Reid Harrier to buy or not?

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albertgaleano
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Reid Harrier to buy or not?

Postby albertgaleano » Sun May 13, 2012 9:21 pm

Was thinking of making my first fixie purchase for around the $500 mark and have been looking at the reid or maybe jellybean, any ideas????? Will be using for 3-5km commuting to work.
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malocchio
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Re: Reid Harrier to buy or not?

Postby malocchio » Mon May 14, 2012 9:31 am

I bought one second-hand for $250. It was hardly ridden and practically brand new.

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That being said, I've not ridden any other singlespeed bikes so I can't give you much of a review, but all I can say is that they're darn heavy! I use it for running around on weekends and it does what it needs to do. If you're looking for something to get you from A to B without any maintenance, it's a very cheap way to do it.

Plus, the colour combo that I've got has garnered plenty of compliments. The cost-to-compliment ratio is out of this world!

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albertgaleano
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Re: Reid Harrier to buy or not?

Postby albertgaleano » Mon May 14, 2012 6:58 pm

Yep, looking at yours i think i will go with the reid, drop bars for sure. Might go for the white or crome frame, with black wheels.
Thanks for the reply!!!!
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ldrcycles
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Re: Reid Harrier to buy or not?

Postby ldrcycles » Mon May 14, 2012 7:53 pm

This is a singlespeed rather than a fixie, but for a short commute it would be damn hard to beat (and not bad for long rides either).
http://www.bicycles.net.au/forums/viewt ... =9&t=51119
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slarv
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Re: Reid Harrier to buy or not?

Postby slarv » Mon May 14, 2012 8:51 pm

ldrcycles wrote:This is a singlespeed rather than a fixie, but for a short commute it would be damn hard to beat (and not bad for long rides either).
http://www.bicycles.net.au/forums/viewt ... =9&t=51119
I was disappointed to find the local big W didn't have any in stock. They are pretty easy to spot on gumtree.

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HLC
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Re: Reid Harrier to buy or not?

Postby HLC » Mon May 14, 2012 9:11 pm

If you have 500 to spend, get a Fuji Track Classic. Best fixed/SS bike you can buy for that coin. Otherwise a Schwinn or Draft will be good as well. Check out bikeexchange.com.au

Stay away from jellybean/chapelli/Jube/whatever else that is similar.

If you are not fussed, then get something cheaper and save the extra coin for beers at the destination.

reid_cycles
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Re: Reid Harrier to buy or not?

Postby reid_cycles » Wed May 23, 2012 11:02 am

Hi,
Its James from Reid Cycles here.

There are many fixies on the market and from what I’ve seen the quality varies greatly.
Our Harrier has a flip/flop hub so can be ridden as fixed or singlespeed which most people prefer for an easier ride.
When we designed our bike we had quality and value in mind first and colour options second.
There are a lot of cheap quality fixies getting around with mostly no name parts which I would have serious doubts about the reliability.
The Harrier uses all well known brand name parts and I can honestly say they are our most bullet proof bike.
In our shop I have seen most of the fixies on the market and by coincidence, spec for spec it’s almost identical with the Bianchi Pista.(which is a great bike I must add)
We have a lot of different wheel options, most people go with the deep V rims for looks, the best wheel performance wise is the Alex rim with sealed bearing hubs, it’s a much lighter and faster wheel.
Cheers

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albertgaleano
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Re: Reid Harrier to buy or not?

Postby albertgaleano » Wed May 23, 2012 6:23 pm

Hey thanks for the reply james!!!
Iam very keen to make my first singlespeed bike purchase, with the harrier on the top of my list at the moment, iam near your shop here in brisbane and have just had a test ride the other day, can't wait to make it my daily commuter.
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Re: Reid Harrier to buy or not?

Postby BRLVR.v2 » Sun May 27, 2012 8:13 pm

reid_cycles wrote:Hi,
Its James from Reid Cycles here.

