Noooooooooo. My bike is dead

prawny

It’s got a lifetime warranty, but in the meantime I’m stuck on the train for at least the next week.

Dreading it, so much I’m thinking of buying a £300 rim brakes bargain as a spare, is anyone still using rim brakes?

gabriel959

Is that the Saracen? Does Saracen still make road bikes? If they don't have some old stock, you might end up getting a Saracen Hack frame.

prawny

That’s what I’m hoping. Had a look on their website earlier and they only do the hack now.

That works for me, as long as they don’t muck about, I bloody hate the train.

UndercoverElephant

My sympathies for your loss.

Now, tell me more about this replacement.

elbowloh

How did it happen?

I'm looking at you're profile pic....

fat daddy

prawny wrote:

is anyone still using rim brakes?

its doubtful ... if the average punter can buy a front and rear set of hyraulic brakes and disks pre-bled for £40 ... I cant imagine the point of a manufacturer going to the effort of using rium based stuff thats hard to get when off the shelf hydraulic is so cheap.

and YES !!!! ... get a cheap hack so you dont need the train, its the whole point of n+1 .. I have one of my bikes .. but its still beter than public transport

elbowloh

All my bikes (apart from my 2006 Merlin Malt2 MTB) have rim brakes.

veronese68

prawny wrote:

Dreading it, so much I’m thinking of buying a £300 rim brakes bargain as a spare, is anyone still using rim brakes?

Whilst I'm sorry for your loss this is the world telling you to get a spare bike. You know it makes sense.

prawny

I know this and you know this.

My wife however just sees it as one unit of space used. She’d want me to get rid of one of the others to make room for this, even though

1 - is notionally hers, I just gave it to her and she doesn’t use it.

2 - is my proper mountain bike for mountain biking.

I need a bigger garage I think, that way I could squeeze a summer bike in there.

I’m hoping that they don’t have any old stock of my frame, the new ones are all gravel bikes so I could at least get some ice tyres in that. I’ll have to wait and see I suppose.

prawny

Tempted to stick one of these on finance while I wait, anyone have any thoughts on 'how heavy is too heavy'?

27lbs allegedly, but I'm thinking steel is good, and bigger tyres would be good for the coming winter.

Any thoughts?

elbowloh

prawny wrote:

Tempted to stick one of these on finance while I wait, anyone have any thoughts on 'how heavy is too heavy'?

27lbs allegedly, but I'm thinking steel is good, and bigger tyres would be good for the coming winter.

Any thoughts?

Link missing?

slowbike

Definately N+1
3 with defined disparate use isn't enough - you need more crossover - commute on a dedicated mountain bike? No way - not unless it's really snowy or I want to go off road the whole way.
However, I have commuted on
my TT bike - just to get some practice in on the aero bars,
my best road bike - because it's nice and sunny ,
my winter road bike - because it's wet,
my do-it-all bike - because I bought it for the winter commute!

Oh - and I've borrowed my wifes hybrid - before I got my do-it-all bike - she wasn't best pleased because I put mudguards on it!

Oh - and only my 29er has disks - the rest are all rim brakes - although I wish the Do-it-all bike had disks now....

veronese68

Slowbike wrote:

although I wish the Do-it-all bike had disks now....

Slowbike wrote:

definitely N+1....

You know it makes sense, you even said it yourself.

slowbike

Veronese68 wrote:

Slowbike wrote:

although I wish the Do-it-all bike had disks now....

Slowbike wrote:

definitely N+1....

You know it makes sense, you even said it yourself.

I have - it's just that it's not mine this time ... or last time for that matter ... or the time before that ... er ... I'm losing out somewhere!


I did/do have logic for the Do-It-All bike to be rim brakes .
1) It was bought in the earlier days of disks on road bikes - so disks were expensive
2) Being rim brakes I could swap wheels with my other road based bikes - which I have done from time to time.
3) I didn't have the 29er on disk brakes at the time

It is tempting to buy some replacement forks for it and put on front hydro disk brakes ... TBH, the back doesn't matter - never has - it's just the front.

prawny

elbowloh wrote:

prawny wrote:

Tempted to stick one of these on finance while I wait, anyone have any thoughts on 'how heavy is too heavy'?

27lbs allegedly, but I'm thinking steel is good, and bigger tyres would be good for the coming winter.

Any thoughts?

Link missing?

Whoops!

Link - http://www.wiggle.co.uk/verenti-substan ... ike-green/

MrSweary

prawny wrote:

1 - is notionally hers, I just gave it to her and she doesn’t use it.

2 - is my proper mountain bike for mountain biking.

I need a bigger garage I think, that way I could squeeze a summer bike in there.

If you can only get two bikes in your garage either:-

1. Your garage isn't a garage - its actually a cupboard. Or...

2. There is too much other worthless crap in there. Have a garage sale or get down the tip asap.

prawny

I’ve got 6 bikes in there, 2 for me, 2 for the kids one for the wife, 1 that I need to tart up and sell on.

Plus associated family crap, tumble dryer, chest freezer etc. It’s a small modern garage too, space is toight - like a tiger.

