''What is that bike?!''

[tyred]

It's no uglier than any other modern road bike imo

 

[steveindenmark]

My first dozen bikes were from scrap yards and tips. I would have been delighted with that bike. You can still ride C2C and Lejog on it with a little fettling.

If it fits someones budget and gets them riding, I see nothing wrong with it.

Bike Snobbery.......tut.....tut....

 

[YorkyDevil]

Hi, I am new onto the forum/chat but have used it for reference purposes lots of times. Some of the comments with these cheaper bikes are not always snobbery but something learned through experience. The old saying of you get what you pay for is as true today as it has always been. I cannot afford a new bike, geez i would be lucky if i could afford a new wheel. Some bikes are just bad, some are good, you cannot blame a "bike" because the supplier put the fork on the wrong way. The plastic brake arms do bend a bit, but the people that might have these brakes/bikes are not going to be doing 40 mph or hundreds of miles on them, so at 6 mph they work fine. I did have a full suspension bike from a friend, it was a decent ride as full sus go, I got a cheap Dunlop full sus with disk brakes for a few quid, i will not go into it, but I sold it a week later, It was terrible ( after using the other one for 6 months). Due to health problems i now spend a lot of time taking old bikes to pieces and passing on or selling cheap. I got one of the Asda specials, were they £69 ! for a tenner, took it all apart, regreased etc and sold on for £20. As a bike to pop to the shop it was ok, but i would not like to ride it for more than a few hours. I recently picked up a diamondback vectra 7005 for £20 and a Marin bolinas ridge for £30. I ride a lot along the side of the rivers and canals, not much tarmac riding. Now I realise that these bikes are not fantastic but as said I cannot afford a new bike, but for £20 I can get out and about and enjoy what the UK has to offer. I doubt my £20 - £30 bikes will manage a 12 inch jump, but neither will my body. The bottom line is, if you can only afford a new bike under £200, your best buying a second hand one, I think that is better advise than saying you would not touch a new bike at £150. If they get a second hand one, like my Marin, they might then go on to buying a £800 bike, Buying a cheap Asda/Tesco bike and expecting the earth, they might be put of for life. I just got some cheap pedals of e bay, look nice but only got ball bearings on the inner side, is this normal, or just another cheap way to make them.

 

[Tojo]

It's probably as good as, if not better than, most half decent bikes of 40 years ago. We did lots of miles on those and thought they were OK.

Yes, I agree on the whole with your statement but we didn't have anything better so just had to got on with the cards we were dealt ...then but not now........

 

[Cold Snail]

I bought the one up version (16 speed Claris) for £65 last month and put around 300 miles on it so far (I did change the tyres before I took it out).

I'm 6 foot 3 and weigh the wrong side of 20 stone and to date, nothing has gone wrong with it.