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I fancy one of these types of bikes for actually riding to work and weekend rides with the kids, want to keep it to the B2W budget and it's got to have Hydraulic brakes............. whats out there?
Pinnacle Arkose seems the default choice
I recently picked up a [url= http://www.halfords.com/cycling/bikes/road-bikes/boardman-cx-team-bike ]Boardman CX Team[/url] for £800 instead of the usual £1,000 on a Bank Holiday price drop. Added SPD pedals, shoes, panniers and bags and still came in under budget. Ticked all the boxes and as it happens our B2W provider has Halfords as their default supplier. I'm sure the Pinnacle is just as nice.
Like any bike, it's way more capable than me. Took it round Gisburn at the weekend (only actual problem was a pinch flat in the rear as I was guessing at pressures) ...
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I've got both of the above, 🙂 neither through C2W.
I have the arkose 4 and it's a great commuter, very stable, very solid, not very exciting but very well put together.
Bought the Boardman CX Team last month when the price was down to £800, through BC discount, discounted vouchers through our employee benefits and quidco I got it for just over £600.
I'm delighted with it, its quick and fun, and I love the 1*11 - its just so quiet, no front mech chain rub an no rattling chain over bumps. I've ridden it off road at Dalbeattie 7 stanes and it's an absolute hoot. Wheels are a bit on the heavy side but for the price I'm not complaining.
If you do buy the boardman then the first thing to do is take the seatpost out and sand the seat tube as they have really bad burrs on them - when I mentioned to the guy in the shop he said, 'yeh they're all like that', eh give it a quick sand down then before giving it to the customer.
[i]Edit: [/i]At the £1k price point I struggled to find many bikes with hydro discs. Getting one at £600 was a steal 🙂
Been looking for similar lately and the [url= https://www.alpkit.com/sonder/bikes/sonder-camino-al-sram-apex1-hydraulic ]Sonder Camino alloy[/url] is appealing.
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Carbon fork, 1x11, hydraulic brakes, tubeless rims - ticks all the boxes. Not keen on the paint jobs though 😕 There's also a 2x11 Shimano 105 build for the same price but with cable disks.
That Sonder looks just the ticket and well priced too.
Alpkit charge an admin fee of 15% which wipes out any saving from the bike to work scheme
Boo
i was going to forget the budget and grab a sonder Ti until I noted their 15% charge for STW. That al paint job is revolting
15% charge for STW? That's bloody outrageous. I'm cancelling my subscription!
Evans has/had a trade in scheme going at the moment so I just picked up my Arkose 3 for £1k trading in my old Single speed.
N+1, I now have to buy a new single speed 😈
Got my Specialized Sequoia Elite on the scheme last year; paid the difference between that and the voucher... got an unexpected discount from the LBS too - that went on a lighter (much lighter) set of wheels!
Wonder if I can trade in one of the kids bikes 