Took my hitherto trusty, long-serving bike in for repair today, and it’d be not far short of 400 francs to fix. The chainrings, chain and cassette are knackered, and I can see more bits being worn out soon too.
So time for a new velo! Decathlon is an obvious place to start. For the spec they offer pretty good value. There’s also a factory outlet for bikes in Baar next door that I’ll check.
There used to be an outlet in Baar that offered very serious discounts on all kinds of sporting goods, but that has disappeared, swallowed by the vaccination centre. Just in general there seem no sales on for bikes right now. Supply-chain issues I guess.
Any other recommendations/advice for someone in the market for a new pair of wheels?
Decathlon is really good value and a good place to start for bikes. Of course you get what you pay for but in these times it’s still very hard to get any bike in stock from other places. Rose have raised their prices a lot to match demand. Most places have a long wait. All this makes a decathlon bike even more attractive. If it fits your needs I’d say go for it. You can always upgrade bits of it (tyres, wheels) later if you want to make it feel a bit slicker.
Check the gearing matches your intended use. That is a compact with 11/32 cassette so is great for climbing but only on road. Do you plan any gravel / steep off road.
Check the frame size. If you can in person. Fit is more important than bike spec.
Actually looks like a really nice bike and great value.
I got mine from Velociped in Kriens. More expensive than Decathlon, but they still have new bikes below 2,000, plus their own service/repair facility onsite. Not so far from Zug.
Those are parts that are expected to wear. Similar to brake pads in car, but one doesn't buy a new car when brake pads need to be changed. In heavy use you can finish them in 1 year. Less intensive, 2 years. If you use the bike regularly, 5 years max.
Unless the bike is too old to be compatible with spare parts (mainly bottom bracket size), I'd say it's easier to fix than buy a new bike. Also, cheap bikes have very bad components, better to put good components in the old frame than mediocre components on a new frame.
Can be found in great condition for a small fraction of even the Decathlon ones.
I got my Merida Speeder (light and thin road but not "pro road", in fact pretty much the same type as you linked from Decathlon) for 150chf 5 years ago, and still kicking.
Just bound for a brake pad change; with occasional cable tightening and chain lube-up.
I got mine on Ricardo, but you can look at official brockis and 2nd hand fairs.
Well I do like my current bike. It’s an earlier version of the Triban in the link, albeit with cheaper spec. Frame material is identical; alu with carbon forks. New it would be equivalent to the RC500 which is now 790 francs.
But paying almost half price new for repair seems steep. And bear in mind tyres also need replacing soon.
One option might be just to replace the chain as a cheap fix to see if that stops the slipping problem for now.
At least for the 800x postcode range, the website lists none available.
The market for bikes is as empty as the market for toilet-paper in Spring of 2020.
The parts (and labor, of course) mentioned are indeed expensive - but the key is to buy a more expensive bike to begin with, so it's worth replacing them ;-)
I'd have those replaced yearly, because I don't replace my chain early enough. But sadly due to WFH, I don't ride that much anymore.
I do a lot of hills, so the gearing looks ok. Also gravel, but no steep off-road. My current bike (an earlier version of the Triban in link) with 28mm tyres seems to handle the abuse of forest roads no problem.
Frame-size-wise my current mount is a medium. Originally when buying I was considering large (I’m 180cm) but medium was definitely the right call. I don’t know whether this latest model has a frame that is more designed for “comfort” than older iterations; if so that would be an argument in favour of what I have.
Probably has best spec for price on market. Previous decathlon bike served me grand for commuting in London and over the last few years up and down many hills here.
One significant problem with bikes from big box stores is that the assembly is often very bad. Instead of bikes being assembled and checked over by qualified mechanics they are thrown together by some random staffer with minimal training. I have seen new bikes from Decathlon with brake pads assembled backwards, brakes incorrectly adjusted, bolts not tightened, chain tension too loose, etc. etc. etc.
The Shimano 105 R7000 groupset is retailed between 400-500CHF. For the bike at Decathlon, all the Shimano 105 R7000 components are the front and rear derailleurs, and the shifters. Cassette is Microshift ( ), crankset a lower level shimano component, brakes TRP ( ), and no mention of the chain.
I put attention to Decathlon last year because I saw a cheap mountain bike offered with SRAM GX Eagle components relatively cheap. I planned to use it as component donor for my mountain bike build. I saw the bike on Decathlon and the only GX Eagle component was the rear derrailleur, most of the stuff was not even SRAM/Shimano but the own brands of Decathlon.
Repair price may be high because Swiss labor costs
Well, I guess my advice of replacing parts relies on the assumption that you do the labor so all the money is spent on parts. However, if someone else does the wrenching, a new bike may be cheaper.