Btwin in Decathlon

Rechuchote

I nip over and back to Paris the odd time, mostly staying with a friend, and I've used the Velib' bikes before. They were awful heavy things, then; I'm told they're lighter now, but the scheme is in chaos since JCDecaux got out and the system was taken over by another company - there are only a handful of stations at the moment.

Was looking at the possibility of dockless bikes, but the company doing them seems to have pulled them after Parisians trashed their bicycles in huge numbers.

So the other possible solution seems to be to spend a once-off €200 on getting a Decathlon cheapo Btwin bike and stashing it in Paris for these visits. Anyone know these bikes? How heavy are they? How usable are they for city nipping? https://www.decathlon.fr/velo-ville-elops-120-cadre-bas-id_8487236.html

17.5kg according to the specs

Rechuchote

Oh dear. They also have this heavy but gorgeous city bike. It's €300, but maybe it'll be in the sales… Comes with hub dynamo lights, carrier, chain guard and mudguards, and with all that comes to a hefty 19kg - at least, that's according to an earlier review, but that review was of a version with suspension saddle and forks, which seem to have been dispensed with.

https://www.decathlon.fr/velo-ville-hoprider-100-bas-id_8405487.html

JMcL

I've ridden a few fairly generic BTwin while in France at one time or , and while not the lightest, they've been grand. The one you link to claims to 16.1kg on the specs page.

If you're over and back regularly and had the time, second hand might be the way to go: €120 : https://www.leboncoin.fr/velos/1448637630.htm/?ca=12_s for example

Rechuchote

Thanks - nice site.

Thud

you'll need to use a VPN to contact sellers on Leboncoin, for some reason it blocks emails from outside France.
I had thought they were just ignoring my emails until I contacted a seller who had an add on troc-velo.com as well and they had never received my messages on leboncoin.