Carrera Centos Review
livzy
Posts: 3
Carrera Centos Ltd Edition
Specification as it stands: (not original spec)
Brakes: Tektro IO mechanical disc front and rear 160mm rotors
Brake levers: Tektro Eclipse MT2.1
Chainset: SRAM S200 22/32/42
Forks: Suntour XCM-V3 2012 120mm travel 30mm stanchions spring and preload L+R
Frame Colour: Red white blue
Frame Size: 20“
Frame: Alloy lightweight 6061 T6
Number of Gears: 24
Rear mech: SRAM X4
Front mech: SRAM X3
Gear Shifters: SRAM
Cassette: Shimano hyperglide 11-32T
Headset: 1 1/8 Semi Integrated
Hubs: Alloy QR
Handle Bars: El Gallo DH bar 31.8mm bar clamp 670 mm wide anodised
Stem: Truvativ Huzzefelt 60mm
Tyres: Continental X-King 2.2
Rims: Double wall alloy
Saddle: Carrera foam
Seat clamp: 34.9mm KCNC Z6 anodised QR
Wheel size: 26"
Weight (KG): 12.9
After searching the net for a decent hardtail for around £300 my chosen bike was the Carrera Centos. Id spent hours and hours looking at the overall specs and weights of many bikes and found that this was the best option at that price point that was readily available in the uk. The overall spec was better than any high end brand id looked at in the same price range. I had also considered the Carrera Vengeance at about the same price which had a slightly better chainset and better brake levers but it is supposedly heavier and the fork travel is only 100mm whereas the Centos was 120mm travel so i opted for the Centos on those two points. After hearing bad things about halfords and some past experience of putting mountain bikes together from kits (i used to build and setup cycles ready for dispatch for a uk bicycle supplier) i decided to give the bike the once over making sure that everything was tight and working as it should. I tuned the front and rear mechs to shift smoothly and quietly aswell as setting the preload on the forks, i set the seat height, handlebar position, shifters and brake lever positions untill i found the spot that felt the best. The bike was now ready to test ride. The bike felt good on my first outing which was a mixture of long uphill climbs on the tarmac and long descents and then some light-moderate off-road trail use. I was impressed with how the bike rides it feels sturdy and capable going downhill on fairly bumpy trails with plenty of grip from the big tyres. I feel quite stretched out on most XC bikes and this one isnt any different. The brakes are very sharp after my adjustments and some bedding in, but as with most mechanical disc brakes they are either on hard or off.... you soon get used to using them and they are very effective once you learn to use them well. The stock brake levers are a dissapointment they dont fit with the shifters properly meaning you have to have the shifters angled further down than usual and they have plastic housing/mount with a metal lever. The fork isnt the best but isnt too bad for a light rider like myself its quite soft and bouncy with plenty of travel and a linear compression rate but the rebound of the forks is a bit harsh....i wouldnt think it would be much good for any heavyweight riders doing aggressive riding over rocks off ledges etc but as im ten stone i can get away with going over slightly rougher terrain as theres less weight acting on the frame and fork. it works quite well for me but my friend whos a lot heavier has the same fork on his bike and he bottoms out on the bumpier downhill trails whereas im flying down them with travel to spare. The only other things wrong were that the stretched out riding position was a little uncomfortable after a while and it didnt feel fast enough on the road, uphill it felt like there was a lot of resistance and drag from the wheels and tyres. On the flat the bike slows down fairly quickly if you stop pedalling and virtually stops dead when youre on a steep climb. The SRAM gears seem of good enough quality and i havent had a single problem with them they work perfectly everytime although it did take a bit of fiddling about with the front mech to get them perfect when i was setting the bike up. They feel quite robust. They are very clunky sounding gears when theres heavy pressure on the pedals ie. when stood up climbing uphill but ive heard this clunk is the norm for SRAM gears and as i said they work bang on everytime. So all in all i was very happy with the bike but instantly wondered what could be done to improve an already good bike and solve the two problems i found with the bike. I decided to install a shorter stem to solve the reach problem. I bought a truvativ huzzefelt 60mm stem and the reach is perfect now and the steering is more to my liking it feels better for off-road and more comfortable to ride in the more upright position. I also bought some red anodised el gallo downhill bars to match the frame and some tektro eclipse MT2.1 brake levers which fitted with the shifters properly and are all metal. They now look and feel much better. I found the grips a little tough and unsightly too so i bought some XLC gel grips to finish off the look and feel of the front end. Last but certainly not least i got around to the last problem. As i explained before the bike felt sluggish at times so i started to look for a better tyre which was faster rolling and much lighter which would be more efficient. I opted for the X-King by Continental and i have to say this has made a massive difference to how the bike feels its so much faster now and feels very nimble and agile compared to before it rolls much further. i wouldnt say they were quite as grippy or stable feeling as the stock kenda chunky tyres offroad when it gets slippery but they are better for everything else the bike is much nicer to ride now and the bike feels much lighter too when sprinting... a massive weight saving can be had on this bike by switching to a thinner lighter tyre and further reductions in weight could be achieved by adding an air fork rather than the stock spring forks and getting a lighter wheelset . Ive had the bike over six months now and have to say its better than i thought it was going to be for the price....i can highly recommend it for road use with the X-King or similar spec tyres and also performs very well on light and moderately bumpy downhill trails and footpaths.
