jeff2017

I am considering buying a Nashbar Carbon Ultegra Road Bike. I'm 6'1". Buyinh 58. Opinion of bike? Any issues to consider with Nashbar? I have a Trek fx 7.3 and plan to upgrade.

fietsbob

Probably adequate, but still take it to a proper bike shop to safety check the assembly attention to details.

The company is now a subsidiary of Performance Bike Inc.

Maelochs

I have never heard of anyone who was not satisfied with a Nashbar bike.

Iride01 

There are always someone that is pissed and dissatisfied somewhere. But I don't have anything against Nashbar bikes. They are what they are. A good entry level bike or a good bike for a small budget.

I've bought quite a few parts, tires, tubes, wheels and such from Nashbar and have no complaints.

I also recommend letting a bike shop put it together or at least inspect and tune it. Especially if you don't have experience. Also, after the first 100 miles or so of riding, any new bike will need a check up to look at spoke tensions and derailleur adjustment.

city_cowboy

This one?

https://www.nashbar.com/bikes/Produc...2_602994_-1___

$1100 usually gets you alloy and tiagra 10 speed. This bike is carbon + some ultegra 6800. Only the brake levers/shifters and derailleurs are ultegra 6800 though. The rest is a mix of 105, fsa, and the stem, seatpost, etc. are generic. The tires are vittoria but the casing is only 26 tpi, probably not the smoothest ride.

Overall, a fantastic value, but only a few key bits are actually ultegra. This is the previous version of ultegra as well, 6800 not the new 8000 series.

TakingMyTime

It looks like their Cavalo model comes with the full Ultegra group for about $250 more.

cyclintom

My experience with Nashbar is with components such as stems and the like. I also buy clothing such as shorts from them and find them better than anything else comparable in price except Pearl Izumi on-sale. Their gloves are good but not particularly long lasting but at the price you can't complain. Their Nashbar handlebar tape is cheaper and one step above Shimano tape of the same sort.

Buy KMZ Gold chains only. Buy Bell helmets only. Nashbar has a very good selection of shoes. The Lake shoes I bought cost me about $70 and are more comfortable and wear better than Sidi's costing 5 or 6 times as much. Though the Sidi's have much softer leather. For off-road shoes you can't beat the carbon soled Pearl Izumi.

Handlebars used to be about an inch in diameter. Though people don't admit it one of the problems we had with them was that they used to rotate on a hard bump. Not much if you kept them tight but the much larger 31.8 mm diameter drop bars have a lot more friction area with less torque on the stems. Stay AWAY from carbon bars they weight the same as an aluminum bar (some CF bars are heavier) and aluminum bars of the larger diameter very seldom break. Most of the pictures of CF failures are from crashes so while most steel or aluminum bikes would be unharmed by that sort of crash it's sort of unfair to compare a broken crashed bike with claims of no-fault failures.

What's more the failure parts of carbon bikes are being minimized with much larger diameter parts. Namely the axles, steering post and bottom bracket. These are the parts most likely to fail from use. Manufacturing errors on CF bikes are still higher than desirable. This is why I believe that people should buy carbon fiber bikes close to home. Trek and Specialized have "lifetime warranties". Trek I know stands behind that. I am not sure of Specialized but it is in writing so it would be difficult for them to ignore it.

I was concerned that most of the high end CF bike frames have weight limits of around 180 lbs. But apparently among major producers that isn't the case. Nevertheless I wouldn't ride CF even new since I've had major catastrophic failures. I will add that these all occurred on bikes and components that might be considered as having been manufactured during the development phase of CF.

In any case, super light anything is not a good choice for the normal rider who tend towards the double century mark in weight.

