately so are these two good bikes? Are Edinburgh's own brand,
Revolution, also worthwhile?

Wot Chris said. For a mix of roads and smooth, dry off-road trails the
Globe Sport is excellent. Relatively wide tyres are good off road, yet
they're slick towards the centre which makes it good on the road (and the
tread at the sides isn't horribly knobbly like some of Marins' hybrids[1],
so cornering is good on roads too). The suspension seat post compliments
the comfy ride of the wide tyres, and an adjustable rise stem ensures a
good fit (or lets you flit between an upright ride or a more stretched and
aero position depending on what you're going to do today).

Edinburgh's own brand bikes (Revolution) range from good to excellent but
with a couple of gap-in-the-market bikes that I'm not too sure about
(Cuillin XC...good value but, well, it's the suspension). They've all got
good tubing on the frames - 7005, come in women-specific versions (shorter
reach to the bars[2]) and are competively priced (tho at roughly the same
price point as the competition).

Mark[3]

[1] You can feel the knobbles squirm when you corner hard.

[2] Compared to men, women are all leg. And mouth :-(

[3] ...who is currently working for EBC. All views are my own - I'm not
paid enough to tow the company line.

Simon Brooke wrote in news:[email hidden]:

Quoted message said:

Specialized Global Sport is OK, not

Is that a bit of Wayne's World speak or did some text go missing? (I'm
particularly interested in views of the Sport 'cos it's one of the bikes I
find myself recommending a lot).

in message <[email hidden]>, Mark
Thompson ('pleasegivegenerously@warmmail*_turn_up_the_heat_to_reply*.com'😉

Quoted message said:

Simon Brooke wrote in
news:[email hidden]:

Quoted message said:

Specialized Global Sport is OK, not

Is that a bit of Wayne's World speak or did some text go missing? (I'm
particularly interested in views of the Sport 'cos it's one of the bikes
I find myself recommending a lot).

The old Hu8 - it's got a different name this year - is a good bike in my
opinion. Other than that the Global series strike me as a bit... well, OK,
but unexciting. There are a lot of other decent hybrids in that space and
for me there's nothing stand-out on those Specialized models.

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

Morning had broken, and we had run out of gas for the welding torch.

Quoted message said:

The old Hu8 - it's got a different name this year - is a good bike in
my opinion. Other than that the Global series strike me as a bit...
well, OK, but unexciting. There are a lot of other decent hybrids in
that space and for me there's nothing stand-out on those Specialized
models.

It comes down to tyre width - the Specialized Boroughs are the same that're
on the Tricross and are nice a wide for those taking the bike on trails.
Competitors such as the Ridgeback Velocity have slightly narrower tyres. A
bit of puncture protection on all the range wouldn't go amiss thobut (as
available on the Ridgback and Marin's hybrids).

As you move up the Globe range it gets a little more exciting, with (zertz-
ified) carbon forks, seatposts, and seatstays making an appearance, and
there's also the Nexus hub version of the Globe Comp.

Mark Thompson

pleasegivegenerously@warmmail*_turn_up_the_heat_to_reply*.com said:

Quoted message said:

My wife, Kate, is considering a new bike for commuting and leisure.
We've a budget around 250 quid and have narrowed the choice down to
something like the Dawes Kalahari or the Specialized Global Sport.

Edinburgh Bicycles in Manchester currently have 20% off so the
Specialized would be around GBP 240.

The vouchers have been 'disappeared' from the shop, so if you haven't got
one already it'll be difficult to get the money off. I might have one
squirreled away in my locker thobut...

Well, partly thanks to advice here, we used the one that came with this
month's Cycling Plus to buy the Courier Nexus 07 while our daughter
wandered around wearing a balloon hat with three foot horns and cuddling
a balloon penguin.

Hannah (that'll be my daughter) was pleased with her smoothie, made by
me, cycling for some time on a turbo trainer attached to a liquidizer,
while trying to find top gear, having never used a bike with twisty
gears on the handlebars.

I've just made good use of my new Altura Stream top and decided that
it's plenty warm enough.

Kate is now letting off steam at having to wait a week for her new bike
by playing Wii boxing. She scares me sometimes.

I'm now tempted to get a Courier for holiday use...

Quoted message said:

Mark[3]

Quoted message said:

[3] ...who is currently working for EBC. All views are my own - I'm not
paid enough to tow the company line.

I thought working for EBC made you a shareholder.

Cheers,
Luke

--
Lincoln City 0-2 Southend United (AET)
Swansea City 2-2 Southend United
We went up twice with Tilly and Brush

Quoted message said:

I thought working for EBC made you a shareholder.

It takes a year to get membership. Financially speaking this gets you
about £2,000 a year. The business is planning to issue shares to it's
members[1] which will increase the rewards of being a member.

I work 5 days a week, including either Saturday or Sunday, until around
7.15 in the evening. For £5.50 an hour. Promotion or career change looms.

[1] tho each member still has 1 vote, no matter how many shares owned. I
have reservations the shares.

You might like to consider a Saracen Pylon at ?299. It's a no-frills
bike with 3-speed hub gearing. With a commuting bike it's a good idea
not to have anything to flashy that will attract unwanted attention
when left unattended and this might fit the bill.

Mark Thompson

pleasegivegenerously@warmmail*_turn_up_the_heat_to_reply*.com said:

Quoted message said:

I thought working for EBC made you a shareholder.

It takes a year to get membership. Financially speaking this gets you
about £2,000 a year. The business is planning to issue shares to it's
members[1] which will increase the rewards of being a member.

I work 5 days a week, including either Saturday or Sunday, until around
7.15 in the evening. For £5.50 an hour. Promotion or career change looms.

Fair point. I used to work at Argos where, ten years ago, I earned
around 4 pounds an hour, twenty pence higher than the minimum wage which
was introduced soon after I left. Although the company treated its
workers well, I wouldn't have claimed any great loyalty to it.

Cheers,
Luke

--
Lincoln City 0-2 Southend United (AET)
Swansea City 2-2 Southend United
We went up twice with Tilly and Brush