Specification as it stands: (not original spec)
Brakes: Tektro IO mechanical disc front and rear 160mm rotors
Brake levers: Tektro Eclipse MT2.1
Chainset: SRAM S200 22/32/42
Forks: Suntour XCM-V3 2012 120mm travel 30mm stanchions spring and preload L+R
Frame Colour: Red white blue
Frame Size: 20“
Frame: Alloy lightweight 6061 T6
Number of Gears: 24
Rear mech: SRAM X4
Front mech: SRAM X3
Gear Shifters: SRAM
Cassette: Shimano hyperglide 11-32T
Headset: 1 1/8 Semi Integrated
Hubs: Alloy QR
Handle Bars: El Gallo DH bar 31.8mm bar clamp 670 mm wide anodised
Stem: Truvativ Huzzefelt 60mm
Tyres: Continental X-King 2.2
Rims: Double wall alloy
Saddle: Carrera foam
Seat clamp: 34.9mm KCNC Z6 anodised QR
Wheel size: 26"
Weight (KG): 12.9
After searching the net for a decent hardtail for around £300 my chosen bike was the Carrera Centos. Id spent hours and hours looking at the overall specs and weights of many bikes and found that this was the best option at that price point that was readily available in the uk. The overall spec was better than any high end brand id looked at in the same price range. I had also considered the Carrera Vengeance at about the same price which had a slightly better chainset and better brake levers but it is supposedly heavier and the fork travel is only 100mm whereas the Centos was 120mm travel so i opted for the Centos on those two points. After hearing bad things about halfords and some past experience of putting mountain bikes together from kits (i used to build and setup cycles ready for dispatch for a uk bicycle supplier) i decided to give the bike the once over making sure that everything was tight and working as it should. I tuned the front and rear mechs to shift smoothly and quietly aswell as setting the preload on the forks, i set the seat height, handlebar position, shifters and brake lever positions untill i found the spot that felt the best. The bike was now ready to test ride. The bike felt good on my first outing which was a mixture of long uphill climbs on the tarmac and long descents and then some light-moderate off-road trail use. I was impressed with how the bike rides it feels sturdy and capable going downhill on fairly bumpy trails with plenty of grip from the big tyres. I feel quite stretched out on most XC bikes and this one isnt any different. The brakes are very sharp after my adjustments and some bedding in, but as with most mechanical disc brakes they are either on hard or off.... you soon get used to using them and they are very effective once you learn to use them well. The stock brake levers are a dissapointment they dont fit with the shifters properly meaning you have to have the shifters angled further down than usual and they have plastic housing/mount with a metal lever. The fork isnt the best but isnt too bad for a light rider like myself its quite soft and bouncy with plenty of travel and a linear compression rate but the rebound of the forks is a bit harsh....i wouldnt think it would be much good for any heavyweight riders doing aggressive riding over rocks off ledges etc but as im ten stone i can get away with going over slightly rougher terrain as theres less weight acting on the frame and fork. it works quite well for me but my friend whos a lot heavier has the same fork on his bike and he bottoms out on the bumpier downhill trails whereas im flying down them with travel to spare. The only other things wrong were that the stretched out riding position was a little uncomfortable after a while and it didnt feel fast enough on the road, uphill it felt like there was a lot of resistance and drag from the wheels and tyres. On the flat the bike slows down fairly quickly if you stop pedalling and virtually stops dead when youre on a steep climb. The SRAM gears seem of good enough quality and i havent had a single problem with them they work perfectly everytime although it did take a bit of fiddling about with the front mech to get them perfect when i was setting the bike up. They feel quite robust. They are very clunky sounding gears when theres heavy pressure on the pedals ie. when stood up climbing uphill but ive heard this clunk is the norm for SRAM gears and as i said they work bang on everytime. So all in all i was very happy with the bike but instantly wondered what could be done to improve an already good bike and solve the two problems i found with the bike. I decided to install a shorter stem to solve the reach problem. I bought a truvativ huzzefelt 60mm stem and the reach is perfect now and the steering is more to my liking it feels better for off-road and more comfortable to ride in the more upright position. I also bought some red anodised el gallo downhill bars to match the frame and some tektro eclipse MT2.1 brake levers which fitted with the shifters properly and are all metal. They now look and feel much better. I found the grips a little tough and unsightly too so i bought some XLC gel grips to finish off the look and feel of the front end. Last but certainly not least i got around to the last problem. As i explained before the bike felt sluggish at times so i started to look for a better tyre which was faster rolling and much lighter which would be more efficient. I opted for the X-King by Continental and i have to say this has made a massive difference to how the bike feels its so much faster now and feels very nimble and agile compared to before it rolls much further. i wouldnt say they were quite as grippy or stable feeling as the stock kenda chunky tyres offroad when it gets slippery but they are better for everything else the bike is much nicer to ride now and the bike feels much lighter too when sprinting... a massive weight saving can be had on this bike by switching to a thinner lighter tyre and further reductions in weight could be achieved by adding an air fork rather than the stock spring forks and getting a lighter wheelset . Ive had the bike over six months now and have to say its better than i thought it was going to be for the price....i can highly recommend it for road use with the X-King or similar spec tyres and also performs very well on light and moderately bumpy downhill trails and footpaths.
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Comments
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Nice!
How tall are you? Judging by the saddle height in the pic, and your comments about feeling stretched out, it sounds like a medium 18 inch frame might have fitted better.0 -
im 6ft so it is on the large side but all my bikes in the past have been bigger than the recommended size i tried them both but preferred the 20 when i tested them it felt more stable at speed. I have my saddle a bit lower than recommended... guess thats just what im used to and it feels spot on now the stems been shortened down.. the stock stem was a lengthy 90mm....its the same on all xc bikes i go on i feel stretched on all of them wether its a 17 or 20 inch.... it may have something to do with my moto x days where the bars are almost directly over the pivot....long stems just feel strange to me
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