Am looking for a road/touring bike for a trip later this month and stumbled upon this.

Looks ok to me for the price (not sure it was ever worth the full price though).

Brand Snobbery aside, would this be a good use of £330 or are there better options?

I know 2nd hand is always said to offer good value but I’m struggling to find a decent 2nd hand large size bike near me.

Linky

I’d definitely go 2nd hand if possible. Stuff often comes up on here at a decent price, or buy off eBay as long as seller agrees to refund if you are not happy prior to any transaction taking place.

For that price I’d take a punt on one.

In a word… NO

Typical Halfords tactic of enormous RRP (for about 2 weeks, in certain stores only, to comply with selling regulations) then discount the hell out of it to make it seem like a perceived bargain.

For £30 less, this is a far better bike!

7 speed is ancient now and the gearing doesnt look like touring gearing .Has it got mounts for guards and a rack ? I cant see them on the pic

I was going to recommend the Triban but its out of stock and again I dont think it has rack mounts ,it has better gearing though

As mboy says, the Triban 3 is pretty much the best value sub £500 road bike you can buy.

The Triban is if you can find one in stock.

For £320 that looks good. Don’t forget British Cycling 10% discount too. If you’re not a member it would probably be worth signing up.

I think the Triban 3 has now been superseded by http://www.decathlon.co.uk/triban-3-road-bike-white-id_8239800.html

I believe the red Triban 3, is still ‘current stock’ – spoke to a guy in the Stockport store a couple of days ago = seems it’s being continued as a ‘UK only’ item – they’ve shifted do many since that great review that (apparently) even the head honcho for decathlon bikes in UK was persuaded he should persuade head office to produce more… As said above, trick seems to be caching them when they do come in.

Thanks for the responses, will try to have a look at one of the Decathon bikes but my nearest store is over an hour away so it’ll have to wait a week or so

For touring, check out the CTC classifieds . A Dawes Galaxy sold for about £300 last week. Keep looking and see what you find.

Or by a Triban 3 if you see one.

Wombat, I’ve got a Galaxy that I could do for a decent price, suit 5’10 – 6’1 ish. Racks & guards fitted.

Chris

mrhoppy, YGM

Nothing’s come through but I’ve mailed you instead.

It’s funny, some of the Carrera bikes are good value and nicely specced, and some are overpriced tat which is later sold off “half price” but is still overpriced and a bit crap.

I think this one looks like the latter sort, sadly.

I was able to compare the Carrera close up with my son’s Triban 3 and there’s no contest, Triban is a far far better bike. The Carrera is even heavier (hi-tensile steel!) and is shoddily built and poorly equipped in my opinion.