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Reviewer: Zanx

Retailer: PowaCycle

Purchase Price: £599

Time Owned: 3 weeks

Terrain: Some minor hills

Strengths:
Sturdy, quiet, good range, comfortable ergonomics, sprightly off the line, massive rear rack capacity.

Weaknesses:
Wheels slightly out of true, lots of cast alloy components add needless weight, mediaevel bearings, naff stickers, pointless suspension seat post, primitive forks.

Summary:
Generally speaking I am extremely pleased with this bike, it's comfortable, very sturdy (read heavy) and does the job of getting me to work and back (17 miles) admirably. It's really an "improvement" bike, you buy the base model, then gradually add quality components as you go, so far I have added Armadillo tyres, lights, panniers (cool bags from Woollies actually) GPS, lighter pedals, a higher quality seat and a fixed seat post. The suspension seat post was a pointless waste of time and just added weight for no reason, it was replaced with a Raleigh post that was half the weight and longer. The pedals were ok in the dry but a bit slippy in the wet, so I replaced them with some lightweight spike style pedals that were 300g lighter, each. A longer seat post would be an essential upgrade for anyone over 5'11", the stock post needs putting over the MAX level to achieve the right height for the taller rider, the Raleigh post (£12) sorted the problem very nicely indeed. Next on the list is to replace the bottom bracket bearings for some sealed units (current setup is cup and lock ring), after that I'll be looking for some half decent suspension forks to replace the heavy and frankly pointless stock items.
The pulling power is impressive, I loaded up the rack with 20kg of shopping in an ex army saddlebag and barely noticed it was there, the rack is actually rated to 25kg!
All in all, I would recommend this bike to anyone, but be aware, the components are not tip top quality but the bones of the bike are solid and well worth adding quality components to.

Overall Rating: 8