SRAM Dub … wonder if it’s the BSA version? PF would be a pain.

Looks nice , Be a good commuter bike for sure but as far as actually touring on one – its been specced by someone whos done no touring and has limited access to parts .

I rode for a while with one of the guys testing a prototype a couple of years ago, he brought it along to the TNR. He was on 1X, very similar spec to what this bike is from what I remember, spent a moment looking over it. The gearing wouldn’t be my choice either but realistically the number of people wanting a £1400 OTP Al/carbon bike for touring+bikepacking who will do a bigger ride than something like a week across the Alps is small. It’s a commercial or product management call and 1X sells bikes like this these days.
They geared to for the climbs, at least : )

Now in stock online, limited sizes. Ordered a large.. Time will tell how I get on with the limited gearing but I’m looking forward to trying it out around Scotland. Looks perfect for the likes of a week on the Great North trail.

The gearing wouldn’t be my choice either but realistically the number of people wanting a £1400 OTP Al/carbon bike for touring+bikepacking who will do a bigger ride than something like a week across the Alps is small. It’s a commercial or product management call and 1X sells bikes like this these days.

I can see your point, especially the marketability point. But for me I use my CX bike for everything. It does laps of trail centers, bikepacking and steadier club runs. So I like having a range of chainrings.

That said, with big cassettes the range* is pretty much the same anyway.

And credit to Decathlon, the rest of the spec is great, Brooks saddle, dynamo, USB charging. Shame it doesn’t have a lights, and the dynamo wiring looks a bit clunky. Why have a tube ziptied to the outside of the fork? I managed a neater looking job on my commuter with just black tape and heat shrink.

*11-42 with a 40t chainring Vs say 11-32 with 32/48, it’s only 2 top gears, I could probably spin through those if push came to shove.

Does anyone know how you do bike to work with decathlon by buying online? Their website just talks about in-store.

Nice work @highlandman. Let us know what you think ASAP!

Delivery is booked for 14 December. Merry Xmas to me!
Gearing: rather than top end spin-out, I’m more focussed on what it’ll be like when loaded and winching up a long climb as that’s the point of greatest suffering. We’ll see..

Anyone checked out the geometry chart? Looks massively long to me, even the small is 4cm longer in the reach than my medium kinesis!

In large, the supplied stem is 80mm and the bars have just 52.6mm reach, compared to the 110mm stem and ~75mm reach on the bars for my Cube Attain. With the high stack numbers too (623mm for large), it’s a very relaxed aero brick fit.

@pedlad

I asked them on instagram about this – “Yes to cyclescheme in all stores and green commute in Cambridge, Aberdeen, Wednesbury and Southampton. They stated at the moment you need to buy it to store for click and collect, then get it refunded in store and immediately repurchase the bike via your voucher at the tills. First half of 2021 this option is coming online.”

Thanks @lewisdeacon

They have another cheaper gravelly bike I quite liked the look of , and was ready to buy when it came back into stock, them they put the price up by 100 just as stock returned.

https://www.decathlon.co.uk/p/rc-120-disc-gravel-adventure-bike-microshift/_/R-p-312397#picture-0-0

Felt a bit cheated by the jump from 500 to 600 so more likely to hang on till January and see if any of the Boardman’s go on the sale.

I’m in when finally available – cheaper alternative to Bombtrack Adv+ or Trek 1120…hope they deliver as im not exactly close to a Decathlon store!

trailwagger
Free Member
Anyone checked out the geometry chart? Looks massively long to me, even the small is 4cm longer in the reach than my medium kinesis!

Posted 16 hours ago
REPLY | REPORT

n0b0dy0ftheg0at
Free Member
In large, the supplied stem is 80mm and the bars have just 52.6mm reach, compared to the 110mm stem and ~75mm reach on the bars for my Cube Attain. With the high stack numbers too (623mm for large), it’s a very relaxed aero brick fit.

Posted 16 hours ago

This is why bar or grip reach and stack numbers can be helpful, since you don’t hold on to the top of the head tube.

I can see your point, especially the marketability point. But for me I use my CX bike for everything. It does laps of trail centers, bikepacking and steadier club runs. So I like having a range of chainrings.

Maybe it’s not going to be much cop on a steady club run : ) depends just how steady.

