Due to a knee injury in October 2013 I haven’t been able to ride any of my bikes properly for a little while, I ended up having a knee arthroscopy in December 2014 from which my knee is slowly recovering.

I’m trying to do a few more road miles to keep my knee moving, build up muscle and ultimately not put too much strain through it.

I’ve been riding a 1980s Peugeot Road bike that I have made fit but it is still not quite right, and i’m looking for a cheapish road bike to tide me over till i can get back out on the mountain bike. My budget is about £500-650.

I have found a Saracen Tenet 3 2014 bike for £500, it seems to suit my requirements and has mudguard and rack mounts which will be handy for commuting when I’m fit and recovered.

Has any one had any experience with these bikes, own one etc?

Review seem to say they are a touch heavy, but coming from a steel road bike I guess I could live with that. For the price as well the spec looks great.

http://www.evanscycles.com/products/saracen/tenet-3-2014-road-bike-ec060483

i thought they were ok to be fair. didn’t exactly blow my socks off but it was a pretty nice bike to ride. i can do you the 2015 tenet 3 for 600. full carbon forks and disc brakes are your headline differences.

I’ve got a Tenet 2, and being entirely non-roadie before that, have little to compare it to. It’s much more comfortable than my steel single speed. I replaced the Tektro pads with Kool Stop. Got it up and down a load of French cols just fine, including one with a couple of miles of gravel at the top.

Thanks for the offer toppers but I already have a set of mavic wheels to put on it, and I didn’t really want to sell them with the Peugeot.

I’m just looking for a nice stable bike, I’m not going to be racing on it so don’t need anything to serious. I just wasn’t sure if it would be any good!

I doubt you’ll be disappointed.

For those that replied thanks!

The bike turned up pretty quick, it assembled nicely and was pretty much set up straight out the box.

It was reasonably light to start with and is even lighter with my Mavic Aksiums on. The ride is harsh when compared to my old steel Peugeot but I can learn to live with that. For the £500 I paid from Winstanleys I’m really pleased.

Although it could do with a black rear dérailleur…..

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Nice that, Like the colour scheme you need to lose the toe clips though go for proper clipless pedals, much betterer.

I think the colour scheme is great, it has a really chunky down tube but the graphics really break up the lines. The orange is also metallic and really catches the sun.

Due to my knee I’m going to keep the cages so it’s easier for me to keep moving my foot position. Eventually they will be going though as they weigh a ton!

Missed this thread first time, I bought a tenet 2 for less than £400 last October and I’ve been loving it. Wheels are cack and it’s a bit heavy but I’ve done about 900 miles on it so far and beaten almost all my strava prs set on a decent carbon bike with decent wheels. Full length guards and 25mm tyres fit nicely too.

I think at full price they’re average but at the reduced rates they go for because they’re not a ‘name’ they’re a bargain.

Didn’t realise the new one had discs, hmmm.

Like that a lot.

Yeah the new one has disks but at this price point I just figured they would add weight. Plus the deals aren’t as good!

Out of interest and it is at 9.5kg with the rubbish pedals. They weigh a fair bit so may be able to save some weight and get down to 9.25kg ish…

I was debating whether to put my fizik Arione saddle on it too but I quite like the orange on the kore one it’s been supplied with. Colour coordination matters!

Considering one of these as a commuter and for general road duties. What’s the tyre clearance like? I notice that it comes with 25mm, but I normally use 28mm with mudguards for commuting. Plus I’ve got a lot of gravel roads nearby which means that fitting a slightly wider tyre in future would be a nice-to-have option too.

Cheers.

I’m tempted by one of these too but I’m not sure on sizing and have no stockists nearby. I appear to be between the 56 and the 58 and am 5’11” with a 34″ inside leg.

Any thoughts?

presume you’ve found this
http://www.winstanleysbikes.co.uk/product/79788/Saracen_Tenet_3_2015_Bike_RN952352
SARACEN TENET 3 ROAD BIKE
52cm,54cm,56cm,58cm,60cm
was £949.99 now £399.99!

via http://www.bikebargains.co.uk/latest

Shh v666ern! I don’t want ’em selling out while I pontificate over sizing!

😳

🙂

Shh v666ern! I don’t want ’em selling out while I pontificate over sizing!

I thought that too – but they’re building up a 56cm for me to try at lunchtime. My first foray into roadbikes since I was 14, brought about by my p!ss-wet through “getting the miles in” ride last night on the MTB…

As at this morning they had 18 in stock in 56cm size.

How tall are you proutster?

Can you let me know how it fits?

How tall are you proutster?

Can you let me know how it fits?

Just over 5ft 10″ and it seems to fit right – a quick spin around the car park and it felt good, plus the blokey who served me said that it looked right too.

