£350-£400 bike options?

larkim

(Posted this in General earlier, but deleted it as it was the wrong sub-forum - my mistake!)

Wife will be getting a new bike based on the insurance settlement, and payout is based on the Rockrider 540 from Decathlon, so £350-400 range alternatives need to be considered.

https://www.decathlon.co.uk/rockrider-s ... 50454.html

100m Suntour XCR, tektro hydraulic brakes, 650b, 14kg

Ignoring the suggestion that I could spend more and get better (as she will point blank refuse that option), I guess these also come into play:-

https://www.gooutdoors.co.uk/calibre-tw ... ke-p433553

https://www.gooutdoors.co.uk/calibre-sa ... ke-p414114

https://www.halfords.com/cycling/bikes/ ... -22-frames

The Go Outdoors bike stands out a little for having RS fork, but it's still a coil jobbie - and I wonder whether those Calibre bikes are losing their discount appeal?

She's 5ft8 with long legs so men's bikes are as much in the frame as women's ones.

Any obvious bargain areas I'm not looking at?

bonzo_banana

If she has long legs for her height then surely woman's geometry becomes slightly more important as men tend to have shorter legs for their height.

I hear what your are saying about the Calibre but the Rockshox fork is still more appealing than the other bikes in fork terms. Definitely you don't want the XCT fork on the other Calibre bike even if your wife is lightweight. I've seen that on sub £200 bikes and the stanchions are only 28mm so you need to be careful with them. The Voodoo is XCM is inbetween XCT and XCR.

Have a good look around though as there are many bargains available from last year's range and the women's sizes are often the slowest to sell out. You'd need to trawl the various cycling shops though.

Of the 4 bikes you listed I would only consider the Rockshox equipped Calibre and the Btwin 540. I just wouldn't pay close to £400 for a XCT or XCM equipped bike. Saying that XCM is much better than XCT in strength and reliability terms.

Apart from heavily discounted bikes from last season there is also the Vitus range at Wiggle/Chain Reaction, Pinnacle at Evans which are shop brand bikes that also deliver great value.

larkim

Cheers, that’s more or less the same conclusions I’ve come to on those ones.

This has just leapt on the radar though - https://www.halfords.com/cycling/bikes/ ... -18-frames

£450, but a combination of 10% off Halfords vouchers that I can get through work, or the BC (and the BC?) discount put this in the frame. XCR air fork, 1x10 deore, shimano hydraulics etc. Looks a cut above some of the others. Weight still a little high at 13.9kg, but if I can get that for more or less the same cash price to me as the Calibre or the 540 then it looks better VFM I think.