OEM Component Question
 

Hey Guys,

Brand new to the forum and pretty new to bikes in general, except for the research and lurking I have done on various forums over the last 2 months as I plan my big purchase. I am on a tight budget and have had little luck on the used market due to my location, small town Midwest. That being said, I am looking at bikesdirect.com to pick up a decent CX bike that I can upgrade if I decide to. Taking a look at the two bikes below:

Fantom Trail:
Save up to 60% off Shimano equipped Cyclocross | Cross Bikes - Motobecane Fantom Cross

Fantom CX:
Save up to 60% off new Cyclocross Road Bikes - Motobecane Fantom CX Clearance

I realize that the Trail has some components that are not a great match for CX (triple crankset) but it does have the carbon fork and reasonable components/frame. The CX lacks the carbon fork and newer frame, but does have a slight edge on componentry. What is everyone's opinion on which is the best buy here? Also, the reason I posted in this thread was because I had a component question on the Trail. The front derailleur and hubs claim to be 2400 series, which to me means they should be Claris. Right? Well, I got the below response from bikesdirect.com and was wondering if anyone could speak to the truth of this and are these "2400" components equivalent to Claris or not?

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Drew,

The bikes are packaged and to be honest the warehouse crews are good for pulling boxes and shipping boxes out, bike knowledge wise they are not much help and would have no clue what to photo.

Here is what you need to know, Shimano's site that you linked to previously is their consumer site, not the manufacturer site which is much different. The consumer site just shows all Shimano parts available aftermarket which will be "named" Claris. Sora, Tiagra, ect...but what they don't show are OE parts and Non-Series parts which manufactures use. So you can have a front derailleur that the graphic just says Shimano Triple, but there are three different versions that use the same graphic, so the only way to differentiate what level they are is by using Shiamno's model number stamped on the part itself.

I can guarantee that all of the parts come as listed on the spec sheet, but I cannot guarantee that the 2400 series parts will have a Claris graphic on them.

Hope this helps.

Thanks,
Chris
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Sorry for the length and maybe the wrong sub forum.
Drew

You may want to post this in the cross forum; I'd get the fantom cx. I'm largely indifferent to the carbon fork over steel fork; I like the compact crank better than the triple for your purposes.

Can't really help sell Bikes Direct stuff for them .. though their advertising money does support the costs of keeping the bills paid to run this site.

Once it's in your house, change things to suit your needs. Its what I Do .. rarely leave a bike as is, once I own it. :innocent:

Thanks for the quick responses. My biggest question is probably in the second half of the post regarding the OEM 2400 FD and Hubs. Does anyone have any opinion of experience with this?

To me, any wheel that will roll, will roll. If you were absolutely concerned about quality, some here have said they prefer Tiagra or even 105. I've seen that web site before and can tell you if you think you'd be satisfied by paying their prices, I'd go for it. A brand-name bike with 105 parts might be like 3 times the price.

If you're in Canada though, I can tell you the Schwinn CrossFit is going to be on sale for $500 in the following days at Canadian Tire.

I wouldn't worry about the components on either bike. More than likely the wheels will need proper tensioning.

Brad

I have some pretty no-name hubs on my 10 year old Giant that has held up my 300+ pounds for 10+ years, and 4,000+ miles... I wouldn't worry about the hubs, and on the same bike I have a no-name Shimano FD that has needed to be adjusted once, but otherwise has been flawless.

My guess is that the lower end hubs will probably weigh more than the more expensive hubs, but should serve you well. A front derailleur shoves the chain back and forth... I would suspect shifting would be impacted more by the teeth, ramps and pins on the chain rings than the FD.