ALDI bike sale (starting on 05/10/2011 Wednesday)

[peter]

Peter that flat bar road bike wasn't in your paper catalogue? I'll take a picture of my catalogue tonight once I get home, it was listed at $249

No it's not, probably because different state.

[peter]

I have the light on my bike. They are good from the on coming view but the depth of the beam isn't that great but ok for riding at 20/25kmh with caution.

How big is the battery pack? Does it hold up well for prolonged use?

[foo on patrol]

Two AAs!

Foo

[ftssjk]

hey guys

so i'm thinking of getting the bike pump, the tool kit, and the LED set.

should I get a helmet too?

are the cycling knicks decent?

am I better of getting torpedo7s/cyclingexpress/hasas?

[Mulger bill]

The bibknicks are reasonably comfortable but unless they've changed the fabric they are somewhat transparent when worn. Mine go under baggies.

I've still got the gilets and baggy shorts I bought a few years back still going strong.

[ftssjk]

The bibknicks are reasonably comfortable but unless they've changed the fabric they are somewhat transparent when worn. Mine go under baggies.

I've still got the gilets and baggy shorts I bought a few years back still going strong.

thanks
might get a pair to wear underneath some shorts.

so has anyone been to aldi yet?
i went today at around 5pm at the north strathfield store to try my luck.
they had a bunch of tools from last weeks offer i presume.

gonna try again early in the morning.

[elfrog]

I ended up picking up the $249 flat bar road bike, there was a bit of a line outside the door at 8:30 am to get bikes but I was the only person to grab the road bike, everyone else was going for the $129? hybrids, bike computers and helmets. I wasn't expecting too much other than something to ride into town on rather than take the car 3km but it's actually better than I expected. It weighs something like 12.6 kilos with the stand and reflectors, bell and all that rubbish on it so I guess it'll be about 12.0 once that's all off. The tyres are kind of half road, they are a Kenda sport tyre, not very thin or anything and it doesn't have presta valves, I'm not sure if the tubes in it would take the max recommend pressure of 85psi so I have them at 65 for now since I need to ride down a long rocky driveway to get on the road. The gears don't change as positively and sharp as you would expect on top dollar stuff but all the gears still engage pretty good, the V brakes are some kind of clone that work good enough. the frame itself is welded really well and made from 6061, some of the castings on things like the headstem and seat post dont give the impression of being made from good alloy, obviously not high grade stuff (it's a 249$ bike after all) but everything is alloy.

Overall I'd have to say it's much better than I expected. Just about everything on the bike is a decent copy of something much more expensive. I've been for a burn down the road and it's not near as fast as a proper road bike but it's also much faster than a good mountain bike (I'm coming from a 10.5kg xt/xtr steel hard tail). So that's about it, when I need to replace the tubes and tyres I'll get something a bit more racey in there and also if I need to change the drivetrain at all but only once the original parts wear out. I might post some pictures of it later in the day if anyone is interested. I also got the tool set which is ok too, although not as good quality as the bike itself :0

[CommuRider]

when I need to replace the tubes and tyres I'll get something a bit more racey in there and also if I need to change the drivetrain at all but only once the original parts wear out.

@elfrog meet @aldifan

[elfrog]

Here you go punks, just incase anyone else wanted to see how the ALDI flat bar 700c bike is now or in the future next time it's in stock

[elfrog]

when I need to replace the tubes and tyres I'll get something a bit more racey in there and also if I need to change the drivetrain at all but only once the original parts wear out.

@elfrog meet @aldifan

This one looks a bit better than the dual suspension mountain bikes but time will tell :0. My bike MTB was over 2 grand back in the late 90s and I rode that thing 60km a day for the first 5 years and occasionally since and still haven't had any trouble with so that's been an awesome bike. But wife has a 600-700 ish dollar Giant brand alloy hard tail that we've had for about ... 8 years, granted it hasn't been ridin all that much but it's still as bought and never had any problems and it's only about the same range of quality as this ALDI bike so I think this will be quite good for my 250 bucks

[CommuRider]

I do wonder why Aldi didn't go for the extra push and make them drop bars? For $250 it looks reasonable enough. May give Cell bikes a run for their money. You can fit a rear rack, mudguards and it won't be a bad looking commuter. I'd replace the saddle (not a fan of white).

BTW, if anyone has bought the arm/leg warmers, can you let me know if the material has improved ? I bought some a year ago and they sagged like elephant skin.

