New Commuter finally here

[cyberknight]

I recently purchased n+1 on proviso of n-1
sold my subway drop bar conversion as i rarely rode it as it was a bit of a lump for commuting and mrs ck gave me to go ahead for a new bike on c2w as the next year we haven't got a holiday to save for as we transferred the balance from this year to next what with the pandemic .
What was i after ? A drop bar bike with disc brakes so as we use halfords i went for a carrera vanquish disc as it ticks all the boxes i want for commuting , i could have gone higher spec but i wanted to keep it lower end budget .

When i got it home i changed the seatpost to a micro adjust as i can never get the single bolt ones level, the stock saddle is untested yet so that may change as well.I added a rack with a seat post mount then crud mk3 gaurds which TBH i made a wrong choice as due to the dropped stays it sits a bit high at the back but i made them work as long as they work im not to bothered about wheel suckers as it wlll not be a group ride bike .Put some clipless pedals on and some frame stickers to stop paint rub and glued some reflective strips to the back of the gaurd and pannier rack .

 

[Cycleops]

Nice. Just proves you don’t need to spend a ton to get a nice bike. Bit of a change from that donkey of a Subway I expect?

 

[Grant Fondo]

very nice

 

[cyberknight]

Nice. Just proves you don’t need to spend a ton to get a nice bike. Bit of a change from that donkey of a Subway I expect?

Just done an 18 mile test ride , a lot nicer than the subway but a bit harder work than a full on road bike so about what i expected,The saddle is ok for commuting but i reckon i will change it and i need to tweak the fit a bit . 18 miles avg 17,5 is not bad after night shift and 4 hours sleep.

 

[Grant Fondo]

Just done an 18 mile test ride , a lot nicer than the subway but a bit harder work than a full on road bike so about what i expected,The saddle is ok for commuting but i reckon i will change it and i need to tweak the fit a bit . 18 miles avg 17,5 is not bad after night shift and 4 hours sleep.

Spot on! You don't get a decent saddle on a 400 quid bike generally, although i bought a £100 Fizik once and hated it, also had a cheapo Velo and loved it. One of cyclings big conundrums

 

[MichaelW2]

Why no proper rack and mudguard eyelets?

 

[cyberknight]

Why no proper rack and mudguard eyelets?

it has mudgaurd eyelets on the inner of the front fork, the rear does have standard mounts , i dont know why they dont fit rack eyelts as they always have but the seatpost mount was a cheap fix.In my budget and vendor choice ( i know i can get other bikes but im limited by my price point and what i want ) next choice in budget was another 2.5 kg and undergeared cx style
edit
upper rack mounts woud have been hard i think given the dropped seat stays giving an odd angle for the rack arms ?

 

[Grant Fondo]

I recently purchased n+1 on proviso of n-1
sold my subway drop bar conversion as i rarely rode it as it was a bit of a lump for commuting and mrs ck gave me to go ahead for a new bike on c2w as the next year we haven't got a holiday to save for as we transferred the balance from this year to next what with the pandemic .
What was i after ? A drop bar bike with disc brakes so as we use halfords i went for a carrera vanquish disc as it ticks all the boxes i want for commuting , i could have gone higher spec but i wanted to keep it lower end budget .

When i got it home i changed the seatpost to a micro adjust as i can never get the single bolt ones level, the stock saddle is untested yet so that may change as well.I added a rack with a seat post mount then crud mk3 gaurds which TBH i made a wrong choice as due to the dropped stays it sits a bit high at the back but i made them work as long as they work im not to bothered about wheel suckers as it wlll not be a group ride bike .Put some clipless pedals on and some frame stickers to stop paint rub and glued some reflective strips to the back of the gaurd and pannier rack .
View attachment 535264

Love the colour as well, reminds me of a Klein i lusted after years ago

 

[Spiderweb]

@cyberknight you new steed looks lovely, great choice, enjoy.

