Trax Rigid Mens Mountain Bike - 19" - good deal?

ireland.man

Hey all, I'd just like some advice about this bike I found on the Halford's site:

http://www.halfords.ie/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/product_storeId_11101_catalogId_15551_productId_770971_langId_-1_categoryId_212589#tab3

It's a Trax TR.1 Rigid Mens Mountain Bike for 99e. Now I'll be using it to travel about 50km a week and mostly in urban areas. I've seen what average prices are for bikes(!) so I'm a little concerned as to why this one would be so cheap. All the reviews seem quite positive but I don't know whether to trust them or not. Is there any advice I can get here about this bike? Anyone have any experience of this brand, or of cheap bikes from Halfords?

Cheers

Raam

It's rubbish. Don't get it.

Darkglasses

You're right to be concerned. A bike of that quality would not be able to cope with regular commuting, and would end up costing much more to repair or eventually replace

rollingscone

ireland.man wrote: »

Hey all, I'd just like some advice about this bike I found on the Halford's site:

http://www.halfords.ie/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/product_storeId_11101_catalogId_15551_productId_770971_langId_-1_categoryId_212589#tab3

It's a Trax TR.1 Rigid Mens Mountain Bike for 99e. Now I'll be using it to travel about 50km a week and mostly in urban areas. I've seen what average prices are for bikes(!) so I'm a little concerned as to why this one would be so cheap. All the reviews seem quite positive but I don't know whether to trust them or not. Is there any advice I can get here about this bike? Anyone have any experience of this brand, or of cheap bikes from Halfords?

Cheers

You get what you pay for I suppose, one of my neighbours has one and it seems to work for him with the caveat that he's paid two or three times the value of the bike in service and repairs.

but that can be down to lack of basic maintenance.

If all you want is something comfortable and reliable for relatively short journeys it might be fine, Decathlon in Belfast also offer a lot of decent budget bikes, or you can get second hand versions of a decent branded hybrid.

If your daily journeys are short and relatively flat you might consider a singlespeed (not a fixie!) for the increased simplicity/lack of things to go wrong.

Whatever you opt for get a decent track pump (one that stays at home and has a pressure gauge) and a bottle of chain oil, just keep your tyre pressure up at the reccomended level for your chosen bike and put some lube on every second day and you'll sail past most of the common problems for starter commutes.

ireland.man

rollingscone wrote: »

You get what you pay for I suppose, one of my neighbours has one and it seems to work for him with the caveat that he's paid two or three times the value of the bike in service and repairs.

but that can be down to lack of basic maintenance.

If all you want is something comfortable and reliable for relatively short journeys it might be fine, Decathlon in Belfast also offer a lot of decent budget bikes, or you can get second hand versions of a decent branded hybrid.

If your daily journeys are short and relatively flat you might consider a singlespeed (not a fixie!) for the increased simplicity/lack of things to go wrong.

Whatever you opt for get a decent track pump (one that stays at home and has a pressure gauge) and a bottle of chain oil, just keep your tyre pressure up at the reccomended level for your chosen bike and put some lube on every second day and you'll sail past most of the common problems for starter commutes.

Great advice, thanks!

And yeah, it's disappointing but not together surprising that for 99e it might be a bit rubbish. I don't think it's worth getting a bike that carries a high risk of big maintenance costs in the short-term.

rollingscone

For my short hops around the city centre I have a twenty year old steel framed mountain bike with a single speed drive train (only one gear).

It's highly unattractive to thieves and while it could be likened to riding a farm gate with windscreen wipers for brakes it's actually very fun to use.

Except on hills of course. ...

My point is tell us what your commute will be and we might be able to point you towards something better.

hypersonic

I bought one of these on special last year for 82euro and converted it to a single speed, it's grand for short journeys. you'd probably get 3000km out of it before it disintegrates.
but keep in mind the wheels are only rated for 85kg.
on the upside it's near thief-proof.