Couple of mates had bikes. All fine.
One is a Titanium gravel he commuted on all year, big mileage. It’s a lovely bike, just looks ace, and he’s happy.
I do like that Merlin aluminium gravel
Bike though.
I have a 'creme egg' free ranger 650b with Sram Rival, ordered it in March and delivered middle of June, delayed due to the Sram shipment stuck in the Suez Canal fiasco. Planet X were great, kept me updated regularly, gave me store credit as compensation and even the week it was delivered to me they had an offer on which knocked £200 off the rrp so once again they gave me store credit as reimbursement, very pleased with Planet X. The bike is great, done 300 miles since the middle of June, bridleways, roads, towpaths. Some tame mtb trails have been made exciting again. I'm 5'10", bought the medium, my only negatives are the flared drop bars could do with being wider, mine are 42cm ones and a few pedal strikes on rough terrain. Build quality appears excellent and was well packaged. Its great at what I bought it for, commuting off road as much as possible, it's going to get some serious use.
Can somebody tell us more about the 'Wizard Sleeve' bike please? Urban Dictionary has given me a definition of wizard sleeve, but I'm intrigued to know how that fits on a bicycle.
I’m in no saying px are perfect and I’m guessing they are building/shipping so many bikes and kit !! That there will be times it goes tits up.
I’ve used on one planet x from inception buying my original inbred over many many years buying kit and complete builds and I’ve never honestly had any issues(that weren’t sorted swiftly)
From memory there were some (London Road?) bikes from a batch where the seat tube was a bit out of size spec and getting seatposts to stay put was a challenge. I didn't have one, a few on here did and the issue was not handled 'in a satisfactory manner' shall we say.
My XL scandal frame came delivered with the headtube pocking out the top and the dropout sticking out tee bottom. They sent out a frame in a box that was too small. Luckily there was no damage and the bike has been brilliant. It was also £150! But that just sums them up for me. Stack em high, well em cheap.
If you are looking at buying a titanium bike px frames have a two year warranty but Titus ti frames have a lifetime warranty. It's a shame they don't extend the warranty on all ti frames.
All Planet X, On-One, Viner, Holdsworth and Selcof products carry a 2-year warranty as standard for the original owner (Titus titanium bike frames feature a lifetime warranty as standard for the original owner).
Can somebody tell us more about the ‘Wizard Sleeve’ bike please? Urban Dictionary has given me a definition of wizard sleeve, but I’m intrigued to know how that fits on a bicycle.
Long story short(ish), one day in 2015 PX/OO suddenly threw an early batch of the London road Framesets (including the fork) on sale for £150, IIRC that was ~£200 off at the time (Note: Somewhat hilariously, PX ask £500 for the bare LR frame today). Those of us with limited impulse control ignored the sage warnings of a few others, and duly threw £150 at this gift horse (well the skeleton of a gift horse).
Only when punters tried fitting 31.6mm seatposts in a frame that had been sold as having a 31.6mm diameter seat tube did the penny drop. They'd obviously been over-reamed by the supplier and rather than send 'em back PX had just palmed them off on a few eager mugs at bargain bin prices, and then they proceeded to play dumb.
I simply measured mine on arrival, confirmed it was out of spec' found a 31.8mm post on ebay and carried on, I'm still riding it today. It's great, that should be a glowing endorsement.
But when I emailed them just to highlight the issue (not demand a refund), they played dumb, it was the first they'd heard of this, they subsequently spun the same BS to other customers (who of course were aware of the issue affecting several others via the same STW thread) and managed to erode at least a few peoples trust in PX/OO to zero.
I'm sure they'd have refunded me, if I'd wanted. I had already decided to essentially treat the £150 as gone, and 5 years on the frame certainly owes me nothing. But their conduct was frankly piss poor... I'd still spend a similar amount with them again, and have on various items, all perfectly defect free (as far as I can tell) but no more than that.
So buying Titanium anything just from PX seems bonkers from my POV, we're all entitled to our opinions of course.
They probably could have just changed the specs to list the 31.8mm seat tube, or just owned up to having a single batch with oversized seat tubes, and received zero negative feedback, the appropriate post or a shim was only about a tenner FFS. But instead they bullshitted over a relatively minor issue, so I and a few others don't really trust them anymore...
YMMV of course.
I have a Tempest from them, very versatile bike. Have a set of wheels for offroad rides and a set for commuting. It's really comfortable off road with the 42mm gravel king and fast and efficient with the 30mm g one speed. Definitely great value for money.
With the brand in general, I had a very old steel 456 and a 456 carbon with them. Neither had any trouble but moved on ling ago.
However, I have one of their ebikes as well. It's actually very good but have a problem with the battery. It works with no problems but the warning light's been on since February without a solution.
They finally asked me to send the battery back for a software update on Friday after numerous attempts to get an update. Hopefully fixed this time and I will be happy with that as well.
Didn't they change ownership a while back? I get that trust was eroded but have they changed since, wasn't the previous head a bit 'marmite' or did I imagine that?
what else should I consider for the sub 2k bracket?
2021 Ragley Trig. Got mine in March and love it.
So pressed the button on a 'creme egg' force1 spec free ranger in medium. Which looks like it is hopefully the right size (I am odd, short legs for height) will update on progress, clock starts ticking now. Hopefully in 35 days it will be New Bike Day!
Didn’t they change ownership a while back? I
Dave Loughran? Who was the owner turned it over to his employees a year and a bit ago. They are certainly less cheeky chappy, yeah we just pull the prices out of our a*"e, but we're lovable shrug than they used to be. Take a long time before I'd do business with them. Even then the price would have to be rock bottom. Some of their paint jobs are about as tough as wet tissue paper. If you are going to price your stuff like everyone else, you need to match the quality.