@jameso – as a bike designer yourself, what are your thoughts on this bike? I’m intrigued, I can’t decide if it’s a super-flexible design that would suit many (depending on tyre size) or a specialist niche product that only a long-distance bikepacker can fully enjoy?

And I see the weight (12.8kg I think) is fairly hefty, but comparable to a Fargo. Is this going to make it a plodder or can it be used for a quick unladen dash around the local woods?

(Edited to add some stuff and punctuations.)

@theboyneeds tricky to say really as it’s so subjective. Designers (more of a product manager in my case tbh) have to have opinions and my opinions are probably quite different to the guys behind this bike. ie, not a lot of point listening to what I think : )
If anyone was listening, basically this could be a great bike for long rides on roads and dirt tracks, ideally loaded up and under a rider who’s not a downhiller at heart or seeking techy goat track sort of trails. It might not make a lot of sense on a short ride in the local woods or it might be a lot of fun as a monstercrosser, that’s a really personal thing related to what gives you your input>output kicks.
So far / ime I prefer bikes that sit a bit more clearly in one camp or another, embracing the pros and cons that brings. A test ride on this might say it’s a really involving bike is a certain situation though and that might clinch it for me, it’d be compared to a good rigid 29er though since it’s clearly aiming at off-road ability.

All that aside, it’s a bike that could navigate and win the Tour Divide pretty much straight out of the box for £1400, just add a Garmin, lights and bikepacking gear and check if you like the saddle (you won’t have a prob selling/swapping it either). I’m impressed. Maybe just not my ideal club run winter bike : )

Thanks @jameso – much appreciated.

I’ve ordered one to replace a cx/gravel bike, a rigid 29er, and potentially my hardtail xc bike because I don’t have the room to store them all anymore. I’m slimming down to just the three bikes 😀 (the 920, short travel full-susser, long travel full-susser).

I’ll report back when it arrives in a couple of weeks. And maybe post a few classifieds.

Looks like something in the Pipedream ALICE camp, if the flat bar model is £700 it’s a lot cheaper though.

basically this could be a great bike for long rides on roads and dirt tracks

It’s essentially the same as my rigid 29er but with drops. For me it’s the perfect bike for long rides in my area because there can easily be 10-15 miles of road, then some steep climbs and descents and lots of moorland tracks which are usually rocky. So my ideal bike for this kind of exploration needs low gears and fat tyres. If I’d had this kind of choice when I was buying, I’d have probably gone for a drop bar like this Decathlon, however these things weren’t really available and I was on a budget so I had to port as much across from the donor bike as possible which included shifters and brakes. And now the frame’s too long for drops really.

And I see the weight (12.8kg I think

I was wondering about the weight. So an aluminium bike with carbon forks that is yet still a KG heavier than my old (stock) Vagabond (which was cromo, 2x, with fairly hefty wheels and 2.1 tyres)?

Ahm oot (was thinking about MAYBE consolidating my retro touring bike* and Longitude for one of these)

Weightwise the 2016 Vagabond (£1k) I had was more than fine for what I wanted it for (solo exploring, ATB, bimbling, commuting, carrying stuff at times), and I think a lot of the complaints about it’s ‘weight’ at the time were OTT. 12kg/26lbs is just about great for a steel monstertourer/bikepacker IMO

But, if I was shelling out another half a K for similar type of bicycle then I’d want something to be a little lighter, but that’s me.

* Edit, second thoughts. I LOVES my 531 tourer, like no other 😍. Other second thoughts – this Decathlon 920 (Trek must be annoyed?) at under 30lbs is probably still respectable for a monstercross(ish) offroad touring bike with hub generator and gubbins. Look forward to hearing people’s experience with it!

So far / ime I prefer bikes that sit a bit more clearly in one camp or another

I think that’s the flipside of what I was trying to say. By trying to make a bike that really can do anything (albeit possibly badly) you end up with a bike that’s really only optimum for a very niche use (the Tour Divide).

Whereas something in the same mould as an Arkose or a CX bike struggles to get through that extra few per cent of technicalness, or do it well when loaded, but much nicer to ride elsewhere.

I’m basing that opinion on having previously had a Vagabond, it was great for that few per cent of my riding where a CX bike wasn’t enough, but was heavy and slow the other 98% of a long ride (and there was no way it was keeping up with a group ride of others on CX bikes once we hit tarmac or even dry hardpacked fire roads).

