new bike

theduke1

hi
new here and need some advice, thinking of buying racing bike in halfords,carrera vanquish is the name of it and need to know if this is a good one as reveiws are mixed. my budget is limited as im getting it through the cycle to work scheme. cheers

donalgeraghty

id go to a decent bike shop in the scheme.halfords are absolutely rubbishhhhh.

Eathrin

Ye if you are using the scheme definitely get a bike from a decent shop. Halfords bikes will break within no time and their service is awful. Get a bike from a well known brand. I know nothing of the carrera vanquish and have never owned a carrera but I can strongly guess that it wont amount to much after a year.

novarapid

Cian A wrote: »

I know nothing of the carrera vanquish and have never owned a carrera but I can strongly guess that it wont amount to much after a year.

they are quite a good brand for the money is what alot of people say, 2 other people on here got them lately and are happy with them. Carerra get good right ups in bike magazines.

Service from halford can be a little _____, so if you know nothing about bikes they mighntn't be the best option.
are you using the bike off road? if not get a hybrid.

Eathrin

novarapid wrote: »

are you using the bike off road? if not get a hybrid.

Why would you get a hybrid for full on road. Hybrids are a mix. I have a hybrid and its great but theyre not intended to have the road speed of a racer + they are used for light off road.

theduke1

problem i have guys is that there areonly two bike shops that my company are dealing with and halfords being one the other has notthing. its a road bike i want not a hybrid

novarapid

sorry was confusing the bike with a mtb, carerra vengence.

Eathrin

Even if carrera are good they are the kind of company which will vanish within a few years and reappear under a new name(unknown)

DirkVoodoo

Cian A wrote: »

Even if carrera are good they are the kind of company which will vanish within a few years and reappear under a new name(unknown)

Carrera make decent, fantastically priced bikes. The vanquish seems to get good owner reviews from cycling forums. They have been selling bikes through Halfords for at least 3 years, I can't see this changing in the immediate future. Even if they did vanish, what does this matter? All the parts are standard fare from SRAM, shimano, etc. and an aluminium frame isn't going to last forever anyway.

If you are going to Halfords and want a road bike through cycle to work: "Boardman"...that's all you need to know. You can only use cycletowork tax saving once every few years (is it 5?) so maybe using the full 1000 euro limit (or slightly less depending on your tax bracket, financial circumstances).

BostonB

Halfords in Liffey Valley do the boardmans.

Paul Kiernan

I agree completely with Dirkvoodoo, the Carrera is a fine bike but if you can stretch to the Boardman Comp at €800 or Boardman Team at €1000 you'll have a really good bike. See this review http://www.bikeradar.com/road/gear/category/bikes/road/product/comp-08-22946 from Bikeradar.

Note the Carrera can take mudguards, the Boardmans can't which may be important to you if you use it to commute.

Big problem with bikes from Halfords is that they don't assemble them or set them up well, but you're getting such value for money with these bikes, who cares.

theduke1

cheers guys
i think i got it sorted,went to the other bike shop and looked at two good bikes a claude butler and a giant defy they seem to be better bikes for a little more money so probaly go with one of them:)

kona

theduke1 wrote: »

cheers guys
i think i got it sorted,went to the other bike shop and looked at two good bikes a claude butler and a giant defy they seem to be better bikes for a little more money so probaly go with one of them:)

The giant that is ment to compete with the Vanquish in the 700ish bracket is muck.
Similar spec to the mid range carrera.

I have to say there is some real either uninformed or prejiduced ****e spoken in this thread.


A good guage is to find out exactley what warranty each company offer with their bikes. Run away from anything less than 10 years on a aluminium frame. You will find with carrera that *some* of their bikes seem to be copies of older models of prestige brands. I know their carrera Banshee is a carbon copy of the Kona stinky 2005.

kona

Cian A wrote: »

Ye if you are using the scheme definitely get a bike from a decent shop. Halfords bikes will break within no time and their service is awful. Get a bike from a well known brand. I know nothing of the carrera vanquish and have never owned a carrera but I can strongly guess that it wont amount to much after a year.

Stop talking out your arse. You admit to not knowing anything about carrera so how can you possibly give advice on one?

Halfords sell a bunch of bikes, including: Boardman, Voodoo, Van nichlas(spelling?), Norco, Rocky mountain, GT, Kona.

Applying your logic to them, they would ALL be crap and amount to nothing:rolleyes:


Halfords also sell crap bikes for cheapskates(yes its a big market because there are lots of morons, One of which is you im guessing due to your view of all halfords bikes being ****): Apollo, Trax, Shockwave and Im sure plenty others.

Stop talking about stuff you dont have the first clue about.

BostonB

Some of the guys on the UK bike forums had Carrera bikes road and hybrid bikes from halfords and seem to have no problems with them, even with lots of miles. Have no experience of them myself.

theduke1

its between a claude butler san remo 2200 gears for e500 or giant defy 3 2010 with sora gears for e700. i been told theres not much in differen,any help?

cdaly_

I've been riding a Giant FCR3 with sora groupset for the last 18 months. Well pleased with it.

alfalad

theduke1 wrote: »

its between a claude butler san remo 2200 gears for e500 or giant defy 3 2010 with sora gears for e700. i been told theres not much in differen,any help?

Giant would have a better resale value for when you want to trade up between the Giant name and the better gears, my vote would be the giant.