Alex: There's nothing I love more than checking out hot new bike tech online, the latest innovations,
all of the good stuff. The other day, I came across one hell of a bike and I just had to
order it online. Today is the day it's been delivered. I want to get inside the garage
and check it out because Ollie's been kind enough to build it up for me. Let's go.
[music] This, ladies and gentlemen, is the Eurobike
road bike XC550, 21-speed shifting, dual disk brake road bicycle.
Ollie: At $300 or just £270, is the Eurobike road bikes XC550 21-speed shifting, dual disk
brake road bicycle any good? Let's find out. Alex: To put this cheap bike through its paces,
Ollie has devised a number of tests to see how I and the bike fare up against Ollie and
his superbike. First up, let's look at the bike itself. A quick summary of the Eurobike.
Tires, they're quite plasticky and, I'm not going to lie, don't offer a fantastic amount
of grip and are considerably slower rolling than what you might otherwise expect. The
front axle is a bolt-through axle as opposed to a quick-release system so you're going
to have to use some tools to take that off the bike as well. The cables at the front
here are externally rooted and they are considerably longer than what you might need on a bike
like this. Already, this one has started to rub away
at the paintwork and cause some little scratches. Move into the middle. We've got a triple chainset
here and that offers a fantastic range of gears. Although, move to the back, it's only
got a seven-speed cassette on this bike, meaning the top speed is maybe not going to be fantastic
if that's something that you're after. The welds on the frame are not looking fantastic
so I'm not sure what the longevity of this frame will be like. A personal standout favorite
is the integrated kickstand that we've got in here, meaning you can just park your bike
up, no need to lean against anything. Let's weigh it. What we got? 15.4 kilos, very
heavy. For comparison, something such as the Canyon Endurace AL weighs in at 8.2 kilos
although it does cost £1,300. If you wanted to spend a similar amount of money to what
this bike cost, you could get something as the Decathlon Triban which is a fairly well-specced
bike although somewhat less flashy compared to this. It does weigh in at 11.2 kilos, so
considerably lighter. Ollie: I should also point out that our intention
here isn't to say that cheap bikes are rubbish. Thankfully, there are many brilliant ones
out there, but we just want to see what this one's like. We're going to go for a ride and
I'm going to ride my Canyon. Alex is riding the Eurobike. First impressions, come on.
Alex: I'll tell you what, I've got to be honest, it does work okay straight out of the box.
It does work, but the most striking thing that stands out to me is the shape of the
handlebars. They're like nothing I've ever seen before. The shape is absurd and the use
of the drops is nearly non-existent. The gear shifting is placed in the middle of the handlebars
here. I'm going to describe it as sub-optimal. It is slightly annoying that you haven't got
dual control levers like nearly all modern bikes have these days. That's a bit of a pain.
The range of the gears, it's quite a good range.
We've got a triple chainset on the front here which does allow us to climb up some steep
gradients. Already, even on the first part of our ride, I've noticed that the highest
gear, or the top gear, isn't that high so I'm going to run out of gears especially when
we start to pick up some pace. Irrespective of how this bike rides, we want to know what
you guys make of it. Do you think it's nice or super nice? What we're going to do, we're
going to get it set up ready to upload into the bike vault so you can let us know your
thoughts. I guess a bit of- Ollie: We want to give it every possible chance,
Alex, of biggie-smalls. [crosstalk]
Alex: I present to you, ladies and gentlemen, the Eurobike.
Ollie: We're going to do some challenges to put the Eurobike through its paces. Challenge
one, hill climb challenge. Alex: Oh, yes, nice.
Ollie: I'm hoping that I can finally end my losing streak here on GCN because I'll be
doing it on this, my 6-kilogram Canyon Ultimate, about a third of the weight of your bike.
