The Best Value Entry Level Bike in 2023 – Triban RC520

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We’ve tested two extremely good value bikes for under £400 from decathlon on this channel but what happens if you spend double that we’ve been on the website and found a trian RC 520 for under £800 let’s go and see what the deal Is is this what we’re getting sadly no sweet for £800 this is an impressive spec Shimano 105 lever Shimano 105 gears so we have chain front Mech rear Mech the brake calipers are not made by Shimano but we’re going to go over them later because there’s something quite special

About them first things first and what we usually do when we review a bike let’s get it weighed feels heavy it doesn’t feel any lighter than the cheap one bike quite without pedals to be fair to the other bikes that we weighed in previous episodes is 10.5 53 kilos so

That’s about 100 G lighter than the 350 lb Rim breake bike that we first tested and about half a kilo lighter than the disc brake version of that cheap bike which is about £400 so this is the lightest and you’d hope it would be for the money for complete transparency the

Kathon have given this bike for purpose of review however this is not a sponsored video they have no control they’re not paying us and we’re allowed to say anything we want about the bike we also not going to be keeping this bike stay tuned to the end of this video

To see where it’s going to go shifts like a dream so aluminum frame carbon Fork slightly different frame to the two bikes that we reviewed before it’s still very relaxed your handlebars are higher at the front than race bikes there’s mounts on the frame so you can

Fit mud guards and paniers to it so rack mounts my favorite bit thank heavens this triban has a replaceable Mech hanger amazing so if you do crash this bike unlike the other ones and you fall on this side and your rear Mech bends in inwards it’s not going to destroy your

Frame you’re just going to bend this little piece and then you’ll be able to buy a replacement piece to fit on this is the hanger where the rear Mech bolts into a massive downside on the cheaper bikes and I’m glad it’s a feature on this significantly more expensive one in

My opinion this is the best looking entry-level bike we’ve had on this channel it has drop seat stays the idea behind these is that it makes the bike slightly more comfortable so this tube can Flex instead of these seat stays coming up all the way to here they drop

Down lightly so it means this tube can flexx but you still have all the stiffness down here that’s the idea does it work it feels pretty harsh to me still and that’s just a characteristic of an alloy frame however it does look cool and it looks like a lot of modern

Bikes so I guess if you’re into that it’s a good thing it’s also a lot more aggressive than the other bike it’s not a out andout race bike don’t get me wrong however it is a lot lower and slightly longer than the cheaper entry-level bikes that we’ve been

Testing and you will notice that so if you need an upright position perhaps this is not the bike for you uh this is even when it’s set up with a couple of spaces underneath what’s that like two maybe 2 and 1/2 CM underneath a stem

Just bear that in mind this is aimed at someone who’s already been riding a while rather than buying their first bike same triband saddle as we’ve seen before I’ve said in the past I’m not a fan that it doesn’t have a cutout in the middle there’s a bit of an indent but I

Would rather see a complete pressure relief channel uh because most people get on with those better however Saddles a personal preference so you may get on with this absolutely fine handlebars and stem also made by triban De cathon have historically been quite careful in their choice of handlebar size and stem length

Based on the size of the frame so this is a size small you get an 80 mil stem which is pretty short and 40 cm bars 40 cm bars as usual they’ve left a series of spaces underneath the stem so you can adjust the front end if you want to go

Lower a gripe I had with the cheaper bike that I reviewed was the weird little clip thing which fitted the brake cable or held the brake cable next to the fork on this bike they’ve used a cable tie instead which I not sure if it’s intentional or the clip pinged off

Cuz that was the problem I was having I like that better now moving on to group set attached to your handlebars you have 105 shifters these are really comfortable tried and tested 105 is a premium component range like it’s their performance stuff shimano’s performance stuff 11speed you have all of the

Controls easily available at your hands it’s a really reliable and durable performance option attached to these shifters with cables are trp highroads H hyid hards it’s got hydraulic calipers that are mechanically controlled which means that you get to have really slender shifters which feel amazing in your hands and then braking power which

Is very good straight out of the box it’s really good isn’t it the caliper is hydraulically powered so the braking power is very very powerful they’re obviously not as good as a full hydraulic system but it’s still very good like it’s better than a rim breake sorry but it is and it’s obviously

