Velo orange Polyvalent 650b

thanks for replies, not sure about some mudguards, VO or Giles Bertaud?

Hi, sorry only just saw this, and maybe you have made a choice already.

I had both the Berthoud and the VP on my Mercian touring / everyday winter commuter, so I can comment.

I first had the GB, they were amazing, they require a bit of drilling and carefull adjustment, but the never moved, and were perfectly silent. They are very stiff, virtually bomb proof. Untill the day my panniers fall and got trapped between the rear mudgard and the wheel, scrunching them badly, I could not bend them back, and they would have look shit.
I bought instead some VO on classified here, and it was a bit of a disappointment considering that brand new they are only slightly cheaper than the GB. Although the fixing of the stays to the dropouts / ends eyelets are better than the GB (Stainless steel vs plastic), the rest of the ironmongery, especially the fixing to the rear brake bridge and the fixing of the stays to the actual mudgards is not as good as the GB. I had to adapt them a lot (using some of the GB fixing bits from my old pair of mudgards) to make them silent and securely attached to the bike. The VO I have are the hammered ones. They are aluminium. They look very cool, nicer than the GB actually, and are lighter, but not as strong. They change shape easily, being aluminium, the holes you have to drill in them have a tendancy to increase in diameter if the bolts come loose and vibrate.

Sorry if too long to read, but in short, for almost the same money, GB are stronger, don't vibrabe / make noise, will definitely last longer and take more abuse. VO have to be fiddled with for satisfactory installation, are a bit fragile, but look awesome...

Szia

L

(in an even shorter version of the above, I agree with Ed...)

(Oh, and also, nice bike!!)