Carrera bikes?

[TwoPlusTen]

There seems to be a degree of anti-Halfords sentiment on this forum, but what are people's opinions of their Carrera range? I did have a Kraken MTB which was decent enough, but currently have my eyes on one of these:

http://www.halfords.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/product_storeId_10001_catalogId_10151_productId_272647_langId_-1_categoryId_165710

Obviously the usual caveats about Halfords build are noted, but... any thoughts?

[Father Jack]

Should have bought it last week, was another 20% off, was going for £400.

Just bought a Carrera Gryphon Disc. Whatever you do, don't get Halfords monkeys touch it, get it boxed and leave it boxed. Put wheels, seat post on yourself, set up brakes and gearing too.

[gilesjuk]

A bike is just a collection of off the shelf parts and a frame and forks.

So when asking about how good a bike is you're really asking if the frame is any good as the quality of the gears and other parts can be determined by looking online.

I suspect Carrera bikes use frames chosen from a catalogue. It'll be average aluminium alloy frames. The forks on a MTB will be off the shelf. You really want air sprung suspension forks usually.

I wouldn't consider any of their bikes, not even if I was looking at the low end of the market. There's always cheap unbranded frames on ebay that are probably unbadged frames for other manufacturers, I'd sooner buy one of those.

[Tonyf33]

Not bad bikes but £500 still seems a tad expensive for what you're getting.
The 2010 Raleigh Airlite 200 can be had for around £400-420 if you look around
The same £500 will get you an awful lot of near new second hand bike, I managed to bag a Principia with Full Dura Ace 9 speed group in mint condition for £620
Bike Radars your place if you want some near new bargains.

[NUKe]

Your right this site does get an awful lot of anti Halfords comments, but not generally from people who own halfords bikes. Halfords Carrera range nearly always get a good right up in the cycling press when compared to thoer in there price range. So if floats your boat then go for it. That said there are plenty of others in that pricerange so loook round before you commit

[theopr]

My local children's bicycle club bought some very similar carerra road bikes in kids sizes to use as club bikes. They seemed like good bikes for the money, but this was a while ago and they may have been a bit cheaper than that.

[al_yrpal]

Unlike the bike snobs I have actually owned two Carrera bikes. Both cracking bikes. The frames are made in Specialised factory and the frame materials are the higher quality aluminium alloy. I have carefully measured the frame of my current tourer a Subway and its distances and angles are perfect and almost identical to some very expensive handbuilt tourers. The groupset and brakes are branded and very good. Big difference is that it was at least £200 cheaper than branded alternatives. I don't have knowledge of the bike you are considering but going on my experience it should be a good un. I should add that my other bike is a 3 grand Cannondale MTB. In my opinion its about 2 grand overpriced and aimed at gullible bike snobs. It was a test bike and a grand is what I actually paid. Carrera represents great design and quality at a barely believable price.
Al

[twhincup]

lol i am a bike snob but i only own halfords bikes

I bought a carrera Gryphon 6 years ago and I still use it frequently for commuting rides. I cant fault it. I've serviced it once in that time and apart from wear and tear on brakes tubes and tyres, nothing else has gone wrong.

Agreed i would never give halfords my bnike to service or 'fix' (nightmares of sending one of my purchases back 6 times just to sort indexing out), but, i have two hybrid's, a mountain bike (a carrera banshee??) and a road bike all from halfords without much problems from a sale point of view.

besides its covered my guarantee for 12 months minimum

[philg]

The groupset and brakes are branded and very good. Big difference is that it was ateast £200 cheaper than branded alternatives.

That was certainly my experience getting an MTB for elder son a few years back.

DYOR and ignore the bike snobs

[Father Jack]

Rip off the "a" off the end of Carrera and put "i" instead instant Italian pedigree then, or maybe Carrerti or Carreli

[Elizabethsdad]

Just got a Subway 8 and took it on it's first ride today. It was fine getting it home on Monday but this morning it was hard to change up the gears and then wouldn't change down. Problem traced to gear cable being clamped by prop stand where I bolted it to the bottom bracket - my fault not Hlafords. Bike was absolutely fine once I had sorted that out. Stopped off Halfords just to get the cable checked to make sure it was OK, which it was. Got chatting and the chap I spoke to was very open and said they don't have the training in hub gear maintennance, so if I do need something doing it'llbe done at the LBS. I guess as with anything else there will good and bad Halfords as well as good and bad bike shops. My Carrera Subway 8 seems like a pretty decent bike - espicially when I only paid £320 for it. The frame has a 5 year warrentee so it should be good for at least that long.

[Chris the Sheep]

As per my comments in the 'Ultimate Commuter' thread, I also took advantage of the £320 Subway 8 and found the gears weren't adjusted correctly - it was simple enough to fix but then I'm reasonably proficient at that sort of thing. As the 'manual' doesn't give any information on adjustment, and even specifically says not to attempt to remove the rear wheel, I wonder how stupid Halfords think their customers are?

But the bike itself seems to be pretty good quality, and I think I've got a bargain.

[al_yrpal]

Don't take back wheel out? What about p**s then?

Al

[ishi0000]

Carrera represents great design and quality at a barely believable price.

They most certainly do...But here is my take, it really depends on you.

I just sold a subway zero, it was nice, fun, and seemed OK quality.The frame geometry was not for me though it was not a road bike like this. imo They are kind of like of the shelf suits, good ones if they fit and feel good. Maybe if I got a more similar Carrera to the bike I replaced it with I would be more enthusiastic, maybe it's just because i'm more comfy working with older bikes so they seem more customizable to me (and I value cheap good parts).

Also they do strong 'typs' of bike, Like this full on racer or MTB. Maybe the hybrids are closer to normal but IMO these subways are MTB bikes with a more relaxed geometry, just look at the crank hight. The Gryphon may be close to what I consider a hybrid But it still seems mountain bikey to me, the reach also looks long...It's either sit back and lean forward frames (which imo just doesn't make sense) or race frames like this that still look long to me, And in that way one could ask are they really suitable for anyone.

Don't get me wrong. I would still have one for a pub/messing about bike, second hand, But I only spent a little extra and got something twice as valuable in my view...Maybe it's just because I was not so taken with alloy frames... I guess if I was set on a racer (and I do wish they'd call them that and not "road" bikes) then i'd look for something better, either new or used..I spotted this, http://www.bikeradar.com/gear/category/bikes/road/product/review-genesis-bikes-equilibrium-10-36088/

Again though this has strange geometry imo, But really these bikes just don't hold there value well, the above is going dirt cheap used, which says a lot maybe. I was looking at the trek 1.1 but then I remembered the Kona Jake and that would be my choice vs the other two for may reasons...

Yes the frame looks nice now but it's cheap, and the components may look nice but there cheap, the components on my Carrera where no better than old cheap components (which cost less)...When I was very young I used to go on about bikes to someone who raced them and had a shop, He would say to me with a funny attitude "get a Carrera then" I can see what he meant now, luckily I only lost £50 on it at two weeks old..

[ishi0000]

Really imo if your not that serious (or maybe more accurately you don't care that much) they may be excellent. I personally feel you get a good balanced view from ctc over all, maybe too in favor.

But bare in mind some people that may have them may also be very familiar with bikes. As a qualified fine artist/painter I do use cheap brushes, they are OK to me because i'm familiar with painting but I would never really recommend them because it's false economy and can be more work at the end of the day...It's hard to resist "bargain's" sometimes.