Cross Peloton?

diamondbacker

Just been browsing ebay and came across this:

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/2009-Cross-Peloto ... 7C294%3A50

(sorry for the long link)

Would this be a reasonable starter/first bike for someone who'd like to start road biking with the intention of doing some time trials in the future if I enjoy it?

Any advice appreciated (good or bad points about this bike especially)

softlad

if that's the limit of your budget, you would get better value buying secondhand. I would definitely give that one a miss though....

diamondbacker

Thought that might be the case (I'm actually looking on ebay for 2nd hand and that's where this caught my eye). Is there a reason to avoid? Poor quality frame/gears etc?

pianoman

No offence here, but that might be the worst road bike I've have ever seen in my life. It really is a sign of the times that something like that can be passed off as a "racer".

Do yourself a favour and find someone who can sell you a basic bike from a reputable manufacturer, e.g. Giant, Trek, secondhand. Hopefully it will have been well maintained, and if they're looking for a quick buck to put towards their next carbon exotica, that's got to be good for you.

Monty Dog

If you are serious about riding, you'd proably find the limitations of this bike within a few months. At 25lbs it's quite heavy and most of the components are distinctly bottom-of-the-range. A 14 speed transmission is low rent - cheap but there is no upgrade path except ditching it. These are 'catalogue' bikes designed as 'shed ware' used once around the block and consigned forever to the back of the garage - until they make a final trip to the skip - they give cycling a bad name.

prawny

My god that is ugly! If you just want a cheapy there's some cheap bikes the chain reactions website, that look ok for a starter (less than £400) It's nearly new model time too if you can hang on until september you'll pick up a bargain from an lbs, or a cheap carrera from halfords.

pianoman

Agreed.

Honestly, save up your money, try selling your mountain bike (if you have one) and get ready to spend AT LEAST £400. I was thinking more like £500.

diamondbacker

Well, I don't think I'll be buying that then! I'm pleased I asked before I put any money down. I'll keep my eyes open on ebay but I reckon I'll get itchy feet and buy new soon! I won't be selling the mtb though as I also enjoy that.

Cheers for the advice though!

Frank the tank

diamondbacker wrote:

Well, I don't think I'll be buying that then! I'm pleased I asked before I put any money down. I'll keep my eyes open on ebay but I reckon I'll get itchy feet and buy new soon! I won't be selling the mtb though as I also enjoy that.

Cheers for the advice though!

Please, follow the advice already offered. Hold back and save yourself a few more bob and get something half decent that you will enjoy riding.

Buy in haste, repent at leisure.

Harpero

I know this discussion is a bit old but I only just came across it. I recently took delivery of a Cross Peleton and have to say I'm very happy with it. I've had it examined by and ridden by several friends who have much more expensive bikes and they are amazed at the quality for the money. Sure you wouldn't win, or enter a serious competition on this bike but iIdoubt that it would be down to the bike if you didn't win. It's interesting that none of the poeple who have commented on this bike actually say what they think is wrong with it. As for the weight, it comes in at 25 pounds and bikes costing well over £1000 only seem to get down to about 16 pounds. Additionally the number of gears at 14 is more than adequate and several top end road bikes only have 10. In fact if you can find the weight of Trek and Giant bikes on those companies respective web sites then you're a better man than me. As a newby to cycling I think I've already concluded that the sport is riddled with equipment snobs trying to buy performance or image. As an entry level road bike this is very well put together and in the flesh it looks great and rides really well.

STEFANOS4784

Do you sell these things or what? Name 1 "top end" road bike which has "10 gears". 10 speed may refer to the amount of cogs on the back but usually accompanied by a double or triple crank which gives them 20 or 30 gears. I sound like a right git but seriously mate your friends aren't going to crush your soul by saying it's crap. Sorry just saying. But if you enjoy it-and still do in a few months- then that's all that matters


P.s keep us posted on how those 'shifters' hold up

P.p.s i often get shot down but don't like the sound of "quick release hubs" :arrow:

Monty Dog

Harpero - you wouldn't be said seller of that pile of junk? It's a positive boat anchor in terms of weight and I think your 'friends' are obviously too polite to express their real opinions. Products as poorly executed and nasty as this give cycling a bad name.

audley1202

diamondbacker wrote:

Well, I don't think I'll be buying that then! I'm pleased I asked before I put any money down. I'll keep my eyes open on ebay but I reckon I'll get itchy feet and buy new soon! I won't be selling the mtb though as I also enjoy that.