There are many fixies on the market and from what I’ve seen the quality varies greatly.
Our Harrier has a flip/flop hub so can be ridden as fixed or singlespeed which most people prefer for an easier ride.
When we designed our bike we had quality and value in mind first and colour options second.
There are a lot of cheap quality fixies getting around with mostly no name parts which I would have serious doubts about the reliability.
The Harrier uses all well known brand name parts and I can honestly say they are our most bullet proof bike.
In our shop I have seen most of the fixies on the market and by coincidence, spec for spec it’s almost identical with the Bianchi Pista.(which is a great bike I must add)
We have a lot of different wheel options, most people go with the deep V rims for looks, the best wheel performance wise is the Alex rim with sealed bearing hubs, it’s a much lighter and faster wheel.
Cheers
You forgot the bit about what a boat anchor they are weight wise.

Buy a Fuji classic . The BB is higher and the geometry is snappier than the locally cobbled together dross.

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Re: Reid Harrier to buy or not?

Postby vaeske » Fri Jun 01, 2012 11:25 am

BRLVR.v2 wrote: You forgot the bit about what a boat anchor they are weight wise.
GOLD.

Clintos
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Re: Reid Harrier to buy or not?

Postby Clintos » Wed Jun 06, 2012 2:28 pm

Hi all,

New to forum, I just purchased a Reid Harrier last week. I ordered online, bike took a week to be ready for pick up so no complaints there, the staff were friendly enough when I picked it up and seems good value with all the little bits you get for $369.00.

First ride out I found the back wheel hadn't been tightened enough and moved up on one side causing wheel to hit frame, fixed this myself and haven't had an issue since, I'm pretty new to riding so couldn't tell you if the ride is good or not, I think the main thing is the price, this encouraged me to get into riding again and that surely isn't a bad thing?

I'm sure Reid bikes aren't that cool to all the hipsters but it does the job for me so far.

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Re: Reid Harrier to buy or not?

Postby slarv » Thu Jun 07, 2012 8:58 am

Clintos wrote:Hi all,

New to forum, I just purchased a Reid Harrier last week. I ordered online, bike took a week to be ready for pick up so no complaints there, the staff were friendly enough when I picked it up and seems good value with all the little bits you get for $369.00.
Hi Clintos,

Just wondering which store you picked it up from?

Regards,

Slarv

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Re: Reid Harrier to buy or not?

Postby Clintos » Thu Jun 07, 2012 4:52 pm

slarv wrote:
Clintos wrote:Hi all,

New to forum, I just purchased a Reid Harrier last week. I ordered online, bike took a week to be ready for pick up so no complaints there, the staff were friendly enough when I picked it up and seems good value with all the little bits you get for $369.00.
Hi Clintos,

Just wondering which store you picked it up from?

Regards,

Slarv
Hi there,

Picked it up from North Melbourne store on Victoria Road. I took it for my first decent ride last night to Northcote and back, about 15 Ks, it did not blow up, surprising after some of the comments on these forums.

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PeteV
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Re: Reid Harrier to buy or not?

Postby PeteV » Fri Jun 08, 2012 8:11 am

Yeah I was pretty sure my Mojo would spontaneously combust after some of the 'reviews' I received after buying it. A lot of the haters are die hard fixed gear fans who despise the fact that it became a popular hobby for others and caused the mass production of cheaper 'fixies.' Unfortunately most of them have never ridden a 'fixie' so are really basing their comments on what others say. My Mojo is really comfortable to ride, not overly lightweight but also no hog (9kg) , and suprisingly all the parts actually work. The major upgrade I would suggest to ANYONE riding a Reid, Mojo, Jellybean, etc would be tyres. Get some decent quality, well reputed tyres and you will love it even more.

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Re: Reid Harrier to buy or not?

Postby denbot » Tue Jun 12, 2012 9:46 pm

I bought a Reid Harrier a couple of weeks ago and I couldn't be happier with it.
Granted I changed the bars and pedals, everything rides really nicely. I live in regional NSW and I bought it online - arrived the next day by freight.
Was incredibly easy to put together as well.
I don't have any issues with the weight either as some are complaining about.
I'll add that the fuji track classic is almost the exact same weight at 10.03kgs versus 10.5kgs, provided you aren't racing I don't think you'll notice a difference here.

