Triban 3 Owners Club

[Sca1ey]

... we Brompton owners don't ever do our own mechanicals...

Some of us do :-)

 

[danjanoob]

It's usually down to individuals, Decathlon are a general purpose store after all, with a cycling section within, so it's foreseeable that not all staff will be into cycling; a polite e-mail to them pointing out your disappointment is probably in order ... that way the managers can have a generic chat with all those on the shop floor / workshop and improve things. If the chain is wrong then it should be addressed and go back to them - I do wonder how they managed that?

Yes you're right, he was in the cycling section, but it's easy to lose motivation working in retail. I'll send an easy email to them and hopefully things will improve. I may take it back to the store, or may just take out a link or two myself. It's a lot of effort driving 15 miles to lakeside with the bike hanging out of the roof! How difficult can it be to remove a couple? Am i right in thinking that the long chain would also be the reason it jumped out of gear a couple of times?

 

[outlash]

Im actually a bit miffed with Decathlon. I'm loving the bike (had my first ride on it tonight, 3 miles in the rain), but the guy who served me was a lazy sod (at lakeside store). Didn't tell me how to change gears, how to use the brakes efficiently, or anything really, despite me making it very clear I had not ridden a bike for a good few years and never on the road. He certainly didn't mention this safety check. Probably because it was half an hour until knocking off time. He didn't even try and help me with equipment etc, despite me hanging around in the bike section for an extra half an hour desperately trying to pick out bits.

I'm a bit annoyed about it to be honest, now that i'm thinking about it. Is it hard to get some decent customer service when spending a good chunk of money? I might ring up and complain but i don't even know his name.

Ugh.

Put yourself in his position, it's late Saturday evening and you've got to get home from Lakeside and a guy comes in, buys the cheapest road bike in the range and then expects you to spend time with him showing him the very basics? What did you expect him to do? Ride it home for you too? I think the onus is on you to figure some of it out yourself.


Tony.

 

[SatNavSaysStraightOn]

Yes you're right, he was in the cycling section, but it's easy to lose motivation working in retail. I'll send an easy email to them and hopefully things will improve. I may take it back to the store, or may just take out a link or two myself. It's a lot of effort driving 15 miles to lakeside with the bike hanging out of the roof! How difficult can it be to remove a couple? Am i right in thinking that the long chain would also be the reason it jumped out of gear a couple of times?

It is possible that the problem is one of 2 things. the mech not being properly adjusted or the chain being too long. We have 2 of the T3's and 1 bike needed a shorter chain to resolve the issues of it slipping on the lowest (grannie) gear and the other needed the mech adjusting. I would actually go with the rear derailuer needing a minor adjustment before shortening the chain personally.

(I understand the effort needed with the getting it back to the store issues - hence us doing a lot of the work ourselves.)

 

[thegravestoneman]

I have no experience of a Triban but I doubt that the chain is actually too long, you said you was a basically a novice and my thoughts would be that the gears are either not set up correctly or you are still on the learning curve on using them never 'big to big or little to little' and make sure you are pedalling when changing gear. It is worth the effort of taking the bike back, if it is defective it is up to them to sort putting it right and also gives them another try at customer service.

 

[danjanoob]

Put yourself in his position, it's late Saturday evening and you've got to get home from Lakeside and a guy comes in, buys the cheapest road bike in the range and then expects you to spend time with him showing him the very basics? What did you expect him to do? Ride it home for you too? I think the onus is on you to figure some of it out yourself.


Tony.

Sorry but i completely disagree. I was in retail myself for five years until very recently. Whether it's 9am or 9pm your job is to help people. That is why you're employed. It's especially important in a shop like Decathlon, which caters to a huge range of people and a huge range of activities. How long would it have taken him to talk me through the important bits? Not long. I can't believe he had anything better to do, as he simply went back to the bike area and carried on chatting to his mate.

Yes, it was the cheapest road bike they do, but one man's change is another's fortune. £300 is a lot to me for a sport i'm not yet involved in. A little bit of enthusiasm and information wouldn't go amiss.

 

[danjanoob]

It is possible that the problem is one of 2 things. the mech not being properly adjusted or the chain being too long. We have 2 of the T3's and 1 bike needed a shorter chain to resolve the issues of it slipping on the lowest (grannie) gear and the other needed the mech adjusting. I would actually go with the rear derailuer needing a minor adjustment before shortening the chain personally.

(I understand the effort needed with the getting it back to the store issues - hence us doing a lot of the work ourselves.)

Thanks very much, i'll research how to adjust the derailuer and see if that helps. It could definitely be my noob self just abusing the gears without realising it, so will go for a couple more rides and improve my technique. Bearing in mind that i'm a trained vehicle techy, so I have a good lot of mechanical sympathy and understanding.

 

[danjanoob]

I have no experience of a Triban but I doubt that the chain is actually too long, you said you was a basically a novice and my thoughts would be that the gears are either not set up correctly or you are still on the learning curve on using them never 'big to big or little to little' and make sure you are pedalling when changing gear. It is worth the effort of taking the bike back, if it is defective it is up to them to sort putting it right and also gives them another try at customer service.