Cheers for the advice though!

Granted the Cross Peleton has got low end Shimano stuff on it but for £199 its an entry level road bike. It does not claim to be anything else. I bought one and i must say after reading these comments I was a bit amused as not everyone has BIG budgets to play with and saving takes a lot longer its not bad for someone to cut their teeth on road riding. Hey if you dont the sport then you have wasted a couple hundred if you grow to love the sport then you can treat yourself to a better bike.
Hey I had small budget and this is ideal . you try to find one. There rare why is that? ohh its because they are all sold out now why is that huh???? maybe something to do with the great value it offers

audley1202

AND BY THE WAY STEFANO The Cross Peleton has 14 gears NOT 10

Harpero

Hi guys,

No I'm not the seller of this bike. I'm just a regular punter who is getting back into a bit of road cycling. What I can see here appears to be yet more criticism of the bike but still no actual details of what is wrong with it, just the same old "it's crap;it's a boat anchor etc"

So it weighs 25 pounds but it costs only £220. If you pay £600 you might get a bike weighing 20 pounds ( I've done my research) If you want to get down to the lightest ones out there which weigh around 14 pounds then you need to spend around a grand. Most of the guys I ride with are carrying a couple of stone more than me on their bodies never mind the bike.

As for the gearing it has a 7 cog cassette on the rear and a 2 ring chain set on the front, so 14 gears in total. Again, more expensive bikes will get you 8,9 or 10 on the back and three on the front but there are plenty of pros who ride with only two on the front and 8 on the back. So generally this might make the Peloton a couple of gears short of a full cassette (sic) but I doubt many amatures would notice. Anyway fitting a different 8,9 or ten cog cassette to the rear or a triple chain set to the front plus appropriate shifters is not a big deal if one felt need in the future.

The fact is that unless you spend more than £600 you won't get anything significantly better specified. Nothing that will make a difference to a beginner. What I sense here is folks who've spent a lot of money on their bikes and are desperate to justify the cost for very little in the way of additional performance improvement. It's not unique to cycling. It happens in golf, tennis, skiing and just about any other sport that involves equipment that generates GAS, or gear aquisition syndrome as it's known. Most competitive cyclists would do better if they got fitter rather than upgrading the bike.

Perhaps those criticising this bike could be a bit more informative with their comments please and base it on some well researched facts.

Regards

Graeme

jpembroke

audley1202 wrote:

AND BY THE WAY STEFANO The Cross peloton has 14 gears NOT 10

That was a comment on Harpero's post about 'top end road bikes' having 10 gears when in actual fact the 10 speed refers to the number of rear sprockets. Then multiply that by by the number of chainrings up front (either 2 or 3) you get 20 or 30 gears.

No top end road bike has only 10 gears in total. Even the cheapest road bikes have at least 16 gears these days. In fact now that Shimano Sora is up to 9 speed, scrap that. Even the cheapest road bikes have at least 18 gears these days.

The bike in question has a 7 speed rear cassette (i.e. 7 sprockets) and 2 chainrings up front which makes 14 gears in total. I'm fairly sure that it's been impossible to buy a decent road bike with 14 gears since the mid 90s.

jpembroke

From a post on Cyclechat I discovered this website:

http://corporate.marketplaceadvisor.cha ... fid=101713

Plenty of BSOs on here, including offerings from Cross Cycles

Harpero

It's all very well having 10 gears on the rear and a triple chainset on the front but the reality is with that combination you would never use the largest front chain wheel with the smallest rear one and vice versa ( cross chaining) so that takes four gear combinations out of the loop possibly even eight unless they are extremely well set up. Its why most of the pro riders only have 2 on the front. They change their gears sets to suit the next stage of a race.

G.

Anonymous

It's not the weight or the number of gears that is the problem. It is the quality of the components and the quality of the frame.
After a couple of thousand miles (and probably quite a lot of adjusting) the components will undoubtedly be shot. That's if you last that long on a boneshaker of frame.

That's the issue.

It is, officially, a crock o' sh1te.

Welcome to the Forum Harpero.

Harpero

I meant the other way around in my last post. Inadvisable cross chaining is largest on the front with largest on the rear and smallest on the front and smallest on the rear.

G.

jpembroke

What have pro riders got to do with this?

The point is that modern road groupsets are 9 speed at least. It's been a long time since anyone made a 7 speed groupset without STis. I have no idea what parts this is equipped with but I'm willing to bet a reasonable sum the parts on this bike wouldn't last a winter of hard riding/commuting.