It’s all about the clearance for me. What other ali/carbon framesets are out there that can take 29×2.25+ tyres and dropped bars, with full guards please!

On weight, dynamo and tyres in the main. And half a kg of boss bolts!

A Vagabond is more like 13kg isn’t it? The frame and forks on the Decathlon prob only 750g to a kilo lighter in total, the XT dyno hub (500+g) the charging gear and a Brooks saddle add that back on.

you end up with a bike that’s really only optimum for a very niche use (the Tour Divide).

“Depends…” : ) It might also be optimum for byway bashing which is just UK Gravel isn’t it. One rider’s niche is another’s do-it-all. One rider’s do-a-fair-bit isn’t wide ranging enough for another rider. Bikes like this do sit in the most overlapping area of the bike category venn diagram, for good or bad. Sounds like you and I prefer something biased toward a use/category rather than aiming for the biggest overlap area.

A Vagabond is more like 13kg isn’t it?

Yes sorry, good catch. Now realise that I mistakenly looked at the Giant Anyroad figures by mistake in the side-by-side test I searched!

https://www.cyclinguk.org/cycle-magazine/bike-test-do-it-all-bikes-genesis-vagabond-vs-giant-toughroad-slr1

Vagabond was tested at 12.43kg/27.35lb without pedals. The new 725 one (2021 Vagabond) I’ve seen listed (but not tested) as 11.73kg (25.86lbs)

But I didn’t feel mine was overly heavy for a bikepacker/tourer/ATB, in fact it felt much like my (rigid) old Lava Dome maybe a pound heavier, but the Vagabond was a lot less flexy when loaded.

“Depends…” : ) It might also be optimum for byway bashing which is just UK Gravel isn’t it. One rider’s niche is another’s do-it-all. One rider’s do-a-fair-bit isn’t wide ranging enough for another rider. Bikes like this do sit in the most overlapping area of the bike category venn diagram, for good or bad. Sounds like you and I prefer something biased toward a use/category rather than aiming for the biggest overlap area.

True, I’d really like to get a demo on one to see if it solves the problems I had with the Vagabond. I put a lot of it down to the frame feeling heavy, with a lack of urgency when pedaling and lacking directness and at the same time not having that nice comliant steel zing. It actually rode a bit like my old 1980’s Claud Buttler Dalesman (badge engineered Dawes Galaxy), nice in it’s way but I always preferred riding my actual road bike.

I put a lot of it down to the frame feeling heavy, with a lack of urgency when pedaling and lacking directness and at the same time not having that nice comliant steel zing.

Sounds about right for a drop bar 29er capable of proper touring or bikepacking, needs to be fairly stiff, can’t see the Trek or Decathlon 920 feeling a lot different? I rode the Trek briefly once, it was loaded up but it was certainly stiff and had a fairly slack/floppy steering feel for a drop bar bike. I mean, so’s a Croix de Fer, just that bikes like that can never feel like a brisk 531 audaxer and carry a decent load off-road.

I had a really nice skinny classic road bike made for me this summer and went touring on it in Wales – only put a bit over 4kg on it and it was starting to feel out of it’s range, verging on wobbly, hitting holes in the road too hard. If I still had a CdF I’d have been better off on that. Unloaded though it’s lovely ride, zingy and lively compared to a CdF.

highlandman
Free Member
Now in stock online, limited sizes. Ordered a large.. Time will tell how I get on with the limited gearing but I’m looking forward to trying it out around Scotland. Looks perfect for the likes of a week on the Great North trail.

Darn – just had my order cancelled by Decathlon. How about you @highlandman?

Out for delivery on Monday coming, apparently.. Holding on to that hope at the moment! Will report once I’ve had a chance to ride on some local, mellow trails and see how it does. The only changes that I’ve currently in mind are to put a shimmed 27.2 Thomson post on it from the spares box and probably a hop up to 180mm front rotor as I just cannot see that a 160 will be enough for assured, comfortable braking. Again, rotor & caliper adapter from the spares box, assuming that the fork is post mount not direct mount.

wrong geo

BB drop is WAY too short, every bike is this category have at least 15mm more (given the tyre size I believe it’s at least 20mm too short).
So stack is too low as a result

FAIL

True, I’d really like to get a demo on one to see if it solves the problems I had with the Vagabond. I put a lot of it down to the frame feeling heavy, with a lack of urgency when pedaling and lacking directness and at the same time not having that nice comliant steel zing.

