A review of the fabled Riverside. Sounds like there might be some UK stock towards summer.

https://bikepacking.com/bikes/decathlon ... F2C7YBR71A

Interesting how bikes seem to geared towards attaching as much kit as possible to them sometimes.

Once there's soooo many mounts, surely panniers start to look attractive.

I’ve always thought this.
Myself and the boss travel with both setups and on our last jaunt I was full panniers, she had a front bar bag and fork mounted bottles and rear panniers. We got some typically sniffy remarks from our fellow “cool bikepacking” tourists about how much stuff we had. Many of whom looked like they were about to tip over the front end they had that much gear strapped to the bars and forks, plus they could hardly pick up the bikes.
However, the decathlon thing looks like good value.

if you look at certain subreddits you'll increasingly see people exclusively loading the front end. looks ridiculous and i bet it's ridiculous to ride too. i know there was a bit of a trend for 'low trail' front loading bikes but seems crazy to me that you'd try and smash absolutely everything on the front.

Oh well, at least there's no basket on this one.

Doubtless good value and versatile. Agree on the peak mounting points conundrum, there has to be a point were lots of small things strapped or bolted on are more faff/less efficient than a pannier / larger bag somewhere else? I get that the weight might be distributed 'better'...

As the review points out, the geometry isn't the greatest for what is essentially a drop bar 29er intended to be loaded and ridden off road. 72 degree head angle doesn't seem ideal, it smacks a little of something that accommodates fat tires but doesn't necessarily account for the terrain those tyres should cover.

FLV wrote: ↑Thu Apr 22, 2021 9:20 am Interesting how bikes seem to geared towards attaching as much kit as possible to them sometimes.

Once there's soooo many mounts, surely panniers start to look attractive.

Gravel nipples.

Basketpacking is a thing isn't it?

PaulB2 wrote: ↑Thu Apr 22, 2021 2:32 pm Basketpacking is a thing isn't it?

It most certainly is and I've been skirting its borders for months as I'd quite like to take my dog on a few jaunts as she's too small/old/rickety to run along. She sleeps very well in hammock and make a nice cuddly alternative to a hot water bottle.

And I really like the Riverside. Don't do drop bars but it's looks a great value bike that will take panniers if you want to run panniers. I'd replace all those knobbly nuts with rounded ones though, or those plastic plug thingies.

You could save quite a lot of weight with titanium bolts!

Why is it touring bikes always seem to come under geared?

Why is it touring bikes always seem to come under geared?

if you think that, dont ever buy a Genesis tour de fer.

mine came with a 30/40/50 chainset and a 12/30 cassette. pretty crap for touring.
i swapped it out for a 22/32/42 set up with a 12/36 cassette. which was spot on.

Still enjoying mine. I think the review is fair. The head angle can make it a bit twitchy. I've never noticed an issue with the BB drop. I like the bars. I've swapped the tyres for some Hutchinson Toureg 700x45 which roll a bit better. I put a cheap under seat lever dropper on it which helps on the rough downhills. I've done a couple of over-nighters with it loaded and it was good. Not really my intention to travel on it for weeks at a time, so it suits me very well for gravelly type rides and a bit of bikepacking.

Got to say, it looks like a ton of fun.

It was at the top of the list for my n+1 when I saw the initial prototype. Totes gone off it though, as it wouldn't provide me with much that my current bike wouldn't. Saving my pennies for another fat bike...

I must admit that I don't understand the bags everywhere approach. Unless your a very disciplined packer how do you remember where everything is plus all the extra faff of attaching them all. Also a single large pannier must weight less, carry more and have fewer parts likely to fail then several smaller bags of with the same capacity.