Author Topic: Raven Tour v Fahrrad T400 Rohloff  (Read 6124 times)

ben

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Raven Tour v Fahrrad T400 Rohloff
« on: January 28, 2008, 05:07:40 pm »
I am considering buying one of these two bikes, primarily as a relatively good value way into the Rohloff Hub. No serious touring in mind, more light commuting bike paths etc.

What are the relative merits?

Ben

freddered

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Re: Raven Tour v Fahrrad T400 Rohloff
« Reply #1 on: January 29, 2008, 09:51:49 am »
The Fahrad seems like decent spec from what I can fnid on the web and about the same price as the Raven Tour.

Here is why you should buy the Raven Tour.

1) It will do what you want perfectly (commuting, canal paths).

2) It will do what you don't want to do YET (Long distance, heavyweight touring, Audax and everything apart from racing)

3) You get 3 months to see if you like it or not (This alone is worth it).  Get the Raven first and try it.  If you don't like it, send it back and get the Fahrad.  You'd be crazy not to do it in this order.

4) You are helping a small British business.

5) You have the backup of this forum.  You must have read about the incredible loyalty for the Thorn Rohloff bikes.  Word of mouth is the best advertising so I am recommending the Thorn Raven Tour becasue I have one and it's as perfect a bike for my needs as I can imagine. (I commute, I cycle camp, I ride long-distance Audax, I use it for short leisure rides).

Try one, it's free.
 

ians

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Re: Raven Tour v Fahrrad T400 Rohloff
« Reply #2 on: January 29, 2008, 12:38:48 pm »
what he said.

ian

geocycle

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Re: Raven Tour v Fahrrad T400 Rohloff
« Reply #3 on: January 29, 2008, 02:14:15 pm »
The Fahrrad looks a very good bike with an excellent spec and is great value for a rohloff-schmidt-magura equipped machine.  I'd add the choice of sizes and the flexible build options to the comments made above as plusses for a Thorn. 
 

PH

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Re: Raven Tour v Fahrrad T400 Rohloff
« Reply #4 on: January 29, 2008, 08:58:07 pm »
No serious touring in mind, more light commuting bike paths etc.

To not answer you question ;)
I wouldn't buy either.  Don't get me wrong I think the Raven is a fantastic bike and everything I've heard about Fahrrad lead me to think it'd be as good.  It's just that all touring bikes make compromises in order to be excellent load carriers.  If you don't need that I think you could get a better bike, the Raven Sport would be high on my shortlist and if I was feeling flush the Van Nicholas Rohloff offerings would also be there, plus I’m sure I could find some others.
To answer you question, though freddered has it well covered.
There's a lot of extra kit comes as standard on the Fahrrad, it'd make it better value if you were going to go for all those options anyway, paying for stuff you don't want is never a bargain at any price.  The Schmidt hub is worthwhile if you do a lot of night riding, though I'd choose different lights.  I tried Magura HS11s on my Raven, good brakes but it was the fastest I've ever worn out a rim.  Plain Vs with carbide rims are as good in the dry, better in the wet and should last well.  Tubus racks are great for touring, a £15 alu one is fine for everything else.  The Fahrrad comes with an adjustable stem, not even the best is as good a rigid and Thorn will keep swapping them for you until you get the perfect one.
Enjoy looking, enjoy the research, then it's hard to argue against the benefits of a long trial period.



ahconway

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Re: Raven Tour v Fahrrad T400 Rohloff
« Reply #5 on: February 02, 2008, 01:52:59 am »
Here's another thing to consider: service. When you're spending this sort of money, you should really expect the level of service you get from the shop to be commensurate.

If you're looking at a Fahrrad Manufaktur and you're UK-based, then you probably saw it at Bikefix in London. In addition to Raven AT, I have a Fahrrad T100 and my wife has a T200, which we bought at Bikefix. We love the bikes - they're well designed and super durable - but we found the service at the shop to be highly variable. The owner is very knowledgeable and often engaging, and you can sometimes find someone on the shop floor who is helpful and willing to chat.

But more often than not, you'd have to go searching for help (odd in a shop this small!), and the sales staff never really seemed that interested in helping or selling. The service dept was largely competent, but still lots of attitude .

The positives: Probably the only shop in central London that will do a same-day repair, and a really nice collection of bikes and recumbents. Also, Bikefix does lots of demos and contributes a lot to the cycling advocacy scene in London, and that's great.

One disclaimer: I haven't been to the shop for over a year (having moved to Boston a while back), so things might have changed.

But at the end of the day, the level of service I received from SJS was consistently helpful, never pressured, friendly, and professional - and that's definitely added to my satisfaction with the bike.
« Last Edit: February 02, 2008, 02:04:50 am by ahconway »
 

lancer17

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Re: Raven Tour v Fahrrad T400 Rohloff
« Reply #6 on: February 06, 2008, 07:53:06 pm »
Agree with what has been said about the raven tour and the service from sjc, but would like to add that i had some problems with mine, compounded by an admin error. So they are not perfect.
But what matters is they went out of there way to put it right, and i cant praise them highly enough for that, even down to my bike being personally delivered back to my house at no charge by Robin Thorn.

So if you want a dam good bike with people who give a dam after they have been paid, that will give you honest advice and treat you with respect as a customer; bag yourself a THORN.

Richard

ben

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Re: Raven Tour v Fahrrad T400 Rohloff
« Reply #7 on: February 18, 2008, 04:19:21 pm »
Thanks for these comments, I have now ordered a tour so am looking forward to its arrival.

the overiding factors for me were:

Rohloff specific frame
Flexibility of specification
local company
on going good service/reputation