I wouldn’t know. If I have to guess, it’s economy of scale.
Basically if you’re able to mass produce bikes even out of carbon, the molds and other equipment or fixture may be expensive, but you make massive number of it, automate everything, and all that you can bring down the cost per unit.
Couldn’t tell you. It’s the first carbon bike I’ve had, or ever ridden for that matter. But I’m very happy with it. The flared gravel bike handlebars are a real conversation piece.
I’ve only broken two frames in 50 years of riding. A steel frame which was a shit road bike that didn’t like jumps off the kerb and snapped the chainstay, and an aluminum mountain bike that separated a weld between the head tube and down tube. Again, jumps and drops over rocks.
My one full carbon frame is a 20 year old early TCR with an estimated 200,000 km plus. Several crashes, much delaminated clear coat, third set of wheels. Still going strong but I did have to replace the rear brake cable stop when the aluminum rivets corroded to dust again.
So do not be afraid of old carbon bikes.
Similar experience to me. I’ve only ever had one frame failure on a full sus aluminium mountain bike that I hammered. My steel road bike (carbon fork) is getting a bit of surface rust so I’m going to repaint it.
If I ever buy another proper racy road bike it will be carbon. Big if though.
Weirdly, I can’t find any English language info or reviews or commentary about the Performer road bikes at all. Except for a vlogger on YouTube getting a tour of the factory, but that’s all about recumbents. Guess I’ll just have to drop by one of their shops and take a look.
Be careful of any Al frame, the only frame I’ve had written off from a fall was an Al one. I would stick with going for carbon, if the paint is fine and you can’t see any cracks and all seems square then most likely it is.
BTW can you post the group you have seen loads advertised in?
I had carbon fiber arrow shaft split for no reason even though they looked perfectly fine before shooting it. If I have to guess previous impact caused some internal damage that is invisible to the naked eyes, and it just split mid flight.
So definitely do your due diligence and make sure it hasn’t been involved in a crash.
Is cycling about distance or about exercise? your alu bike gives you twice the workout.
How about al frame with carbon front fork? If it wasn’t obvious this is the first bike I’m buying in adulthood.
If you mean where I’ve seen carbon and Aluxx Giant bikes regularly posted for sale, Facebook Marketplace.
Kind of both, but I find exercise is best when you don’t think of it as exercise and when it turns out to be the benefit of something you find you enjoy doing and that also happens to get out of the house. If it was all about exercise, I’d just stay at home and use a stationary exercise bike. And I find the easier it is to go further, the more I want to go further, and the more I benefit from doing so.
Can I ask where you got your Performer? Was it from a shop, in Taipei?
Alan’s Mountain Bike Shop in Gongguan. Don’t let the mountain bike part turn you away. Alan is a great bike mechanic and rides both MTBs and road bikes. There’s nothing on display (it’s a workshop). But you can pick from a catalog and he’ll order the bike for you.
Thanks. I might check out some other stores first that might have Performers on view, with a mind towards a test ride at some point. But I’ll look into Alan’s as well, and maybe take a look at whatever catalogues they have.
Test riding is a good idea, unfortunately a lot of shops won’t let you test ride a bike before you buy it. Some shops may have a demo bike for this purpose but it’s not super common. At one point I went to a giant shop to buy 10 bikes for business purposes and they still wouldn’t let me test ride…
I wondered if this might be the case actually. There doesn’t seem to be anything like a Performer flagship store in the city that I can find so I can at least even just look at them. Or talk to someone about them. I did stumble across a shop near Da’an Park, but when I got there it was closed, with one Performer in the window and a couple of frames.
Very diff here in Calif , bro works at a bike shop and they let anyone demo anything in their shop for ten mins or so like a quick ride around the block
They have bikes you can rent for a day to see how longer trips feel
I’m the type of rider who doesn’t even know what the frame of my bike is made of (trek verve 3 ) and doubt 2 pounds lighter will do me much any good maybe I can get 6.7 mph average instead of 6.5 ? Better I lose the two
Pounds personally
New co worker is a real biker almost to a bike nut job
He has cycled across the USA a few times and gone from Seattle to San Diego
His bud even more of a nut job having gone from Alaska to Tierra del Fuego on his bike
He has all sorts of bikes and he doesn’t favor carbon particularly
He likes steel
I’m trying to
Get him excited about next years Taiwan KOM
He said he can do that
Not win but he can do it
Fixed that for you. a bit OT but I see people demo bikes at Walmart in the store, great way to see if their cheap bikes are a good deal (they mostly are not). Be great if they sell carbon bikes, I bet they can sell a really cheap Chinese carbon bike.
I mean real bike shops like summit bikes and mikes bikes etc
I’m not talking Walmart
Apparently real bikers don’t buy at Walmart
Or target
Me I would as I saw some that looked pretty good but my bro won’t allow me to buy any bikes from Walmart he would chew me out
Actually, the simplest solution is probably for me just to ask the the guys in the shop near me where I always get my bike serviced. I think they’d probably have an opinion. They’re pretty friendly.