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Wednesday 3 February 2010

Why buying an expensive package bike is a false economy

Just read the excellent James Huang's review on the Felt AR2
Fairly lukewarm at best !

But its the kit that is so strange - for £4500 you would expect a far more complete package
Short stems, 53/39 cranks and 11/23 cassettes (take that to the Alps !), cheapish tyres and a mixture of DA 7900 and 105 just seems very haphazard....
Its also penny pinching at its most blatant - with Felts buying power how much more would the sublime Vittoria Evo CXs cost?
Or a DA cassette?

Now we all know I am biased, but I do think at certain price points (say up to £2500) a complete bike offers economies of scale that you cannot get with building a frameset up bit by bit

By when we are setting the bar higher, and at £4500 we are expecting a bike that will blow you away, I think its clear that a bike fitting and then the careful selection of sympathetic frame, components and contact points (for both your body shape and riding style) will bring far happier results

http://www.cyclingnews.com/reviews/felt-ar2

2 comments:

Mrfish said...

Agreed. I read the report and could not understand why anyone would buy that bike. It's a nasty mish mash of marketing concepts all built down to a price.

Also the wheels are pretty nasty - again neither one thing or another. Personally given that budget I would rather buy a few really good bits rather than compromise everywhere.

Cheap tyres, tractor inner tubes (not part of the review, but I'll bet you the price of a Latex inner tube or Supersonic) and generic saddles are always a bad start.

Barry Scott said...

I know - a bike designed by a finance team to hit a certain price point, and then they work backwards?