Some advice on Halfords Carrera TDF

BadCharlie

Tom_Cruise wrote: »

Thinking about getting this myself, very enticing with the discount.

The Triban 3 is out of stock at the moment according to the website but I've been looking at that as well as both are relatively cheap and i cannot afford to spend much more.

I was very tempted with the Triban 3, but what put me off was i could not get my hands on it NOW, or look and ride it before buying it. Also i don't like the 3rings at the front would rather have 2. But the carbon forks would be a BIG +

Tom_Cruise

BadCharlie wrote: »

I was very tempted with the Triban 3, but what put me off was i could not get my hands on it NOW, or look and ride it before buying it. Also i don't like the 3rings at the front would rather have 2. But the carbon forks would be a BIG +

I don't like to wait for things either, and i don't know how long it will be until they have the Triban back in stock - it seems like a very popular bike it could be a while.

Lepidoptera

The newer model Triban 3s, the white ones, don't have the carbon forks anymore - just the older model red ones. There are actually plenty of the white ones in stock if you click on the Reserve Now option, and you can apparently get them to ship to the Republic if you ring up and talk to someone in the cycling department, at least according to another recent thread on this topic.

I'm still very torn about what to do though.

siochain

Out for my 5th spin this evening and well pleased with the purchase.

BadCharlie

The weight of my bike last night is 26pounds or 11.79kg, so what they said on the web site is very much spot on.
I did this last night as i saw someone else posting up that the Carrera TDF was 14kg or at least the bike they got "but i think maybe the person scales was giving the wrong weight".

I have not got to cycle my bike since the weekend, been just using my tank trek7.1 for work & back.

smackyB

Thanks for the tip on this, OP - made a trip out to Drogheda (only place with stock of the medium frame) and bought one yesterday

BadCharlie

Update : Have it for almost a month now. Only use the bike at weekends and use Trek 7.1 for work days.

What i have done to the bike is:
Fitted SPD & also got SPD shoes which takes a bit to get used to.
Continental GP4000s 25mm but have not fitted them yet. Want to get some more miles out of the existing tyres. Back tyre has a little chunk taking out of it all ready. The tyres that came with the bike seem very soft but grippy at the same time.

What i would like to do:
My friend is giving me shimano 105 set, prob will have them in Oct.
Change wheels some time, maybe go for some handbuilt.
Maybe buy carbon fork.
Get better bar tape. The bar tape that comes with the bike is such poor quality.
Maybe change the seat.

Since i bought the bike i think the price has gone up somewhat. So now at its current price and what you would get does not look like a good deal anymore. But knowing Halfords the price will come back down again in the next few months. I hope others who have bought it are enjoying their TDF's. If i had bought a €800 to 1k bike i would still have done changes to the bike (tyres, Wheels in time, SPD) to bring up the price. Im lucky that my friend is giving me the 105set so i do not have to fork out more.

DubVelo

BadCharlie wrote: »

The weight of my bike last night is 26pounds or 11.79kg, so what they said on the web site is very much spot on.
I did this last night as i saw someone else posting up that the Carrera TDF was 14kg or at least the bike they got "but i think maybe the person scales was giving the wrong weight".

That the medium or large? I haven't weighed mine yet but no way is it 14kg!

Squidgy Black

Yeah it wasn't 14kg, the luggage scale I used was out of whack, it came in at a little over 12kg incl mudguards and accessories.

DubVelo

BadCharlie wrote: »

Update : Have it for almost a month now. Only use the bike at weekends and use Trek 7.1 for work days.

What i have done to the bike is:
Fitted SPD & also got SPD shoes which takes a bit to get used to.
Continental GP4000s 25mm but have not fitted them yet. Want to get some more miles out of the existing tyres. Back tyre has a little chunk taking out of it all ready. The tyres that came with the bike seem very soft but grippy at the same time.

What i would like to do:
My friend is giving me shimano 105 set, prob will have them in Oct.
Change wheels some time, maybe go for some handbuilt.
Maybe buy carbon fork.
Get better bar tape. The bar tape that comes with the bike is such poor quality.
Maybe change the seat.