 

[MichaelW2]

it has mudgaurd eyelets on the inner of the front fork, the rear does have standard mounts , i dont know why they dont fit rack eyelts as they always have but the seatpost mount was a cheap fix.In my budget and vendor choice ( i know i can get other bikes but im limited by my price point and what i want ) next choice in budget was another 2.5 kg and undergeared cx style
edit
upper rack mounts woud have been hard i think given the dropped seat stays giving an odd angle for the rack arms ?
In XXL frames, lowered seatstays and GT style triple triangle style frames can helf stiffen the structure but on smaller sizes they are really not required and

it has mudgaurd eyelets on the inner of the front fork, the rear does have standard mounts , i dont know why they dont fit rack eyelts as they always have but the seatpost mount was a cheap fix.In my budget and vendor choice ( i know i can get other bikes but im limited by my price point and what i want ) next choice in budget was another 2.5 kg and undergeared cx style
edit
upper rack mounts woud have been hard i think given the dropped seat stays giving an odd angle for the rack arms ?

In XXL frames, lowered seatstays and GT style triple triangle style frames can help stiffen the structure but on smaller sizes they are really not required and as you say , they interfere with rack mounting.
The small GT frames in particular stiffen up the already stiff small triangles and require extra long and floppy rack stays. For touring or load carrying it is all wrong.

 

[cyberknight]

In XXL frames, lowered seatstays and GT style triple triangle style frames can help stiffen the structure but on smaller sizes they are really not required and as you say , they interfere with rack mounting.
The small GT frames in particular stiffen up the already stiff small triangles and require extra long and floppy rack stays. For touring or load carrying it is all wrong.

yes , im only commuting to work so it works ok

 

[IanSmithCSE]

Good morning,

I don't know what others think, but would it be nice if thread became a sticky somewhere of even if there was a Halfords forum?

I have quite liked Carreras for a long time and before Halfords sold Boardmans there were some pretty high spec Carreras, full Tiagra brakes and drive trains and close to Ribble prices.

I know a couple of people who have Carreras and they are very happy with the price and performance and they have no idea what 2000 (Claris) series is, why is Ultegra different?

Anyway my short point was meant to be that Halfords get a lot of bad coverage in the cycling media and forums possibly putting off buyers often forcing them to increase their budgets by a lot to get not a lot more.

A bottom of the range Specialized Allez is £649 and a Carrera Vanquish £400.

Both do show signs of meeting their budget, the Allez has a Sunrace cassette and the Carrera an FSA not a Claris chainset but explaining that £250 difference is quite hard. Added to which the web site says the FSA is square taper and that's a plus for me. :-)

An informed review of the Zelos, £300 for alu frame/non alloy steel forks, STI (14 speed) and mechanical disc brakes would be interesting, have they cut to many corners to reach this price point? Or could you use this bike as a commuter for a few years?

Accepting that a national chain will have some quality control issues and staff training issues a forum that says "To fix xyz brakes you need to ...." rather than a forum that says "Yeah staff are .... they couldn't fix my brakes"

For most people understanding how to adjust gears and brakes is easy, the tools needed minimal at a lot less hassle than taking a bike in to get that done.

Some happy Carrera customers, quite possibly saying, "very happy but wheels don't like 30kg of luggage" could give some perspective.

Having seen many people who appear to have started riding during the lockdown (new bikes and clothes, wrong saddle height, looking uncomfortable, low cadence, as heavy as I was when I restarted) I am surprised by the lack of Carreras. A few Boardmans but mostly Trek and Specialised.

Bye

Ian

 

[bikingdad90]

Claris is a very solid groupset. Cassettes and chains are cheap to replace as are mechs.

I’ve got it on my Wiggins Rouen and see no reason to upgrade. It works and if I am honest is less hassle to keep tuned then Sora or Tiagra or 105 as its wider and a bit more tolerable of small misalignment.

 

[cyberknight]

Claris is a very solid groupset. Cassettes and chains are cheap to replace as are mechs.

I’ve got it on my Wiggins Rouen and see no reason to upgrade. It works and if I am honest is less hassle to keep tuned then Sora or Tiagra or 105 as its wider and a bit more tolerable of small misalignment.

Club mate said he doesn't use less than 105, and that's his low end stuff . Different world

 

[Bonefish Blues]

That looks way more expensive than its actual squids.