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Re: Reid Harrier to buy or not?

Postby misterhorsey » Thu Jun 14, 2012 11:15 am

I've had a look at that other Reid thread, that's now locked, and I'm not passing judgement on the quality, or lack thereof, of REID bikes.

But man, the fact that all the 'people' who provide their opinions on the back of a solitary post sound exactly the same is incredibly irritating!

http://www.newscientist.com/blogs/onepe ... uns-o.html

I'm convinced that astroturfing is bad for a company's brand, so in this respect I feel badly for Mr Reid. I do respect him for providing cheap bikes to people who may find the idea of a 1.5k and upwards eye watering. But over the long run, his business can't benefit from all the ethereal posters that seem to swam to the forum whenever a REID is mentioned - wherever they are coming from.

And this too, if anyone is unfamilar with the topic (albeit, much higher stakes than cheap bikes!):

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/g ... troturfing

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Re: Reid Harrier to buy or not?

Postby Clintos » Thu Jun 14, 2012 12:48 pm

Your probably right that that type of advertising if true would be of no benefit, after trying to research before purchase the Reid threads only put me off buying but as the alternatives mentioned by other long time posters were non existent I purchased anyway, for me I don't know any better so the bike seems fine.

I feel pretty confident with the warranty and if I continue to ride I'm sure the bike will just be a good cheap stepping stone for me.

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Re: Reid Harrier to buy or not?

Postby misterhorsey » Thu Jun 14, 2012 5:35 pm

Clintos wrote:Your probably right that that type of advertising if true would be of no benefit, after trying to research before purchase the Reid threads only put me off buying but as the alternatives mentioned by other long time posters were non existent I purchased anyway, for me I don't know any better so the bike seems fine.

I feel pretty confident with the warranty and if I continue to ride I'm sure the bike will just be a good cheap stepping stone for me.
I think the problem with astroturfing is that it gets a brand's name out and about, and that's good PR. But it acts to undermine trust in other honest reviews. For example, if people sense one review is perhaps not kosher, or that the same person is writing reviews from different users, then you start discounting potentially honest/real reviews.

For example Clintos, because you only had 4 posts up til now I went and checked out your other posts to see if you were real or not. The fact that you posted an item in the Stolen bike forum suggests that you are. Apologies for snooping! But my commiserations about the stolen bike :(

But I see Mulger Bill did a fair indepth review of one of the bikes a while ago.

Anyway, apologies if I'm resurrecting a topic that is dead and buried.

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Re: Reid Harrier to buy or not?

Postby slarv » Thu Jun 14, 2012 5:58 pm

misterhorsey wrote: For example Clintos, because you only had 4 posts up til now I went and checked out your other posts to see if you were real or not. The fact that you posted an item in the Stolen bike forum suggests that you are. Apologies for snooping! But my commiserations about the stolen bike :(
Clintos, I confess to my question having double motives. I wanted to know which store you went to so I could compare it to my own experience if it was the same store. I was also testing the waters to see if you were real :) Good to see you are sticking around.

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Re: Reid Harrier to buy or not?

Postby Mulger bill » Thu Jun 14, 2012 8:08 pm

misterhorsey wrote:But I see Mulger Bill did a fair indepth review of one of the bikes a while ago.
I also regularly use my mod powers to go deeper into any posts that don't feel right to me and to date have busted one and only one sockpuppeteer (Not for Reid BTW).

That puppetmaster and his/her three socks and their IP address copped a permaban and notification to their ISP.
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HLC
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Re: Reid Harrier to buy or not?

Postby HLC » Thu Jun 14, 2012 10:06 pm

PeteV wrote: A lot of the haters are die hard fixed gear fans who despise the fact that it became a popular hobby for others and caused the mass production of cheaper 'fixies.' Unfortunately most of them have never ridden a 'fixie' so are really basing their comments on what others say.
This made me lol. Most die hard fixed gear fans usually refer to 'fixies' as Track Bikes, because in essence, that's what they are.