I'll see how it goes after a couple of more rides befoire I consider returning. The chain is also quite saggy and has a lot of slack, with the chain on the middle of both rings. I'm sure it should be more tight, and the rear small rings should be vertical with each other?

 

[Radchenister]

Give me an hour to recover from this morning's blustery head wind battle and I'll take some pic's of mine for comparison - it's outside drip drying after a wash off.

 

[Typhon]

Tomorrow we take in my OH's Triban 3 to drop off for same 'safety check' and hopefully collect mine if there have not been any issues discovered.... will update you all, but one thing that has come out of this is, if you bought the bike from a store, do make sure you get your 6 month safety check done. It could prevent warrany issues if you need to claim later on. It was also explained that the 6 months a little lenient so if you are around 6-7 months now and you want that warranty, get them to do the 30 min safety check. I will update up on the outcome of my bike tomorrow should you be interested (or not!)

When I bought mine they said that I'd get a free service after a year but nothing about a 6 month safety check. Is that in addition? That'll be in about 3 weeks for me, it's a long way to Decathlon but I might do that for my own peace of mind.

 

[Typhon]

I've been thinking quite seriously about upgrading the wheels lately and I've been doing a bit of looking into it. I've also looked at the wheels that come with more established expensive carbon bikes and been quite surprised at the relative lack of quality in some of them. For example I've seen a couple of Bianchis in the £15000-2000 price range that come with Fulcrum 7s, which cost only £150 and are wheels I was looking at for my Triban! With those wheels the Triban would only be about 1kg heavier than those Bianchi's, ok they had a Shimano 105 groupset but I can't help but feel you'd have 95% of the bike for 20% of the price.

I thought I'd share my research on here to see what people think of the wheels and to help out anyone who's also thinking of upgrading. The Fulcrums seem to be the benchmark in the price range I was looking at (£150-£300)

Fulcrum 7s 1849g and £150 http://www.chainreactioncycles.com/Models.aspx?ModelID=88631

Fulcrum 5s - 1760g and £200 http://www.chainreactioncycles.com/Models.aspx?ModelID=88634

Fulcrum Racing Quattro (aero wheels) 1710g and £270 http://www.chainreactioncycles.com/Models.aspx?ModelID=88635

I also found these alternatives though:

Shimano Ultegra 6700 1652g and £260 http://www.chainreactioncycles.com/Models.aspx?ModelID=76736

Mavic Ksyrium Elite Wheels 1550g and £155 http://www.chainreactioncycles.com/Models.aspx?ModelID=72611

And finally, these wheels are 1735g but come with tyres that take them to 2425g. Continental gatorskins (the tyres I was thinking of buying) only weigh 440g for a pair so these seem quite heavy. They cost £46 for a pair though which makes these wheels & tyres at £175 a real bargain: http://www.merlincycles.com/bike-sh...-aksium-s-wts-wheels-pair-2013-inc-tyres.html

I haven't shopped around for the best price on each one so you may be able to find them a bit cheaper elsewhere. Not knowing anything about wheels all I can really go on is reviews, price and weight so if anyone can shed some light on these I'd appreciate it. I'm probably leaning towards the Fulcrum 5s at the moment.

 

[danjanoob]

Give me an hour to recover from this morning's blustery head wind battle and I'll take some pic's of mine for comparison - it's outside drip drying after a wash off.

Thank you, I really would appreciate it. Been looking for a detailed image for comparison on google but no joy.

 

[outlash]

Sorry but i completely disagree. I was in retail myself for five years until very recently. Whether it's 9am or 9pm your job is to help people. That is why you're employed. It's especially important in a shop like Decathlon, which caters to a huge range of people and a huge range of activities. How long would it have taken him to talk me through the important bits? Not long. I can't believe he had anything better to do, as he simply went back to the bike area and carried on chatting to his mate.

You wanted to be shown how to use the gears and brakes but:

Bearing in mind that i'm a trained vehicle techy, so I have a good lot of mechanical sympathy and understanding.

If you struggle with a bike, then I wonder what 'techy' part of a car you're trained in! What if you bought your bike online like most of us did? Sit there and whine it doesn't come with a manual? Despite not ever owned a road bike before, it took me a whopping 5 minutes to figure out how it works. It's not hard.
Worse still, what happens if something goes wrong? Are you going to keep popping back to Decathlon for every little issue? Every issue I've had with mine, I've taken the initiative and sorted out myself or taken it down to the LBS, I'm not doing a 100+ mile round trip to my nearest branch.

BTW, in retail your job is to sell. If you spent all day helping and not selling, then there wouldn't be a business.


Tony.

 

[BrianEvesham]

Thank you, I really would appreciate it. Been looking for a detailed image for comparison on google but no joy.

Is this any good?

No idea who the fat bloke is holding the bike.

 

[malcermie]

BTW, in retail your job is to sell. If you spent all day helping and not selling, then there wouldn't be a business.

Absolute rubbish! If you don't help you won't sell not more that once anyway. Help the customer and they are very likely to come back time and time again.