Harpero

What do you mean by "boneshaker of a frame" ? It's a 6061 T6 alluminium frame just like a lot of bikes costing 3 times the price. The rear derailleur is Shimano RD A050 and the front SL A050. The rear cassette is a shimano 13 - 28 and the front Shimano SG B52 with FC A050 cranks. The brakes are Promax RS-462. Granted not top end stuff but more than adequate for someone starting out and as I've said before as good a spec as other brand bikes costing 2 and 3 times the price. You can argue the toss on how many gears you need and what ratios till the cows come home ,but there are as many in favour of fewer gears as there are in favour of more. Just like there are those who don't like STi shifters or find them advantageous.

I've done over 1000 miles on this bike in 4 weeks and it has needed no adjustment of any kind since I set it up after it was delivered.

As for the "crock o shite comment" from someone who hasn't seen the bike let alone ridden it, I think that just sums up this forum. It seems it's not about cycling, its about having an expensive bike or you just don't fit in. I think I'll look elswhere.

Good luck with your bike worship chaps. Thanks for making me feel welcome.

cheers

Harpero

jpembroke

Its not about having an expensive bike at all. There are plenty of people on this forum riding bikes that are 10, 20, maybe 30 years old but those were built to last. There are also plenty of people here riding a Trek 1000, Specialized Allez, or Giant OCR3 which can all be bought for £500 or less. They are fantastic bikes: well made, well equipped, with decent wheels and carbon forks. Yes, it sucks having people run your bike down and if you're happy with it then that's good. I just can't see those wheels and components lasting very long, that's all.

Sorry if you're upset about this but I don't think people are being snobby really. I reckon they just think you'd be better off spending twice as much and get a bike that is 10 times better (The Specialized Allez is a very good example - and no I don't own one).

Anonymous

Harpero wrote:

What do you mean by "boneshaker of a frame" ? It's a 6061 T6 alluminium frame just like a lot of bikes costing 3 times the price. The rear derailleur is Shimano RD A050 and the front SL A050. The rear cassette is a shimano 13 - 28 and the front Shimano SG B52 with FC A050 cranks. The brakes are Promax RS-462. Granted not top end stuff but more than adequate for someone starting out and as I've said before as good a spec as other brand bikes costing 2 and 3 times the price. You can argue the toss on how many gears you need and what ratios till the cows come home ,but there are as many in favour of fewer gears as there are in favour of more. Just like there are those who don't like STi shifters or find them advantageous.

I've done over 1000 miles on this bike in 4 weeks and it has needed no adjustment of any kind since I set it up after it was delivered.

As for the "crock o shite comment" from someone who hasn't seen the bike let alone ridden it, I think that just sums up this forum. It seems it's not about cycling, its about having an expensive bike or you just don't fit in. I think I'll look elswhere.

Good luck with your bike worship chaps. Thanks for making me feel welcome.

cheers

Harpero

I rest my case.

You seem to be very knowledgeable and passionate about this bike. Are you sure you aren't a shill?

Harpero

Ok final one from me. I've no Idea what a "Shill" is and I'm not passionate about my bike but I did research the components before I bought it. I am passionate about keeping fit and enjoy road cycling. As Lance Armstrong said, albeit in a slightly different vein, "It's not about the bike"

If there is a moderator for this forum then they need to encourage informative and constructive responses and discourage blunt useless ones such as it's a crock o shite, or it's crap.

Bye.

jpembroke

You are taking this way too personally. I don't think a moderator is going to care about someone describing a bike as a 'crock of shite' or 'crap'. Their job is to moderate when people start abusing each other (e.g. being racist etc).

This forum is awash with people slagging off products. That's what it's here for.

Escargot

Just out of interest I'm wondering what 'factual' or 'real world' evidence you guys have for suggesting that this bike would not last more than a few thousand miles :? As far as I can see the gearing is Shimano and building wheel/bottom bracket bearings is not rocket science so cannot see any valid reason why this bike could not last for many years.

In truth the bike ain't top of the range but I bought a comparable Carrera 6 years ago with not that much better spec and it gave me years of trouble free cycling (that too had a 7 speed cassette oddly enough).

For sure my current steed is a world appart but at the end of the day some people don't have the cash/inclination to buy a bike for £500, just as millions of people buy Renault/Citroen/Vauxhall's instead of Lexus/BMW. It's easy for us, with bikes costing thousands, to fail to see the point in such a cheap bike but we really are in the minority.