I’d question that reasoning, sounds like you would better suit a nice light road bike/gravel/racing bike, not another touring/bikepacking all-terrain bike? Especially not one with even less-‘zing’, ie overbuilt aluminium one that weighs about the same (stock build) as a Vagabond?

@ciquta Bit harsh! Care to explain?

Stack on Large is 16mm higher than Large Arkose, for instance.
Reach is 16mm longer.

ETA New video on the product page now, and they are promising a suite of matching luggage next year. Nice!

and had a fairly slack/floppy steering feel for a drop bar bike. I mean, so’s a Croix de Fer, just that bikes like that can never feel like a brisk 531 audaxer and carry a decent load off-road.

And therein lies the problem – it’s really hard to find a ‘gravel’ bike in size small, with a head angle steeper than 71.5°. The Escapade, for instance, is reputed to be lively and fun, but the M,L etc have 72° head angle but the small is 71.5, so back to the CdF feel. I assume it’s a toe overlap thing but it makes life for us short arses difficult.

@richardthird

I don’t know where to start…

First of all this is a different bike than Arkose: has mounts everywhere, it’s a 29, has real flared drops and so on…

Anyway, the BB is almost 4cm higher than arkose (23mm from the geo plus 14mm from the tyre). That’s HUGE!!
That’s a drop for a hardtail, how many bikepacking rigs has a BB visually in line with rear axle?!?

It’s a big fail to me, and not even cheap. The Sonders have a much a better value.

^ I did a chunk of the King Alfred Way on my Arkose X and there were sections with deep ruts and “jeep tracks” where I wished for a higher BB (my cranks are already relatively short). I run 50mm 650bs which might well have contributed to that..

Given that’s the route I’d use this on, instead of the Arkose, the only reservation I had with the bike was the weight, and what that would be like when loaded with all the mounting options…..I’m still very tempted and think it looks good value , despite picking up my Arkose x (which is ace bar the lack of fork mounts) for only £840 in a sale. Thinking about it again, probably cheaper for me to put different forks on the Arkose…but those 29er Thunderburts on the Riverside also looked handy

I run 50mm 650bs which might well have contributed to that.

well of course it matters, that’s 25mm difference from the ground

Fresh out of the box and first impressions:
It’s a proper large. BB is threaded which is good to know, along with there being a cable stop fitted for a front mech, bottom pull; cable can be run internally. The LH hood has no shifter inside. Brakes are UK spec, RH Front.
While it’s light to pick up, it feels ‘stout’. Hard to explain. I guess I mean stiff.
Position is quite high at the front but I’m more used to a nimble hardtail with 120mm at the moment, so cruising position would feel quite upright. The shallow drops are still a fair bit lower than the wee hardtail position. Taking out spacers and an inch or two of steerer tube is likely soon.
Bars have a flat top and a very slight backsweep. Tape is better than I expected.
It’s come with a tool roll, with the tubeless valves in, so I’m going to take a stab in the dark and say the tyres have tubes in now. Not for long though.
That seatpost could be used to support a crane. It’s going..
In the tool roll are spare spokes, a spare mech hanger, chain link and some basic reflector/lights. There’s a pack of clear frame tape too. Nice.
Spec as per advertised is absolutely spot on, no changes or substitutions.
There will be plenty room for 2.4 tyres, as suggested; It would probably take larger, depending on whose tyres you like to use.
Hopefully get a proper ride at the weekend.

Excellent. Especially on BSA BB and front mech pre-prep. If it took 2.6 Ikons I wouldn’t be able to resist!

(That’s if they ever sort stock AND C2W out!)

On the stock rims, 2.6 will be pretty close to the frame and fork; hard to be certain but comparing the 2.5 Vigilante off my hardtail, that would likely work fine but I doubt there’s a huge lot more room after that. There’s room for quite a tall 65mm tyre but a flexy wheel could lead to problems. With the 2.25 Thunder Burts in, there is not less than 15mm clearance in every direction around both wheels.