Wow, you guys have been doing my job - I didn't need to go at all!
But since I did, this is what I done wrote about it. I'll add pix over the weekend (sadly no video
ianmoss) as am a bit tired, but there are some decent images in the brochure (link below, hope it works) as well as specs. Hope it isn't too rambling!
A great couple of hours spent at Decathlon HQ (aka Surrey Quays) this morning. Met some very interesting people who were very generous with their time and without exception had nothing but very positive comments to make about the forum (and why wouldn’t they?!).
I could spend all night writing this up but I’m not going to! :-) If you have any questions just fire away, will do my best to answer them if I can. There’s also a pretty good pdf of the
launch brochure which covers off lots of detail, including sizing, for the higher spec bikes but doesn't go into the T500s at all unfortunately.
The event was introduced by Peter Lazarus, Decathlon UK’s national sport manager for bikes, who stressed the importance of expanding their market share in the UK. I had better underline at this point that today wasn’t an opportunity to try the bikes, this was really just their unveiling to UK journalists for the first time.
Andrew Lorenzi, b’Twin production engineer, then took the assembled media through the 2014 range, starting with the T500 SE, which was introduced as essentially the replacement for the Triban 3. That’s right, the classic red T3 has finally reached the end of the line. If it wasn’t for the UK arm of Decathlon snapping up the last 6,000 or so forks and frames from France for the UK market they wouldn’t have been around half as long and I suspect quite a number of us wouldn’t be on the forum today.
(The white T3, at £300 (I’m rounding the prices up by a quid or so), will remain on sale and will stand out from the crowd for one obvious reason - more on that later).
The T500 SE (‘special edition’) is a UK-only bike and will be on sale in late February/early March - when the rest of the bikes on show today are all released - at £370. It’s based on the current T5 frame and comes with carbon forks. It ships with the thumb-shift free Microshift levers, which I think are standard on the white T3. Wheel-wise, these will come with the standard (ie basic) b’Twin wheels that rolled out with the original T3 - I put a plug in for checking the grease at the factory! - but do come with upgraded Hutchinson Equinox tires. Weight-wise, it will be 10.6kg.
The next bike to get a look in is the slightly better spec’d older bro to the SE - simply known as the T500. Same frame as the SE but features a full Sora groupset (and no blue hoods, which I have to say I didn’t like at all, looked a bit cheap). This is going out for £450.
Will there be a red T500 down the line? I put that question to David Daker, overall commercial director for Decathlon in the UK and he was optimistic that there would be one, if only in the UK - he certainly sounded keen.
While I’m talking colours, if you’ve seen the pictures you can’t help but have noticed a lack of, well, colour. All 2014 bikes are hitting the streets in moody matt black paint jobs. Was this, I asked, intended to suggest a more assertive and street-wise feel for the bikes? The short answer was no. It is expensive to produce bikes in more than one colour, and it was the designers’ decision to give them the stealthy look as this was a relatively neutral but business-like colour scheme. Andrew, the product engineer, said it was ‘very back to black’! He did leave the door open to introducing colour choices sometime down the line though. But for now, the black sheep of the family is the white T3.
Back to the bikes, and next up was the T7s replacement - the Alur 700. This packs a 105 group set and has direct mount brakes. I’d never come across these before - these are brakes built into the frame and are much more responsive and powerful than a caliper mechanism, Andrew tells us. The bike looks a little odd at first with no obvious rear brake, at least not where you would usually find it, but it definitely provides for a far cleaner look. This bike has internal cabling too, helping to add to the clean lines. They’ve clearly thought ahead with this one in terms of upgrades and so it’s all ready for the Shimano Di2 groupset, it even has built in provision to put the battery into the seat tube. All bikes from hereon in, the Alur included, are UCI validated for racing. It’s 8.9kgs (1.4kgs for the frame), comes with Hutchinson Equinox tires and again the b’Twin wheelset. This brute goes on sale at what I think is an incredible £700 - this looks on paper to be an extremely serious contender.
