Saracen Tour 07 - Any good ?

ahll

I am thinking about getting my first racng bike as I think I want to do more cycling and more miles. I came across the Saracen Tour 07 yesterday on sale at £250 (£100 off) and the man in the shop was singing its praises as an entry bike.

I don't know alot about racing bikes and I said I would think about it.So I am on here trying to get some feedback as to if this is a good deal and would be a good buy for me.

Any recommendations/suggestions ?

This is a link I have found to the same bike but different shop

http://www.discountbicycles.co.uk/biz/p ... xProd=4599

Product Code: saracentour07megadeal

Excellent value road bike, lighweight and STI shift levers - Ideal for speed proficeincy
Profiled aluminium - Road race super sports
Taper leg road fork for zero stack headtube
Zero stack sealed aheadset
Alloy hubs with QR front/rear
700c XC-D double wall alloy rims
Road Sport 700x25C tyres
Forged alloy 4 bolt ahead stem
Alloy road handlebar - ergonomic design with black cork tape
Shimano road STI 14 speed for drop bars
Tektro forged alloy road caliper brakes
Shimano Altus 7 speed rear mech
Shimano front mech
Forged alloy race chainset, 53/39 double
Sealed cartridge bottom bracket
Shimano freewheel 14-28 7 speed
KMC Z51 chain
Lightweight double stitch road race saddle with drop nose
Alloy micro adjust black finish seatpost
Alloy road pedals with toeclips
Mounts on frame and fork for mudguards

acorn_user

It looks alright. Good for the money. The freewheel rear wheel limits your upgrade scope a little.
Test ride it, and see if you like it. Make sure you can get up the nastiest hills in your area with the gear available. The bike has an mtb rear mech, so you could run an wider freewheel, but you cannot put a triple on the front without swapping the front mech.
However, you will get stronger, fitter, happier, more productive, as you ride. Consider fitting mudguards to it though, otherwise you'll not be able to ride it comfortably if the roads are wet.

ahll

Hi thanks for the response I am new to cycling and not sure what you mean by 'The freewheel rear wheel limits ' can you explain...thanks

chunkytfg

basically the 7 speed rear cassette( bunch of gears as a whole are called cassette's) is an old style whereby the cassette is complete and just screws onto the hub of the wheel. This is very much old technology and is common place on cheaper bottom end and kids bikes.

Nowadays the whee;s have the free wheel bit as part of the hub(the bit that makes you able to stop pedaling and makes the clicking noise) and then the gears are just stacked up on it and sort of bolted on.
The problem with it is that not many options are open to you should you decide to upgrade to better wheels or find that the gearing you have on it is just not fast enough or you cant get up hills as you dont have a big enough ring on the back.

I have had the latter of these problems as i made the choice to buy a Tour '07.

In the end i opted for buying a new set of wheels from a company called quest and then fitted a 8 speed casette minus the littlest cog with different spacers. This is not ideal but solves the problems I had with the wheels being a touch weak for my substatial addiction to pies!!

The tour is a reasonable bike bar thats issue but IMO there are better out there for the money and for not alot extra you can have yourself a bettewr bike like the Ribble winter trainer being advertised for £399 in clycling plus