Giant rapid 3 or Charge juicer or Whistle Modoc

mhj123

Hi,

I'm after some expert advice!

My 30yr old Dawes Galaxy is starting to feel sluggish even after servicing, it's time for a new set of speedy wheels.

For my budget of £500 I'm looking at either the Giant rapid 3 or the Charge juicer Mid. the Giant is down from £600 but the Charge is down from £830!!

Does that mean it's a no-brainer, the Charge is clearly a much better buy? (they're both Sora)

OTOH The Giant's had incredible reviews and I prefer flat bar as it's for the daily commute.

My wildcard is the Whistle Modoc which is an out and out flat bar racer (23mm wheels) and is £400. Halfords sell it which was offputting but it's also had good reviews.

really grateful for anyone's advice or opinion.

supersonic

Have you got links to the bikes in question?

pnev

Boardman hybrid comp for £500

mhj123

Thanks, the boardman hybrid comp looks seriously nice.

Anyway, I learned a valuable (to the tune of £460) lesson today. If your bike feels sluggish, take it to your LBS. The ball bearings in my front wheel hub had dried up, and were grinding, slowing the wheel down on each rotate. I got a new front wheel for £30 and my bike's as fast as it ever was.

Cheers again,
mhj

ndeaton

Hi There,

I've been using a Charge Juicer as my 'everything' bike since 2009 and I LOVE it .

I wouldn't hesitate to recommend it as an absolutely ideal fast year-round commute bike.

I use mine every day on a min 30/ max47 mile round trip, and on long charity rides, and on the odd sportive style day ride with mates at the weekend and it somehow manages to deal with the abuse of the daily grind but still keeps me comfortably up there with 'the pack' on the weekend rides (much to the surprise/ chagrin of my 'all the gear' but only weekend-fit carbon riding buddies!), and makes for a really comfortable all day ride on those really long distance charity rides (the BHF Oxford to Cambride most recently - 123 miles for the day once the mileage to and from the start was added and I felt fine for the commute the following morning). All of this I attribute to the steel frame - which just feels really strong, but with the right amount of spring/ whip to make it feel great when you hunker down to accelerate and reasonably soft & in control when you hit the speed-bumps at 30!

I think it looks fabulous - an 'old school' frame geometry, really thin tubes (especially the seat stays!), really good integrated frame-coloured metal mudguards (important as they are tough, have super minimal fixings and don't rattle!) - great charge saddle - classic and understated but a bit of a wolf in sheeps clothing.

Definitely try to go and see/ ride one before you buy a bike if you can.

Things I have done to mine to get it 'just so' - but bear in mind this was on an 09 spec. bike so some of this might have been sorted since:

Upgraded the brake pads it shipped with immediately (very poor tektro ones) going to do the calipers soon also as they were also tektro and are worn out now.
Put 23c puncture proof tyres on as the Bonty racing tyres it shipped with were too delicate for my daily town-&-country thrash - tried several and Conti ultra gatorskins are what I'm sticking with now.
Fitted a tubus fly rack for my ortlieb office bag panniers (can't stand riding with stuff on my back) - don't know about current model but my frame didn't have rack mounts so fashioned a piggyback fixing to the rear caliper (which actually looks appropriately minimalist on the bike)
Fitted the biggest top chain-ring I could to give it longer legs & top speed
Fitted shimano flip-over pedals so I can clip-in (mtb style shoes) for the commute but still ride round town during the day in regular flat shoes (ran it very happily on black track pedals with chrome strapless toeclips before this - which also looked gooood!)

The only issue I had with mine is the paint job - which I have to say looks wonderful on day 1 - but seems more delicate than other bikes I've owned & picked up scratches and chips pretty quickly - but in the end what bike doesn't if you put it through what I do mine?!

Hope that helps!

Happy riding on whatever you choose.