Alex: That should be fun. [music]
Ollie: The climb we're going to do is about a mile long. We're simply going to race up
it side by side, first to the top wins. Ordinarily, recently retired ex-pro, Alex Paton, would
completely destroy me on a climb of this length, but with these two different bikes, I think
we might see a different result. Alex: Let's do this.
[music] Oh, my God, you absolutely slaughtered me.
I can hardly speak. Genuinely, that was as hard as I could possibly ride on this bike.
Two things that crucially stood out to me, three things. Firstly, fair play, you obviously
motored up there so respect for that. Secondly, the weight is highlighted so much on the slight
little gradient changes. As soon as the gradient kicks up that little bit, you can really notice
the additional weight of this bike. It's nearly three times the weight of Ollie's bike, so
I'm going to take that one. Very frustratingly, what I did three, four
times on that little climb was as I was getting out the saddle, my knee has caught the shifter
and I've inadvertently switched into one of the hardest gears this bike has which I want
to use as an excuse, but, to be fair, you were long gone before then.
Ollie: The next test we're going to do is a stopping distance test. We've got a descent
now after our climb. We're going to roll along next to each other and then at a predefined
point, we're going to slam on the anchors and see who can stop in the shortest amount
of time. What makes it interesting is that the Eurobike has cable-actuated disk brakes
on it, whereas mine are the top-of-the-range Shimano hydraulic disk brakes. It'd be interesting
to see just what the difference is, really. Three, two, one, brake.
Alex: That's like what, three bike lengths? Ollie: A fair bit, but just physics on its
own says that my stopping distance should be less than yours. The weight of that bike
is going to hinder it in stopping in a short distance and it does weigh a lot and you weigh
more than me as well. Alex: I'll tell you what, the big thing that
stands out is the lack of control. These brakes are very much on or off and your ability to
find that sort of perfect braking spot, it's nearly non-existent on this bike.
Ollie: That is the downside of cable-actuated disks versus a hydraulic disk. There's much
less feel and modulation. Alex: Test three?
Ollie: Crack on. Alex: Let's do it.
[music] Ollie: The final test we're going to do is
the sprinting max, power max speed test which might not be a foregone conclusion because
I can barely crack a thousand watts, whereas Alex actually contested the Sprint's Jersey
in the Tour of Britain. We're coming up to our sprint point and then when we go past
this sign on the left, we'll go. Although I don't know where I'm going to go. Downhill
only. Alex: Come on, are you ready?
Ollie: Yes. Let's go. Alex: Come on.
Ollie: Three, two, one, go. [music]
Alex: [unintelligible 00:08:54]. [music]
Ollie: This is some kind of record. I don't know, I've never won this many things before
in my life, ridiculous. Alex: What have we learned from our endeavor?
Ollie: We're not saying that low-cost cheap road bikes are rubbish, far from it. Most
people aren't going to spend lots of money on their first bike. Therefore, it's crucial
that good bikes exist at low price points. It's people's entry into the sport. We don't
want them to be put off by rubbish bikes and thankfully, there are good bikes.
Alex: Yes, that's right. My first road bike actually cost less than this Eurobike bike
and it served me very well for a few years. Sure, it wasn't anything like as flashy as
this, but it works perfectly well. Ollie: Mine too. My first road bike was about
£250. That's the key takeaway that you've touched on there, not as flashy as this. The
issue, I think, with this is it's trying to look too flashy at the expense of functionality.
Things like the deep section wheels. At this price, you just can't have deep-section wheels
without them being compromised and being really, really heavy which these are. You'd be better
off with wheels that weren't deep but just lighter.
Alex: That's it. If something seems too good to be true, then chances are it probably is.
Ollie: Well, there you have it. Let us know your thoughts on the Eurobike road bike XC550
21-speed shifting, dual disk brake road bicycle. Alex: Perhaps you even own one.
Ollie: Perhaps you do. If you enjoyed this video, give us a thumbs up and see you in
the next one. Would you ride that home now? Alex: Come on, then.
[00:10:44] [END OF AUDIO]