Sy Reene

Curious.. if you were going to take one of these bikes and find a nearest neighbor from Trek, Specialized, Cannondale, etc.. how much would you spend? What makes these Ultegra-specced bikes "entry level" bikes, that "are what they are" for those with small budgets? Just seems like back-handed compliments to me.

skidder

I've got two of their no-longer-sold cyclocross frames and a 26"-wheeled MTB frame (it has both canti and disc brake mounting points). All were used to build bicycles from older bicycles with damaged frames. They used to sell them for about $100, only color was black, and they looked pretty 'raw' since the welds weren't smoothed out. However none have given me any problems. I use them for road riding, no off-road and no dirt roads. The only problem was the head tubes are kinda short (only 160 mm for a 60" frame measured at the seat tube), but I was able to work around that.

m7ickey

Not sure about their bikes but love them for many accessories. They also have frequent great sales, good idea to check them for a cople of weeks before buying anything. I bought a trunk bag that was priced at $40, $35, $30 and finally at $25 all in the course of a couple weeks

Wileyrat

If I were looking for a bike at that price point, I would buy one with the idea of doing a crankset and brake caliper upgrade in the future.


FWIW, I've never seen a negative comment on them.

trailangel

Performance Bike Lite

markjenn

I've ordered and built-up a couple of Nashbar bikes. They're typically good (sometimes great) values, but you should watch for their sales - I've seen the same Nashbar bike's price fluctuate 30% over a matter of days. And they often do cut corners on specs to hit an aggressive price point which may (or may not) matter to you. For example, a bike will have a smattering of Ultegra, but not be all Ultegra. Nashbar does a decent job packing bikes and they've come through shipping cosmetically in good shape.

I don't think buying any mail-order bike is a good idea unless you're a decent bike mechanic, have the appropriate tools, and are willing to do a fair amount of work going over the bike and getting everything up to snuff - the idea that you just bolt on the handlebar, mount wheels, and head out for a ride doesn't match my experience. For example, the last Nashbar bike I built had wheel bearings that had almost no grease and were wildly out of adjustment - they would have ground themselves to toast in a few rides without repacking and proper adjustment. On another, the wheels, while reasonably in true, had spokes with huge variations in tension which would have probably meant broken spokes down the road without attention. Almost any mail-order bike needs fine-tuning of the drivetrain to shift properly. Taking it to a bike shop to get it checked over is an option, but many shops are not supportive of this approach and if they do it at all, they do it begrudgingly. And this typically wipes out any price advantage.... you're better off just purchasing the bike from the shop to start with, especially if you have to pay a shop to do the 30-day tuneup that most of they throw in for free on a bike purchased from them.

- Mark

Leebo

Sized to fit you?

Hiro11

I assume this is the $1,100 bike? I'm sure it's fine. I would consider a branded alloy framed model in the same price range as inexpensive carbon is generally pretty heavy and very stiff riding. Also, keep in mind that 105 and Ultegra work exactly the same, just 105's a bit heavier.

I have two concerns with the Nashbar bike:
1. BB86 bottom bracket. This has nothing to do with the price point of this bike, I just don't like press fit BBs. Threaded BB carbon frames are really rare these days, though.
2. The Zerolite wheels are base model, heavy and likely not built very well.

...then again, for $1,100 this is still a good deal. As a first road bike, it will be fine.

Iride01 

Well off the top of my head bikes by "Trek, Specialized, Cannondale, etc" that are carbon and have Ultegra will be twice what this bike costs. So I wouldn't spend that much, I'm always on a small budget when shopping for bikes. But I don't think what I am willing to spend means anything to the conversation.

As for entry level. Well that probably depends on a persons budget. So for a person wanting a bike for the first time and wanting carbon and wanting a higher performance drive train, I'd consider this entry level if their budget was 1100 bucks or so. Not the OP's situation though as they have a bike.

But since the OP is looking at this, I assume that "small budget" is a reasonable term. Certainly this is one of the least expensive carbon frame, ultegra equipped bikes that can be found easily. Note I said "one of" certainly there are others.

I don't think they are bad bikes. They don't compete one to one though with the other bikes. The "big three" you named have a more complete Ultegra group on them. And where the higher priced bikes with Ultegra groups don't use Ultegra, the quality of the part is arguably the same level as Ultegra. As well, seat posts, rims, hubs and other parts on this bike are not what many will consider high performance or of equal comparison to the "big three and etc bike maker's"

So I'm not certain if I offended you are what. I was essentially just saying it's an okay bike in my opinion. And it is a compliment to the bike. Even if it seems backhanded.

