The Decathlon Riverside GCR is a good gravel bike with quality parts – but it needs an identity or a better price for the US market.
Decathlon is a French sporting goods chain — Americans, think REI meets Dick’s Sporting Goods. I think of Decathlon as a place I bought CO2 cartridges and an inner tube in Lille before doing the Paris-Roubaix sportif. Not a high-end bike shop but a general sports store.
In North America, you can buy their bikes direct or through Amazon or Walmart. They had a San Francisco store for a year or two but closed it down.
Most of Decathlon’s bikes – like those at Dick’s – are a few hundred dollars up to a little over a thousand dollars. This Riverside GCR is $6,000 with SRAM Force, carbon Reynolds wheels and Hutchinson Touareg tires.
The geometry is competitive gravel, the frame looks good and the aluminum bar, stem and seatpost are straightforward and easy to adjust or swap out.
The bike is quick and comfortable to ride, and aside from a minor compatibility complaint and a blinky shifter – I have no issue with the bike itself.
My question, though, is who in the US will buy this bike consumer-direct at $6000? For less than that price you could get a similar spec’ed Canyon Grizl or a Fezzari Pro XPLR, both consumer direct. And for that price you could get a Trek Checkpoint SL 7 AXS for $5999 with Force, carbon wheels, internal storage, IsoSpeed.
I’m kinda stumped, honestly.
In this video I’ll tell you about how it rides, the two problems I had with it, what I like about it, and my suggestion on what Decathlon should do going forward with the Riverside GCR.
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45 Comments
Don’t worry about the shirt, you still look cool for a 60yr old. 😂 I totally agree about the price of this bike btw.
My s-works crux had a bad sram red explr derailuer. Send videos and pictures to sram, on the phone with them as well. It kept rejecting my easy shifts, then would automatically shift it back down. No one could figure it out. Sram sent out a new derailuer. Great customer service!
I think generic Costco clothing would be worn by the Spirit of Gravel. 😀
They had a limited run of a titanium gravel bike a few years ago that was a stellar deal. Usually their stuff is very competitively priced, both high and low end.
Canyon's customer support is spot on. One call, they authorize you enough money to get any issues sorted out at any bike shop. Easier to deal with than Giant where you have to talk to the dealer, the dealer talks to Giant, miscommunication, Giant customer support sucks, and when the dealer gets back to you. You wasted 2 weeks to hear a "No".
At 6k I am definitely going to give that business to a bike shop, if there is no other value.
No more Decathlon retailers in the USA. One warehouse is still in Oakland, just had a close out sale recently.
Retail pricing, premium pricing at that, means matching service. There is really nothing special about their bikes beside the value proposition, even then, at full retail, they were just marginally better in value (Triban RC120 vs. Giant Contend AR). If you are not mechanically inclined then the price difference is just about wiped out by a visit to a local bike shop.
This seems like an absolutely terrible deal. Not even carbon seat post or bars for $6K? You can not only get Canyon and many shop bikes for less but you can get a 17+lb Red equipped Lauf for less than that if sticking with DTC.
obviously they used the wrong currency. Since it is presumably made in China, it was supposed to be priced at 6,000 yuan but a “genius” in marketing at Decathlon USA decide not to convert to US$ and instead just put a $ prefix.
Love your content. Watch religiously. Can you get your hands on an ADHX 45? I want to see THAT! Just not into decathlon
I agree with your conclusion. If it was considerably less we may be interested. My Crux Pro was too expensive but, I love it. With pedals 16lbs on the dot. Living in the mountains low weight helps!
4:13 pretty sure uci certification does not mean anything about safety. Its simply a shape check to make sure its not overly aero.
Decathlon still has a bunch of stores in Canada. The prices in Canada aren't as good as they are here in China, but they're still respectably low, definitely lower than the big brands.
4000 € in Europe, that's a distribution cost and import taxes matter I guess
Im really surprised about the price in USA..6K..🤔. Im living in Germany I can get the bike from Decathlon webshop wiith identical spec for 3.999€ which is about 4.200 USD. Im I think the 6K are wrong
your review only applies for US viewers. it's under 4k usd in europe, and we can easily get 5% off all decathlon products
I can see it retails for 4000 EUR in France. Maybe they want you to take a trip to Europe
Awesome bike for Decathlon but not for the price it’s sold in the US. Over here in Europe this particular model is sold for 3.999€ (little over 4.000$) and there’s even an Aluminium wheelset one with Rival AXS for 2.999€. At this price point it’s worth a thought despite my fear that a decathlon dealer isn’t used to maintain or do warranty repairs on a 3000+ € bike when
most of their bikes are sub 1.000€. It’s one of these bikes back in the days you bought for their parts and sold the frame to use another one from a premium brand which complete bikes you couldn’t afford 😅
So in US it sounds like a bad deal . But hear me out, in Switzerland i can get if for 4000 euro ( italy 3900 euro), get it from the Physical shop. If I have any issue or I don't like how the bike ride i can bring it back (no questions asked) to the shop and get a full re fund (20minutes from home, good luck with Canyon rose etc etc , you need to pack ship and blah blah blah). At 4k to me its much a better deal that any oder brand. Sram force gruop and wheelset are already around 2.5k value add 500chf to cover for discs , tyres , saddle ,seat post and bar and you are at 3k. So i estimate paying the frame around 1k … pretty cheap. That said therre are really few reviews out there and would be great to understand well how it rides. Man i love your channel usually but this review was everything but not a review. You gave so few info about ride quality, feelings and frame impressions / value. Please share more 🙏.