Which begs the question, why did I post my Bridgestone Track in here? Because I ride it on the street too.


Bikes like this are an 'enabling tool'. Personally, I wouldn't be caught dead riding one. But my GF rides an SE Draft Lite with a few mods, which was a cheap bike to begin with. These cheap 'fixies' get people riding and outdoors again. Some will give up, some do it for street cred, and others will turn into hardcore track tragics like myself. More people riding the better, my only gripe is that these bikes are disposable made with cheap parts to meet a cheap price point. And they can get dangerous.

Anyone remember those 'Potential of Hydrogen' 'fixies'??? I saw them, with busted pedals, a snapped seat post, bent bars, stripped hubs and all sorts of other stupid issues that should never have happened.

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Re: Reid Harrier to buy or not?

Postby PeteV » Thu Jun 14, 2012 10:35 pm

Don't get me wrong HLC, I am jonesing for a quality frame in the near future, but given that I am riding SS now since an old knee injury reared it's ugly head after a recent crash, I probably won't be getting the Bridgestone I wanted. I agree that the quality of parts is nowhere near Dura Ace/Campag/Thompson on a lot of the more expensive brands but I have found a lot of hate when I mention I have a Mojo frame (I say frame because I have upgraded most of the parts on mine) and most of the haters have never ridden the bike they are bagging. As long as they get people riding I am happy and as long as the lower quality parts don't put people off buying a better bike as their riding improves.

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Re: Reid Harrier to buy or not?

Postby Wal42 » Fri Jun 15, 2012 4:40 am

I use a harrier as my training bike, I bought it because it's slighly heavier than anything you're likely to ride on the track.

Bad points- >if you run the std Tektro brakes throw the pads &/or the calipers in the bin & fit something
better (cheap fix really)
> the 'aero' wheels weigh over 4kgs, the braking surfaces don't like having brake pads used on
the & quite quickly start showing where the join is, the bearings flog out quickly & constantly need adjusting
> with only 3 frame sizes, fitting is a little hit & miss


I swapped out the seatpost, stem & seat right from the start, it's not had any other issues as yet, I'm riding it anywhere from 45-50kms (if I commute on it) to around 20-25kms (afternoon training ride), had it now for 3 months.


Yep, some cheap parts but the frame & welding on the frame appear to be sound, if you're starting out it's worth a look, if you're more serious then get your preferred parts before you buy & it's a cheap option, if you're one of these 'serious' riders who it's all about your ego & appearance then spend 10 times the price on something with 'street cred'.

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Re: Reid Harrier to buy or not?

Postby HLC » Fri Jun 15, 2012 4:30 pm

PeteV wrote:Don't get me wrong HLC, I am jonesing for a quality frame in the near future, but given that I am riding SS now since an old knee injury reared it's ugly head after a recent crash, I probably won't be getting the Bridgestone I wanted. I agree that the quality of parts is nowhere near Dura Ace/Campag/Thompson on a lot of the more expensive brands but I have found a lot of hate when I mention I have a Mojo frame (I say frame because I have upgraded most of the parts on mine) and most of the haters have never ridden the bike they are bagging. As long as they get people riding I am happy and as long as the lower quality parts don't put people off buying a better bike as their riding improves.
I undestand completely! I have a visp built up with a mixed bag of parts, generic and name brand that I use as a Wet Weather/Pub/Track Hack bike!

My concern is the quality of the cheap parts, which can be dangerous, and ultimately will put some people off riding if they are faulty or not performing as they should!

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Re: Reid Harrier to buy or not?

Postby waramatt » Sat Jun 16, 2012 5:16 pm

HLC - I use an SE Draft Lite as a commuter. The only change I've made is to put 700x35 tyres on it so I can easily go single track, grass reserves etc more easily. Am I taking my life in my hands with cheap parts? After several thousand trouble-free kilometers, I doubt it.
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