A new bike for under £150! whats your honest opinion?

impromento

Well this is it... my chance to get on the road on something other than my mtb!

I have been looking at setting up my old hardtail frame for road riding but the costs are mounting up - even with second hand parts....

So looking around for cheap deals, i found two road bikes that are both under £150 new!!! and i'd like to get your opinions if possible???

http://www.tesco.com/direct/reflex-circ ... d=579-9585
http://www.gooutdoors.co.uk/viking-jet- ... ke-p267836


Now i know many of you will be on bikes that will put these to shame - but i just need something to get me going, that doesn't break the bank and that will last me until i convince my boss to join CTW!

shoot away guys - and please... be gentle!

Barbarossa

Buy second hand!

roger_merriman

Both have similar specs, and verging towards the nasty rather than cheerful side of cheap.

I suspect (reviews seem to back this up) that you'd find that bearing would wear quickly unless you kept a eye on it, quite possibly even if you didn't!

This said, it is a bike and a road bike so it should be fast, though weight would hinder on the hills.

Personally don't think it's worth the money.

craker

Toys'r'us have got a 'MTB' for less than £40. New. :shock:

http://www.toysrus.co.uk/Toys-R-Us/Bikes-and-Rideons/Bikes/Mens/Avigo-26-Mens-Baseline-Full-Suspension(0093798)

Anyway, 2nd hand.

rolf_f

Oh I don't know - the Viking gets some good reviews....

Very nice and bright and nice feel bar tape .

craker wrote:

Toys'r'us have got a 'MTB' for less than £40. New. :shock:

http://www.toysrus.co.uk/Toys-R-Us/Bikes-and-Rideons/Bikes/Mens/Avigo-26-Mens-Baseline-Full-Suspension(0093798)

Anyway, 2nd hand.

Amazing how spindly the forks and rear triangle are compared to how fat the frame is - you can hardly see daylight through it!

(and yes, second hand....)

Tjgoodhew

DO NOT BUY THE VIKING

I thought i would buy one to try out cycling before buying a proper bike and it was a complete waste of £130. You might be thinking "how bad can it be"

Dreadful components, nothing worked properly, gear ratios were strange... i could go on and on.

As others have said - but second hand or try and save a bit more cash and look at the Carerra TDF or Triban 3 from Decathlon - both around £300

markhewitt1978

Don't buy these bikes unless you already or are prepared to hate cycling.

cougie

Really don't waste your money. Go second hand and you'll be able to get a proper road bike.

laurentian

Plus one for second hand.

Perhaps look for Specialized/Giant/Trek models that sell for around £600-£700 new, once you know the models taht sell in this bracket (e.g. Specialized Allez) look for something second hand around 3/4 years plus old. With recent "dumbing down" of the specifications on some lines, you could well get a better bike than the new ones being sold! Be patient and keep your eyes on the Classifieds section of this forum as well as ebay etc. Whilst being patient, keep saving as £150 will be toward the bottom end of entry level.

Good luck

arran77

The Tesco one gets my vote, they describes it as 'premium speed & style at an affordable price'

Like others have said go second hand

Initialised

The only decent part of a Tourney groupset is the front derailer, it's almost too simple to fail.

Before I'd gotten back into cycling I bought a £160 bike for my son with tourney components, big mistake, I should have spent double and gotten something low end rather than budget. BB, Wheels, Brakes, Crank, Rear Derailer, seat and levers have all failed, through normal use. I actually like the bike now that it has an Alivio drivetrain and XTR V-brakes. But I'd have been better off buying a higher specced bike in the first place

Go second hand or start at £300: http://www.bikeradar.com/gear/category/ ... -11-44902/

ktuludays

i would buy second hand as already stated. a guy at work has the viking you linked to and it is awful. i couldn't believe how heavy it was. it was almost a two man lift!
for £150 you could get a nice second hand bike with reasonable gear.

darkhairedlord

The only redeeming feature is you'll never need a lock. If someone does nick it, that can only be a good thing!

Anonymous

Tesco one .............. you get club card points so some pleasure may be had from the purchase.

My honest opinion is that you need to up your budget severely and find a real sale bargain if you want new.
Those things are just bike shaped. Don't be fooled into thinking they will be any good to actually ride.

impromento

Brilliant response guys - thanks!

im going with a second hand bike for sure now that ive looked into it more

for a newbie, it is awfully tempting though just to think - "wow thats too cheap not to buy it" so thanks all for that sound advice and i will stay far far away from these two!

Tjgoodhew

darkhairedlord wrote:

The only redeeming feature is you'll never need a lock. If someone does nick it, that can only be a good thing!

Believe it or not somebody did steal my viking !! They even took the effort to cut through the chain it was locked up with

When i phoned up the insurance company they told me the bike had a RRP of £220 and they paid me out on that even though i only paid £120 for it.

The best possible result for a god awful bike !!!!

zingaiya

I notice that both the bikes have thumb shift gears, that mean it's impossible to change gears while covering the brakes. I think I'd rather have a pair of rollerskates.

navrig2

From the specification:

Brakes
Front Brakes - Y

Rear Brakes - Y

That's reassuring!!

