new year...new bike...

[cycling fisherman]

ok so i am one of those cyclists who has allways had a mountain bike and never ventured into anything else cycle wise, well not much has changed in my new selection but i am slowly but surely becoming a roadie,

i have had my specialized hardrock since 2005 and its been bullet proof but the time has come to spend money on it so its time to stick it on ebay and replace it with...


A revolution courier classic from edinburgh bicycle co op do any members actually own one of these or have one of the courier line ?
http://tinyurl.com/6f9nyb

love the thought of only 8 gears, slick tyres and the black finish.


I am also going to do a project single speed bike and have seen some great ideas on ebay... http://tinyurl.com/7c99qh - really like the look of the old raleigh frames when restored.


£300 reduced to £222 for the new bike including delivery, i might get £70 ish back from the hardrock, i'm really excited and looking forward to the new bike and project and the new year.


anyone else tempted by the sales ?

 

[Ivan Ardon]

I have a Revolution Courier Race (the 700c wheeled version).

Simple, fast, well built, good components.

I've changed the flat bar to a butterfly as I found the original too straight and I've fitted a rack, SKSs, my Brooks B17 and SPDs to commuterise it to suit me.

The bottom gear on mine is 37 inches, which could be a little lower if you live in a very hilly area but that's easily changed (top gear is 108 inches, so there's plenty spare at the top end).

I'm very impressed with the bike, it's probably the best "bang per buck" bike I've ever bought.

 

[BADGER.BRAD]

Hello,

I have a Courier classic 2008 model brought very early 08 , The thing is fantastic Fast ,simple and pretty light. I once had a race/road bike but found it a little too fragile for the road and not at all comfortable. The Courier classic is some way between the road bike and Mountain bike as you would guess. The thing that I worried about before buying the Courier was the fact it only had 8 gears ! Believe me this is not a problem at all ! I live in a very hilly area and have never had a problem, well low enough for the up hills and plenty high enough for the flats and down hills it has a very good wide range of gears! The only thing I do wish to change before summer comes ( I have an old Hack bike for the salty winter roads) is the Bars I wish to go with some wider Riser bars 50mm or more just to alter the ride position slightly. Oh yes some of the nuts and bolts are of the crappy chrome variety and I found they started to rust within the first few days (very wet days), I would suggest a smear of oil on all of these before you use the bike I've used Vaseline and not had a problems since.
The standard tyres are amazing some of the things I have dug out without them going down have amazed me.


For the price I don't think you will be disappointed if you have anything you wish to ask fire away.


Brad in Dudley West Midlands

 

[BADGER.BRAD]

Lets have a pic Ivan if you can ! I wish to change the bars on mine 26 inch wheel version as like you I found them a little too flat.

 

[gbs]

Hello,

I have a Courier classic 2008 model brought very early 08 , The thing is fantastic Fast ,simple and pretty light. I once had a race/road bike but found it a little too fragile for the road and not at all comfortable. The Courier classic is some way between the road bike and Mountain bike as you would guess. The thing that I worried about before buying the Courier was the fact it only had 8 gears ! Believe me this is not a problem at all ! I live in a very hilly area and have never had a problem, well low enough for the up hills and plenty high enough for the flats and down hills it has a very good wide range of gears! The only thing I do wish to change before summer comes ( I have an old Hack bike for the salty winter roads) is the Bars I wish to go with some wider Riser bars 50mm or more just to alter the ride position slightly. Oh yes some of the nuts and bolts are of the crappy chrome variety and I found they started to rust within the first few days (very wet days), I would suggest a smear of oil on all of these before you use the bike I've used Vaseline and not had a problems since.
The standard tyres are amazing some of the things I have dug out without them going down have amazed me.


For the price I don't think you will be disappointed if you have anything you wish to ask fire away.


Brad in Dudley West Midlands

so what gear ratios (Front/Rear) do you have and what gradient of hill are you spinning up?

 

[cycling fisherman]

brad that is the same bike... great... I was going to get a roadie or a fixed/single speed on 700c's but I am 17 stone (down from 21) and i just feel that on the roads where i live in middlesbrough those kind of bikes with my weight and the road condition thrown in i would be asking for trouble,

So the courier seems a good compromise, I have allways had specialized bikes in the past and it did seem a little difficult changing my favoured brand.

However the bike seems to have decent quality parts and comes with my choice of tyre as standard, I am looking forward to recieving it some time this week, thank you for the advice of oil and vaseline for the nuts I will do that before i take it out...

Are you having problems with the bars brad ?

I'm going to fit some bar ends as well as soon as possible, as i feel more comfortable in that riding position.

I do about 100 miles per week on the bike and its going to get better because my wife is learning to drive and we have one car, another great excuse to get on the bike.

 

[BADGER.BRAD]

Hello ,
I have the standard gears on the bike 11-30 8 speed rear and 44 on the front. Live at 740 ft asl and cycle within a 30 mile radius ( at a real push) so take in all sorts of hills gradients and have never felt like I needed any more gears. All that send and done I was riding a fixed at 44 front 18 rear on 27 inch wheels (66 gear inches I think) which was just about as high as I would wish to go around here ( there are some serious hills and you are either going up or down ,rarely flat). I do tend to push fairly hard and if I was being really over the top think I could take a second ring 52 or 53 but it's seriously not needed.