Maelochs

Nashbar has always gone with a major-name Taiwan frame company (which of course gets ll its stuff from Communist China)and has always bought basic, generic, reasonable-quality, low-tech frames ... always the stuff which was "cutting edge" a few years earlier. Always, basic, solid, not Super-light, durable frames.

In other words ... frames exactly on par with the "entry-level" bikes from everyone else.

But ... they don't have that Label .... and that's exactly the difference.

We aren't talking about renting out some fly-by-night manufacturing shop which produces crap and goes out of business three times in five years. Nashbar has the cash and the market to buy Big lot so of bikes, from respected manufacturers. These really are probably made in the same factories by the same workers, materials, and QC as the entry-level frames from every other manufacturer except Giant (who might possibly make the frames. )

Some people invest in the idea that a bike from a big manufacturer is automatically better. And I am fine with that.

I suggest the OP actually do a search for "Nashbar" on this site. I can recall a few threads down through the years about people who bought the CF 105 or the CF Ultegra ... I cannot recall anyone who bought one being disappointed.

But people who paid extra to get that Trek or Spec decal .. . they can tell you Nashbar isn't good enough.

jefnvk

Bought many parts, accessories, and clothes from there. Assuming you're proficient at sizing and assembling a bike, I'd have no reservation buying a bike. Been eying up their touring bike, they've got some fantastic deals.If they're going to turn down $65-$100 or more for assembly or a tune up because you didn't buy the bike from them, they're stupid enough to deserve to go out of business.

city_cowboy

This post isn't about nashbar per se but about performance bikes which owns nashbar. Since they both have a 'forever guarantee,' I think it's still applicable.

I tried returning a pair of pedals I bought from performance last summer. I bought the pedals nearly 5 years ago. Within a few months of purchase, they developed play in the spindles and it became noticeable while riding: the pedals flopped up and down and slid left and right. The outer cap was not removeable so there was no way to fix them. I didn't bother to return because they were under $15 and the return shipping would've set me back about half of that so it didn't seem to be worth the trouble to get in effect a $7 refund on defective pedals.

Last summer, I was out of town and a performance bike shop was in that town so I thought I'd try to exchange them or get a store credit. The manager was NOT having it. The manager said it was "too late" for an exchange and that I had waited too long for an exchange. I pointed out to them that they had a forever guarantee. The store manager said they did not; that each store manager had discretion as to whether they would accept a return or exchange.

Eventually the manager relented but not before throwing a hissyfit and tantrum in front of the whole store. I called corporate and they tried to half ass it, saying yes they had a forever guarantee but yes, each manager had some discretion and leeway as to whether they would honor it or not.

The lesson I got from all of this is that yes, performance bikes has a forever guarantee in writing but they will fight you tooth and nail if you actually try to have the company honor it. Since performance bikes owns nashbar, I wouldn't be surprised if they had a similar say one thing do another policy.

Well, a lot of them are going out of business.

Maelochs

I have never gotten hung up on the "forever" guarantee.

You bought pedals and didn''t think ti was worth returning them. Your choice.

Five Years Later you tried to return them to a brick-and-mortar shop which had nearly Zero to do with Corporate?

The shop owner has no idea if the pedals failed within two weeks of purchase, or two minutes before you brought them to his store, after five years of thrashing---and let me be clear, anyone who would beat a product for five years and try top return it for a refund is a dishonorable scammer, regardless of what the fine print says.

The guy didn't know what the score was----he didn't know you were legit----but he probably knew well that he might have to argue with the corporate office for a year or two to get a refund out of them. Totally not worth it----same call you originally made.

If that incident is enough to keep you from buying Nashbar or Perf Bike products---great! More likely they will continue to honor their return policies if fewer people try to return clapped-out five year old pedals.

I have Never had a problem returning stuff to them for a refund. Two examples---I bought Sora brifters and found out that they were the 3400 thumb-button model. I sent them back for a $7 restocking fee. The store put them on the returned merch page for a third off---because of my error. They ate the loss. I could have re-bought them and made a huge saving.

