Viking Clubmaster

mr_eddy

Hi all,

I am after a cheap road bike for the odd 30-40 mile bike ride with my mates. Long story short I have been biking for years going through phases, spent 5 years with MTB's and ended up with really nice MTB and its the same with road biking but ended up selling my road bike duh!

Since then and for a while now I have been using a SS road bike which I love, as I only really cycle to and from work (5 miles each way) this is fine for 99% of my cycling.

My mates (who are very casual 2/3 rides a year cyclists) have asked if I want to join them on a upcoming 40 miler. I can't do it on my SS as I won't get up the hills and they won't wait for me to walk ! Instead I am thinking of getting a cheap road bike. As its only really going to get used a handful of times a year I am thinking about a Viking Clubmaster.

I prefer these older style road bikes and this looks pretty slick. The steel frame whist heavy should be plenty strong enough. The shifting gear is bog standard shimano A050 14spd with bar mounted thumb shifters never the less its still Shimano and its indexed so should be fine, I have a Mavic CXP22 wheelset with GP4000 tyres from a few years ago that I wills stick on so that should make things a bit nicer.

Any thoughts on this, I know for my budget of £250 I won't get anything special. I don't like Sora shifters so that rules out most entry bikes. I don't want a second hand bike either as I prefer to have something that comes with a warranty and is shiny and new.

If you know of any other bikes that will handle the odd 30-40 mile ride less than £250 can you provide a link.

Thoughts ?

navrig

Rather than buy a Viking how about asking around if you could borrow from a friend. The Vikings don't have a great reputation and for 3 or 4 times a year borrowing may be better.

The Decathlon TRiban 3 gets a good write up but I think its shifters as the same style as Sora.

mr_eddy

Yep I did see the Decathlon but it has the Sora shifters so no good, I prefer the thumb shifters or Sram Double tap (but that ain't happening on £250 bike).

I don't know anyone with a suitable bike I could borrow.

I know Viking don't have the best rep but this is only to be used on a the odd weekend summer ride amongst friends, no racing or anything.

Other than being heavy does anyone have any reason why the Viking would fail ? The wheels are poor but as I said it will have my Mavic's put on straight away anyway and that had a 8spd shimano hub on so will fit no probs.

navrig

Worth a look at the Triban because Sora and 2300 have thumb shifters........

keef66

The 2013 Triban 5 will have new Sora which doesn't have the thumb shifters. Dearer, but a much better bike than the Viking

navrig

https://www.decathlon.co.uk/triban-3-re ... 74036.html

still shows 2300, perhaps old stock.

The Triban 5 does indeed have Sora but is £500

https://www.decathlon.co.uk/triban-5-ro ... 67039.html

The OP stated:

mr_eddy wrote:

Yep I did see the Decathlon but it has the Sora shifters so no good, I prefer the thumb shifters or Sram Double tap (but that ain't happening on £250 bike).

So the Triban 3 probably suits.

natrix

If you want thumb shifters (although God only knows why) then the Viking is probably the only bike that will suit. You'd be far better off with a Decathlon bike, but there's no accounting for taste.