A quick note on the Cyclocross, next out - the spec is largely the same as their current model with the addition of improved the brakes.
Back to the out-and-out road racers, and the Mach range - their under-19 race team use the Mach 740 flavour - took centre stage. I thought this frame looked familiar, but not so, Andrew assured us - whilst it bears a close resemblance to the Facet frame it is designed very differently with very different properties, and it’s also lighter. Basically the lower half of the bike is stiff so pedal effort converts efficiently to speed, while there’s some give on the top half, meaning increased comfort.
The Mach 700 has the same 10 speed groupset (105) as the Alur but on a carbon frame. One of the key differences is in the frame stiffness - the Mach is an intentionally more forgiving ride. The bike ships with an all new b’Twin wheelset with aero rims. I have to say they looked pretty nice, and the reduced number of spokes look the part. Yours for £1,100.
The Mach 720 repeats the above with a Prologo saddle for variation, and 2014 Campagnolo Khamsin wheel and Campag groupset. Campag has now entered into a partnership with b’Twin and will be providing packages for all their higher spec bikes. The 720 will set you back £1,300.
The 740 is, as mentioned already, the bike of choice for the under-19 racing team. These guys do circa 2,000 miles every three weeks or so (the team tested for something like 100,000 miles last year!) and soon find out any gear that isn’t up to the job. This one is 11-speed Campag out of the factory, but ready to take the Di2 electronic groupset should you wish.
A quick note on groupsets - Andrew gave us an insight into wear and tear. The race team used to bring back to the garage SRAM issues twice as often as Shimano, and this is why SRAM is not used in their bikes.
OK, last and definitely not least, we have the Ultra models. They have an all new carbon frame. The objective, explained Andrew, was not to make the lightest bike but the most dynamic. This meant making a bike that worked as hard as the rider.
The Ultra 920 is the lower spec’d of the two, I say lower spec’d as it’s a full Ultegra 6800 groupset, Mavic Ksyrium Elite S wheels, Fi:zik Arione saddle, and tips the scales at 7.1kg (minus pedals). Integrated cabling, direct mount brakes for better braking power and responsiveness, it’s Di2 ready. A really interesting point is that the stock tires on this bike are 25s - Andrew said that all the studies are showing that there really is no loss of performance over 23s, just increased comfort.
The Ultra 940 is £3,000 and comes with the 11-speed Shimano Di2 as standard. It shaves 100g off to bring it bang on 7kg, but the engineer says with a few minor tweaks it can quite easily move down to 6.4kg. I think it looks an awesome bike. As Andrews said: “It is very, very dynamic - this is for racing.”
Andrew is clearly a Di2 enthusiast - he is evangelical about this tech and says most b’Twin road bikes at the £1,000 mark will have them in the next four to five years as the price comes down.
In terms of upgrading parts, I put this question directly to David, the commercial director for Decathlon UK. His answer was pretty straightforward - if it is a part they stock, they can make the upgrade either at the time of purchase (in which case the customer will pay the difference), or at a later date if the customer buys the part from Decathlon or sources it independently (in which case a charge including labour costs will be made). I think he conceded that their policy on upgrades isn’t too clearly communicated to customers or perhaps their stores, but I raised the point and we shall see if anything changes on the ground. It’s clear b’Twin are looking at the tweaks and upgrades made to bikes on the forum and they are happy to entertain supporting owners who wish to go down this route where it is feasible for them to do so.
What can b’Twin offer those loyal riders who want to stay with the brand but who are rightly tempted by the likes of Planet X et al? The inclusion of so many high spec and great value bikes in the 2014 range is a salvo of sorts in the battle for mid-point/turning-more-serious cyclists. Will the absence of a £1,000 (ok, £999) bike - a psychological barrier to some people - prove an oversight, or will people reach for the extra £100?
I think Decathlon and b’Twin may be a little too laid back for a full scale ruck with the competition - the proof of the pudding will be in the riding as the reviewers get their hands on these bikes.
Will a new classic emerge from the class of 2014? Watch this space.