What was the POINT of a Triax Crimson?

[RetroPilot]

What was the POINT of a Triax Crimson?



an alloy road bike with mostly dirt cheap components from a $100 dept store mountain bike?

cheap crank...cheap BB, no cartridge, cheap derailleurs,Falcon-style if they are not Falcon then they are Falcon-level Shimanos, cheap 700c tyres..cheap brakes...oh, yeah, the thing I took most personally, not even an alu seat post with an allen-bolt saddle clamp even, a cheap knurled chrome steel one of those too..

But it is a red and baremetal alu frame, lol..some kind of Big W sleight of hand play here?

dark red paint with brushed bare alu is a nice colour scheme of course, and I'm sure many people went "oooo-ahh, it's aluminium!" and bought a flatpack. Wonder what they cost? $150-250? Actually more than $200 would have been a fairly rude Kmart
demand , wouldn't it?

[AUbicycles]

As you say... beware.

The forks look like tubes which are then pressed (squeezed), maybe welded and with a notch. This is what you see on too many cheap supermarket bikes and is heavy and questionable.

[P!N20]

No disc brakes either.

[mitzikatzi]

It was a treasure from K mart many years ago.

[RetroPilot]

they were actually carried by Kmart, were they?

[bychosis]

Kinda like all the other bikes that Kmart etc sell. Designed to look the part, but made from the cheapest stuff they can find and cobble together. People get all excited about how they can afford a bike that looks like the ones the elite/poser/rich guys use at a fraction of the price - what a bargain!!! Then they find it is horrible to ride and chuck it out, or park it in the garage for years and try to sell it and find out it is next to worthless.

[RonK]

The quintessential BSO...

[uart]

Yep. Made as cheap as possible to look the business to the uninitiated. As long as there are noobs (so basically forever) there will always be a market for this kind of thing. If it sells then that is its point.

Seriously though, people who don't know much about a given area (in this case cycling) often just use a checklist approach when shopping for a product. Alloy frame - tick, 24 speed -tick, says the word "Shimano" somewhere on it - tick. They don't notice fine details like the fact that most of the components are cheap crap, and they genuinely can't pick the difference between this bike and that "expensive" $800 one in the bike store.

[bychosis]

and they genuinely can't pick the difference between this bike and that "expensive" $800 one in the bike store.

until they pick them up side by side.

[uart]

until they pick them up side by side.

Yep, for sure.

The point is though, that products like this aren't meant for cyclists, they are meant for someone who thinks that perhaps they would like to own a bike.

If you or I were to go shopping for a new bike then (as "enthusiasts") we'd have certain criteria in mind. We would buy a bike for the sake of gaining certain performance or durability criteria. The person buying the Triax Crimson (or any of the many other BSOs around) would be buying it simply to own it. That is: Hey, if I buy this bike, then I will own a bike (maybe I'll even ride it occasionally). If that's all you're looking to get out of it, then a BSO can indeed look like a pretty good buy.

Of course, if the person does start to ride it regularly and becomes an "enthusiast" then they will very quickly realise what a POS they've bought.

[yugyug]

The quintessential BSO...

BSO yes - but not quintessential until they've been semi-professionally photographed with a shiny 'dewy' look in front of an iconic background and put on Gumtree for 3x the price.

[RonK]

Yes, I was thinking about that rather long thread and trying to remember that advertisers name but it escapes me.

[Duck!]

What was the POINT of a Triax Crimson?

Same as the "point" of every other department store BSO.....

[ldrcycles]

What was the POINT of a Triax Crimson?

Same as the "point" of every other department store BSO.....

This is what i came here to say, the point is to make K Mart some money. I actually seriously considered buying one of these as a "basic" road bike when i was getting back into road riding after a big crash. It was just such shockingly poor quality that i stumped up the extra for the Schwinn Prelude next to it (which was also junk but it did what i wanted, got me back on the road at the lowest possible expense).

Looking at it now, if you could find a decent aluminium or carbon 1" fork and swapped out all the junk for reasonable quality parts, the frame may actually be ok. I recently did that with a Big W flat bar road bike and ended up with a nice gravel bike for about $100.

[Ivanerrol]

No Offense Idr. But I see you have 8310 posts. This would seem to indicate you have a little bit of knowledge. So. You will have foreknowledge of what you are looking at and the possibilities when going down to buy a BSO.
IMHO.It's the less informed who get caught out.
There's really no excuse for it though. 99.9% of those who want to buy a bicycle have access to the internet. A few hours research should get someone started out on the right path.

[uart]

What was the POINT of a Triax Crimson?

Because it's still 1000% better than this POS here: http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/like/252932089962?rmvSB=true

[redned]

Those rubber handle bars look like the real deal.

[uart]

Those rubber handle bars look like the real deal.

Yep, and the forks on backwards, and the totally inappropriately placed MTB brake levers on the drop bars, and the "flywheel", and the carbon steel frame, and mostly steel crap components.

Given that they want about $240 for these monstrosities (on ebay), it makes the Triax look like a pretty decent bike in comparison.

[warthog1]

Those rubber handle bars look like the real deal.

Yep, and the forks on backwards, and the totally inappropriately placed MTB brake levers on the drop bars, and the "flywheel", and the carbon steel frame, and mostly steel crap components.

Given that they want about $240 for these monstrosities (on ebay), it makes the Triax look like a pretty decent bike in comparison.

lol

[Calmels]

It has long rear dropout slots. I bought one for $30 and turned it into a great fixie ☺