Hacker / Commuting Bike

Seth Brundle · 02-07-2021 2:12pm #1

I'm looking to get something to use for both the winters and for commutes.
I've been looking at a few but not much is jumping out at me. My plan is to get an alu for the winter and commutes and upgrade my existing carbon next year, keeping them for leisure use during the dry months.

Requirements:
Full alu or part carbon
Discs rather than pads
Ideally, I'd have a 105 groupset
Under a grand!

The best I've seen is Decathlon's Triban 520 for €850 URL="https://www.decathlon.ie/road-cycling-bikes/308072-69664-rc520-disc-road-bike-105.html#/demodelsize-200xs/demodelcolor-8554421?queryID=e7e3735828393e55cff2ada0773ce9d8&objectID=2734690"]link[/URL
This bike seems to get great reviews e.g. BikeRadar

I had considered second hand but half of the stuff seems nicked or way overpriced and what's left doesn't have the discs.

Anyone able to think of anything similar for a similar price that I could consider.

Mr. Cats · 02-07-2021 4:11pm

I think you’ll have to be very lucky to find what you’re looking for within your budget in current environment. I haven’t seen disc 105 for under a grand in a while and your only hope in normal times recently would be to pick something up in the sales. From what I can see though there’s very little being discounted by the shops given that supply is so tight.

Sorry not to have some positive ideas but I think you will need to compromise on at least one of: disc, 105, new, 1k.

ARX · 02-07-2021 4:42pm

Mr. Cats wrote: »

I think you’ll have to be very lucky to find what you’re looking for within your budget in current environment. I haven’t seen disc 105 for under a grand in a while and your only hope in normal times recently would be to pick something up in the sales. From what I can see though there’s very little being discounted by the shops given that supply is so tight.

Sorry not to have some positive ideas but I think you will need to compromise on at least one of: disc, 105, new, 1k.

Cheapest Canyon 105 disc is 1.5K, cheapest Rose ditto is 1750.

If you had a groupset & brakes, a frameset from Ribble could make sense (afaik framesets attract 4% duty, not the 14% that bikes attract).

I can't see you doing any better than Decathlon.

Seth Brundle · 02-07-2021 4:54pm

Thsnks. And on the Decathlon bike above, any thoughts on it?

CantGetNoSleep · 02-07-2021 5:03pm

Seth Brundle wrote: »

Thsnks. And on the Decathlon bike above, any thoughts on it?

Wheels are not great on stock Decathlon bikes these days I hear. They have their own wheels now and no longer Mavic Aksiums or something. Other than that they get good feedback. Not sure if the brakes are full hydraulic.

02-07-2021 5:09pm

CantGetNoSleep wrote: »

Wheels are not great on stock Decathlon bikes these days I hear. They have their own wheels now and no longer Mavic Aksiums or something. Other than that they get good feedback. Not sure if the brakes are full hydraulic.

R7000 shifters is the give away. I think the R7020 are the hydraulic ones.

Dr_Colossus · 02-07-2021 5:28pm

I’d stick with second hand and keep scouring the usual places, you may get lucky but supply and demand much different now I guess.

Having gone through the sidewalls of two sets of Mavic Ksyrium wheelsets on my old carbon bike I was on the look out for a commuter with discs. Bought a Cube Attaic with 11 speed 105, hydraulic discs for €400 from a Boards member here on the Cycling Adverts section about 18 months ago. Just had to get another set of pedals and some mudguards and was all set. Been going well since with maybe 5k km clocked (still use the better bike also) although discs are not as good as I was imagining. I was expecting to be stuck to the road with hydraulic discs and while they are good if a bit squeaky at times I have DuraAce with Swisstop pads on the better bike and they’re not that different in terms of stopping power.

Weepsie · 02-07-2021 5:37pm

Trp Hy/RDS are the giveaway. They're cable actuated hydraulic brakes.

They're quite good when set up properly, but I don't see anyway you'll get hydraulic brakes on a bike under a grand. Even the tiagra hydraulic bikes are being priced from 1300 up.

There are plenty of genuine non nicked bikes being sold too though, so I wouldn't necessarily write off second hand.

I've just got myself an argon18 xroad frame and stuck a force groupset on it and used wheels I had.

A once 2grand frame and 800quid groupset and it's cost me a fraction of that.

ARX · 02-07-2021 5:38pm

Spec is great for the money, takes fat tyres, but there seems to be a known problem with the wheels, google 'rc520 wheels problems'.

Mr. Cats · 02-07-2021 5:53pm

If youre willing to go sora there’s the trek domaine alu with carbon forks for 1.1k…

https://www.thinkbike.ie/bikes/road-bikes/2021-trek-domane-al-3-disc-road-bike-in-lithium-grey-volt__5965

Large bottle small glass · 02-07-2021 7:53pm

Buy the Triban.

If the wheels are weak point, it's probably just build quality. Give a good wheel builder a few quids to check tensions and stress relief as necessary.

It'll save you doing it later

Mr. Cats · 03-07-2021 9:46am

Mr. Cats wrote: »

If youre willing to go sora there’s the trek domaine alu with carbon forks for 1.1k…

https://www.thinkbike.ie/bikes/road-bikes/2021-trek-domane-al-3-disc-road-bike-in-lithium-grey-volt__5965

Sorry that was a terrible suggestion, don’t really know why I posted it. If you’re anyway mechanically minded at all, building up something yourself is a great thing to do. Sourcing the parts, learning how to put them together and having something that you really know every bit of at the end is very rewarding. You can choose between new and secondhand bits as you go, depending on availability and budget. The 2 key parts to source are frame and groupset. There’s a new 105 hydro groupset on adverts currently asking 600. Might be a little pricey given list price but at least gives an idea. Disc frames are a little rarer but you could try a wanted ad here. Anyway with some careful planning and compromises you should be able to build something up for close to budget.

Hacker / Commuting Bike

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