Where I am (The Netherlands) the Riverside GCR is €3.019,99. That is with sram Rival and Fulcrum wheels. With SRAM FORCE XPLR AXS and REYNOLDS ATR 700 wheels it is €4029. Still expensive for a Decathlon, but better than $6000 US.
In Europe it is around 4000$
Bike prices in the states seem to be totally crazy. You can get this Frame with Sram Rival and Aluminum wheels for 3000€. Still very steep but much more affordable.
Decathlon is entering the World Tour peloton next season (AG2R team bike). They are aiming at mid to high range market with their Van Rysel brand and they probably want to enter that segment in the gravel scene as well, given it is taking off massively in Europe now. Would I buy it? Meh, maybe if I had a Decathlon near my place and no bike shop, but given that is not the case and I have a bike shop 150m from my door and the nearest Decathlon is 20km away…I'll stick to the bike shop (Ridley and Trek available there).
Yeah my diverge before plandemic was $800 with tiagra parts and rides super smooth on gravel with 38c panaracer sk tires 🤪
I give them credit – it never hurts to try 😂
In europe there is 2 configurations 3000eur and 4000eur, not $6000
In Spain is just 3.999€ and the model with Rival 2.799€. To me was the opposite when wanted to get a Sage or a Litespeed… We’re global but just sometimes
Thanks everyone for the info on pricing in countries besides the US. 👍
Hey Costco clothing is awesome! 😊
+1 to everything you said.
I think all this is because Decatron is entering World Tour next year with AG2R
I bought the rival version for 2700eur and the force is around 4k… 6000usd is definitely not attractive.
Indeed in Europe it (as above) comes at 3 999 including tax, and rolls out of shop…
Lovely machine but unfortunately you guys in thr YS will of course have to fork out a premium if you want something a little different than the usual Trek or whatever options.
the price tag is just ridiculous. the rival verison (fulcrum wheels) here in china just cost 20k rmb (currently its about 2750usd).
All bikes, across the board, are massively overpriced right now, so this isn’t shocking.
Decathlon as a brand imo has zero credibility in comparison to other mainstream bike brands that have a history and have been producing bikes for years. This price is a joke and I suspect (could be wrong) that the frame set is made in China. I went to decathlon recently and most of the products I looked at were cheap tat made in China. Fine if it’s cheap but this bike is not. Also there is ethics to consider. Human, environmental and otherwise.
@ridewithBenDelaney Thank you for detailed review – A couple of data points on Decathlon and the GCR. Decathlon's goal has been to make sports available to everyone, hence the previous relationship with Walmart – we know it is not profitable for a bike shop to sell a $300 bike once you include, shipping, build time, sales time and after sales service so we have made some models of our entry price point bikes available through mass merchants such at Walmart. The GCR is one of two types of gravel bikes we make. The other is a more do-all explore version made of Titanium. The price point on the GCR Force AXS is $5,699 .. not quite 6K. We also make the identical version with Sram Rival AXS and aluminum wheels for $4,000.00. Starting in 2024 Decathlon will shift it's focus to more premium bikes in the US market sold through IBD's. The GCR both Force and AXS are both slated for IBD distribution – I hope that helps offer some context.
C'mon..paint the interior of this "Unabomber" shack.
Euro 4K on the Italian website = $4200 at the current exchange rate. WTF is it $6K to you?
Great video, but I think is some mistakes with the pricing in Europe you can buy one by 3000€ and the top version is 4000€
Have it since a couple of months. No problems at all.
Picked up the Rival version for 2500€, astronomical value for money! Indeed, just ordered another one for my SO.
I’m sad that the video came out like so, as this was the first covarage of it by a major source. The bike is great, the pricing is very competitive in the EU, I’m sorry for the US riders. Obviously noone is going to pick this one over a Checkpoint, I wouldn’t either.
"claimed 5.8kg"?
In Belgium they are only €4000 and that is super competitive.
I have been in the Local Decathlon store in the Netherlands they have mostly's bikes upto 1000 euro in the store but you need to order it to get the higher end bikes they have ok spec for the money similar to what Canyon used to have.