Decathlon vs Trek vs ???

[Tony Raven]

Call me Bob wrote:
> On Sun, 26 Mar 2006 16:06:30 +0100, Tony Raven <[email protected]>
> wrote:
>
>
>>> Just like I need another recumbent.
>> <Yoda>
>> If once you start down the dark path, forever will it dominate your
>> destiny, consume you it will....
>> </Yoda>
>
> You say that like it's a bad thing.
>

Feeling guilty Bob?

--
Tony

"The best way I know of to win an argument is to start by being in the
right."
- Lord Hailsham

 

[Simon Brooke]

in message <[email protected]>, Tony Raven
('[email protected]') wrote:

> the.Mark wrote:
>>
>> It's interesting when it comes to cycling want = need.
>> Just like I need another recumbent.
>
> <Yoda>
> If once you start down the dark path, forever will it dominate your
> destiny, consume you it will....
> </Yoda>

Tsk, tsk, tsk.

If down the dark path once you start...

Don't they teach you anything these days?

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

;; Friends don't send friends HTML formatted emails.

 

[Tim Hall]

On Sat, 25 Mar 2006 17:27:43 GMT, Mark Thompson
<pleasegivegenerously@warmmail*_turn_up_the_heat_to_reply*.com> wrote:

>> Or should I just admit I can't get 1 bike, and buy 2...
>
><ahem> Three. You need three bikes.
>
>Obviously the dual purpose go anywhere bike, but desiring a cross bike
>marks you out as a bit of a connoseur who would appreciate the lack of
>compromise that comes with a pure road bike and a dedicated off road
>machine too.
>
>Then you just need the fixie.
>
>
>Four. You need four bikes...

Amongst the bikes are such diverse element as....



Tim

 

[Adrian Godwin]

Simon Brooke <[email protected]> wrote:

> What's this obsession with triples? Heavy tourers have triples to get
> huge loads of tents and food and spare clothes and stuff up steep hills.
> Mountain bikes have triples so that you can spin smoothly and not break
> traction on loose scree and similar surfaces. The lowest gear on my road
> bike is 39x26 = 37.5"; I'm a fifty-year-old with very poor circulation,
> and I was never an athlete even when young. But there's no road hill
> that I've ever tried that I can't get up in that (and that includes
> Tynron Brae). Campagnolo standard cassettes include 13-29, which with a
> compact double at the front gives you a lowest gear of 34x29 = 31.7", I
> imagine Shimano offer something similar. Do you really want something
> lower than 31.7" on a road bike?
>

I suppose because I primarily want a tourer, but optimised for short
tours that include towpath-quality roads rather than heavily-laden
road tours. Hence the interest in the tricross rather than a hybrid
(too slow) or an Audax (cannot take wide tyres). But note that it's
'optimised for', not 'exclusively for' - this gives rise to a desire
for low gearing if I have a heavier load.

It may be that I'm trying to put too much into one package and ending
up with something that's a poor compromise. But if I can improve the
low-end gearing whilst still keeping the other features (low weight,
drop bars, choice of wide or narrow wheels) then it appears I'm pretty
close.

-adrian

 

[Call me Bob]

On Sun, 26 Mar 2006 17:25:32 +0100, Tony Raven <[email protected]>
wrote:

>> You say that like it's a bad thing.
>>
>
>Feeling guilty Bob?

For buying a bike? Never!

"Bob"
--

Email address is spam trapped, to reply directly remove the beverage.

 

[Arthur Clune]

Simon Brooke wrote:
> traction on loose scree and similar surfaces. The lowest gear on my road
> bike is 39x26 = 37.5"; I'm a fifty-year-old with very poor circulation,
> and I was never an athlete even when young. But there's no road hill
> that I've ever tried that I can't get up in that (and that includes
> Tynron Brae). Campagnolo standard cassettes include 13-29, which with a

There's a matter of style here I well. I normally use 38x25 or my road
bike, but for serious hill rides (Fred Whitton, Alps etc) I put on a
34, and I spend a lot of time in 34x25.

I've had rides where I could usefully have used 30x26 as well.