Better than the mechanical disc they’re great they’re fantastic brakes it’s very likely that this is one of the reasons they’re able to get this bike at the price point they do is making little cost savings whether it’s significant or not on having mechanical shifters even from a maintenance point of view it

Makes it a lot easier I’d like to point out quickly these are incredibly easy to adjust I wasn’t sure I’ve never I I’ve only used the hydraulic calipers for from AliExpress before and I’ve now used these ones I was wondering if they adjust the same they’re actually easier

There’s a massive adjustment thing on the side and you can just loosen it off while they were making a bit of noise when we first put the wheel back in after changing tires I managed to adjust that in 2 seconds 105 front Mech 105 rear Mech blank unbranded crank micro

Shift cassette and KMC X11 chain so there’s a bit of a mish mash of Parts here however in the stand they’re all working great together gear ratios are not as good as Jimmy would want them you have a 5034 on the front and the cassette is 1132 this derailer does go

Up to a 34 so if you wanted slightly easier gears like a 1:1 ratio you could invest in a cassette with a slightly bigger biggest Cog and uh you would make it up the hills a little bit easier however I think they’ve gone for a pretty safe range here the cassette on

This bike is 11p speed which is quite rare for this price point ultimately what it means is you’re much more likely to find a gear that fits the Cadence that you want to be riding at you know the gaps between the gears are smaller so you’re probably going to find

Something more comfortable I am disappointed however that this bike doesn’t have a one to1 gear ratio like also nothing else in this price point apart from one of the decathlon bikes which I’m very happy with putting 1134 cassette on the back for me is a definite but you know if you find you

Don’t need it you don’t need it I think it’s fair enough that they’ve changed a couple of Parts here they will have saved decent amount of cost instead of going with the Shimano Parts there’s absolutely nothing wrong KMC chains they’re excellent the cassette as long as it doesn’t wear out really quickly

I’m happy with that choice too and the bike has a holch style bottom bracket as well so saving a bit of weight there and allowing you to use this crank or fit any 24 mm spindle crank to it as well if you wanted to upgrade moving on to

Wheels these are tubeless ready uh the sticker has come off really easily off this rear one obviously they’re not set up tubeless when you take it from the shop but if you wanted to set them up tubless you’d need tubeless valves tubeless tape and sealant and then a way

To inflate it and then potentially your punches could seal as they happen the tires that they’ve installed on here are triban as well 28 mm I thought the tires were going to be a bit rubbish I thought we were going to be slipping out on some

Of the climbs cuz they’re a bit wet today but nice nice grip on them obviously I can’t comment on the durability I’m just going to quickly put a 40 mm gravel Tire on this bike to see if it fits it should cuz they say 40 mm

Is the maximum if that is the case that’s very good because it means you can use this bike for commuting and have more more comfort you can go off-road you can set it up tubeless and it will work a lot better because lower pressures of a higher volume tire bigger

Tire clearance is a fantastic thing in my Book I don’t think you could go much bigger but 40 mm fit in fine when I was putting them on I was like I could try a 50 but a 50 would not fit in there based on this you could use this bike as a fully fledged gravel bike you could put

A 27.2 drop a SE posted as well for reference this is a Hutchinson T egg 40 mm for people who are wondering it’s an 800 quid bike which is obviously a lot of money but it’s easily in the same category as bikes that are like 2,000

2,500 by the big names it’s brilliant I think my only gripe with the fact that I’m comparing it to a 2,000 bike is that it’s quick release rather than through axle I think in the future 5 years 10 years down the line quick release disc wheels are going to become harder and

Harder to get hold of but right now that still wouldn’t stop me buying this bike over a 2,000 equivalent we hope you like this video please like And subscribe for more videos like this and now we’re going to head over as promised to give this bike

Away how’s it going this is Jack from your py bike he’s going to tell us a little bit about what they do here so we’ve got a few different schemes here but one of the things that we’re looking for is always bikes for young people especially on low incomes we’ve got a

Young volunteer scheme where we can teaching mechanical skills and bikes like this that we can help them refurbish and then once they’ve done a few sessions we can help give away is there anything specific you want these bikes to go through any specific projects no whatever works best for you

Thank you very much you’re welcome