New Carrera Vulcan Model - Thoughts?

MrDanielPrice

Was browsing Halfords (both in-store and online) and noticed that they had a new model/version of the Carrera Vulcan.

My friends owns the 2015 version and says its a decent bike and hasn't had any problems with it. How does the new version stack up do you think?

It's so new that there aren't even many reviews of it on the Halfords site, but was curious whether any fellow riders here have had a go of it or have even bought one.

Older model: http://www.halfords.com/cycling/bikes/m ... -bike-2015

New model: http://www.halfords.com/cycling/bikes/m ... ntain-bike

reformedfatty

Looks like exactly the same frame, so no real difference in that regard. The spec is again pretty similar, the only thing I'm noting is that the 2015 model says it has a 1 1/8th steerer, might be worth seeing in person to ensure that they actually have tapered head tubes in case you wanted to change the fork in future - although that might not be worth it on this price range.

MrDanielPrice

How exactly do you know/learn to know what specs/components are good or not for a given price?

I got back into riding a few months ago and, despite learning of the common brands (culture), what each bit on a bike is and does, and being able to adjust various things that I had to rely on my friends to do for me when I started, I'm not able to look at a spec sheet or look at a bike and know whether it's good value for money.

How do people manage to do this? Do they spend a lot of time tinkering with bikes and bike parts and just get to know which ones are worth X or whatnot?

reformedfatty

That's one approach, looking for reviews being another, or even just looking at the brand - generally speaking if it's a brand like trek / specialized / cannondale you can expect it to not be the best components for the money. Boardman and BTwin and to a lesser extent Carrera tend to be better value. If you can afford to wait you can always keep an eye out on sites like hotukdeals to wait for something the general public rate as good value for money.

StinkinHippy

Rode a vulcan for a couple of years, but in an old 2010-ish model.. specs are a touch better these days.

Decent bikes, pretty capable as far as light trail work goes. Rode my across the malverns a handful of times and would say it was my fitness that let me down before the bike did. Obviously a more expensive bike would be better, but for the price range its a good starting point.

Someone may come along and suggest something better in the price range yet though, so keep your mind open

landerson07

In this price range I'd go for this (from everything I've read)

http://www.gooutdoors.co.uk/calibre-two ... ke-p383858

Gets good reviews and seems like a great starter bike

The Rookie

reformedfatty wrote:

Looks like exactly the same frame, so no real difference in that regard. The spec is again pretty similar, the only thing I'm noting is that the 2015 model says it has a 1 1/8th steerer, might be worth seeing in person to ensure that they actually have tapered head tubes in case you wanted to change the fork in future - although that might not be worth it on this price range.

The Carrera uses a 44mm headtube and will take tapered.