[elfrog]

Yeah kind of sucks that it wasn't a real road bike for that matter, but I've been checking out the ALDI bikes for a couple of years now and this is the most (and only) road suitable one I've seen in that time, the whole thing is almost a hybrid cruiser really so the flat bar suits the theme. After riding down the road a few times this morning I'm wondering if I really am prepared for a bike with 100+psi skinny tyres again just yet. I'm still going to get myself a good road bike later in the year but I haven't riden much in recent years and haven't had an actual road bike since.. well about 20 years ago so this will do fitness wise while I save, it's really not that bad a bike

[stradiot]

Hi, this is my first post here. I'm looking for a hybrid/cruiser bike for just riding around the neighbourhood or maybe to the train station (less than 20 mins). However I put budget at around $200-300 which I think makes it hard though I am willing to buy 2nd hand. Im interested in the opinions on the Aldi Hyrbrid bike ($129). What is the feedback like?
On a side note, I've been riding a cheap 'mountain' bike for half a year now, maybe 3-4 times a week. The saddle is quite uncomfortable and I'm wondering whether I've rode it enough to cause any long term problems?

[ftssjk]

went to aldi today,
got $111.95 of stuff.

tool set 40
pump 15
knicks 17
jersey 20
helmet 20

happy with the helmet and the pump.
havnt tried the others yet

[blatant]

I'll grab the toolkit
maybe the pump. Is the pump good enough to be a primary pump or just for backup? Any way to see if the gauge is accurate compared to the ~$50 branded ones I'd get at LBS? I only have a mini/mounted pump and would like a good gauged pump for home

[CommuRider]

On a side note, I've been riding a cheap 'mountain' bike for half a year now, maybe 3-4 times a week. The saddle is quite uncomfortable and I'm wondering whether I've rode it enough to cause any long term problems?

Better ask your GP how misaligned your body is after your saddle to find out the probs to your nether regions. But instinctively you know what is wrong if it causes you soreness. Throw the saddle away! Who knows what damage this has caused you. Best get a new saddle asap if you like to keep your mtb. Big lesson: Cheap bikes have cheap saddles. Don't be cheap to take care of your crown jewels if you're a bloke.

[Mulger bill]

LED headlight.
Jersey.
Jacket.

The headlight is impressive for the price, pretty good spread and throw. It should serve well on the lads MTB. The helmet mount will see the bin methinks tho' I might ditch the velcro for elastic and run it as a worklight when needed. The clamp is a fairly tight fit on OS bars.

The jersey and jacket look the goods, a large fit me well. The stitching looked well done and no complaints about the fabric. They'll get a run on tomorrows commute.

Knicks do not look to have improved since the last batch.

[peter]

Got...

- LED light (decent quality and functions well, but cable management is a mess)
- Pump (poor quality, no PSI reading, ok for the price as a backup for the office)
- Gloves (fits well, typical cheapies)

Not sure if I will keep the light, if not, will post in the market place before returning it.

[zakka101]

went to aldi at 6pm only to find almost everything i wanted gone.
picked up a pair of knicks and a jersey just because they were so cheap.

[foo on patrol]

I have the light on my bike. They are good from the on coming view but the depth of the beam isn't that great but ok for riding at 20/25kmh with caution.

How big is the battery pack? Does it hold up well for prolonged use?

Apologies in order here! I thought you were referring to the other led light not the one on the helmet.

Foo

[Sam_boss260]

Does anybody know which Aldi stores in Brisbane have any stock left? Was thinking about going to the Mt Ommoney store to see what they have left tonight.

[Ross]

I bought a pair of gloves, tried them on in the shop and they seem to fit well. I wanted a pair of arm warmers and sun protection arms but the S/M size was too large for my puny arms. Going off the seemingly large sizing of the arm warmers I bought a pair of S/M leg warmers (I normally take L in other brands of leg warmers) and was happy when I got home and tried them on and they fitted perfectly. I'll try another store or two on the weekend and see if they have any smaller arm warmers/sun protectors.

I looked at the rain jacket, didn't like it, I reckon you'd sweat to death in less than a minute. Good range of hi vis colours, orange, green and white. The soft shell jacket looked better, had a zip rear pocket and was available in white and also black (not keen on black cycle clothing for visability reasons).

Didn't really take much notice of the various lights, tool kits or the helmets.

[CommuRider]

I've been to two aldi stores thus far and they still have MTBs and hybrids in boxes. So how about @elfrog's FBR? Was that only available to Mexicans?

[Ozkaban]

I bought the toolkit as I just dont have the specialised bits. If I break/wear something out then I know it's worth buying a better one

Also bought the 7400mah battery pack. Don't care if the specs turn out to be optimistic, it charges my HTC desire 4 times over, which is perfect for camping.

Cheers,
Dave

[Peekay86]

Hi there,

New poster and new rider.
Have been looking at a few Flat Bar Road Bikes and was basically set on the Norco VFR 2 2010 (approx $600).
However looking at this Aldi bike I'm thinking this might suit me perfectly.

I was in our local Aldi last night and they had probably 10-15 of these stacked up but I didn't give it more then a quick glance.

Does anyone know what size it is or wether it comes in varied sizes?
I've sized myself up on my friends bike and believe I need a L (20/21 inch bike), if someone can confirm the size of this I'll be down there in the morning.

Thanks!