I Rode A Triban 1000km Across Malaysia

With bikes like that, Decathlon will really make the mainstream brands weep and refocus on what makes a good bike for 90% of cyclists.

Update: Decathlon UK have confirmed this bike will remain at £999 until July.

I'm currently over 26000 KM on my Triban RC520. these bikes are incredible value and everything on them are made to widely available standards. easy and cheap to replace, upgrade. I can see myself doing at least 15000 more on this frame easily. Priced as a entry level bike, but in fact it can easily be a lifetime bike. Thank you Cade crew for working against the bias towards bling cycling.

i was waiting for an update on the fake supacaz bar tape too

To sum that up, bikepacking is accessible to all on a budget and that is what we need in cycling more people able to get on bikes. Well done Decathlon!

Would be great to see a Decathlon bicycle R&D and factory tour to see what goes into designing and building a mass produced bike.

Come to Japan :-) Lots of great cycling here. Generally nice weather if you plan the season correctly. Good roads. Lots of variety. People are super friendly. Cars are courteous. Great scenery. Drink vending machines practically everywhere (even on top of Mount Fuji!) On the downside, you may have difficulty getting a lot of vegetarian food, especially in the countryside. You can definitely get options in any convenience store, but if you are strict about it, it might be extremely difficult in most restaurants. Another potential downside is that you have to put your bike in a bike bag to keep it in a hotel room. Not a big deal, but it means taking everything apart every day. Finally, the best part of Japan is the hot springs, but... tattoos are mostly no-go. It's getting a bit more relaxed these days, but it's still rare to find a place that allows it.

Perhaps not as much of a secret now that this channel has picked up the Triban range (which was brilliant to see!), but what fantastic (value) bikes they are. Really enjoyed the Malaysia videos but completely missed that Francis was on a Triban! I've done tens of thousands of miles on my RC520 (including multi-day tours like the NC500) and, with a bit of looking after along the way, it's never missed a beat! Great bikes to work on and mess about with in terms of swapping components, too!

I have an older btwin alur 700 road bike bought from Decathlon new 8 years ago. £600. Semi integrated cabled aluminium frame. Upgraded a few parts over the years. Changed the crankset to have it a full shimano 105 5750 setup. Upgraded the direct mount brakes from 5700 to r7000 a few years back. Running fulcrum racing 400 wheels after I rode the rims off the original wheels. Got myself compact, and narrower bars. Must have near 30k miles on the frame now. Gone through numerous saddles. It's my trusty stead, and have overtaken plenty on bikes worth 20 times It's original value. As always. Its never the bike, it's the legs that are propelling it forward. They are great bikes, and if the brand name puts you off, you're only losing out due to brand snobbery. Very underrated bikes by many, and worth every penny. Thanks to the UK weather this year so far, its done many more miles than my Orro Venturi roadbike has, lol. Great to see them back in competition again.

Tailfin have a quick release option for the frame bolts too. See their "Frame Mounts + Fast-Release Dropouts" option.

I've been riding the Triban RC520 since last summer and love it. My first road bike, use it with Zwift and outdoors and runs like a champ. Already had an accident, and was easily able to replace the rear derailleur hangar and re-index the gears myself. I've now just upgraded to 32mm Continental Sport iii tires and TPU inner tubes, and it's extremely comfortable. I had it fitted at Bicycle in Richmond and they were pretty shocked seeing Shimano 105 on a 850GBP bike.

Excellent. This is you and your channel at its best. Thanks.

Congrats on the trip. Nice video and your choices well explained..

I'm really enjoying my Triban RC520. All around bike. Thanks for the very good content!

Thanks Francis. Really found the info on the brakes interesting. Clearly a great option for home mechanics who don't want the issue of full hydraulic, or already have a set of full mechanical shifters.

This is a good price point for a bike. It’s something most people can relate to, or envisage buying for daily driving duty. Thank you for keeping it real.

Decathlon have made great bikes for years. I remember my friend having a mountain bike a good 18 years ago and we were all very jealous of how good it was.

I find it amazing that you do all this content on entry level bikes! The market is far too skewed on top end which most can't afford.

About mounting a taifin directly to the frame. The bosses on some frames like these can only take a very limited amount of weight, over time the bosses will fatigue and possibly fail due to high amount of stress from especially when carrying excessive weight over a long period of time. This was what happened to my bike frame which had a braze on mudguard boss, which I mounted my tailfin to. The universal thru axle is possibly the best solution to mounting a tailfin rack since it's a replaceable piece of equipment, doing no damage to the bike frame if or when it fails

Loved watching the journey!