[Closed] Anybody own a Van Rysel road bike?

If I was spending £1900 on a caliper road bike I think I'd look elsewhere. At that price there's so much choice.

What makes you think its a steal? What bits do you like?

What's your priority? Gears, wheels, carbon frame?

It’s the wheelset which makes me think it’s good value. Other bikes in that price bracket seem to compromise on the wheelset. The Boardman website has the Air 9.6 at £2.5k which is also species well but everywhere has ran out of stock of my size (large).

Do you know if it's a decent frame or a crap one?

Latter is a classic way of shouting/lying about good value

No, but my wife has one of the bikes from a year or 2 ago branded B’Twin.
It’s light, stiff and handles well. I and she are really impressed by it, no issues at all. We too bought it as it was brilliant value, couldn’t find anything close short of a PX pro carbon and we wanted to buy in a shop.

OP I’m looking at this potentially being my next bike. Same reason as you that the specs, especially with those wheels, are pretty amazing for the current asking price. Thinking that price may go lower over coming months too.

@c-a the frame is uci accredited and the reviews I found (not many around) said it’s a high quality frame that valences stiffness with a good bump absorption.

Just work/corona/economy situation stopping me pressing go tbh

Cynical, how would I recognise a decent frame from a crap one? Genuine question, because I’m a bit of a layman when it comes to road bikes.

There’s something I quite like about the name of the bike also, as it’s probably rather unknown.

I'd have a Trek Emonda SL6 over that if I was looking for a rim brake road bike.

Edward it's subjective and also about experience. I'm not saying in know much but I did sell bikes and stripped some down to weigh the frames (not the only factor obvs but why not make a bike light if you can?). I would ignore much of reviews, unless a consistent criticism is there. Many journos seem to rely on crap like "the wheels run smooth and spin up well" type bollocks.

To that end it may not matter much, hopefully there are fewer crap frames around these days (see below*).

It’s light, stiff and handles well. I and she are really impressed by it, no issues at all. We too bought it as it was brilliant value,

How many other comparable bikes have you ridden? Most people are happy with what they buy, especially if they've not ridden much else. But they are happy*.

I have no idea what UCI accreditation is, might it be a money spinner for UCI, hardly the most honest or altruistic organisation, and a business.

For £1350 you could have a giant tcr advanced 1 which comes with full ultegra. And with the 450 quid saved you can get a pair of 50mm carbon prime wheels from crc, which are substantially lighter than the cosmics.

That said, all reviews of the decathlon bikes I've ever seen have been good so im sure it's a great bike, but I don't think it's a bargain as such.

Tpbiker, that’s a good shout. I used to own a tcr before it got pinched. Cynical, I do try and take reviews with a pinch of salt as you say. I’m pretty sure manufacturers pay journalists to ‘review’ their products, which is partly why I opened this thread.

I don’t think manufacturers pay journo’s, but they do incentivise.
TCR is a good shout. https://www.pedalon.co.uk/acatalog/giant-tcr-advanced-pro-1.html?gclid=CjwKCAjwsMzzBRACEiwAx4lLG0gFhMuBO_kLYJu6NtvOiosQQ4uD5-Kdih6b4C-l727FL_hk2QjWLhoCQeYQAvD_BwE

How many other comparable bikes have you ridden? Most people are happy with what they buy, especially if they’ve not ridden much else. But they are happy*.

Not hundreds, but 10 or 15 of a similar type. I stripped it down before rebuilding as I do with all new bikes and the build quality seemed good, didn’t weigh it but it seemed no heavier than anything else similar.
It’s quite stiff, you decide if that’s good or not.
Look, I’m not here to sell Decathlon bikes, but I think it’s very good value and the frame quality is not something to worry about.

Good to hear Lunge.

That Emonda is light but there are kit compromises in the own-brand brakes and box section wheels compared to the OPs linked bike. I hired a carbon emonda to ride up Ventoux and whilst perfectly ok found it a bit "dead" in terms of feedback....can't really explain as lack of road noise is obviously a good thing but it was just numb with it...

Re giant I'll have a look but for no logical reason I have no fondness to the brand at all, road or mtb - probably more inclined to go with Van Rysel from that perspective (Before all the Giant owners hsout at me I know they're one of the biggest producers of universally well-regarded bikes = no logic)

Just to give you something to think about (especially as you are not bothered about brands.)

PLANET X SPITFIRE SHIMANO ULTEGRA TITANIUM ROAD Bike, £1599 with £200 off ultegra builds. (£1399) leaves £500.

https://www.planetx.co.uk/i/q/CBPXSPITULTR8000/planet-x-spitfire-shimano-ultegra-titanium-road-bike

Sell the wheels and tyres for £75 ish and buy some hunt or prime carbon wheels and tubeless tyres.

Or ask them to upgrade the wheels to something like this

https://www.planetx.co.uk/i/q/WPTKC45R/token-resolute-c45r-700c-carbon-wheelset

Any finishing kit you don't like can be replaced over time.

Everyone has a carbon fibre bike but not many have a ti frame!

Pedlad, ha yes I’m the same with their mountain bikes. I just can’t get excited by them! However the suggestion above to go with the tcr 1 and some Prime wheels is one I’ll probably go with I think

If anybody cares, I just purchased the Giant with some Prime black edition wheels and some continental gp 5000 tyres. Watch me lose my job next month now....

You have made a good decision! I have a disk tcr and it's a great bike, but I also use to have the prime wheels on my canyon and they were brilliant wheels for that price.

Did you go for the ultegra advanced 1 I mentioned earlier?

Tpbiker, yes I did. Thanks for your recommendations. I would never have considered those wheels also unless you said so.