The Galaxy range, confused to strange...

[chocjohn9]

Last night I found myself looking at the Dawes website. In the past few years it became complicated and now I just don't know...
http://dawescycles.com/product-category ... s-touring/

So, to recap, there was the Vantage, frame upgrade to the Horizon, frame upgrade to the 631 Galaxy, component upgrade to the Super Galaxy and then the frame and component upgrade to the 853 Ultra Galaxy. Clear so far. It ran like this for quite some time. The Galaxy came with Deore and retailed for about £1100.

Then the names were all changed to Galaxy. Galaxy Al, Galaxy Cross, Galaxy Classic, Super and Ultra....making the Galaxy the new Vantage and the Classic the old Galaxy. So, there will be some fun and games with ebay purchases in the future

For 2015 the Galaxy Classic as we know it appears to have been dropped. (Making life for the people who have contributed to the "Default Tourer" threat, harder )

There's the 4130 Galaxy with Alivio and 520 Galaxy plus with Alivio, (the difference used to be just the STI levers on the Plus) so when we think of "A galaxy" the spec has been really downgraded - mind you, so has the price. Then the Classic has gone all retro using 531. 631 tubes are no where to be seen because the Super uses 725 whilst the Ultra is now Ti. (I thought Dawes had tried Ti 4/5 years ago and it had flopped). There is a 26" - a good thing - but it is £1799. Oh. For less than that we could make up a nice Thorn or Hewitt from scratch. Consequently, the sequence means that there is a huge jump in Galaxy's from 520 Alivio to 853 XT and so does the price jump - from £999 to £1799. What are they thinking?

AND, the Ti one - the new Ultra is £2800. Goodness. Van Nicholas Amazon's start at about £2100 and they are specialists with Ti.

What ever philosophy is at work here, it seems to be an odd one. Why devalue to the Galaxy and leave a huge pricing hole?
I suppose the discounters will soon fill the gap....

[Swallow]

I bought a Galaxy Cross last March, the price was £600, I said that was too much so LBS owner said you can have it for £450. £150 off just for asking

[mercalia]

Yes I noted the same with the "Marathon" name - now every touring tyre is a Marathon

The Dawes Coast 2 Coast 26″ looks a bit like the old Dawes 1-Down but with disc brakes?

The prices for some are absurd? Pricing themselves out of the market?

http://dawescycles.com/product/galaxy-classic-2/

£1800 for a 531 framed bike And only bar end shifters& Alivio rear derailleur, so where has all the money gone?

Any one any idea why 631 has gone? is it now not used by frame makers? I have never had any complaint from my 631 based 1-Down

[fastpedaller]

I suspect it's all marketing hype - Use the brand name as much as possible. Just like everything seems to have the word ECO attached to it!

[CREPELLO]

It looks a very appealing range to me. Between the Galaxy and Super Gal, there is the Galaxy plus, albeit with disc brakes, which many would consider an upgrade over canti's anyway.

There is also the 26" Coast to Coast at £999, in addition to the more expensive Gran Tour. This looks to be the direct descendant of the old steel Sardar.

Yes, the Ti model is very expensive, but Dawes can always be had with a heavy discount. I doubt a touring enthusiast (who likes to build their own) would go for a top of the range Dawes anyway - they'll be bought by wealthy novices I reckon.

It is rather nice to see a true Classic looking Galaxy again with lugged 531 tubing and chromed fork tips and stays, even if not all the components are that flattering - talking about the Alivio RD If I bought one, I would change the rear mech for a lovely polished silver Microshift Centos and swap out the jockey wheels for 9 speeds. The big question for many would be whether there are enough frame sizes to fit most folks.

[mercalia]

It is rather nice to see a true Classic looking Galaxy again with lugged 531 tubing and chromed fork tips and stays, even if not all the components are that flattering - talking about the Alivio RD If I bought one, I would change the rear mech for a lovely polished silver Microshift Centos and swap out the jockey wheels for 9 speeds. The big question for many would be whether there are enough frame sizes to fit most folks.

Its not the bike, its the absurd price that makes me laugh. I have nothing against cheap RD - I had one on my old Dawes Horizon tourer and it was superb - That bike was £450 in 2000 I think and had a steel 531 frame.

[Spinners]

I think the painted Ultra Galaxy Ti looks great - much better than Ti with the obligatory black fork. Dawes seriously need to tell us more on their website - there's almost no info on components except what you can see in the piccie.

Too expensive though .

[fluffybunnyuk]

if only they did a 953 frame at a non-mortgaging house price then i wouldnt mind. Either way In my limited opinion theyre great bikes.

