markjohnobrien wrote:It’s a shame a store is not closer to you as they really are excellent.
I've been in a few Decathlon stores, the one at Southampton, Poole and a few other places. I always go into bike shops and have a look around. I wasn't super impressed with their component prices I'm spoilt by internet prices and the bikes back then were a non-starter as I'm over 100kg and their bikes at the time are rated to a total load of no more than 100kg only leaving about 80kg or less for the rider. So these new adventure bikes are the first I could actually consider at Decathlon.
One bike I used to really hate was the Triban 100 as its just junk parts and they were charging £250 for it but realise now it has bee upgraded to a freehub/cassette but back then it was just using a low end freewheel and seemed massively over-priced. Some of their bikes have btwin branded components were are just low end parts most of the time like a very basic Suntour fork, sub XCT in spec.
I'm definitely of the opinion that many Halfords and Go Outdoors bikes are better options at the same price points. Certainly Decathlon have nothing to match the Calibre Bossnut in fact the Decathlon options around that price point are pretty hopeless. I think Decathlon score best for road bikes.
I remember reading in a shopping forum on a thread about Halford's Carrera bikes that were on sale and many of the posters stated Halford's bikes are rubbish and put off potential buyers from getting the Carrera bike that was on sale for about £200 and advised to get a Decathlon. Anyway I remember someone taking their advice and instead of getting the decent Carrera with a freehub drivetrain, good mechanical disc brakes and decent XCM forks they went with an absolutely trash Decathlon mountain bike with V brakes, freewheel and twist shifters and very low end forks. The last comments on the thread were of that person's problems with the Decathlon bike. In contrast the people who got the Carrera bike at the bargain price were mostly exceptionally pleased.
As ever ignore the shop mostly, get the best bike you can based on its components not the perceived quality of the retailer. Buy by spec not by retailer.
Another case in point was last year Argos was selling a Claris based road bike with carbon fibre forks for £150 or there abouts because of Black Friday, it was a half price deal. Fantastic value but again people came into the thread stating support your local bike shop or buy from Decathlon etc which was madness for such a low price point. If I went into my local bike shop with £150 I'd probably get a well used Apollo road bike that someone had traded it for their new bike.
Like any shop Decathlon are a mixture of good and bad quality and good and bad value. Same with Halfords one week you go in and a bike is £400 next week it might be £250 and there may be a working voucher that takes a further 10% off. The next week it may be go outdoors that is doing a big price promotion.