Full carbon road bike for 400 quid. What could go wrong?

[shouldbworking]

richardxjr said:

That's about 6 sold off here.

shouldbworking, let us know when it arrives. Pics!

Anyone found the same frame elsewhere yet? It's got external downtube cabling like the PX Pro Carbon and similar looking geo but the fork is different and seat stays look thicker.

Edited by richardxjr on Friday 15th August 09:05

Should be arriving today... my latest chainreaction bits have just arrived so lots of fettling to do bonus the reverb came with the bleed kit which I didn't think it would

[richardxjr]

AlexFRP said:

They are the same EAN numbers as Argos which means:

3324518 - 55cm
3324525 - 58cm

Hope that helps. Homebase you have to pay £3.95 delivery I believe where as Argos is free delivery or collect in store.

Alex

Cool. We're expecting a bank holiday XX% of everything @ Homebase soon hence the interest there.

[anonymous-user]

richardxjr said:

That's about 6 sold off here.

shouldbworking, let us know when it arrives. Pics!



Anyone found the same frame elsewhere yet? It's got external downtube cabling like the PX Pro Carbon and similar looking geo but the fork is different and seat stays look thicker.

Edited by richardxjr on Friday 15th August 09:05

I found a site that says the frame is the same as Carrera Virago / Carraro 953 Valles / Viner Fiesole

Edited by anonymous-user on Friday 15th August 12:10

[Barchettaman]

I would have preferred a cheaper finishing kit (XLC or Zoom instead of Ritchey) and a Hollowtech bottom bracket - the current Sora crankset is really rather nice - then it really would have been perfect.
Even the Octalink crankset from the Claris gruppo would have been better. But hey ho, it's an easy ipgrade and sell on.

Regarding sizing, beginners should realize that if they are 'between sizes', stems can be swapped out and/or flipped to reduce effective top tube length, seatposts can be changed for zero offset, etc etc. It's relatively easy to make a modern road bike fit a wide variety of people without worrying about the handling going to st.

I would suggest the 55cm for 5'6"-5'10
58cm for those bigger.

Oh, and one important consideration for anyone buying this as their first roadbike. You'll need a floor- or trackpump as roadbike tyres take a LOT of psi. Roll around on one without enough pressure in the tyres and you'll destroy the wheelset, and quickly!

http://road.cc/content/review/52262-carrera-virago

Review of the same frame in its Halfords guise.

Edited by Barchettaman on Friday 15th August 13:15

Edited by Barchettaman on Friday 15th August 13:58

[richardxjr]

^ agree with that. Got a spare 105 crankset & BB for mine

Sq taper BBs weigh a bloody ton, so there's a bit of weight saving already.

[shouldbworking]

Well, its here.

For these photos I've not properly assembled and set it up, merely fitted the components so its bike shaped. Standard affair of having to fit the seatpost, front wheel, straighten the stem, fit the bars and adjust headset. I haven't even inflated the tyres yet as even putting it together is a bit of a challenge with a broken arm.

Brake calipers are the only real question mark for me, bearing no branding that I can see, they have a nice bite point set but that's all I can say without riding it yet. No rack mounts or mudguard fittings.

https://plus.google.com/photos/1029919878598822246...

Edit it came with pedals and tools to assemble, but I'm intending to fit spds so left the pedals off.

Edited by shouldbworking on Friday 15th August 16:07

[TheJelley]

That looks, decent. The finish appears to be good, very tempted, but I have no need for one.

Question for the group, do I swap my Alu Boardman Road race for this?


Cheers

[Gizmoish]

Comparing those pics to the ones on the Road review of the Virago, it's not the same frame. Very similar, and might be the same fork though.

Can you measure the seat tube (centre of BB to centre of top tube) to see whether it's accurately 58cm? Pondering a 55cm one myself... add a full 11-sp 105 group and it'd be great value http://www.merlincycles.com/shimano-105-5800-11-sp...