MrSweary

prawny wrote:

I’ve got 6 bikes in there, 2 for me, 2 for the kids one for the wife, 1 that I need to tart up and sell on.

Plus associated family crap, tumble dryer, chest freezer etc. It’s a small modern garage too, space is toight - like a tiger.

There you go. You have to ask yourself what is more important. I mean really important.

tgotb

Do you have a bike box?

One of my bikes went missing a while back; I was pretty sure I hadn't left it anywhere, and if anyone decided to steal exactly one of my bikes, this isn't the one they'd take. It eventually turned up in my bike box. If you can use a bike box to hide a bike from yourself, hiding it from someone else should be child's play...

davis

prawny wrote:

I’ve got 6 bikes in there, 2 for me, 2 for the kids one for the wife, 1 that I need to tart up and sell on.

Plus associated family crap, tumble dryer, chest freezer etc. It’s a small modern garage too, space is toight - like a tiger.

C'mon man. You know you're simply going to have to post a photo and we'll all tell you how there's actually plenty of room and/or you simply don't need that.

You do know the rules... If your good lady requires convincing of the necessity you can always rely on the train to generate the appropriate amount of abject misery and/or fury.

Also, I'm sorry about the old one, and when does the Verenti arrive?

prawny

I’ll snap some pictures later for a laugh.

I unbelievably haven’t ordered the Verenti yet. A combination of worries about future proofness and weight plus I’m trying to get a new job which could potentially end with me having a company car and not having to travel into the city means I’m wary of making any financial commitment.

That said, I could then tart up the replacement I get into a summer bike and Bobs my uncle.

bonzo_banana

Love to hear what you end up with as a replacement frame and how they deal with the warranty issue. I know the old Saracen bikes before they went out of business were Merida frames (possibly not the very low entry level models) and were renowned for being great quality for their price but don't think the relaunched Saracen are Merida frames because Merida stopped supplying OEM frames I think and concentrated on their own brand plus Specialized which they jointly own. Unless Madison did something crafty by buying Saracen who may have had a long term contract with Merida to supply frames and it enabled them to be one of the few brands Merida still supply to. However looking at your frame I suspect not Merida unless the frame has had a hard life and taken some abuse.

bonzo_banana

Madison do a wider range of road bikes under their Genesis brand.

http://www.genesisbikes.co.uk/

Maybe a frame replacement from one of those is a possibility.

timothyw

I wouldn't rush to buy the verenti. I had a verenti isolation, single speed CX model they did a couple of years back, one of the welds failed within a year, and it weighed a similar amount to a boat anchor.

In short, if you're hoping for something that feels like a classic steel racer but with the benefit of disc brakes, this ain't it.

I couldn't really fault wiggle's warranty handling, I ended up with a big upgrade for just a small amount of money as they couldn't offer a direct replacement.

Really though, these steel utility road bikes (like the kaffenback) don't make as much sense as you might think they do. If you use them in the wet they rust, and they fail just as often as alu. And if you try and use them on group rides you'll find it's a struggle to keep up.

prawny

Cool. That is for the heads up, that was kind of my thinking too. Think I’ll just hang fire and wait for the replacement and borrow my mates bike.

Then go on the hunt for a decent(ish) summer bike that I can press in to commuting use when needed.

voodooman

Ridley X-bow Tiagra. They've got a couple left at Hargroves.

Had mine for 5 years and it has been battered to hell and back commuting and cross racing along with trips in the woods with mates (don't use the voodoo anymore should change my name).

Weighed 110k when I started cycling and now about 100(ish) and carry a full load on it. Mine came with Tiagra I think too, but now it is 105 throughout and a bit like triggers broom, only the frame and forks are still going. Go somewhere else if you want plush, but its been a great workhorse.

prawny

Saracen asked for the whole bike back in the end, agreed with Winstanleys that I wouldn't be sending the stuff I'd already replaced because it had broken so didn't send the wheels. Just waiting for the next steps now.

Borrowed a Whyte Shoreditch hybrid off a mate for the meantime, I quite like it. I'm quite tempted to get the BMC Nexus hybrid that evans are selling off. 1x drivetrain is much less of an issue than I thought it would be.

prawny

I've not been updating this thread enough - I've got a parallel one running on STW, further developments.

I broke the whyte, the shop had cross threaded the pedals so my SPD came out when I was half way home on the 2nd day. So I converted the voodoo with narrow bars, longer stem and slick tyres, then...

I got hit by a car, Voodoo is injured, so I'm back on the train. Driver admitted fault and took me home, no injuries so all good.

Still waiting for the Saracen to come back from Winstanleys, I think I'm going to get the train until then, unless I just sack it off and buy another bike - I'm definitely tempted at the mo.

kleinstroker

Wow You've had no luck at all.

prawny

Turns out the Voodoo was dead after all too, rear of the frame is bent and I couldn't even get the wheel back in. Luckily the driver was happy to pay for a whole new bike so once I find out what's going on with the Saracen I can get shopping.

veronese68

kleinstroker wrote:

Wow You've had no luck at all.

This, but at least the driver is coughing up for the Voodoo.