bonk man
Well-Known Member
- Location
- Malvernshire
A short review...
I have had mine for about 18 months and am loving it..
Used mostly for club rides it is worth a couple of gears over my last steel bike; a Mercian 531c and good grief!!!!! ; at least as comfortable as the aforesaid machine.
It is an all day [ and night ] mile eater, the Audax rides I have used it for have been a bit of a breeze even if the weather has turned grim. Lots of room in the frame for mud guards and fat tyres if you like that sort of thing. I have yet to tour on it but maybe a few weekend jaunts next year if I can get the time off.
Off road it is brilliant and I often use it instead of my mountain bike as the Van Nic is faster up hill and to be honest not that far behind in the descent department. I did the Marin Rough Ride this year and I am certain I would have taken longer on a mountain bike. My legs still had some go even if my upper body was battered due to lack of suspension
Club rides feel like a day off compared with the steel bike and if called on to sprint for a 30 sign it feels immensely stiff [ due to the fat tubes ]. It is at least as good as my old alloy TCR for blasting up the road into the next village. Down hill it feels secure with no sign of any wobbles.
Having said all this it is not really a race bike due to being heavily engineered and more upright design but possibly could be used as such by a bigger rider, it would look odd with canti brakes or discs attached.
Mine is built up with a mix of reasonable bits but not super lightweight but I have seen them reviewed with a quoted weight of about 19lbs which is ridiculous for a touring bike. I am not going to put carbon wheels on mine or fork out on Dura Ace as I like the option of bashing down a bridleway or towpath without worrying about doing expensive damage.
If I had to chose between my current bikes and just have one the Van Nic would be the one I would keep. The only thing is, there is no real excuse to buy another bike because it won't rust and would be difficult to bend, mine has been in the ditch more than once and while I have had ribs bust the bike has been unscathed [ the bust ribs incident was my mate crashing into me
] .
Conclusion ... Great all rounder on and off road, not a racer [ except cyclo cross of course ] . Tough and adaptable whether touring, club riding or off roading.
Bad points ... nothing really, apart from having to not buy another bike for a very long time
I have had mine for about 18 months and am loving it..
Used mostly for club rides it is worth a couple of gears over my last steel bike; a Mercian 531c and good grief!!!!! ; at least as comfortable as the aforesaid machine.
It is an all day [ and night ] mile eater, the Audax rides I have used it for have been a bit of a breeze even if the weather has turned grim. Lots of room in the frame for mud guards and fat tyres if you like that sort of thing. I have yet to tour on it but maybe a few weekend jaunts next year if I can get the time off.
Off road it is brilliant and I often use it instead of my mountain bike as the Van Nic is faster up hill and to be honest not that far behind in the descent department. I did the Marin Rough Ride this year and I am certain I would have taken longer on a mountain bike. My legs still had some go even if my upper body was battered due to lack of suspension
Club rides feel like a day off compared with the steel bike and if called on to sprint for a 30 sign it feels immensely stiff [ due to the fat tubes ]. It is at least as good as my old alloy TCR for blasting up the road into the next village. Down hill it feels secure with no sign of any wobbles.
Having said all this it is not really a race bike due to being heavily engineered and more upright design but possibly could be used as such by a bigger rider, it would look odd with canti brakes or discs attached.
Mine is built up with a mix of reasonable bits but not super lightweight but I have seen them reviewed with a quoted weight of about 19lbs which is ridiculous for a touring bike. I am not going to put carbon wheels on mine or fork out on Dura Ace as I like the option of bashing down a bridleway or towpath without worrying about doing expensive damage.
If I had to chose between my current bikes and just have one the Van Nic would be the one I would keep. The only thing is, there is no real excuse to buy another bike because it won't rust and would be difficult to bend, mine has been in the ditch more than once and while I have had ribs bust the bike has been unscathed [ the bust ribs incident was my mate crashing into me
] .Conclusion ... Great all rounder on and off road, not a racer [ except cyclo cross of course ] . Tough and adaptable whether touring, club riding or off roading.
Bad points ... nothing really, apart from having to not buy another bike for a very long time
