The Bicycle Thread

[wod]

The trek 4300 disc looks great if you can stretch to it.
evanscycles is a respected chain. Go during the week if poss to avoid weekend monkey staff.

Are you saying you will occassionally ride it on tarmac roads, or occassionally off road? If the latter, you will need different tyres. The lockout is for going up hills - you don't notice it much on the flat unless you are hammering it.

I can stretch to the 4300 disc as it will save me money in the long run so I don't need to spend on upgrading parts On a cheaper bike I think.

Well it will be a bit of both, the tarmac riding will be when I'm off for a ride and on the way back etc nothing like to and from work doing miles a day.

[charlesr]

Well m bike will be delivered tomorrow after sitting at Gateshead ups since Saturday morning
Less than 2 days from Germany but weekend and bank holiday have held things up

Can wait as half shift at work tomorrow finishing a 10 am but will probably arrive at 6pm lol

And?? Pics?

[Kieran76]

Had a great result from Trek with my bike, they cannot get the old 7.3 fx frame so they are giving me a whole new 7.3 fx with disc brakes. Should have it by Friday, cannot wait as even a few days travelling by train to work is taking its toll.

[charlesr]

Amaze!

[tyjay]

And?? Pics?

Sorry been having a blast

First great service from canyon basically 2 days to uk but weekend bank holiday screwed up things.
Super well packaged had to fit wheels, handlebars, seat and pedals my own none are supplied not even plastic cheapies.
You also get a torque wrench basic one plus pump for your forks as there deflated.

Only thing I was worried about was colour as black was another 3 weeks so went forest green
It almost looks black in certain light with metallic touch to it well pleased with the colour, much prefer the green and recommend to anyone that's interested in buying one.
Spec wise it's up there full fox shocks, avid elixir brakes and xt gears.
Light weight as well probably lighter than the Boardman that I just had and that didn't have full suspension.
Never rode a full sus before but the pro pedal on the rear shock works fantastic near lock out when pedalling hard
And a little give when going downhill, open it eats up the bumps, front are super smooth also.

Had a couple of probs with it no braking power and the rear gears slipped terribly.
Emailed canyon last night they got back in touch this morning and told me to take it to my lbs and they would pay for the repairs
But a quick trip to halfords Nd the guy told me what to do with the brakes now they throw me over the bars lol
And YouTube for tweaking setting up the gears as my lbs is closed on Wednesday, halfords said 3 weeks for repair.
But don't have to Bother now as all is good
Bottom line fantastic bike, fantastic customer service can't ask for anymore tbh.

I'll get a couple pics up later once it's been washed again

[wod]

Very nice bike.

good to see they package there bikes up well that bike guard box is interesting, quite a bit of assembly to do then.

[tyjay]

Anyway I can upload pics from my iPad to here?

Cheers

[charlesr]

No, we do not allow pics to be stored on the forum. Please use photobucket or there's probably some Apple cloud thing you can then link to?

[tyjay]

Couple of pics last night out in our woods right state I was in lol

[wod]

Nice, I've come home today with a trek 4500 spent more than I was going to, bike was 560.

lockout on the front forks is very good, I had a 5 mile ride back on Tarmac roads and it was spot on.

Just one thing I'm wondering about is the gears and brakes on the 4500 I've bought over the 4300 are much better to be worth spending the extra as not sure if shimano hydraulic disc brakes are better than Hayes dyno sport ones and a remote lockout on the bars.

[charlesr]

You've got a deore rear mech which is lovely and alivio cranks which are creeping towards the high spec lo weight arena. Also Alivio shifters. You made the right choice.

If you are intending to ride it all year around including in the mud/rain the best upgrade will be some sealed gear cables to prevent the crud getting in. Only around ?45 fitted and will ensure smooth gear shifting for a very long time. Without them, expect to change cables every spring (I'm about to get mine done with sealed - gears are no hopeless on mine even with XT everywhere, due to crud in the lines)

If it was me, I'd ditch the lockout on the bars and just use the one on the forks. The added weight and complexity isn't worth it. But I've never used a bar mounted lockout, so maybe you'll love it.

[charlesr]

tyjay: love the look of that canyon. Look at the size of that head stock

Everyone seems to be following my white on black scheme - I'll have to start a new colour trend for this year

However, toe straps?? Terror. Clipless/spd or flats and shin pads surely for your next upgrade?

[Ginger Tosser]

Had a look at some Hybrids today. Tested a Marin, Trek, Ridgeback and a Whyte.

The Marin didn't feel right, the Trek the same as well.

Really liked both the Ridgeback (Quest) and the Whyte (Portobello) - the latter might get the nod as it was fast!





The Ridgeback frame was a little bit small for me, so they (On Your Bike - Birmingham) are getting the next size up for me to try.

Praise the Cycle2work scheme!

[wod]

You've got a deore rear mech which is lovely and alivio cranks which are creeping towards the high spec lo weight arena. Also Alivio shifters. You made the right choice.

If you are intending to ride it all year around including in the mud/rain the best upgrade will be some sealed gear cables to prevent the crud getting in. Only around ?45 fitted and will ensure smooth gear shifting for a very long time. Without them, expect to change cables every spring (I'm about to get mine done with sealed - gears are no hopeless on mine even with XT everywhere, due to crud in the lines)

If it was me, I'd ditch the lockout on the bars and just use the one on the forks. The added weight and complexity isn't worth it. But I've never used a bar mounted lockout, so maybe you'll love it.

thats good to know with not having a bike for years i wasnt sure what was decent gear these days.

the remote lockout from what i can see on the bike i cant take it off, its operated by a cable but its fine for what i will be doing light trail use to start with.

http://img135.imageshack.us/img135/9615/rszimg0306.jpg

[charlesr]

Nice.

A couple of things:
Unless you ride a lot at night on busy roads, you should take the wheel reflectors off. They unbalance the wheel and can felt at higher speeds as a sort of throbbing.
Not sure if it's just the photo, but the angle of you saddle looks quite sloped downwards. Experiment with the angle quickly to find your optimal angle or face sore bum!

Also, did they get you to sit on the Bontrager saddle tuner and thus give you the correct saddle? Bontrager saddles come in a variety of different widths and use a pad to determine your size. You sit on it and it reads out a colour code which matches to your ideal saddle profile/width. Bontrager unconditionally guarantee your satisfaction if you have used this and will swap it with a different saddle size until you are happy. If you haven't done this, I highly recommend it - I've just done it myself to get a Bontrager Affinity R - which is actually a road saddle, but it's lighter than the MTB ones for the same price.... not sure if this was a good idea or not - the cut out at the back might snag while flossing crack on the downhills - guessing your evoke saddle is probably what I should have got, but my bike is pretty heavy so any reductions are good.