 

[BADGER.BRAD]

Hello Cycling Fisherman,


I Just had a look at your profile (looking for a name) and noticed your a HGV driver Snap ,although at the moment I'm out of work I was made redundant just before Xmas after taking a temp contract with the local council in order to get away from long distance stuff, We have been told they are to take us on again at the end of Jan but until we have a contract in our hands you never really know. You do much distance ? Back to the bike anyway the bars are no real problem just not quite right for me a little low. As you can see by the pics at the end of my post my general winter hack the Horrible green recycled thing has bar ends and I have always used them on my general hack bikes ( I find my wrists more relaxed in that position) I did think of trying them on the courier to see if they would give the right lift but as yet have not got round to it. Too busy chopping up wood for my Burner at the moment while I have a bit of time to myself, and too scared to spend any money as you can appreciate money is a little tight. I think you will be well impressed with the courier I certainly have been. Let us know what you think when you get it.


By for now Brad

 

[cycling fisherman]

In short brad i was in the army for 5 years and got all of my licences including ADR (hazardous for those who don't know) did 3 years of the 5 on 6 month operational duties.
When i left the army i wanted to spend all my time at home with my family. I don't do class 1 because the £££ is only there if you work away from home and I don't do nights out down the road because i like to go home and see the family.

So i settled for class 2 Hiab in a local builders merchants, lots of pressure some days to get the tonnage pushed out but i thrive off the pressure, it gives me a buzz I still take home £300 PW and do "other work at home" to make my £££ up. More importantly i am home every night to see the family. I hope you get your job sorted mate, you class 1 long distance drivers are underpaid for the responsibility and amount of driving you do.

back to topic...

Really looking forward to getting the bike as i get older it takes a lot to get me excited, however i cannot wait to put the specialized to one side (allthough it has been brilliant) and jump on the courier.

Also like the idea of a single speed somthing like the langster monaco looks nice, however i have emptied my piggy bank for the £222 courier, so it looks like a project bike for me, old raleigh restoration project maybe ?

 

[Ivan Ardon]

Lets have a pic Ivan if you can ! I wish to change the bars on mine 26 inch wheel version as like you I found them a little too flat.

Here you go:

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3119/3167547344_3f77e65f35_b.jpg

Excuse the clutter of black, it's parked next to my Allez and a black tent bag.

As you can see, I've got a map mount and light mount on the bars with plenty of room to spare.

 

[BADGER.BRAD]

Looks Good Ivan ! I've always had bar ends on my bikes as I find it a lot more comfortable With my hands that way round. I've noticed while looking around for some bars that the Trekking/butterfly bars are fairly cheap so did think about going for them at one point still not sure which way to go though ! Nice pic.

Brad

 

[BADGER.BRAD]

old raleigh restoration project maybe ? That's exactly what my old fixie was (now sold needed the space) I was getting tempted to do a proper job on the thing, cut off all the unneeded lugs paint the thing up nice, new wheels, bars ,seat then I thought STOP I had brought the bike to have a go with fixed wheel and also as a general cheap run around that I could leave chained up with out too many worry s of people either nicking it or bits off it , spending all the money on it would have defeated the object of having the thing in the first place. I would still love to have a nice fixie or single speed though, when I brought the Courier I was in two minds whether to go for the fixed/single speed version or have one of each ! (think they have stopped the fixie version now.


Good luck with bike anyway


Brad

 

[cycling fisherman]

ok. so... the bike turned up...

superb delivery, the box was massive... so i normally ride a specialised hardrock 21", so i thought well i dont want anything bigger than this so i opted for the 20" revolution courier...

...

I opened the box, and thought, hmmm the stem looks a little low, hmmm it does look a bit small...

I put it up against the specialized, Oh my god it is so much smaller than 1 inch i thought and it is. Do any members have experience of viewing the 20" and the 22" in one of edinburgh co op's retail outlets ?

I have requested that the bike be returned and then the 22" delivered but, the 20" is so much smaller than my 21" specialized i am wondering if the 22" is going to be sufficient possibly smaller than my specialized.


However what i can say is that edinburgh have been marvellous over this matter, they are sending their courier to pick it up on tuesday and then re deliver the 22" back to my house £10 is the fee but even £10 is a fantastic price for this level of fantastic customer service.

Do any members think the 22" will be big enough ?

 

[BADGER.BRAD]

Just been out to measure my two bikes the Green recycled Hawk 21 inch and the Courier 22 inch Both are Correct frame sizes and the measurement from crank centre to underside of both seats is exactly 28 inch for my set-up ! (it surprised me that I have them set up exactly the same) even the mountain bike is 27 1/2 inches ! I then thought I wonder what the handle bar height (from ground) is 39 inches exactly on both bikes Funny considering the Couriers bars seem to low to me. My inside leg measurement is 32 inches and I am 5 foot nine. Not sure how this compares to you ! The only thing I can think of is the reach between bars and seat maybe a little more.

I bet you were really disappointed ? never mind look at the bright side you can look forward to having your second new bike delivered in one month !!

 

[BADGER.BRAD]

just measured the seat /frame height above from ground Courier frame 31 inches seat (top) 39 inches for my setup the Hawk (green nasty thing) has a frame height 32 iches ( surprising seeing thought the frame size is one inch less on the hawk) and a seat height of 39 inches same as courier ( again for my setup)
Hope that helps.