An Amusement & Diversion for The Genteel Cyclist. Daily.

Wednesday, September 26, 2007

Will the real Wal-Mart of bike shops step forward and offer a branded carbon roadbike?

I have mixed feelings about REI and its Novarra branded bikes. Over the years, I've had plenty of good gear, and plenty of crap from them. For whatever reason, I've always had a jaundiced eye for the bike department. I equated Novarra with Nashbar-branded equipment, or Performance-branded equipment -- likely just some middle-of-the-pack Taiwanese frame from Giant, repainted and loaded up with mix and match componentry, and painfully obvious shortcuts like bad wheelsets and brick-like seats.

True, the best bike technologies eventually trickle down the price sheet. And now that Wal-Mart sells a "high end" carbon roadbike for $2K, it was only a matter of time before REI did the same.

Well, see for yourself. (Also, we'd like your opinion as to whether this soundtrack sucks as badly as the one for last week's Ugliest Clown Bike Ever Built.)





Extra credit for industry geeks who couldn't make it to Interbike this year: Consensus at the bike shop is that Kent International is the likely supplier of all this cheap carbon.

1 comment:

AdamB said...

I got my Novara Randonee there. It is bitchin.

If you don't like it, you can take it back and they'll fix it free or just refund your money. Can't beat that!

Still, I share your skepticism about cheap carbon bikes.