As I’m such a road bike novice, that’ll do for me.

Very impressed so far, seems very light (compared to my mountain bikes) and well built and was set-up well by Winstanleys. Bought some mudguards whilst I was there, so going to fit those this evening and go out for my first spin into the darkside.

Ha, thanks v666ern, that’s the deal I was thinking of too. The price was too good to ignore, I’ve just ordered a 58cm.

Well, after a frustrating 4 hours fitting the mudguards – BTW Axiom Roadrunner LX’s are a bitch to fit to this bike – I’ve just come back from a 5 mile spin around the block.

Other than needing to raise the saddle by about 1/2″, there’s nothing that I need to do to it – Winstanley’s have set it up well, the indexing’s spot on and I’m very impressed with the brakes – just needing a light squeeze from on the hoods to slow for junctions etc.

So as a first road bike for many years, I’m impressed – the value seems great and the service from Winstanleys was spot on 😀

Good to hear proutster. I’m moving up from a flat-bar hybrid so I’m looking forward to riding a real road bike and getting use to riding with drop-bars.

What was tricky about fitting the Axiom guards? I’ll be installing an Axiom Streamliner rack but haven’t decided what guards yet.

Burts

What was tricky about fitting the Axiom guards?

The brake caliper at the rear means that you can only use 1 stay on that side and you have to put multiple bends in that one.

Plus there’s very little clearance at the chain-stay bridge for the bolt that holds the guard on, I had to file the head down considerably – it’s only really an issue when taking the wheel on or off, as the clearance increases once the wheel’s in the drop-outs properly.

Lastly the mounting bolts aren’t long enough to go through two stays and into either the fork or the frame – luckily I had some slightly longer screws of the same size and they did the trick.

But now that they’re on, they seem pretty secure and I’m quite looking forward to seeing how dry they keep me when I ride in the wet 😳

Does it have proper rack mounts and how is the tyre clearance? Could it take much larger tyres?

Also, what about the pink decals? Can they be removed easily?

ptb4
Does it have proper rack mounts and how is the tyre clearance? Could it take much larger tyres?

Also, what about the pink decals? Can they be removed easily?

Only one set of mounts at the drop-outs and none on the seat-stays, so probably not the easiest to fit a rack to.

Apparently, from a google search before I bought it, they can take 28c tyres but not with mudguards (see my above comments about mudguard clearance anyway).

Decals, no idea and no intention of trying to peel them off. IMO they’re not a loud pink and complement the rest of the colour-scheme.

I guess a rack may work with a seatpost adaptor http://www.tredz.co.uk/.M-Part-Seat-Clamp-Mount_34111.htm?sku=79197

Axiom streamliner racks work as well if you don’t want to get a collar with mountings, but I’ve just got a carradice Sqr slim for my Tenet, it’s way better than expected. Mines done 3700 miles now according to Strava, still going strong.

Axiom streamliner racks work as well if you don’t want to get a collar with mountings

That’s good to know, as I ordered one from Winstanleys with the Tenet. Axiom Streamliner Road DLX

Disappointing to hear about the clearance as I was hoping to fit 28mm tyres with guards for the winter. I guess I’ll see how I feel about the 25mm after the summer and shop around for some different mudguard options.

Anyone know the weight of this?

Is it a full carbon fork, including steerer tube?

Some sites show the weight as 9.52kg. It also implies that the fork is full carbon: http://www.manualbikes.co.uk/saracen-tenet-3-2015

After reading this thread yesterday I sold my tenet 2 to a mate at work and ordered one of these from winstanleys.

It’s a ridiculously good deal, I specially as they’re selling mine for the same price.

I just bought a Tenet 3 on above deal before reading this post (bike will be in the post), does seem like a ridiculously good deal. Sadly the only reason I needed to buy is because some picky robbed my Lamond! Anyone have good tips on the best type of lock? I just purchased a Kryptonite D-Lock. Do you think that will be enough??

Mine came yesterday, spend last night building it up, seems decent, brakes are unbelievably fiddly, they might get replaced soon. First ride to work in an hour, fingers crossed it all works nicely.

Happy days! It all worked, couple of minor adjustments needed later, and I’m going to try and bodge the mudguards on while the wife is out tonight. The brakes are loads better than I expected, bit fiddly to adjust but they’ll do for now, might get some spyres for it later in the year. Bargain for £400.

Stupid Flickr

Oh I give up! Why won’t the pictures work any more?

Wahey!

It looks sweet. Still um’ing and ah’ing myself.

Gaar, too late. 🙁

Crikey, they didn’t last long!

There were still loads left on Saturday apparently.