Buy second hand or save a little longer.

kamiokande

The Decathlon Triban 3's appear on ebay quite often and usually go for around £200, look for the red one as they have carbon forks. Quite often you see people have bought them to do a charity ride or something and they've only done 50 miles.

simon_masterson

I'll buck the trend and submit that you could make something of a bike like that with really good setup and replacement of consumables, but obviously you can do much better. The same money can buy a good secondhand road bike, old or new.

deimosjohnny

Newbie Tax - where in eagerness to take on any new hobby either through lack of funds or mainly not wanting to commit too much till you know you like said hobby you buy cheep, low cost. In almost every case you will gain better knowledge and realise that your purchase is crap and will not deliver even at a modest entry level requirement. So you end up buying what you should have done in the first place and have thrown away your initial investment as often there is little or no resale value.

Either wait and save more to buy new entry level bike or spend that sort of money on a second hand as has been repeated above.

Anonymous

Is the viking called a jetstream because it is the weight of a small jet aircraft and will end up in a stream?

secretsam

My first bike on returning to cycling was bought off fleabay from a guy who'd done LEJOG and then jacked it in

That bike is still going strong 7 years later

Second hand. Every time. If you are worried, put a quick thread on here and ask for advice, or buy off the classifieds on here - plenty of folk on here will have 2nd (or 3rd or 4th...) bikes that they will chop in for that sort of money, likely to be decent and well looked after.

A few years back, C+ did an article comparing various cheap second hand bikes against a new one from Tesco. The Tesco bike disintegrated, the second hand ones were fine.

PS: welcome to the gang, be aware that if you get addicted it can get to be an expensive habit

cyberknight

Another vote for second hand !
I recently sold a second hand virtuoso with upgraded wheels, tyres, mechs etc for your budget so bargains can be found .

crescent

I almost don't want to defend these bikes............but, in their defence, they do seem to be aimed at kids/teenagers and, with that in mind, may just become some kid's pride and joy. It might just be the bike that gives them the cycling bug, who knows? Yes, the quality looks absolutely woeful and I would not buy one myself, or for my kids for that matter, but who doesn't have fond memories of their own bike as a kid even though it was probably rubbish by the standards we now set for ourselves.
For the record though, don't buy one if you're an adult, increase your budget and/or go second hand.

opus25

kamiokande wrote:

The Decathlon Triban 3's appear on ebay quite often and usually go for around £200, look for the red one as they have carbon forks. Quite often you see people have bought them to do a charity ride or something and they've only done 50 miles.

My exact thinking when I saw the thread title.

Haven't owned one myself but a friend bought one as a starter and he was more than satisfied. The Triban 3 owners forum is a good place to get other opinions of it. http://triban3owners.freeforums.net/

I'd spend the extra 50 and follow kamiokande's advice.

fast as fupp

passed some poor soul on one of those vikings today- i think it was fitted with an automatic gearbox judging by the noise it was making.

gubber12345

Buy cheap buy twice as the saying goes.

buy 2nd hand as advised, thats how I started.

bmxboy10

Get the cararra tdf jobbie fro halfords tomorrow between 12 and 2 and get another 10% off.

dhobiwallah

I think the OP sensibly stated he was going down the 2nd hand route half way down the first page of this thread...

But to continue the slaughter of these menaces to biking - I read an article a while ago in a bike mag (well two -one from a roadie perspective and another MTB group test under £250) where they actually tried to give these budget bikes a proper chance. The upshot was that they could find no redeeming features whatsoever. All experienced home mechanics they couldn't get the gears set up (a newbie has no chance) with constant ghost shifting etc etc.

Their parting shot was that having agreed to only use the budget bikes they found themselves making excuses not to ride - from people who do it for a living and usually make excuses to ditch everything else for a ride. Even allowing for the fact that they usually ride high end bikes - these were pump.

MTBs are even worse for this - you see budget ful-suss bikes for less than a half-decent fork costs on its own. You then see young teenagers weighing about 45kg pogoing up a shallow hill trying to drag a lump of pig iron that weighs about the same as my entire bike collection - and not much less than themselves.

Best way to put someone off cycling for life - should be banned!

secretsam

dhobiwallah wrote:

I think the OP sensibly stated he was going down the 2nd hand route half way down the first page of this thread...

But to continue the slaughter of these menaces to biking - I read an article a while ago in a bike mag (well two -one from a roadie perspective and another MTB group test under £250) where they actually tried to give these budget bikes a proper chance. The upshot was that they could find no redeeming features whatsoever. All experienced home mechanics they couldn't get the gears set up (a newbie has no chance) with constant ghost shifting etc etc.

Their parting shot was that having agreed to only use the budget bikes they found themselves making excuses not to ride - from people who do it for a living and usually make excuses to ditch everything else for a ride. Even allowing for the fact that they usually ride high end bikes - these were pump.

MTBs are even worse for this - you see budget ful-suss bikes for less than a half-decent fork costs on its own. You then see young teenagers weighing about 45kg pogoing up a shallow hill trying to drag a lump of pig iron that weighs about the same as my entire bike collection - and not much less than themselves.

Best way to put someone off cycling for life - should be banned!

You're not a fan of cheap bikes, are you ?