Carbon bike + Ultegra for £999 ???

domelis

Hey all! I'm currently looking for a carbon road bike and one has caught my attention as it has quite good specs just for £999 (RRP £2800) on ebay. Has anybody got to say anything about Whistle bikes? There's not much info online about them. Would it be a good buy?

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Whistle-Creek-Mens-Road-Bike-Carbon-Fibre-Shimano-Ultegra-20-Spd-RRP-2799-99-/271328096875?pt=UK_Bikes_GL&var=&hash=item3f2c6a326b

Specifications:

Frame Carbon fibre custom monocoque road frame with semi-integrated head tube and detachable rear gear hanger
Fork Carbon fibre custom bladed fork with alloy steerer
Gears Shimano Ultegra 20-speed gearset with Shimano Ultegra STI shifters
Freewheel Shimano 12/25T 10-speed cassette freewheel
Chainset FSA Omega Mega Exo alloy compact 50/34T chainset with 170mm FSA Team Issue carbon fibre monocoque cranks
Rims 700c Mavic Askium 20-hole rims
Hubs Alloy quick-release hubs
Spokes Bladed spokes
Tyres Schwalbe Blizzard Kevlar-lined 700c x 23c road tyres
Brakes Shimano Ultegra alloy side-pull brakes with Shimano Ultegra carbon fibre levers
Handlebars Byte alloy oversized road handlebars
Stem Byte alloy oversized A-head stem
Saddle Selle Italia SL Flex Technology saddle with manganese rails and Byte micro-adjustable alloy seat post

Rigga

You could get a planet x pro carbon with ultegra for the same price, well reviewed bikes.

Anonymous

Yikes, that looks bad (IMO).

Weren't Helfords meant to be selling those?

duckson

Dolan L'Etape with SRAM Rival?

chadders81

Hideous set-up for the pic. If whoever is selling them has set it up that badly, I wouldn't have much confidence in them to build it well.

Can't beat Planet X at that price.

boydster76

What the hell is going on with that stack height?

norvernrob

Planet X should also do the RT57 that is £999 as standard with full Ultegra 6800 groupset for an extra £100. My mate got one with that spec a few weeks ago and they offered me the same deal when I went to look just after Christmas. (I ended up buying a Sab framed bike they had on offer).

dwanes

Amazon were selling Whistle bikes last year, I think they are a Canadian Brand.
Seems a good price, how bad can a bike frame be?
Winstanleys are selling this for £2000 and they are a reputable shop.

Rigga

NorvernRob wrote:

Planet X should also do the RT57 that is £999 as standard with full Ultegra 6800 groupset for an extra £100. My mate got one with that spec a few weeks ago and they offered me the same deal when I went to look just after Christmas. (I ended up buying a Sab framed bike they had on offer).

So they knocked £100 off? According to there website it should be £1199?

Just trying to get some info together.

cycleclinic

Had on of there MTB's in the shop for work, new as well but the wheels went out of shape on the first ride. My impresion was a badly put together bike that looks hideous.

yaya

They're Italian and the current Creek comes with a full 6800 groupset: http://www.whistle.it/prodotti/road/creek/creek-ultegra
(and the setup on the webpage seems better than the one on eBay...maybe a sloppy assembly by the local seller?

BillyMansell

I've only used Leisure Outlet when buying stuff for my camper, my concern for the OP would be that they're an outdoor store selling bikes and not a bike shop. If something goes wrong who's going to fix it?

There are plenty of proper bike shops that offer similar value and don't be fooled by the high RRP.

norvernrob

Rigga wrote:

NorvernRob wrote:

Planet X should also do the RT57 that is £999 as standard with full Ultegra 6800 groupset for an extra £100. My mate got one with that spec a few weeks ago and they offered me the same deal when I went to look just after Christmas. (I ended up buying a Sab framed bike they had on offer).

So they knocked £100 off? According to there website it should be £1199?

Just trying to get some info together.

It looks like it yes, I don't think my mate even knew it was £1199 when he went in. They offered him an upgrade to full Ultegra for an extra £100, and he also had some better finishing items added and the bike came to £1200.

He came with me when I went to look, mentioned the deal on Ultegra to the guy in the shop and he said he'd do it for me on the RT57 for £100 extra, so £1099. Definitely worth asking nicely to see if they'll do a deal.

I ended up getting this for £999:

rjsmith

I hired a bike in Tuscany for a week of hard rding a couple of years ago and it was a Whistle Carbon bike. I'd never heard of them so was suprised a bit about how well it rode. I'm not sure I'd buy one necessarily but I certainly liked it.

Bookwyse

Lad in our club rides one and is very happy with it.

Only concerns I've seen on it are that the rear dropouts aren't square so the rear wheel doesn't sit in the centre of the frame and the rear brake constantly binds on. The brakes I could live with by changing them but the dropouts is another thing, its not the wheel not dished correctly as we have tried others. Bit he is happy with it and that's all that matters.

markyone

Planet x

smidsy

viewtopic.php?f=40090&t=12954909#p18692904

Also Italian

diamonddog

Planet X Pro Carbon.

Slo Mo Jones

Carbonator wrote:

Yikes, that looks bad (IMO).

Weren't Helfords meant to be selling those?

Sort out the setup and it looks no worse than many of the bikes in the Your Road Bikes section that get coos of appreciation despite looking hideous.

smoggysteve

Must be hundreds of 2012 or even 2013 model bikes with Ultegra in end of line stock knocking about all over the net for under a grand.

SJDurrant

Did you buy this in the end? I have one and it's fabulous!

swaffham man

i got a whisle creek carbon ultegra last september and it is a fantastic fast road bike the quality is superb all ultegra fsa carbon crank done over 1500 miles on it and not a single problem and still looks like new cannot recommend it enough