Personally I think you're judging unreasonably as my father in law bought a £100 bike from Halfords with a naff looking SRAM group but that thing has lasted over 5 years and will easily last another.

yathrib

I've had one of these bikes since the start of last Summer and have done around 2,500 miles on it. At the time I coulnd't afford anything more expensive. To say everyone thinks the bike is crap, in that time I can only say that I've been overtaken once and the number of top of the range bikes i've passed going up the steep 25% gradient hills of the Strines moors near Sheffield must mean that I have very powerful legs and a strong pain barrier! All the components are still working fine and It's a comfortable ride (well, as comfortable as it can be with the state of the roads at the moment!) The only drawback is that I can't pedal fast enough down hill to get over 40mph which is a bit of a pain in the arse and is when I was passed by someone else. I am seriously thinking about changing the bike next year to something lighter just to see what difference it does actually make, but for a starter, it's been a great buy. It feels so good when you pass someone when you know that even the gear they are wearing probably cost more than your bike alone, and you see them doing a double take and thinking "is that really a Cross Peloton"!!

Hunterg46

My first bike was a cross peloton its as bad as it looks, but is a good bike to start with if your not sure whether your going to continue road cycling

cooper.michael1

i've been pleasantly suprised by a couple of cheap bikes i recently built. The one for my girlfriend cost a total of about £70 (£30 off gumtree + new brakes and Schwalbe Marathon tyres.) It only has a 5 speed rear block, but it shifts well and rides really nicely...(tyres made all the difference!). The difference is she wanted that to get around town, go to tesco and go on a few weekend rides to the park with me, just for fun.

I also rode a mates £500 giant the other week with Shimano 2300, again was really surprised just how well it rode, it shifted well. Again a decent bike.

So yes people, me included get a bit snobby about bikes. But somehow the cross peloton does just look wrong, yes it probably will work ok, but in terms of enjoying long term road cycling on that, I would'nt bet on it....how they hell are you meant to ride comfortably on the hoods?

Another issue is re-sale value, which would be very little. If you bought a second hand Specialized or Giant, you'd have the ablity to get your money back if your didnt like it. Even if you bought a new Allez (£500) you'd be able to get back 60-70% of that on ebay if you took good care of it...and if you took to cycling you'd be able to easily upgrade commonly avaliable components.

Buying a bike like this if you are trying to 'get into' cycling translates 'to buy cheap, buy twice'

MrPeloton

Escargot wrote:

Just out of interest I'm wondering what 'factual' or 'real world' evidence you guys have for suggesting that this bike would not last more than a few thousand miles :? As far as I can see the gearing is Shimano and building wheel/bottom bracket bearings is not rocket science so cannot see any valid reason why this bike could not last for many years.

In truth the bike ain't top of the range but I bought a comparable Carrera 6 years ago with not that much better spec and it gave me years of trouble free cycling (that too had a 7 speed cassette oddly enough).

For sure my current steed is a world appart but at the end of the day some people don't have the cash/inclination to buy a bike for £500, just as millions of people buy Renault/Citroen/Vauxhall's instead of Lexus/BMW. It's easy for us, with bikes costing thousands, to fail to see the point in such a cheap bike but we really are in the minority.

Personally I think you're judging unreasonably as my father in law bought a £100 bike from Halfords with a naff looking SRAM group but that thing has lasted over 5 years and will easily last another.

Hi,
I bought the "Cross Peloton" 1 year 6 months ago and I have been through and broken 3 rear freewheels ( I maintains and grease It once every two weeks), so this is due to bad build quality. I had to replace the chain twice as ive stretched then and I need to replace the rear freewheel again as the 6th gear is broken.ive had to replace the bottom bracket as the bearing were knackered, I need to replace the bearing in the from and rear wheel as those bearing are scratched and not running smoothly. I replaced the rear cassette with a good quality one and it's been about 4 months since I've don't it and I have already developed a cracking noise in it. I have had to replace the pedals 3 times and I need to replace them again(my third pair of pedals were from my brothers carrera), I need to replace the rear hub to the more modern freewheel(as the current one is the screw on type) and plush he bearing in the hubs are not sounding too great.

The good points;
The frame and forks are strong and fairly light weight considering the cheapness of the bike.
The front and rear duraluer (can't spell) are fairly good quality.
The rims of the wheels are good enough and haven't found any faults.

So not too many good points.

I only bought this bike as it was cheap and at the time I didn't know much about bikes.

Regards,
Jimmy