Any experience or opinions on these bikes? They look great VFM, assume due to their direct to consumer sale model. Got my eye on one of the Jealous AL models.
Fabulous riding, great value, well built (straighter than any other frame we have had) and overall cracking bikes.
Warranty support was worse than useless - 5 weeks+ to reply to initial warranty enquiry.
We have had three. Not sure I would rush back to another.
I don't know why it bothers me so much, but it really irks me that the carbon version of the Swoop has no space for a bottle, whereas the Alu one does.
It's a shame to hear about poor aftersales though. I was seriously considering one (bottle issues notwithstanding).
...cracking bikes.
Warranty support was worse than useless
Hmm, wonders what warranty requirement was...
I've heard bad stories about warranty support regarding issues with shock bolts coming loose and I guess ovalizing the holes. You can check those at the Pinkbike Radon thread
Fabulous riding, great value, well built
what was the warranty claim on? Not trying to be contrary, all bikes can fail etc etc.
I remember someone (possibly you) having a thread moaning about their warranty response; think I mentally took them off my list at that time.
I've had two, warranty support was fine for me - but that was a couple of years ago.
Not needed it on the newer bike (same one Matt's lad has).
Is that first picture the top of Sacrifice at Dunkeld Matt?
I owned a Radon Swoop for a few years. I’d repeat what Mattoutandabout said (and I did warn him 😀), really good bike let down by their customer service.
I’ve not used Bikediscount.de since and won’t use them again.
I ride with two guys who both own different specs of the old alu swoop, nice looking bikes with good spec. Even though the swoops are a few years old now they are still on the money for long, slack and low too.
The new bikes with the horizontal shock instead of vertical dont do it for me IMO
Radon Slide here - which I bought last year. Not had occasion to use their after sales thankfully but delivery was quick and efficient, and quality and value very good indeed. Rides really well - my only complaint is it’s, well a bit boring...
I had a Radon ZR race a few years ago, cracking spec for the money and very well put together. sold it to fund a full suss and rather regret it
Hmm, wonders what warranty requirement was…
Within a couple of weeks it became apparent there was a fault with the Lyric damper. It took 5 weeks to answer the 'can we get them looked at' email - although when they replied it was basically 'take them to LBS and we will pay them and SRAM will deal with it'. Eldest was racing, so we had already taken them to our LBS Stirling Bike Doctor who put them in with SRAM anyway.
After 3 months the dropper was not quite returning/sticky at points. Again the initial few emails went unanswered. Again, going direct to SDG had us sorted (really quickly and efficiently) outwith Radon. Transpires one of the keyways had broken and was occasionally jumping out of it's slot, causing friction.
well built
By this I mean a very straight frame, some agricultural but clear strengthening here and there, great use of only two sizes of bearing throughout all Radon bikes, good paintwork, well built initially.
Is that first picture the top of Sacrifice at Dunkeld Matt?
Yes.
A minute earlier his younger brother had exited through the front door on that drop, cartwheeled beautifully onto the brash...
I have a Sage road bike; alu frame, carbon fork, well specced.
Nothing but good things to say about it.
Great vfm.
I picked up a Spire road bike when someone put a PSA on here in Jan/Feb - they were selling off last year's model so I got 7.9Kg carbon ultegra disc bike for about 1700 quid. It's done a few thousand Km over lockdown and the only annoyance is that the Mavic freehub is a bit sticky to disengage so you get a bit of chain snatch if you suddenly stop pedalling at speed.
Thanks for the feedback, guys and gals. Seems like the build quality and spec is fairly faultless, but customer services can be poor...which I'd probably expect from a direct to consumer brand anyway. Just waiting for them to release the rest of the 2021 range and will probably go for a Jealous AL 9.0 - the only thing putting me off slightly, is the geometry is perhaps a little behind the times. Very high spec and very low weight for the money, though.
I had been looking at the Canyon Grand Canyon 8, but moving away from that idea now.
On the other hand . . . I needed a spare mech hanger for my Swoop for an Alps trip. None in stock at Bike.de, so I contacted Radon/Bike.de and after a couple of emails a replacement arrived. They had removed one from a stock bike for me.
Moral of the story is, I guess who you get responding to your email dictates the service. Similar fantastic service from Canyon as well.
I had a 650b swoop from 2017-2019. Really liked the bike, great value, seemed well designed, put together and very robust. Had a warranty issue with the frame that was resolved within a few weeks. (A slightly vcracked weld on the rear triangle). They sent me a complete new frame.
Had an issue with the fork and shock, but they were sent back to Zyro directly by my local bike mechanic, so nothing really to to with Radon.
Based on my good experiences I bought a 29er swoop in 2019. There was a slight bend in the mech hanger on delivery and they sent me a couple of spare ones.
I would definitely buy from them again. I do like the carbon swoop, but the lack of bottle cage also puts me off.
the only thing putting me off slightly, is the geometry is perhaps a little behind the times.
Looks perfectly sensible for a racey XC race bike, the Canyon is a bit longer/slacker (but hardly). Neither are what you'd call a trail hardtail.
Of those two I'd go for the Canyon b/c of the Deore gears rather than SRAM, but that is my own personal bias.
Had a swoop 170 about 3 years ago, was a cracking bike!
I had a warranty claim as my shock blew after a few months. Bike discount was great, answered emails by next day and had my shock serviced and back FOC after about 7 days.
@Marko - Cube hangers fit!
https://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/radon-swoop-170-2019-mech-hangar/
the only thing putting me off slightly, is the geometry is perhaps a little behind the times.
Or, they're less extreme and more balanced all rounders?
Or, they’re less extreme and more balanced all rounders?
True. And that is what I’m really after. As I’ve mentioned in another thread, probably >90% of my riding will be a mix of road, local gravel track and bridleways.
I thought that Bike Discount in Germany and Cube are owned by brothers.
Radon is the house brand of Bike Discount and my understanding is that their well priced specs are based on piggy-backing Cube's buying power with groupset/frame/wheel manufacturers.
That might just be in my imagination...
There is definitely some shared stuff with Cube. My 650b swoop cans with a Cube branded rear axle, and mech hangers on both swoops are the same as Cube ones
Thanks for the link Matt.
I did assume that the hanger was not unique, but I couldn't see it on 'mech hanger.com' - or similar.
Now how do I do that '@' thing so Matt gets a message so he knows I've replied and thanked him?
@Marko just like that! Type @ followed by username without a space between.
I've seen it 😎