Carrera Crixus impressed

[Claireysmurf]

My other half lives in Bristol and so I bought a new Carrera Crixus (a Halfords cyclo-cross bike that cost me £225) to keep there. As a spur of the moment thing we cycled to Cardiff yesterday. A 64 mile trip including getting lost. It was definitely a different experience to using my Croix de Fer or road bike but it did the job really well.
Have I been too much of a bike snob regarding it as a town bike only?

[beardy]

My suspicions about cheap bikes is that the materials and the engineering tolerances will not be so good (because they cost money).

This will show up more in durability (miles or corrosion) and weight than performance. They seem to need more attention and are more difficult to set up right. No place for mudguards or racks.

Not so much of an issue for a nice summer ride.

If the bike is used a lot then failing consumables can be replaced with better components as time goes on. People will have an idea of balancing the price of the components of a bike, so a Crixus is unlikely to get shod with a nice pair of tyres costing £70 or Swiss stop pads costing £20 so it will have poor performance for things not directly related to it.

A £2,000 bike would puncture and drag just as much if fitted with common cheap tyres as a cheap Halford's bike does.

[Claireysmurf]

I understand that the frame is a Merida one. It will take mudguards and a rack.
The groupset is Claris 8 speed. A bit clunky after Ultegra and 105 but good enough. Stable at 60kmh downhill yesterday with a pannier and a bar bag and the 38mm tyres handled the ridiculously gravelly bit of NCN 4 closecto Severn Tunnel Junction station.
The 54cm.frame fits me well but the bars are too wide and the stem too long. I am an Amazon and man fit bikes normally do me fine.
I had a Kona Dew hybrid a couple of years ago that I bought for £300ish that underwhelmed me but I bought back after selling it.
Is it all too easy to get bogged down in bike snobbery?

[beardy]

Is it all too easy to get bogged down in bike snobbery?

That depends on whether it is snobbery or appreciation.

Claris is I would assume a perfectly functional gearing system. So if you just want a bike to ride from A-B then it would be a waste of money to spend more. If you enjoy looking at your bike and appreciate some gorgeous quality machinery (even though my personal ability doesnt match that of the bike ) or you believe that it is more durable or reliable. Then you have spent your money in a way that I can agree with and do so myself.
If the bike snobbery is based on creating an impression on others and the owner feels that riding such a bike makes themselves look better, then I dont quite agree with that but if that is what they like in life then they have benefited from the expense in a different way.

As an example a lot of people on this forum are all excited by a fantastic tyre the Vittoria Hyper, they are buying this for between eight and fifteen pounds, the low price tag hasnt stopped the appreciation or delight for a good bit of gear which anybody can have. Is that snobbery?
Apologies to people who have a forty pounds tyre because they think it is a worthwhile tyre but a bike snob could not have the Vittoria Hyper purely because it doesnt cost forty quid.

[pwa]

Sometimes a bike that is appropriate for the user can be a better ride than a posher bike that is unsuitable. In the garage my wife has a Reynolds 753 race bike with 7 speed Ultegra kit and down tube shifters. It is a lovely, light little bike (in a retro way) and totally unsuitable for the rider. The gears are a little too high and the handlebars a little too low. She also has an Islabikes 700c touring style bike with gears lowered by me. It is a humble alloy frame, not especially light, with sensible kit, but it suits her and she prefers it. The 753 (Orbit) gathers dust.

[Claireysmurf]

All my bikes are appropriate for me
I had never envisaged riding 64 miles on an inexpensive bike and having a reasonable time

[beardy]

Here is a rear cassette costing about the same as that entire bike.

http://www.chainreactioncycles.com/sram ... -prod42785

Not even a severe bike geek like myself would even notice a bike had such a thing fitted.
The purchaser of such a thing has a completely different financial situation to me, I could not contemplate spending that much on a cassette, I dont know how rich you have to be to spend in that way. The benefit per pound ratio must be tiny and temporary.

I can imagine that the general public look on my over £1,000 bike in the same way.

[Claireysmurf]

I recently trashed the 5700 (105 10 speed) medium cage derailleur on my road bike and it cost me £22.50 to replace. I think a Di2 Dura Ace rear derailleur is £360...

[meic]

I'll admit that I overspend on rear dérailleurs.
I wore out my first rear dérailleur (a cheap six speed Exage trail) in about 10,000 miles. So I bought some second hand XT derailleurs and wore those out quickly, so I bought a new XT shadow derailleur and that is pretty worn out at under 12,000 miles.
At which point I realised that expensive dérailleurs dont last noticeably longer than cheap ones. They all change equally well for a non-racing rider, even one who has to make plenty of rapid changes on undulating terrain.

I doubt that having a Claris changer instead of an XT would change my performance at all on an Auidax ride.

Yet I wouldnt grace my best bikes with anything "less" than Tiagra and still feel very tempted to fit XT (and Ultegra if they had the range needed) just because I like them to be a bit special. Spoiling myself really.

[mercalia]

I understand that the frame is a Merida one. It will take mudguards and a rack.
The groupset is Claris 8 speed. A bit clunky after Ultegra and 105 but good enough. Stable at 60kmh downhill yesterday with a pannier and a bar bag and the 38mm tyres handled the ridiculously gravelly bit of NCN 4 closecto Severn Tunnel Junction station.
The 54cm.frame fits me well but the bars are too wide and the stem too long. I am an Amazon and man fit bikes normally do me fine.
I had a Kona Dew hybrid a couple of years ago that I bought for £300ish that underwhelmed me but I bought back after selling it.
Is it all too easy to get bogged down in bike snobbery?

well £225 for a bike with Claris sti very good value - you look at the prices for those bits in SJS - even in Rose de the gears system would set you back about £120? or so. Must be some kind of loss leader? or they have so many of them need to shift them?

[hamster]

well £225 for a bike with Claris sti very good value - you look at the prices for those bits in SJS - even in Rose de the gears system would set you back about £120? or so. Must be some kind of loss leader? or they have so many of them need to shift them?

It's the same thing everywhere. Each spare part or component has a sales margin - and needs to as it has to be ordered, handled, stored etc. On a complete bike you buy in bulk and the manufacturer and retailer takes a bigger cash margin (but lower %) overall. Try buying a car simply by ordering the spares...I bet a Ford Fiesta would cost you £100,000 or more...