I bought some C'dale bibs which ran way smaller than the chart seemed to indicate----or were just cut much tighter. Same deal. No hassles, refund less restock fee, and the bibs went on sale for more than a third off.

That says to me Nashbar is willing to lose money to satisfy customers. But ... some customers make unreasonable demands. Think of that store manager---he didn't make a cent off the original deal, he had no idea if the pedals were faulty of you had used them up, and you ... you were just ducking a $7 restock fee---and as far as I know, Nashbar Does Not Charge a fee foe defective merchandise or Any issues on their end (wrong part, broke in shipping, whatever.)

If you had called the corporate office and talked a while, you might have gotten new pedals for free five years ago.

To the OP----Nashbar sells good bikes. Again, do a site search and talk to people who have bought them and ridden them ... not people who have interesting but unrelated stories.

Maelochs

Yes. Sure.

Because innovation is dead.

If I read on various bike boards that all shops were taking a hard stand on not maintaining bikes they didn't sell, I would advertise on Craigslist---"Bike assembly, adjustment and repairs. Decades of experience. Quick turnaround, reasonable rates."

But what would really happen would be people would go online, find one of the many exceedingly comprehensive websites, and learn to do the simple things themselves ... as they should anyway.

I have assembled a couple dozen mail-order bikes. Pretty universally you rotate the stem, an flip up the bars, or attach the bars which are already cabled, put on the front wheel, put on the pedals and reflectors, stick the seat post into the frame and tighten it, adjust the cables, and Done.

It takes almost as long to unbox and unwrap the components as it does to get the bike on the road.

Please remember these bikes are sold to people was first bikes. BikesDirect and such would go out of business if the instructions attached and the effort required weren't complete enough and easy enough that a novice could do it well enough to start riding.

And if I were too lame to find a YouTube video, or too intimidated to try anything ... I'd advertise on CL--"Need bike assembled--all parts, brand new--make offer."

People Can be dumb ... we see all too many instances of that---but in general even dumb people are smart enough to get by ... if they weren't there would be a lot more jobs cleaning up corpses.

Shoot, every one of us likely started riding a bike assembled by one or another of our parents, who likely had no experience whatsoever.

jefnvk

Actually, I have a feeling people would still buy from the internet, the shop would just lose out on that revenue source and folks would be riding around on mostly OK adjusted bikes. It is a rare LBS that I have found (actually, I've found zero) that only has bikes bought at their shop sitting in the repair queue area.

I just ordered a bike online, from a LBS in Utah. Took all of ten minutes to put together, and even though I personally chose to tweak the FD and the brakes and fit and such, I could have ridden it as-is.

BlazingPedals

I used to be a regular Nashbar customer. Until they got hacked and their customer database stolen. Getting hacked could happen to anybody, but while law mandated notifying the customers immediately, they 'investigated' for 6 months. They finally notified me the day after I got a new CC due to suspicious activity on the original.

After I stopped using them, I found I really didn't miss them. Their delivery had gotten really crappy and the deals weren't worth the aggravation.

bobwysiwyg

I've used Nashbar for several things, including a bike. I had been riding a hybrid for a couple of years upon returning to cycling. In my head, I seemed to want to try dropped bars, but not on 25mm tires. Nashbar was advertising a Mongoose gravel/adventure or whatever, MSRP about $1000 (tend to question 'sale' prices) for $600. Went for it, couldn't be happier. Have about 2,000 miles on it, really like it. I'm no pro though

Motolegs

Bought a carbon bike from Nashbar around October 1st of this year. Wasn't their home brand but a Kestrel 1000RT. It's got 105 components with Oval crank (I think rebranded FSA) Tektro brakes, and Oval wheels. Cost almost $1500. Considering what "name" brand carbon bikes cost at bike stores I think it was a good deal.

As others have said a bike store is the way to go with this one. It was far less of a plug & play than BikesDirect bikes I had put together in the past. Needed help tensioning the spokes and getting it to shift properly.

Once the bugs were ironed out though it has been really great. Crazy light and fast.