It’s a lovely bike. My only complaint is that as a designer (so yes I’m picky) the colours are off. The promotional images are pushed towards the yellow. The bike is considerably more pale blue than the green blue of the online images and the wheels are considerably more pale and white shifted than the promotional images suggest. I was hoping for that nice buttery wood hue of the online bikes. Don’t get me wrong it’s a beautiful bike but in retrospect I would have ordered the Oxford.
Additionally the front wheel arrived with a chunk taken out of the paint work.
I’m sure I sound petty and picky and uptight but when you pay $1500 to land a bike in Australia you have reasonably high hopes.
I have now had my Quella Varsity Courier for a few week and have cover a little over 400km on it. Overall I have been very happy with it but with a few snags.
Firstly the snags. (I have some good comments to make after)
The Kenda tyres that are included with the bike are not great. On the plus side I had done my research before hand and was already aware of this however they were worse than expected. I got my first puncher much sooner than I normally would. Don’t get me wrong this could be bad luck so no drama but after swapping out for a new tube I noticed that the side wall of tyres were not great quality and were easy damaged the first time this have ever happened to me with any bike tyre. I was always going to swap these tyres out for a new set at some point (and had even purchased some in advance) but I thought I would get at least 800km before having to do this.
The second snag is the brake pad included. These were not great quality and have already worn down to “need to be replaced levels” that said if you ride the bike fixed gear (I ride single speed) there would be a lot less wear on them and my guess is you would get X5 the use I got from them.
These last Snag was the spokes. After only about 5 days of riding I had a spoke completely separate from the wheel and had to rescue the cap from inside the wheel and reconnect. You should always get you wheel spokes checked over once you have had a bike for a little bit as the bike “beds in” to make sure the spoke tension is good; but this was more than that. I details check reviled 22 loose spokes across both wheels. I got that sorted quickly via my local bike shop (you should do this even if you don’t have this issue) but I felt that maybe the wheel build before the bike was sent out could have been better.
The good stuff
My bike now has a new rubber, correctly tension spokes and a new set of brake pad on the way…. And it is brilliant. My morning commute is a mix of bike lanes and slow moving traffic and this thing has been great for it. The Bull Horn bar are great for helping you get up to speed quickly and helping you get up them hills. The bike is very good at getting in and around traffic and people with ease. I have been having so much fun on it.
I know I am ride this “as the edge of what most people would use it for and it’s still great…. if you want a great city centre bike with super low maintenance this would be amazing no matter if you are going to ride it fixed or single speed. This would also be a great bike if you like the idea of riding a Fixie but are not 100% sure if you are ready for it….. just setup as a single speed for your daily ride then switch to Fixie for the weekend until you are ready to go full Fixie. They have some great YouTube videos to support you getting the bike setup if you need it.
The bike looks great, rides great and is great…. It’s not perfect but no bike is…. The “SNAGS” I had were all basic issues to sorts and shouldn’t put you off, more just things to be aware of…. it is 100% worth pressing the buy button
Hi, I was really excited once I‘ve discovered the bike and ordered it. The delivery was quick but unfortunately it was the wrong bike. Jess from customer service did a great job. The response was very fast and the change was organized. The weing bike was picked up and the right bike came one day later. While putting the nut on the front axle it was overtighten with very very very little effort. Again Jess from customer service replied very fast and sent a new set of nuts to me. Hopefully then everything will be fine and I can enjoy my new bike finally after a bumpy start.
This delivery is in relation to the bike being sent to an incorrect address, see other review (Philippe) further down, however very kind for the customer to commend Jess on this occasion for her customer service to re-organise delivery very efficiently and effectively. A good measure of customer service is how well situations are handled when they don't go smoothly and how swiftly these are addressed and rectified. The nut issue is not something that we experience. Always worth getting a torque measure to ensure over tightening doesn't happen if fitting oneself, we wouldn't live without one in our workshop! Have fun riding.
I received the wrong bike and I'm still waiting for the one I ordered at first.
I did my best to stay available to chat with the technical center (the person I'm talking to is really nice and efficient by the way) but I would have appreciated if someone offer me a gift, a voucher or something in exchange of the inconvenience and the time loss.
This feedback is from a European order in which two labels where mixed during the shipping service, a pretty rare occurance, but it happened. Upon opening their delivery the customer identified that the bicycle was not the one they had ordered and reported this to our customer service team. Following their contact we acted swiftly to rectify this situation and were able to track the actual bike that should have been delivered in transit within 24 hours. Within 48 hours we organised the collection and re-direction of both bike boxes, quite a feat and comendable of our team member Jess, particularly as the parcels were being re-routed between two countries France and Germany! We pride ourselves on our customer service, more often than not one of the best measures for service is how a team/company manages a situation when things go wrong and Jess's handling of this situation was first class. I appreciate the customer had an additonal delay to their delivery, understandably frustrated and seeking compensation. If they keep their eyes on their mail there maybe a little surprise! It's how we do it! If you ever have any concerns or issues with a bike or delivery give our team a buzz directly on 0333 400 2400 we're happy to talk and help!
Bike is comfy, lightweight, and fun to ride. Also has holes drilled for a pannier rack which I am very happy about. Geometry is very nice (I ride a 58cm, and I'm 6'4", and it's surprisingly comfortable). The stock cranks suck, though. They feel cheap, dethread incredibly easily, and are very expensive to replace. Kinda pretty, but you're much better off spending £20/30 on some replacement ones from a different manufacturer and £6-10 for a crank puller to avoid the hassle. V easy to swap out and totally worthwhile. Bar tape is also not a particularly pleasant - worth changing out! Brake levers are just fine - not super comfy especially w bullhorns, but I ride fixed anyway so not the end of the world. The spray booth job was pretty good on the whole - but some bigger drips of paint around the fork end made assembly a little tricky (nothing too bad tho!).
On the whole, like the bike, worth the money, also worth making a few cheap modifications to really make it worthwhile.
We appreciate the frustration here however unusual regarding our cranksets as can be seen thorugh our reviews. These are NOT cheap and individually CNC'd from a very well established manufacturer. From experience of selling thousands of bicycles, on the odd instance where threading a crankset does occur it is more ususally down to human error and even the best of us have had this happen at somepoint in our time. In fact we are usually commended on the individual design of our cranksets in comparison to the more general style available on the open market. If you're unfamiliar with building bikes everyday we usually do say take your time (as we mention on our literature) or visit a local bike mechanic to whom you can fallback on if an issue occurs or give us a buzz on 03334002400, we're always on hand to help!
