| layout | title | slug | date | categories | lang | ref | excerpt_separator |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
post |
My new bicycle: the B'Twin Triban 540 |
my-new-bike-triban-540 |
2016-07-15 20:57:00 +0200 |
en |
my-new-bike-triban-540 |
<!--more--> |
Did I absolutly need a new bike? Not neccasary... well maybe... or absolutly. I was going on a rampage by owning so far two Dahon folding bicycles: a red Dahon Eco C7 and a white Dahon Mu P24. Theyre were my all round bicycles for my daily commuting in town, doing some shopping, and go a long ride, usually with a friend.
I really enjoy riding these bicycles and I should make a post someday to introduce you those two little guys. This sounds like a new member is joining the family. It kind of is :)
As fun as they can be I started to feel some limitations with these folding bicycles. First as I get more experience riding, my average speed tends to increase and my Dahons are maybe not the best for maintaining a 30+km/h speed. Also my most recent one, the white Mu P24 isn't rigid engough when I push hard on the pedal: speeding is exausting.
That's why I decided to buy a new bicycle, a regular one. I had to negociate a bit to be allowed to bring a new bicycle at home: I had to sell one of my bicycles (plot twist: I still own the two folding bikes, it's our little secret).
The Triban 540 falls into the category of a road bike. However I'd qualify it as a versatile road bike as I use it for my daily commute, recreational rides and long trips.
For the transmission it offers Shimano 105 cassette (11 speeds - 11/28), derailleurs and shifters. The compact crank set (52/36) however is not from Shimano but is a "Prowheel Ounce 721". It sure does the job, but it doesn't look as cool as the new Shimano cranksets.
Stock tyres are Hutchinson Equinox 2. These are good tyres for a start offert some confort, relative puncture protection without sacrificing too much to rolling resistance.
The bicycle offers good handling even if you're not used to road bikes. That's something I really appreciated having experienced folding bicycles before.
The frame is an aluminium frame. The fork, however, is a carbon fork with holes that allow mouting a front rack. This is not something very common and I really appreciate it even though I didn't use this feature yet. I did not check the weight of the bicycle. On the webshop they announce 9.5 kg in size M without the pedals. So I'd say it's a 10 kg bike.
The wheels are Mavic Askium wheels. These are entry level wheels from Mavic but are already good and solid which will make them to last long.
To better suit my needs I added a rear luggage carrier as I am going to use this bike as both a commuting and touring bicycle. I chose a Pletscher Athlete 4B that was available at the shop where I bought the bicycle for 26€.
I also wanted to add SKS fenders, however this leave little space between the tyre and the brake, plus it was finally not possible to mount them on the frame despite what the product web page stated. So I ended up mounting Zefal road front and rear fenders. They do their job quite decently and provide good value for money (16€ for the fender set).
I added two Elite bottle cages with their bottle to carry water on the way.
Living in a big city and having already experienced a bicycle theft opting for a U-lock was not an option. It would have been a pity to have to carry a huge lock with me, that's why I chose the Kryptonite Evolution Mini 5 with the flex frame support to hold the lock on the frame while riding. It was quite tricky to find a proper position for the lock support and I decided to put it on the vertical tube above the bottle cage. On my daily commute I wouldn't need more than one bottle, and on longer trip the small lock easily fit in any bag.
On the electronic side I went a bit crazy and bought a GPS for my rides: the Garmin Edge 1000 Explore. It does the stuff you'd expect from cycling computer which is mainly speed, time, calories, distance, altitude. This model bring the navigation mode which will help you to navigate to your destination without the need of carefully planning your trip. I should make a dedicated review for this GPS.
To sumarize the equipements and modiciations:
- Rear luggage carrier: Pletscher Athlete 4B
- Fenders: Zefal Croozer Road (front) and Zefal Swan Road (rear)
- Lock: Kryptonite Evolution Mini 5 with Flex Frame Support + anti thefts wheel axles.
- Bike computer: Garmin Edge 1000 Explore
- Rear tyre: Continental Grand Prix 4-Season
To cut off any suspense I am quite happy of this bicycle. It behaves well on both city and countryside roads. Whenever it is not a cross bicycle and do not like very much offroading. You can however change the tyres to make it better offroad but will be limited on tyre width (32C max).
You can fit quite a lot of equipment on this bike, however be aware that the road handle bar with the thick ribbon and cable undearneath it makes it difficult to fit a lot of accessories on the bar. This is true in general for any road bike.
For the best test ride was my challenge to ride from Paris to Lille (250+ km) within the day. I did it and was glad to ride this bicycle and can confirm it is good at long rides.
I had recently one problem with the left shifter which breaked. The bicycle is currently under repair at Decathlon. That's one drawback of this bicycle: it can only be bought at Decathlon. Even if they offer good after sale service there are some repair that they do not do at the shop you bought the bike. Indeed to change my shifter they sent the bicycle to their regional workshop. This makes the bike unavailable for at least week. At a local bike shop you'd maybe have to wait for the shifter to arrive but you'd give the bicycle only once the shifter can be mounted on the bicycle and you'd be able to quickly get the bike back and enjoy it.
Is the Triban serie a good one? Well look at the picture bellow taken at my office: that's a whooping of 3 triban bicycles on the rack. That was not staged at all and I found it quite amusing.
The triban 540 is a good bicycle, and a very good bicycle if you compare its price to what the competition offers. I bought it for 850€ at Decathlon in France. I got good value for my money I would recommand it my review fits your needs.
You can also refer to the review from Bike Radar if you still need to make up your mind.
Feel free to ask me any question on my Twitter account.