General Cycling Discussion - Devinci Bikes - any opinions?

Does anyone have any opinions on the quality of Devinci bicycles (a Canadian company)? I read lots about all of the other manufacturers but not much about this company.

I was thinking of purchasing this touring bike

http://www.devinci.com/eng/modele2002/famille/cyclo/caribou.htm

and would appreciate any opinions on the quality as well as components.

Strong, decent bikes. I have had a chance to test them. As for specifics about the components, I don't know diddly about road parts...

I know a couple of bike shop owners up here really well and recently one of them dumped (in the fall) Cannondale in order to make room for the devinci bikes. That says a lot about the strength of the bikes in my eyes.

Do a search on Devinci on the forums, I know there has been some discussion in the past, all favourable I believe.
You might want to compare prices - Spokes n' Slopes in Milton is a dealer for Devinci and has good prices on other stuff.

devinci makes a fine bike, and has produced frames for other, better-known marques in the past. one of the guys in my club rides a devinci and loves it. the devinci imola is a beautiful piece of work. up in canada, devincis have a great reputation. and this is a country that produces marinoni, cervelo and guru...

Thanks for all of your replies. Can anyone comment as to whether the model (link is at the beginning of the thread) has decent components?

it's actually a very nice touring bike for the price. devinci did a good job of speccing this one. only the front derailleur is down-specced. i've actually been musing on getting a touring bike for long, loaded rides [well, maybe next year], and this was the model i was musing about. it's a bit heavy for a road bike, but pretty much bang-on weight for a tourer.

a piece of interesting trivia: mark comaniuk won the quebec provincial masters cyclocross championship in 2001 on this bike... so it's probably pretty nimble and sporty for a tourer...

Devinci bikes are greats! A very good value: very goood components for the price, very stable bikes, and very goood looking also. At home, we have 3 devinci bikes: I have the Chicane and The Caribou and my father has the Sydney. Devinci is still a young company (15 years) and is always developing new technologies. They even test ride with a special bike that analyses all the forces that interfere in a bike ride, so that they exaxtly know how to design cross country bikes, descent bikes, road, touring, hybrid, etc. They'll be starting carbon soon, also. As my name tells, I really recommend those bikes.

My only major problem with them (and with Mikado, btw) is that their frames are designed a bit too much like mountain bikes, with a rather low, inclined top tube and a relatively high bottom bracket (70 mm drop). The latter is a minor problem, but what really bugs me is that the large frame has a 52-cm seat tube length and a 84 cm stand-over height (according to their specs; I measure it much closer to the saddle and get roughly 79 cm).

A top tube length of 58-59 cm (as they have) is perfect for me, but with it, I like a 65-cm seat tube and a 92-cm stand-over height.

Component wise, it suffers from the same defect as most touring bikes: too-high gearing for real touring. You'd be better to either swap rings for 26-38-48 or swap the crankset for a LX or XT crankset with 22-34-44. I also prefer bar-end shifters to STI (personal preference and it's more reparable on the road).

Regards,

HI,

What you seem to be talking about is called compact geometry... I mean the low and inclined top tube. And by the way, I am happy to meet someone from montreal, I leave very near from that city, but I no more ride there, the roads are too bad (cost me two tires when I went there last week).