Carerra Virtuoso v Viking Torino

larrydavid

My 11 year old want hist first road bike for Christmas. I had a budget of around £300 and have been surprised at how far that much doesn't go.

I've been lurking on here for a while now and the advice I always see is if you've only got £300 to spend, buy second hand. I've been looking on gumtree, ebay, on here and some other forums and even second hand it's hard to find something for £300. I've seend a few on ebay that are either too far to get to (I'm in the North west and most seem to be in the south) or I've been outbid at the last moment at few times.

Christmas is only a week away so I'm going to have to get a move on and buy a new bike for this price.

A lot of people reccommend the BTWin Triban 3 but he dosen't like it, which is probably only to do with looks. But when you're 11 that's important to you. He's just come and said he doesn't like the colour or the font. But the white Triban 5 with the same font is OK :roll:

The other 3 I've seen are

Carerra TDF for £300 (£260 with discounts)

http://www.halfords.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/product_storeId_10001_catalogId_10151_productId_810707_langId_-1_categoryId_165710#tab2

He sat on the medium, which is 54 cm and it was a bit too much to reach the levers. They don't seem to do any smaller and the sales assistant in Halfords never made any suggestion about moving the saddle forward or a shorter stem. The guy in the local bike shop who I spoke to, saw my lad and thought he'd be alright with anything up to a 54cm frame.

Carerra Virtuosa for £380 (£350 with discounts)

http://www.halfords.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/product_storeId_10001_catalogId_10151_productId_810601_langId_-1_categoryId_165710#tab2

The medium for this bike as a smaller frame that suited my lad a lot better. The only problem with this one is that it is an extra £80-90 when the bike is virtually the same but with the smaller frame and a different paint job.

Viking Torino £330 (about £315 with discounts)

http://www.rutlandcycling.com/44223/Viking-Torino-Mens-Road-Racing-Bike.html?referrer=PRGoogleTorino&gclid=COuC_f2WnbQCFbMbtAodtjYAEw

Vikings seem to get a bad rap on various forums, especially the Giro, Sprint and carbon forks.

Any help, greatly appreciated.

16mm

Make sure the one you get has a compact chainset. The virtuosa has, not sure about the others.

larrydavid

16mm wrote:

Make sure the one you get has a compact chainset. The virtuosa has, not sure about the others.

Forgive my ignorance. What's a compact chainset?

cyberknight

A compact refers to the size of the chainrings in teeth number large and small at the bottom bracket or where your pedals are , the TDf does not have one i belive its a 52/39 but dont quote me, the virtuoso does and has a 50/34, no idea about the viking .
basically a compact gives you "easier " gears but they are plenty fast enough, i ride a virtuoso as a winter ride/ commuter and even with a middle gear at the back and big at thefront i am riding at 20 mph , unless your a pro or really fit your not going to need a gear bigger than what a compact with a 12 toothmax at the back will give you as at 90 rpm ( leg revolutions per min ) which is regarded as a good average your not going to run out of gears till about 35 mph .

Another bike to consider if you can get to decathlon ...
http://www.decathlon.co.uk/triban-3-id_8167038.html
How tall is your son ? it could be an issue with bike sizing .....

MountainMonster

I've got a virtuoso, and for the price it is pretty darn good. Everything works on it, and the frame geometry works well for me. I would recommend that.

larrydavid

Cheers for the explanation. So the bigger sizes are only needed if you are good enough to be going at a faster speed.

I've tried to steer him toward the Triban but he doesn't like the colour or the btwin font. I know, I know ***shakes head***.

He's about 5 ft. We were looking originally at 48cm, 51cm at the most. The guy at our local bike shop says up to 54cm should be ok. He gave us all sorts of useful information so I had no reason to doubt him.

mouth

Thought about womens? Failing that Raleigh do a junior Pursuit/Sprint (Can't remember which). Freewheel in Nottingham have them and I believe they're on sale atm.

As for the TDF I've go one and feel it may be a little big for anyone smaller than my 5ft 5 frame. Also I concur that it is indeed over geared (too many teeth) at 52/39. Has me breathing through my mouth on not even massive hills. I don't reckon there's£80 worth of difference though except for the smaller chain rings on the V.

cyberknight

IMHO
If your sons 5 foot then no way will he fit on a 54, about a 50 is about right, i am 5 foot 7 " and 54 is about right for me .Sounds like the LBS is just trying to get a sale .Even if you could get your leg over a 54 then your liable to be over stretched or stick such a short stem on it could affect the handling.
Its hard to say without seeing your son of course.
from evans ..
5' 0 "- 5' 3" 152 - 160 49 - 50
Be careful with sizing as well as some of the compact frames , not to be confused with a compact chainset as previusly discussed measure to where the sloping top tube meets the seat tube rather than where it would meet if the top tube were level ( halfords for intance i ride a medium vituoso stickered at 19" 49 cm (ish ) but in reality its closer to a 54 if you measured it right ).

cyberknight

For a proper sized kids bike isla bikes are raved about but your looking at another £200.....
http://www.islabikes.co.uk/bike_pages/luath700.html
unless you can get a small bike somwheresecond hand.
just looked at the virtuoso and the medium which is the smallest says 51 but thats to the sloping top tube so its larger as i suspected.
this site is where i point people for bike fit so you could try before you buy..
http://www.jimlangley.net/crank/bikefit.html

Emphursis

I've got a TDF and I love it. It might be a bit too big for him at the minute, but he'll grow into it pretty quickly. And you can always fiddle with the seat heigh/position and stem length until he does.

yeachan153

My friend bought that viking about a year ago. Done less then 1000 miles I reckon. The tyres seem to puncture often, the bar tape is literally just cloth and falls apart, the saddle is ridiculously uncomfortable, and the wheel bearings are terrible.. But it looks okay

lc1981

larrydavid wrote:

I've tried to steer him toward the Triban but he doesn't like the colour or the btwin font. I know, I know ***shakes head***.

Would he be swayed by being shown a review? There's one here and another here. Here's a Viking review, for comparison!

Guanajuato

Get him the Triban, a few sheets of sandpaper and some spray paint. :-)

larrydavid

I've done everything to try and persuade him to have the Triban but he's not having any of it.

I've gone for the Virtuoso and bought it online earlier. I found a voucher code for 10% off plus 3% cashback through my wife's work.

Thanks for everyone's help. Looking at all these bikes has given me the bug again to either get my old Fausto Coppi out of the garage and get it fixed up or to get a new bike altogether.

mouth

larrydavid wrote:

Looking at all these bikes has given me the bug again to either get my old Fausto Coppi out of the garage and get it fixed up or to get a new bike altogether.

Sort of N+1+1 then? What with you and the boy I'd think about getting a new credit card if I were you.......

Bustacapp

I have a Carrera Virtuoso Race Ltd Edition. It doesn't have a compact chainset, I think the new ones do though.

It's a very solid bike. Can't fault it!

bails1310

Have heard some bad story's and reviews for the Viking so would steer clear IMO

Previous MTB was a Carrera and had no issues with it as a brand.