Since i bought the bike i think the price has gone up somewhat. So now at its current price and what you would get does not look like a good deal anymore. But knowing Halfords the price will come back down again in the next few months. I hope others who have bought it are enjoying their TDF's. If i had bought a €800 to 1k bike i would still have done changes to the bike (tyres, Wheels in time, SPD) to bring up the price. Im lucky that my friend is giving me the 105set so i do not have to fork out more.

Agreed the bar tape is poor, very thin. Must get some better stuff on mine actually.
Like yourself I'm going to get some miles out of the tyres before upgrading them, they're much better than I was expecting.
The only other thing I'm changing is the crankset to a compact one. It's geared a bit high, I'm not fit enough to push it up proper hills.

I'm leaving the wheels etc. as it is; tough, cheap bike for winter. Job done!

BadCharlie

DubVelo wrote: »

That the medium or large? I haven't weighed mine yet but no way is it 14kg!

I got the large.
Using this bike for weekends. Have even 1 time in the top 10 on a segment on an uphill at that.

DubVelo

BadCharlie wrote: »

I got the large.
Using this bike for weekends. Have even 1 time in the top 10 on a segment on an uphill at that.

Nice one! I'm trailing halfway down the board on the climbs myself, I'm not blaming the bike.

I have had it up to 65km/h already though.

Dcully

I bought this bike last week,no problems so far but im finding it rough going with the roads around here.
2 choices stay on main roads and better roads or avoid traffic and totally ****e roads.
Im back cycling after 10 + years and doing so purely casually for leisure and keep fit..
Ive clocked up 109kms since Friday but ive been out on it 4 days so far, i expect that frequency to die down ina week or two, trying to train my arse in asap lol.
Im kinda wondering since my cycling will be casual and the roads are so ****e here should i have got a mountain bike instead?

rizzodun

Dcully wrote: »

I bought this bike last week,no problems so far but im finding it rough going with the roads around here.
2 choices stay on main roads and better roads or avoid traffic and totally ****e roads.
Im back cycling after 10 + years and doing so purely casually for leisure and keep fit..
Ive clocked up 109kms since Friday but ive been out on it 4 days so far, i expect that frequency to die down ina week or two, trying to train my arse in asap lol.
Im kinda wondering since my cycling will be casual and the roads are so ****e here should i have got a mountain bike instead?

Have a road bike (Carrera Virtuoso) and mountain bike, you'll never hit anywhere close to the sort of average speed on a MTB that you will on a road bike, so unless the roads are really, really messed up, if you're planning to do cycling on roads the TDF was the way to go IMO. My MTB is used for trail riding only.

DubVelo

rizzodun wrote: »

Have a road bike (Carrera Virtuoso) and mountain bike, you'll never hit anywhere close to the sort of average speed on a MTB that you will on a road bike, so unless the roads are really, really messed up, if you're planning to do cycling on roads the TDF was the way to go IMO. My MTB is used for trail riding only.

Agreed.

There are things you can do to improve the ride; let a little air out of the tyres, adjust the seat position forward or back a little, fit thicker bar tape or gel pads under the tape, fit wider tyres, fit a different seat. In roughly that order.

Tyre pressure can make a surprising difference, you don't want it too low obviously but you only really need them pumped up to the max psi if you're a heavy rider or have luggage, also you can have the front slightly softer than the back as most of your weight is on the back one.

Road bike wheels have more spring than MTB ones anyway because of the longer spokes.

BadCharlie

I also have a hybrid trek 7.1 with wide tyres 35mm. When i take this bike out the back roads which are crap in my area it shakes me and the bike up. Did the back roads some months ago, and when i got home i told the wife im not going on the back roads again until they are fixed up. I could do a few things to help on the back roads, but its just much easyer to avoid the roads.

ezra_pound

Got this bike recently and was going to change to a compact chain ring. Have since realised that there is no need. I'm finding it grand for going up hills to be honest. Obviously if I was a beginner it would be very tough but I've been cycling a hybrid for last year and am now pretty cycle fit.

Thankfully I spoke to a cycling trainer who scoffed at having to upgrade.