Alternatives: Ribble, Sonder, Genesis. Spa cycles if you want to support a small business. They are more touring oriented but they have some nice frames.
I saw a Ribble CGR AL in the White Peak yesterday. It looked really good. Maybe worth looking at?
I phoned Ribble about their gravel bikes a while ago. They explained it as the CGR is a do it all bike with road gears and 700c wheels and the Gravel is a 650b bike with GRX with clutch mechs. The Gravel are nearly all 1x but the AL & Ti version can take a double chainset - the Carbon one can't.
My XL scandal frame came delivered with the headtube pocking out the top and the dropout sticking out tee bottom. They sent out a frame in a box that was too small. Luckily there was no damage and the bike has been brilliant. It was also £150! But that just sums them up for me. Stack em high, well em cheap.
Yep, the last two MTB frames I have bought where my Santa Cruz Hightower and my Scandal, a few months apart. Both arrived with minor damage due to packing etc. They were dealt with very differently. But then, I paid £150 for one, and the thick end of 2 grand for the other.
Theres nothing wrong with stack em high sell em cheap. I love my Scandal. ****ted it off some rocks on the first ride anyway.
I've had a Kaffenback and still have a Pompino. No problem at all with either the bikes themselves, or indeed customer service from Planet X. I wish I still had the Kaffenback come to think of it.
My LR is also one of the infamous 'wizards sleeve' ones. I did look at getting a 31.8 seat post but was actually fine wth a 31.6 Thompson and cranked up clamp. Since then I've swapped it for a 27.2 brand x carbon seatpost shimmed ot 31.8 and it also great.
I have kind of hoped, over the years, that it would break so I justify a different gravel bike but it just keeps going and is so versatile. I agree with cookea about that whole issue though, they were really shit with some people about it, and the situation was just not right, but I've been ok with it and the frame owes me nothing fortunatley.
After that I didn't really want to psend a lot of money with them but when looking at road bikes just couldn't find anything to compare with the Pro Carbon Evo at the time, I paid £1300 for Sram Force 22 full hydro inc upgraded carbon seat post and handle bars. I'm glad I took the punt as the bike is bloody awesome.
If there was one word to sum up the whole company over the years it would be the word inconsistent.
It's not always though, is it podge?
No sometimes its inconsistently inconstistent making it consistent but its never consistently consistent.
Bought a Scandal frame from their ebay shop recently, it arrived missing the rear through axle and not a bit of packaging in the box, thankfully it was undamaged and they sent an axle when I made them aware it was missing.
Well I've placed the order, fingers crossed it will be OK, as it meets all my wants and requirements at a reasonable price and availability.
I will keep you all updated on my experience. All ready had some comments on build date, estimated dispatch and delivery dates so no problems - yet!
I have a Free Ranger and I love it!
Good to hear gray
I've already brought some new pedals in anticipation, some shimano t8000 trekking ones. And one side with a largish flat body the other should be ideal for my hopes flat body for quick rides and for long/'property ones
i bought my first planet x bike in feb (planet x spitfire ti road bike) and love it i have to say.
always wanted a ti road bike and the spitfire was at a price i could pay off within my budget.
the bike is lovely i have to say and the frame welds are nicely done.
am very happy with the bike 👍 🚴
I ordered my Free Ranger a few weeks back. At the time it was showing a build time of 15-18 days. 2 weeks later I checked my order status and it was showing 35-45 days build time. An email exchange took place where it transpired that they've ran out of bottom brackets and they're not due in until the end of July. They did say that if I wanted to source a BB myself (at my cost) and send it to them, they'd build the bike within a couple of days. I've not yet replied to them as I still can't decide if that's good customer service or just cheeky as f***. 🙂
Not a gravel bike but a carbon On-One. I've owned the 29 Race for about 8 or 9 years now. 7000 miles including races and winter rides. Still going very strong.
I've heard the horror stories from some people but if you buy it on a credit card - simply return it and get the card company to charge it back should there be an unresolvable issue.
So, I wouldn't touch a anything carbon from PX/On One based on a few cracked C456's.
However, I love their steel and ti frames. Had a Kaffenback which was an absolute stalwart.
I now have a Titus Goldrush Ti frame and it is amazing. Really well built, high quality and rides like a dream.
I can't recommend the Goldrush enough, probably a life time bike for me.
@kevin1911 If they agree to send you the delayed BB to put in your spares box, then why not? That is, if you can easily source a BB yourself!
@beefy, what would you say is the max tyre size with and without mudguards on the Goldrush? I am interested.
Bye and large I have been lucky with PX/On-one products, including a carbon road frame I have had for ages (but it won't take more than a 25mm tyre and doesn't do mudguards).
BishBashBosh here and really like it (bought as frameset)...yep buying from PX/ OnOne probably has (a lot)higher risk than others for me it's a balance...I prefer to deal with for example Merlin but if not got what I want that doesn't help much...and if not sure it's what I really want if can get cheap great...as to quality of carbon layup recently had mine thru full ndt following rear spoke(s) breaking and me carrying on riding causing a wear mark to chainstay...reputable co'and nothing negative found so just been rebuilt...also have PX boxers and socks cheap as chips...and at the price if crap then I'd just bin
@greyspoke, I run 42’s and have used mudguards with plenty of clearance. I have some 55’s which also fit (without guards).
I think 2” mtb tyres would be fine to be honest.
