Donegal Paul said:*heh* In that case im bleedin' glad i didnt impulsivly buy the subway 8 with
the silly plastic thingy on it last week :-)
I did query it, but the guy in the shop had no idea what I was talking
about! The braking ability of the roller brakes was the only thing
really queried in the reviews I've read. Fine around (flat) cities, but
liable to suffer chronic fade on the descents. Putting a disc on the
front should go a long way to solving that.
Review:
Sadly not of the Subway 8. I may still ride one, but the guy on the
phone this morning when I tried to "book" a test ride was talking about
only being able to ride it around the car park. I can't really think of
a less useful test. I did however take out a Ridgeback Neutron (Same
basic spec but with the Nexus dynohub, Basta front light and Vs front
and rear. £450).
First impressions: Looks good. Standard Ridgeback matt finish so looks
pretty sleek. Has mudguard eyes on the forks and lowrider bosses (Of
sorts - one sided only I think) halfway up. Two separate eyes at the
rear built into the solid block of Aluminium that appears to be the
current fashion! Mount points on the chain stays (Or rather... on the
central strut that links to the chain stays. See the Ridgeback website
for a better idea!) for a rack. In accordance with British consumer law
all of these mount points are unused and pre-fitted with stainless steel
bolts just waiting for the accessories. It's a commuter bike. Why the
hell doesn't it even come with mudguards?
Riding: On the flat around town it was good. Pretty plush feel, a
combination of the wide tyres (For me, anything above 23mm is "wide"😉,
upright riding position and allegedly sprung seatpost. I didn't really
notice the seatpost move when I sat down, so it was either locked out or
designed for someone considerably heavier than I.
As long as you aren't cranking it hard, changing gear is not a problem.
It seems to change up slightly better (Under higher load) than
downshifting but this wasn't really an issue. It freewheels nicely and
one of the first things I noticed is that there is little or no travel
on the freewheel. It makes the requisite clicking sounds, but the rapid
response feels like a clutch. A quick potter around town was good. It
was fun to pull up at the lights in a high gear and then drop a few
while stationary. I did try the lowest gear on the flat, but couldn't
maintain the cadence to get a feel for it.
So I took it up a hill. Arthur's seat in fact. The theory was that if I
could get the default set up, up the hill without standing up, my mother
could ride a dropped gear one around France! I picked a good day for it
as the wind had picked up nicely making it hell. In addition, I had
shunned my normal cycling gear for combats and a T-shirt with my Nevis
Lite providing boil-in-the-bag duties.
First the descent. The strong wind added ample resistance and made me
miss my drop bars. Got up a reasonable pace though and had no qualms
about the handling. I tried switching the front light on and off to see
if I could notice the drag from the dynohub, but didn't notice a thing.
It seemed pretty good to me.
It worked though. I made it over without needing to drop into 1st
(Although I did, just to see). When down in first and second I felt that
I could feel the drag in the hub. More accurately, I could feel a
"thrumming" that came through the pedals. Knowing what I do about the
system meant that I was looking for this, so possibly not a fair test.
As I approached the final corner and crest I noticed a cyclist coming up
alongside. I didn't really want a race but wasn't going to slow down. He
pulled alongside and commented on my "new" bike. I explained that I was
test riding it and that Arthur's seat seemed a good test. He said it
looked pretty impressive and I'd certainly been doing well up the hill.
Turned out the bugger had been shadowing me up. He then pulled back in
behind me just in time for the final climb and thrash into the wind.
Then another confident descent, and short ride back to Biketrax.
All in? Generally impressed. Budget for £500 to include rack, mudguards,
bottle cage(s) and a rear light. In a hilly city, I would seriously
consider speccing a lower gear range to put direct drive somewhere more
useful. Fundamentally, it's not my kind of bike, but if I was looking to
blow some money on a commuter bike I'd certainly put it high on the
list. The extra £100 over the Subway gets you the dynohub and light. The
Subway has a possible edge in that it would be possible to fit decent
discs to it, while the Ridgeback is "limited" to Vees. I will definitely
have to try the Subway by way of comparison. I'd consider the Cannondale
50/50 but given the ridiculous price, it's hardly in the same league.
Apologies for the rambling and probably badly structured review. I'd
intended to write it earlier and probably wont have time to do so tomorrow.
Jon
