giant orc4

john said:

hi
i have seen a 2006 giant orc4 for 225.is this a good bike for some one
who wants to get back into cycling but doesnt want a mtb.it has 14
gears only is this enough for general road use as i wont be breaking
any records. ??my only other choice is a halfords apollo.any advice
would be welcome.

thanks.
john.

not a racer, nor one who spends time looking at the kit, but that
doesn't look bad. the gears should be enought, the the extra cog would
only drop bit further down. and with the thin tires should zip along.

roger

Quoted message said:

hi
i have seen a 2006 giant orc4 for 225.is this a good bike for some one
who wants to get back into cycling but doesnt want a mtb.it has 14
gears only is this enough for general road use as i wont be breaking
any records. ??my only other choice is a halfords apollo.any advice
would be welcome.

OCR4 Downsides:
Frame only 6061 - maybe slightly heavier
No clearance for mudguards (tho raceblades will do the job)

OCR4 Upsides:
Better rear derailler (Shimano Sora) may give more reliable shifting
Alloy fork - maybe slightly lighter

Apollo Downsides:
Cromo fork - maybe slightly heavier
Bottom of the range rear derailler - may give less reliable shifting

Apollo Upsides:
7005 frame - maybe slightly lighter
Clearance for mudguards (don't know if forks take them thobut)

My take is that assuming they're a similar weight we can ignore the
frame/fork materials (OCR4 is 11kg, if you've the weight of the Apollo).
Raceblades mean the lack of mudguard clearance is also pretty irrelevent.
The main difference seems to be that the OCR has a better rear derailler.
Faster shifting is something that you'd definately notice, so of the two
I'd go for the OCR4.

As to the gears, both seem to have an HG37 cassette with a range of 14-
28. This means slightly lower gearing than a normal road bike (Sora
cassettes only go up to 26, and start at 12 or 13). This is probably a
Good Thing for mortals like us.

Only seven cogs at the back also means the gap between each gear is a wee
bit bigger. This shouldn't be an issue for your type of riding, and the
next one up in Halford's range costs £260 for just one extra cog (it's 8
speed) and drops you from the OCR4's Sora mech back to crappy old 2200.
Not worth it IMO.

So to sum up, I'd go for the OCR4. Better rear mech, none of the other
differences matter, and it's red. Red ones go faster.