Strong bike, loves a load. Mechanically perfect and lovely to ride many hours a day. Great seat too.

Paint chips pretty easily. No other weaknesses I can think of!

I chose this bike (Cabot-1) for a cross-Canada solo ride, about 6,500 km. I loaded it with perhaps 20 kg of gear, including full camping gear. Upgrades before my ride included a 11-36 cassette (replaced the stock 11-30) to help me up some of the big climbs, and Shimano disk brakes that I picked up on sale. The frame and hubs come Shimano disk ready. I also triple-wrapped the bars.

Great seat too.

Unlike another review. I found the continental tires were flawless. I never had a flat across the entire trip, including lots of gravel, rail-trails and normal road crap. At about 3000 km I swapped rubber between front and back, but I figure I still have another tour of life in these tires.

This bike offers great components for the price. 30 speed, alloy frame, V-brake, high riding position, confortable and stiff, easy to set-up, great FSA pedals, pre-drilled holes almost everywhere on the frame for racks and 3 bottle cages scenario

The Continental Puncture Protected tire ... flat tire after 1000km of riding...only weak point!

I've test this bike on the Utah roads for about 1000km (600 miles), carrying more than 50lbs of payload, climbing high and descending on packed gravel roads ... never had the feeling that this bike was suffering ... really stiff and confortable with its high-sitting position, way better that Trek or Surly... it comes with 28mm tires ... good pick if the road is not perfect and if the payload is over 50lbs...I've been using Trek520, Kona Sutra, and few others ...of course, it's an underdog in its category, but it's sure a really good bike! Give it a try prior to move on more expensive ones, it deserves it for sure!

Similar Products Used:

Trek 520, De Vinci Caribou, Surly long haul, Kona Sutra