Winter Bike review in the Comic

cougie

I was reading Cycling Weekly at the weekend and they had an article that I thought could have been interesting.

They're putting 2 winter bikes up against each other - 1 that they make up themselves, and another from a shop. I think the gist of it is that they have a budget of £1400 for each bike. Now forgive me for coming from the North - but £1400 on a winter bike ? Who spends that ? Is that necessary - price wise and a realistic option for most CW readers ?

The CW bike - they've gone with tubeless tyres - the new tubeless - not tubs - as they reckon its less likely to puncture. (my normal tyres work well, but these MUST be better cos they're more expensive. A decent groupset - 105 as they couldnt afford Ultegra, and then they ran out of dosh and bought a frame for £200 or so.

The shop bought bike - is a Condor. So that may be handy for Londoners, but Condor is pretty much London only ? And thats £1400 too.

I think I'm basically right on most of the details, but i havent the comic with me, so please correct me if I've got bits wrong.


To me - it seems a huge waste of money - any of us could source a winter bike at half the cost but CW think that as theyve spent lots - in the long run it will prove correct. I do wonder how many seasons this experiment will run - as I'd not expect to replace anything on a bike over just one winter ?

They havent even got full guards on either bike - so its not gonna be used in the clubruns very much.

skyd0g

+1

I thought (prior to reading) that the article would make for interesting reading. I agree entirely with your points - there are few people who can reasonably afford to build-up a bike from scratch on a similar budget.

If the CW bike had been built-up as a project from spare/left over parts, for a minimal budget, possibly based on an old 531 frame it would have made for a far more realistic and interesting article.

keef66

18 months ago I specced my winter bike around 105 on a racelight Tk frame so it would take full guards. Come summer, should we have one, I'll take the guards off and it will be my summer bike.

I'll let you know about the long term durability of the build. So far the only upgrades have been to add a KMC link to the chain, and find a saddle I can sit on.

I couldn't imagine spending that amount on a bike just for the winter!

blackhands

Its a dilemma - if you can afford it then why not. The last thing I want is to be 20 miles from home in the rain and dark and have a mechanical problem.

That's why I specced my bike to be very reliable (for example I have heavier 36 spoke wheels and top quality tyres, A lot of my winter bike is Campag Record or Dura Ace as its stuff passed on from other bikes - for example I have a Dura Ace large flange front hub, an Campag Record seat pin. Also, I use a top quality chain. I suppose if I added it all up when new it would be somewhere near to £1,400.

There are plenty of people around who ride £5,000 bikes in the winter - I've seen people commuting into Central London on full TT Bikes with tr spoke wheels and riding on the tribars.

redddraggon

Can't beat a Ribble on price/performance.

cougie

I'd suggest that anyone commuting on trispokes clearly has more money than sense. I dont know any club cyclists who do the club runs in winter on trispokes. Er, not even in summer either.

Have the CW journos lost touch with reality, or is it that the average CW reader DOES spend £1400 on a hack bike and £5k on his best bike ?

giant_man

I had a look in CW in the newsagents at the weekend and saw the article. It may have been cheaper to configure but surely the Quest training/audax framed bike wouldn't be as nice to ride as the Condor Fratello, or would it?

cougie

I may be paraphrasing here - but they said the Quest frame rode as well as anything a few times its price ? Or maybe - just maybe - they cant isolate exactly how a frame rides as against another. I mean identical kit and wheels - ok you'd notice it, but different wheels and tyres and how much of the difference is frame vs non-frame ?

stevekosky

My Fratello is my best bike and it doesn't go out in crappy weather, that's reserved for the ally hybrid.

After years of supporting kids and a mortgage (gone now though) I think I must live in a different world to magazine writers

canamdad

Glad some others got a laugh out of this article. Looks like they just wanted to ride around on a 1500. bike (well two of them really) this winter. A better test would have been to have one 1500. and compare against a 750-800. bike which is what most people have and see if the extra money was worth it.

cougie

Oh yes - and this made me laugh - they have gone for tubeless wheels as they say it costs £10 for the LBS to change an innertube. WTF ? If you get a puncture - you have to change it then and there - unless by a miracle of miracles - you are outside the LBS and its open....

I'd be ashamed to ask a shop to change an innertube for me - thats just part of being a cyclist surely - you have to be self sufficient to a degree ?


The WHOLE concept of their test is flawed - they've announced it as 'Will a bike with carefully picked, quality components cost you less in the long run than a cheap one ?'

So its their custom bike versus er a 'cheap' off the peg £1500 bike....

APIII

Seeing as winter lasts so long, I can't see anything wrong with spending £1500 on a 'winter bike'. However, agree with the fact they should have made a proper comparison, maybe with something like the Ribble, that seem to be so popular. Still, I'd rather read a half-arsed bike test, than another page of what we should/shouldn't be eating

dodgy

I just paid just over £2000 on a winter bike, and as APIII just said, winter is a long season in this country, so why not!
However, my bike came with Dura Ace kit which I will concede is simply too good for winter (imho) so that has gone over to my summer bike and I've put the Ultegra kit onto the winter bike.
I want a nice bike to ride all year round and I weill get many happy years use out of it.

Slow Downcp

I can see both sides of the arguement, but I think the popularity of the cycle to work scheme has a lot to do with the extra costs. My dry bike cost £1,800 four years ago, and it was big step up from my previous Giant. 18 months ago though, I spent £2,000 on an Enigma Etape for winter, as it has full mudguards etc. With the cycle to work scheme it only cost me £1,000.

Maybe they should have pitched it slightly differently, rather than a winter bike test.

chriskempton

Aside from the price point, I don't understand why they run the write up of the test in mid-January. Most people's winter bikes come out in October and go away in March, so it's a bit late in the year, especially if you're buying pretty top notch up to date equipment e.g. a £1400 winter bike.

hopper1

Like most of the CW articles, it's just about filling pages with print or pic's.
I was stumped a few issues back, when they had an article on the Halfords Team grass tracking, then, more recently, Team Rapha riding around London with Fixie couriers!
Who honestly gives a toss.
If they have nothing to relevant to print, they should leave out pages and charge less :shock:
Considering it's a weekly, it is an expensive piece of shite.


Yes, yes.... I've got me coat :evil:

hopper1

Oh... One more thing..... Wherer's the Poll? :evil: :evil:



























Personally, I'd go for the £2400 Titanium VN Yukon .....

Oh, that's in my garage :shock:

There's a girl riding the Fratello, so it's bound to last longer. :roll: :shock:


Sorry, ladeez, I'm off, ok!

cougie

Er dont think the poll worked - sorry

I'll try it again.

Lagavulin

I thought the article in itself was OK(ish) but got off to a bad start by it's own billing on the front cover as "Tech Special: We build the ultimate winter bike".

I was expecting perhaps a Pearson Carbon Audax, a Dolan Dual or an offering made from Titanium.

moolarb

I'm still getting used to this idea of summer and winter bikes. My winter bike cost me £800. In the summer I take the mudguards off and change the tyres and it becomes my summer bike. I do about 5000 miles a year on it.

ugo.santalucia

Well, I think most of these magazines talk more about the fashion in cycling rather than the actual miles on the road.
I don't buy them... they seem a waste of money... plus I don't want to be seen by potential lovers as the geek who read that kind of crap... 8)