BadCharlie

ezra_pound wrote: »

been cycling a hybrid for last

Same as me, and then when i took the road bike for its first hill climb. Lets say i was shocked at how hard it was. I even started to say to my self i hope i did not make a mistake cause on the Hybird hills are never that hard.

But now im going up hills with a much higher average speed then i could ever do on my hybird.

ironkiwi

I'm finding the hills tough on my Carrera TDF to be honest, any suggestions on changing to a compact chainset maybe? Or do I just need to get used to hills as I'm only back in the saddle 2 months after a 10 years out of cycling

rollingscone

ironkiwi wrote: »

I'm finding the hills tough on my Carrera TDF to be honest, any suggestions on changing to a compact chainset maybe? Or do I just need to get used to hills as I'm only back in the saddle 2 months after a 10 years out of cycling

It depends. The gearing ratio may or may not be the problem.

If you're running out of gears early on and having to use a lot of force to turn the cranks then it might be the problem.

On the other hand if it's just hard going that's an engine problem.

I changed my drive train to a compact and bigger range cassette after having conquered my nemesis hill a few times, nit because I couldn't make it up the hill but for the sake of my knees.

ironkiwi

I'm running out of gears and finding myself slogging up hills, I know the engine is good enough but it just seems like torture whenever I come to a hill, I always force my way through it but I shouldn't have to force myself.

Dcully

Running out of gears on steep climbs here too, then again i knew this would be the case as pretty much every review stated the issue with this bike.
I just soldier on tbh.

lennymc

im pretty sure the tdf is a compact. maybe change the rear cassette. Hills dont get any easier, you just get up them faster. There is no easy way up hills.

BadCharlie

I think its Chainset 52/39 & its either 12-26 or 12-25 on the back.
Hills are not easy no mater if i take the Hybird or TDF. On the Hybird im going to spin out and i never use half my gears on it. With the TDF i do not have that problem and use all the gears on the bike. I know my self i need to get fitter but im only doing about 120km a week & then some weights on the side.

Beer Assistant

Just off topic,

today on my TDF i was giving my front deraileur its first tweek after the cables got stretched a bit,

and i noticed on the deraileur it said 7 speed but the block on the back has 8 cogs is this a miss match or should the two work ok

together ?

thanks.

quozl

It's fine. The indexing - amount the derailleur moves between gears - is actually controlled by the shifter at the front.

I think it'd work with anything between 6 and 9 speed. The issue with 10 speed being the narrower chain. I've read that you can even use a 9 speed MTB derailleur with a 10 speed cassette/10 speed shifters if you don't have a 10-speed long cage derailleur and need a way to hack a really low climbing gear onto a road bike. Apparently it works fine despite the small chain width difference but I've no experience of trying it

Beer Assistant

quozl wrote: »

It's fine. The indexing - amount the derailleur moves between gears - is actually controlled by the shifter at the front.

I think it'd work with anything between 6 and 9 speed. The issue with 10 speed being the narrower chain. I've read that you can even use a 9 speed MTB derailleur with a 10 speed cassette/10 speed shifters if you don't have a 10-speed long cage derailleur and need a way to hack a really low climbing gear onto a road bike. Apparently it works fine despite the small chain width difference but I've no experience of trying it

Thats for that

BadCharlie

Just an update on my bike, changed the wheels and tyres last week to Campagnolo Zonda with continental gp4000s. Also changed to clip in pedals, I took a weight of bike before changes and it came in at 11.76kg. New weight is now 10.8kg so almost 1kg drop. Going to change the tubes to something lighter. After that I need to lose weight.

Briando

Looks sweet!! I would bet you wont meet another Carrera with Zondas on it.

BadCharlie

Briando wrote: »

Looks sweet!! I would bet you wont meet another Carrera with Zondas on it.

Thanks,

Will be adding a 9-speed ultegra groupset to it shortly all going well "Free", as my friend has it spare & not using it. Going to change the bar tape to yellow with the change over.

Its a nice bike to ride at the moment, find it soaks up the bumps well. Have 25mm Continental and only pump them to 105psi.

The funny thing about it all, is the wheels cost more then the bike . When the wife found that out she was in shock!