Arthur

--
Arthur Clune

 

[squeaker]

Tony Raven wrote:
> <Yoda>
> If once you start down the dark path, forever will it dominate your
> destiny, consume you it will....
> </Yoda>
>
> --
> Tony
and I have seen the light at the end of the path.... well, Superlight
actually
www.challengebikes.com/html/index.php?taal=en&selectie=fujinsl2

 

[Tony Raven]

squeaker wrote:
> Tony Raven wrote:
>> <Yoda>
>> If once you start down the dark path, forever will it dominate your
>> destiny, consume you it will....
>> </Yoda>
>>
>> --
>> Tony
> and I have seen the light at the end of the path.... well, Superlight
> actually
> www.challengebikes.com/html/index.php?taal=en&selectie=fujinsl2
>

Remember, the light at the end of the path is probably an oncoming moped ;-)

--
Tony

"The best way I know of to win an argument is to start by being in the
right."
- Lord Hailsham

 

[davek]

Simon Brooke wrote:
> Actually, just at present I need N+2;

I need N+several. The Brompton should be arriving any day now , so by
the end of this week I'll need N+several-1, but I'll still have no more
bikes than can be counted on one hand of a careless butcher. :-(

d.

 

[Tom Anderson]

On Fri, 24 Mar 2006, Tom Anderson wrote:

> I'd like to buy a new bike.

Thanks for your advice, everyone. Nobody seemed to have a bad word to say
about Decathlon, so i did indeed buy a bike from them. Since i'm very poor
at taking advice, i got a mountain bike (plus, their hybrids weren't so
impressive) - to be precise, a Rockrider 5 XC (which isn't in their
catalogue - not sure what's going on here). I'm happy with the spec: SRAM
X.5 rear mech, Shimano C-050 front, SR Suntour fork, not sure what model,
since it's plastered with Decathlon branding, but i think it's an XCR-LO.
I know bugger all about such things, really, but i get the impression
that's better than what i had last time i spent that amount of money on a
bike (270 pounds). I'll have to see how the frame and assembly turns out.

In atonement for my buying an inappropriate type of bike, i'm planning to
take it to the Lake District for a week before Easter.

The service was good, although slightly shoddy mechanically - when i went
to pick the bike up, the headset hadn't been done up, but that was quickly
fixed, and the tension on the front mech was wrong, but that's trivial. As
far as i can tell, everything else is okay.

So, i now have some really dopey questions about rims and tyres, and the
oiling of cables, which i shall inflict on you in two new threads ...

tom

--
No gods, no masters.

 

[Tom Anderson]

On Tue, 28 Mar 2006, Tom Anderson wrote:

> On Fri, 24 Mar 2006, Tom Anderson wrote:
>
>> I'd like to buy a new bike.
>
> Thanks for your advice, everyone. Nobody seemed to have a bad word to
> say about Decathlon, so i did indeed buy a bike from them.

Oh, and i'm calling it Dec. Or 'the Dec' if anyone's listening.

tom

--
No gods, no masters.

 

[Jim Price]

Tom Anderson wrote:
> Oh, and i'm calling it Dec. Or 'the Dec' if anyone's listening.

Could have been worse - you could have called it Anton.

JimP

--
I've got a cycle helmet
I'll wear it when I like
And if they want to make me
I'll go hunting on me bike

 

[Tom Anderson]

On Tue, 28 Mar 2006, Jim Price wrote:

> Tom Anderson wrote:
>
>> Oh, and i'm calling it Dec. Or 'the Dec' if anyone's listening.
>
> Could have been worse - you could have called it Anton.

I'm keeping that angle in reserve for when the hymenopteran legions come
marching out of the garden - then i can honestly complain that there's an
ant on Dec. Ah, it's going to be a summer of exceedingly poor puns ...

tom

--
The RAMAN VESSEL enters the SOLAR SYSTEM. The explorers explore it,
and it is COOL. Then they LEAVE. Then the Raman vessel LEAVES. --
Book-A-Minute SF/F

 

[Anthony Jones]

Tom Anderson wrote:
> I don't live anywhere near any of their shops, though, which means i'd
> have to mail order one. Do they ship it in a fully set up condition, or
> would i have to do it myself (or rather, get my LBS to do it, given that
> my mechanical skills are pathetic)?

There will generally be a small amount of setup required with mail order
bikes. Typically not more than 5 minutes work for someone who knows what
they're doing. Ask Edinburgh Bicycle if you're not sure (it'll
probably be a good indicator of how good they are to responding to
customer queries if nothing else).

Anthony