Decathlon / B'Twin - any good?

i had a b'twin rock rider a few years back . around the £500 mark. seemed quite a good bike. Has anyone owned one of thier road bikes ?

They look ok. i seem to recall that Confids and also AG2R had decthlon bikes a few years ago.

any input welcome .

Cheers

I had one of their base level road frames as my main bike until recently. They are great bikes for the price, they far surpass anything else I have seen in terms of the level of kit they give you for your cash, and they are tough as old boots.

I cant comment on anything higher up their range, but my feeling would be that it becomes less and less worth it.

I have a sport 3 from... ~09, 10ish which was around the 600 mark at the time. like ^ they are well specced and mine certainly so far seems dependable. No complaints so if you like, by all means buy

They're great.

Mechanic however are not.

yeah, i've definitely been struck by the quality to price ratio of other stuff at decathlon, so wouldn't be surprised that the btwin bikes are pretty decent. only point of hesitation might be that there's surely some sweat shop somewhere with 8 year olds putting it all together (i don't know anything about their ethical policies).

I have an old rockrider from around 2004. I think the last year mtb's still came with V brakes.

Its steel, nice geo. Good groupset & brakes (avid single digit). The wheels were a bit shit, rigida's that bent easily and the nipples fell apart. But rest of the bike is great.

They're miles better than almost any other OTP at the same price point, but buy online and have your LBS assemble for you, bypassing the wanky Decathlon mechanicking and chucking a few quid the high street's way.

only point of hesitation might be that there's surely some sweat shop somewhere with 8 year olds putting it all together...
I seem to remember reading that their bikes are made by Merida, who also make Specialized and various other brands.

(i don't know anything about their ethical policies).

They don't have reseller which is one way of being able to reduced the cost, also their shop are warehouse too, reducing the need to have a van run to grab the order from the warehouse (like Evans).

they're miles better than almost any other otp at the same price point, but buy online and have your lbs assemble for you, bypassing the wanky decathlon mechanicking and chucking a few quid the high street's way.

lol

lol
??

"I bought this bike online because I thought it would be cheaper. Please can you put it together for me and provide all the aftersales service that I didn't pay for?"

You forget the £50-100 labour charge to put a bicycle together.

I don't understand the probloem. Mechanics should charge an hourly rate for their tinkering, no?

Fuck, did that just really happen?

dies

To clarify, my suggestion was that many of the problems with cheap bikes are in the dodgy build quality, not the parts (certainly in B'Twin's case, the parts are often half-decent). So, buy a cheap bike cheaply online and pay your LBS's experienced, dedicated mechanics to build the boxed bike for you. If you've bought a real shitter, the 1-2 hours' labour will be wasted money and better put towards a better quality bike, but if you've bought a decent machine let down by dodgy assembly then it's a real bargain. Source: 4 years mechanicking at independent LBS. Summary: B'Twin - great but make sure the bolts are tight before mad skidz.

A year ago I tested their 2012 bTwin Facet 5.
It's one of the best bikes I tested the whole year, and there were some pretty expensive bikes.
Excellent bike, excellent value for money.

But you really have to know what you buy.
You depend on what they have in stock.
The product range is quite limited.
Almost no posibility to customize the bike: swap chain rings, chain set cogs, bars, stem.
Oh yes, they'll do it for you, but you'll have to pay for it and (again) there's not so much to choose from.

^^^^^edscoble, am I right to remember that you had your custom jobby built up in a shop?

Decathlon are great value for money, but from what I've seen, little else.

Yep, by a mechanic I trust (Nik from LMNF), the custom bike would feel like crap to ride if I gave it to Decathlon to put it together, and probably take a couple of weeks to figure out how to sort out the unusual part.

Precisely, Ed, that's why I think others are suggesting that anything bought from Decathlon should be rebuilt by someone who knows what they're doing!

Rather than by the owner who only a coupe of years ago couldn't seat tyres?

Aren't you're aware that it's pretty normal to pretend to know everything but failed to mount a mere tyres?

Isn't that what this forum is all about?

#allthegearandnoidea

Noticed they sell a cross bike as well as a reasonably expensive aero-tubed road bike while I was in the Surrey Quays one the other day: http://www.decathlon.co.uk/cyclo-cross-road-bike-id_8113183.html#anchor_ComponentProductFeatures

Website is pretty gash though.

On the other hand, their aerofit jerseys have a pretty nice fit (as worn by the FdJ team this year, not that it seems to have helped them win very much) http://www.decathlon.co.uk/aerofit-9-jersey-black-red-id_8237976.html

Noticed they sell a cross bike as well as a reasonably expensive aero-tubed road bike while I was in the Surrey Quays one the other day: http://www.decathlon.co.uk/cyclo-cross-road-bike-id_8113183.html#anchor_ComponentProductFeatures

Website is pretty gash though.

On the other hand, their aerofit jerseys have a pretty nice fit (as worn by the FdJ team this year, not that it seems to have helped them win very much) http://www.decathlon.co.uk/aerofit-9-jersey-black-red-id_8237976.html

that cross bike was the one i was looking at , looks ok. would that be better than the Uncle john that On one make ?

Anyone going to Decathlon and fancy picking up some cheap bottle cage mounts and posting os by chance?

http://www.decathlon.co.uk/apb-300-cycling-bottle-cage-bracket-id_4766980.html