Viner Maxima RS 4.0

Korhag

My 2015 Trek Emonda S5 had an unfortunate accident and LBS quoted me £1200 to replace it with the 2017/18 iteration frame.

Decided I didn't fancy blowing that much on it and have started shopping around for alternatives, namely Dolan/PlanetX/Rose.

https://www.planetx.co.uk/i/q/FRVIMAX40 ... d-frameset

Currently on offer for £610 down from £1,499.99.

Anybody got any experience with the brand? or this particular frameset?

Matthewfalle

See other thread a few lines down re Planet X - loads of comments, no bad ones. Safe as houses to buy from them.

mfin

It is worth saying that Planet X bought out Viner, so the name continues, but years back Viner were making some well respected high end carbon frames.

In the case of this, I think it would be fair to say do not be lured by all of that discount being real in that nobody would be buying that at £1500. Myself, I'd be looking at it like it was a £1000 frame at most, probably a good bit less.

There's a good chance it is open mould rebadged too, although I'm not sure. Somebody might be able to confirm.

As to whether it's worth £610, I would suspect it is worth that yes. It's light too. I think you might be struggling to find someone who owns one on here though and if they do they will probably do the standard thing of saying it's great because it's very hard on here to find anyone who has much bad to say about any bike they've bought (unless it has broken).

arlowood

If you're looking in the £600 - £800 price bracket then check out Paul Milnes offerings. They advertise widely on Ebay but they are a pukka cycle shop based in Bradford. I've bought 2 frames from them in the past and can't fault them

http://www.paulmilnescycles.com/road-frames-160-c.asp

Of interest for you if the size is correct is a Genesis Zero 1 frame for £600

http://www.paulmilnescycles.com/genesis ... 4228-p.asp

or maybe an ex-|Lotto Belisol Ridley Fenix ridden by Jurgen Roelandts for £795

http://www.paulmilnescycles.com/ridley- ... 4069-p.asp

Matthewfalle

mfin wrote:

If they do they will probably do the standard thing of saying it's great because it's very hard on here to find anyone who has much bad to say about any bike they've bought (unless it has broken).

Disagree - my Madone is really average and that's why I use it for a winter trainer/communter. Wouldn't get another.

mfin

Matthewfalle wrote:

mfin wrote:

If they do they will probably do the standard thing of saying it's great because it's very hard on here to find anyone who has much bad to say about any bike they've bought (unless it has broken).

Disagree - my Madone is really average and that's why I use it for a winter trainer/communter. Wouldn't get another.

You're more an anomaly than you are the norm though

chillow

In case you're still looking - I actually do have one! I'm pretty sure I paid more for the frame than £610 - maybe around £800. I'm not sure it represented particularly good value at the price I paid, but at £610 it would. It's nice and stiff with a fairly low front end, which is good for me as I wanted something for for short, circa 1 hour, rides. It looks good in my opinion but doesn't really stand out in the black/blue. If I had my time again I would probably go for a brighter colour!

I've changed it a bit since then, but this is it before my first ride:



I built it up from the frameset like you were planning to, so if you have any questions about what I did let me know!

napoleond

Viner used to be really top end bikes, built by Marco Bertoletti.
These Viners are to me the equivalent of a sportsdirect type thing where a company has bought the brand name and is selling generic stuff using that name.

Matthewfalle

But if they cheap enough and the frames are better than more expensive main stream (Trek, Giant, etc) brand ones is there actually a problem?

After all, they seem to get pretty good reviews nd recommendations.

svetty

It's an open mould frame known by various names - FM-066SL being the commonest. The other Viner frame is the same frame but made from lower spec carbon. Weighs 100gms more but is only £499......

neeb

It's impressive that a frame in that price bracket is that light. I'd always assumed that the only way you could get a frame that light while still having it be safe and riding well was with the use of top quality carbon and a complicated, time-consuming layup. Perhaps that's still the case and the FM-066SL is just what you get when you strip the massive marketing markup away from the brand-name frames..

What do you really get these days by paying £3500 for a top-end frame instead of £600 for one of these? Does this frame flex like a noodle or ride like it's made of wood, or is it the case that if you did a blind test with a high-end frame you wouldn't be able to tell much difference?

joe2008

Well, I paid £3500 for a custom built Marco Bertoletti Viner Maxima in 2011.

At the time I could have been persuaded to have paid £5000 for the RS, but I was talked out of it by the salesman. The difference in the Maxima and the RS was in the wishbone rear triangle, in hindsight probably not worth £1500!

They actually agreed to put the RS decals on mine, even though it's just a Maxima, as RS are my initials!

It's an amazing frame, just so stiff, however, it's a fair bit heavier than the Planet X version.

Apart from the name on the side I don't think mine bears a resemblance to the PX version so I can't comment on them.