Woodrup Chimera - first impressions

[albal]

Very interesting reading your take on the Woodrup chimera, Vernon. As i am looking to buy something similar myself in the future. Roberts being my favoured builder, at the moment. Being down south doesnt help for a test ride. Though work takes me all over.
I came across a guy on a Santos on my Transam, he went to Holland to get all the info on it etc,, he lives in Australia! So there he was with his 5k (or whatever!) Aluminium frame belt drive bike. He was very pleased with the bike, he was going east to west as we were, so we met up frequently. I have details of his blog somewhere!

 

[vernon]

I'm attending North Yorkshire CTC's club dinner on Saturday. Dan Joyce is the guest speaker. I'm tempted to develop temporary tourettes with 'Rohloff' as my vocal tic.

I attended the dinner and was underwhelmed by Dan Joyce. He delivered a talk read directly from a set of A4 notes about the need for improvements in cycling infrastructure and how the Dutch style town bikes would promote the resurrection of cycling as a utility and leisure activity. There was little original thought in what he delivered and his views could hardly be described as unbiased. I bit my tongue and let him be at the ask any questions phase of his talk. Several of the North Yorkshire CTC had a word with me and agreed that he'd not written a useful review and hadn't really tested the bike as a tourer.

 

[User169]

I came across a guy on a Santos on my Transam, he went to Holland to get all the info on it etc,, he lives in Australia! So there he was with his 5k (or whatever!) Aluminium frame belt drive bike. He was very pleased with the bike, he was going east to west as we were, so we met up frequently. I have details of his blog somewhere!

The guy in the office next to me has a Santos belt drive. He spent quite a bit on it, but is very happy with it. He commutes about 20 km each way, so puts in reasonable mileage on it.

 

[swislon]

My mate (we live in Harrogate Vernon) has a Chimera with belt drive and I have a Thorn Raven Sport Tour. He loves the bike, loves the Rohloff and loves the belt, feels it is smoother and quieter than the Thorn (which he had borrowed from me for a few years!) He was really upset with the Dan Joyce review, just couldn't believe he had been talking about the same bike.

 

[vernon]

My mate (we live in Harrogate Vernon) has a Chimera with belt drive and I have a Thorn Raven Sport Tour. He loves the bike, loves the Rohloff and loves the belt, feels it is smoother and quieter than the Thorn (which he had borrowed from me for a few years!) He was really upset with the Dan Joyce review, just couldn't believe he had been talking about the same bike.

Like I said in a previous post. The bike reviewed is unrecognisable considering that the self same bike persuaded me, a naturalised Yorkshireman with Jewish and Scots ancestry - the last time I dropped a penny it hit me on the back of the head, to part with a substantial sum of money to become the owner of a similar machine well before my test ride was finished. Skippy9999 is coming down to Leeds for a test ride on Friday and it will be interesting to see what he thinks. I'm going to be joining him and he'll be able to see two Chimeras each kitted out differently.