[Barchettaman]

That looks very nice indeed!
The Vittoria Zaffiro tyres are a nice upgrade from the Kendas on the Argos website.
There looks to be sensible tyre clearance too for 25c rubber.
Top work. Thanks for posting pictures!

[lukeyman]

Looks better than on the Argos site! Thankfully.

My colours too.

[shouldbworking]

Gizmoish said:

Comparing those pics to the ones on the Road review of the Virago, it's not the same frame. Very similar, and might be the same fork though.

Can you measure the seat tube (centre of BB to centre of top tube) to see whether it's accurately 58cm? Pondering a 55cm one myself... add a full 11-sp 105 group and it'd be great value http://www.merlincycles.com/shimano-105-5800-11-sp...

The 58cm measurement is from the centre of the bb to the top of the seat tube (ie beyond the top tube to where the seatpost clamp is). Centre of bb to centre of top tube is closer to 53.

Yes, bags of tyre clearance. 25s would be no problem at all, I suspect you could just get away with 28s if for some reason you wanted to.

[Barchettaman]

TheJelley said:

That looks, decent. The finish appears to be good, very tempted, but I have no need for one.

Question for the group, do I swap my Alu Boardman Road race for this?


Cheers

Cheap enough to buy the ventura and keep the Boardman? N+1, and all that?

[Kell]

Just as an aside - the £699 Argos price was already a reduction - if this post is anything to go by. The bike started off at £1,399

http://www.bikeradar.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=40...

Which makes £400 ridiculously good value.

[z4RRSchris99]

it was never worth £1400, it's a marketing ploy...

like that reduced wine in sainsburys wasn't worth £9 when it's 1/3 off reduced to £6

[Usget]

Kell said:

Just as an aside - the £699 Argos price was already a reduction - if this post is anything to go by. The bike started off at £1,399

http://www.bikeradar.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=40...

Which makes £400 ridiculously good value.

They would have sold precisely 0 of these at £1400. Not even to Mad Jack McMad's lycra-wearing cousin.

But I agree with the second part of your post, it's great value at £400. Wheels and tyres alone account for nearly 1/4 of that!

[jfdi]

Well thanks to this thread n has just gone up by 1 bringing the current fleet count to 10, oops!

Bought as a winter bike for the wife. Just picked up and built it, very impressed with the quality, as someone said previously only questionable none branded part is the brake calipers but they look fine and are hardly a fortune to upgrade. At £400 it's an absoulte bargin.

If it's dry tomorrow I'll take for a blast and report back. I'm not allowed at the moment as it's wet out and I'll get it dirty. So much for it being a winter bike!

[bullitinhead]

got mine on order, typically I read the reserve bit wrong, so now have to wait until the end of the month to collect.

Bit I read wrong was "can be collected in four days time" read it as "collect before four days time"... bugger off on holibobs tommorrow so have to wait till I get back at the end of the month to retrieve it from Mr Argos. still it gives me time to thing about and purchase upgrades in the time waiting...

so far Ive got
new lights
tyres and inner tubes ( slime proberbly)
pedals SPD a must

on the look out for 105 group set ,possibly


Bullit

[anonymous-user]

@ 800 it was competing with Boardman etc so would struggle to sell, especially with the poor advert
But @ 400 it does seem a steal, nothing else out there comes close.
Mine is being delivered on Tueaday, can't wait !

[JMAK2804]

We have been looking for decent budget road bikes for the last few weeks and have been tempted by the various Halfords sales on the Boardman range.

We resigned ourselves to waiting until next year and doing the Manchester 100 on our hybrids! Seen this thread yesterday and can't believe the price of this bike! Me and my brother have ordered one each, also my nectar card gets me another 70 quid off - brand new full carbon road bike for £330! Result.

We pick them up next Wednesday, will post back with our findings!

[Gizmoish]

What's this about the nectar card discount?