British Eagle Advance Bicycle ~ Controller Review

When is a bike not a bike? When its the latest in a range of fantastic new space consuming hobbies. This is no exception; skinny tyres that make me think of diets with alarming panic, and wiggly handles that seem like a bizarre ode to a reindeer. This would never have been my first choice in mobility, hence this review has been flung at the feet of the Controller. As a warrior through the ages he has gallantly picked up the gauntlet and charged into battle, and here is the resulting ramblings untranslated for those with the knowledge.

I have had a few new things since my last review, games, tech, etc but the stand out, begging for a review item had been my new bike.

I have been riding for years now, mainly mountain bikes with most time being the downhill with some big breaks between riding.

I'm new to the road riding, I used to laugh at road bike riders it just seemed so unexciting. Oh how wrong I was.

Getting to the trails for downhill, the good trails, require travel, the local stuff is good and all but after years the local stuff is old hat so I slowly came round to wanting a road bike.

Enter the British Eagle Advance from British Eagle Cycles.

To say this was on the cheap side of road bikes is an understatement, for a disk brake equipped bike you know you are not getting the best of anything. The price all in was £250 plus better pedals  for another £20 if you are frugal.

I will start with the wheels:

Alloy, heavy, stiff, disk compatible and most of all true...but, so very true, I have had issues with cheap wheels and loose spokes before but these wheels were super true I like how stiff they are as well it really gave confidence in the descents but as you will read this full bike does that in spades. I would love to tell you how much they weigh but if you are concerned about that is is not the bike for you.

The groupset is tourney and dire, anyone who has ever ridden just about anything knows tourney are the bottom of the rung. That said anyone worth their salt as a bike mechanic can set up this to just work..It will never be smooth and by no means is it a fix and forget part, this will need adjusted again, maybe it 500 miles maybe in 5 but it's easy and if you take care of your bikes this just becomes part of the routine.

Oh by the way the rear cassette 7 speed 13/28  and the front double is 53/39, it's a tough old gearing setup but well rideable even for a noob like me. I would imagine the rear is suntour but the front rings I have no idea....I will say I don't fancy the front rings in a crash, so flimsy looking they are going to bend... oh well on to the cranks.

The cranks are cheapo productions prowheel 170mm on a square taper bottom bracket of questionable quality.  They feel stiff and able and I do feel I get the power down but its in the back of my mind when really pushing that its not great and I feel hesitant at times. It puts you off pushing on the flats and uphill, it's not over bad I pushed 95% due to the fear but everything held up and I push 1300w so I have the legs for hard pushing.

I can't say Im in love with the full drive train, I plain just don't trust it but I will follow up more with this in the conclusion.

The cockpit is functional opting for steel handlebars and tourney thumb shifters, the brake levers are leechi a promax offshoot and are OK with nice leverage, the bar tape is well fitted and the endcaps are cheap but cool.

Im going to leave the frame for last so I will talk some about the little stuff I missed.

The seat is nice for me so nice in fact after I got a better bike I took the seat as well.

The seatpost is cheapo aluminum but does the job.

The pedals are plastic strap in jobbies and I never used them opting for flats instead.

Now on to the brakes....we have disks folks, without disks this bike would have been 170 green queens but I wanted disks, I didn't care if the calipers where rubbish I wanted the mounts on my frame I knew they would be cheap so knew I would need to upgrade, little did I know how soon I would need to upgrade.

What I didn't know was how cheap these brakes were, made by ZOOM the brakes are just dangerous no amount of setup will make the brakes work well, 160mm rotors make the full thing even worse.

I pride myself in setting up disk brakes but by god I was beat by these. Buy some cheap BB5 brakes at the same time as you buy the bike...I can't stress enough how important this is, the ZOOM brakes are not safe. I suppose well set up and going slow they are fine but the next point we go onto is the frame and folks it's not built for slow.

Truth be told I don't know what it's build for, it's got the steel build so touring...but no pannier mounts its got clearance for big tires but its steel and heavy so not cyclocross..im just not sure, that said the frame has a slack head angle, is made of steel and every component is heavy and stiff. It is the most joyful experience of steep road downhill I have ever had.

The first time I ever took it down a fast descent I felt invincible I clocked close on 50 miles an hour and fell in love with road biking, the tires are 23c and truth be told look smaller but gripped the twisty descent like it was a rail, the brakes were freshly set up but spoilt me getting faster as I had to brake sooo very early.

The forks are steel and have some clearance, jeez, a 29er with a 2.3 will fit on the front. Maybe not on the back but a 29er 2.0 would...

Its an adventure frame without the mounts...a cyclocross frame without the refinement.  Yeah its heavy but its super versatile and I am a little in love with it.

I have a Cannondale  CAAD8 now as well and its a better bike but its not the one I will upgrade, the British eagle is so good for mainly reasons I can't quantify, its rubbish uphill, not great on the flats, won't stop to my satisfaction without new calipers and heavier than my 2007 trek 3900....but boy can it decend, it puts a smile on my face and I feel it lets me appreciate the CAAD8 as a climber. The best first bike money can buy....if you can put up with this bikes faults and still fall in love with the road then the road is for you...it makes things easy to understand....I for one would recommend this frame, the parts...hell no but as a frame it's a joy. Buy it, it only costs a few buttons and a hair clip replace the brakes and enjoy, replace the parts as they break with sora jeez even claris, this bike will reward you in the descents and make you fitter on the uphills and flats....the ultimate winter bike??? after a winter riding this you will feel like a god on the uphill and flat in summer on a light bike but you will miss the descending on this.


So in summary a bike for those lycra clad weirdos that never seem to struggle up a hill or even sweat like normal people.
Perhaps that's why they matched the colour scheme to Eddie the Eagle, so you can feel like you are flying ahead of the competition. However with a normal novice like myself it seems to just underscore your lack of talent and muscle strength.
The seat is nothing more than a torture device with no padding making you feel like you're having unpleasant surgery whilst your frantically pedalling to keep up with others.
I hate the handles and how awkward the brakes are, another touch for the professionals only.
This bike might be a great starter bike, but only if you actually have stamina and a fitness level (of any kind). For me it feels like a tortuous form of yoga, the kind where you walk funny for hours afterwards.

Tech Spec!