[horizon]

Dawes is a mainstream bike range and for each and every Galaxy there is probably a better bike out there, most likely built up by yourself from a frame. But at the same time it is fantastic to see such a comprehensive range of touring bikes, including the 26" Galaxies (which I have long proposed ).

Even during the earlier years of this forum, it was depressing to see so few touring bikes on the market - it was almost a Galaxy or custom build. Now, we are spoilt for choice. I wouldn't argue that the Galaxies are better than the equivalent Thorns, Ridgebacks, Spa, Surleys etc etc etc but if anyone was new to touring and wanted to buy a bike, I would point them straight in the direction of Dawes (and to look for a discount ).

Dawes have also gone for the "heritage" look (it's a nice touch) and are exploiting the Galaxy name for all it is worth; I don't blame them, it's cut-throat out there and, hey, they're selling touring bikes!

[niggle]

It is all marketing: the Galaxy name is their flag ship brand so they stop naming things Horizon, Sardar, One Down, etc., and instead offer an extended range of different niche bikes with the Galaxy name tag. OTOH looks like the Karakum was thought to have enough brand recognition to be kept.

Cross & Blackwell did it: my favourite C&B baked beans were renamed 'Branston' a few years ago, based on the popularity of their Branston Pickle. Taste just the same as ever to me fortunately

[531colin]

Being a sad git with no social life, I flicked up the geometry, its here...,.,http://dawescycles.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/Touring-Geometries.pdf
I found it linked from the Galaxy Plus and some others, but not all of them, but that's only the start of the strange happenings.
Top of the list, Karakum. All have 71 deg head angle.....except the 20" mens', which has 69 deg
...and the 18" ladies' bike has the same ETT as the 22" mens, that is longer than the 20" mens. This seems odd, as the traditional view is that women like to sit more upright than men. (there is also a traditional belief in the bike business that women have longer legs for the same height than men, although there is no convincing evidence)
Galaxy Al/Cromo/plus/classic/super & ultra all share the same geometry numbers*, so they are all the same, right? Well, not in the pictures they aren't. Ultra, super, Classic, Galaxy and Cromo all have a traditional fork with the legs brazed into a cast crown. But Al. has a unicrown fork, and Plus has a unicrown with that strange extra bit between the (uni)crown and the crown race. (perhaps that's the "disc fork"...it occurs on all the disc bikes). A unicrown has more vertical height than (most) cast crowns, so with the same length head tube, Al and Plus will have more top tube slope.....quite a bit more in Plus. While I'm banging on about top tube slope, how is it that the Classic is shown with a horizontal top tube, and all the rest with sloping top tubes, seeing as they are all the same geometry numbers?
How about seat tube angle? Most of the galaxy gang (Al to Ultra, in your handy table) have 75 deg seat tube in the smallest, going to 72 deg in the biggest. This is common in the bike business, and it gets a nice short top tube number in the geometry table, but there are going to be people looking for long layback seatposts.
But then look at Karakum and Cross....they have steeper seat angles in the big bikes, I don't remember seeing that before.

*except Al. head tube length in 2 sizes

[Sweep]

The Cross seems excellent value.

Anyone got anything to say against it?

[Swallow]

I have one, I did ask on here if anyone else had one or new anything about them, had no response. I bought mine in March of last year but due to back problems and spinal surgery I've hardly ridden it. In the short distance I have ridden it, it seems to be very comfortable, a bit on the heavy side. I bought it thinking a flat barred bike would be better for my back but seems that drops are better any way for the back. I do have three other bikes. By the way, I got mine from my LBS for the discounted price of £450, just for asking

[chocjohn9]

Having thought about this a bit more, perhaps Dawes' philosophy is two fold. (although there is no folding Galaxy yet sorry)

With the damp economic conditions continuing plus a glut of people buying bikes on the Cycle to Work Scheme, they have wanted to - needed to? - hit the sub £1000 mark and there is now a bias of bikes in that bracket. In doing this they have reduced the price and the spec.....unlike Surly, who's LHT has stayed about the same price, but yearly the spec has been ever so slightly reduced.

Then there has also been a rise of the MAMILs for whom money is not really an issue and therefore another group of bikes at £1799+. But, I still find the price jump a strange one.

[chocjohn9]

Off my own topic (!!!) but -
Swallow - of course backs are terribly complex things and each person's case is different - I have a bad back too and have had two operations. Recently I changed all of my forks and put more spacers in to almost level the handlebars and the seat heights. It is now rare that I have trouble and I take part in audaxes. Plus cycling can be very good for the back because the bending over nature of the riding position opens up the spine to let blood in.
(I am no doctor, but I do run a back pain charity)