Eastway Zener D3 2016

[Mark Oakley]

Has anybody owned or know much about this bike, looks well speced for the price. Thanks

 

[S-Express]

Looks a bargain. £750 for new Tiagra and a full carbon frame with TRP spyres and Ritchey kit is very good. Big tyre clearance too. Eastway is now a Wiggle house brand and the frames seem to be good quality. You might struggle to find a better bike at that price.

 

[basimo]

I've had one of these for about 4 months, my first carbon road bike so I don't have much to go on by way of comparison. I got it through Cyclescheme so was looking for something under £800, as I needed to get pedals, new shoes and various other bits and pieces for under £1000. I was looking for something with a reasonably relaxed geometry (the Eastway Emitter seems more race-orientated, geometry-wise). I tend to ride in very varied terrain including some off-road stretches on gravel and paths - the 28c tyres give me the confidence on those surfaces that I'm not sure I'd have with 25s and the wheels, though heavy, feel like they can take it. That said, you can still feel all the bumps through the bars and I've found gel gloves essential for longer rides. I am semi-competent with bike mechanics and the deraillleurs and disc brakes both needed some serious tweaking out of the box - both discs were rubbing slightly on the pads (so much for the in-house set-up...). There's a recent review here (http://www.active-traveller.com/gear-reviews/eastway-zener-d3-tiagra-2016) that suggests the brakes are sluggish. Out of the box, they were - but once set up right you can come to hard stop very rapidly with just a light touch, even with hands on the top of the hoods rather than further down the levers. Being able to modulate breaking down long, steep descents is also easier than I've found with rim brakes. Tiagra shifters feel fine to me and everything clicks smoothly into place once set up correctly, though I've never ridden on anything with a significantly higher spec. Getting out the saddle, the bike feels very responsive, actually as if it's giving you some kind of boost, though that may be purely psychological. Standard compact gearing is OK, but I do find myself looking for just one more gear on the steepest hills and spinning out around 50km/h at the top end just when you feel you could go faster on longer downhill stretches, but you can't have it all. Saddle is simple and austere but I've had no problems after 5+ hours on the road with decent padded shorts. I went with SPD pedals/cleats rather than SPD-SL or Look as I wanted to be able to walk easily in the shoes on occasion (useful on an over-ambitious 25k climb in France recently...hadn't quite figured out what a 10% incline actually feels like over 3-4k!) and have been happy with the decision, even if it's a bit of a road cycle fashion no-no. Bike looks nice, without trying too hard (subjective, of course) but probably a little bulky for hardcore cool-school types. It's the kind of bike I could just about imagine touring on, but there are no fixing points for racks. After (far too much) research, it seemed the best combination of value and features at this price mark and 105/Ultegra seemed overkill for me as I don't race. Overall, I'm very happy with it. I guess they will continue to get discounted while Wiggle try to build a profile for the brand. The Emitter has had great reviews, so if you want a racier geometry then that might be for you.