I Rode A Triban 1000km Across Malaysia 

With bikes like that, Decathlon will really make the mainstream brands weep and refocus on what makes a good bike for 90% of cyclists.

Update: Decathlon UK have confirmed this bike will remain at £999 until July.

i was waiting for an update on the fake supacaz bar tape too

I'm currently over 26000 KM on my Triban RC520. these bikes are incredible value and everything on them are made to widely available standards. easy and cheap to replace, upgrade. I can see myself doing at least 15000 more on this frame easily. Priced as a entry level bike, but in fact it can easily be a lifetime bike. Thank you Cade crew for working against the bias towards bling cycling.

To sum that up, bikepacking is accessible to all on a budget and that is what we need in cycling more people able to get on bikes. Well done Decathlon!

Would be great to see a Decathlon bicycle R&D and factory tour to see what goes into designing and building a mass produced bike.

Come to Japan :-) Lots of great cycling here. Generally nice weather if you plan the season correctly. Good roads. Lots of variety. People are super friendly. Cars are courteous. Great scenery. Drink vending machines practically everywhere (even on top of Mount Fuji!) On the downside, you may have difficulty getting a lot of vegetarian food, especially in the countryside. You can definitely get options in any convenience store, but if you are strict about it, it might be extremely difficult in most restaurants. Another potential downside is that you have to put your bike in a bike bag to keep it in a hotel room. Not a big deal, but it means taking everything apart every day. Finally, the best part of Japan is the hot springs, but... tattoos are mostly no-go. It's getting a bit more relaxed these days, but it's still rare to find a place that allows it.

I have an older btwin alur 700 road bike bought from Decathlon new 8 years ago. £600. Semi integrated cabled aluminium frame. Upgraded a few parts over the years. Changed the crankset to have it a full shimano 105 5750 setup. Upgraded the direct mount brakes from 5700 to r7000 a few years back. Running fulcrum racing 400 wheels after I rode the rims off the original wheels. Got myself compact, and narrower bars. Must have near 30k miles on the frame now. Gone through numerous saddles. It's my trusty stead, and have overtaken plenty on bikes worth 20 times It's original value. As always. Its never the bike, it's the legs that are propelling it forward. They are great bikes, and if the brand name puts you off, you're only losing out due to brand snobbery. Very underrated bikes by many, and worth every penny. Thanks to the UK weather this year so far, its done many more miles than my Orro Venturi roadbike has, lol. Great to see them back in competition again.

Perhaps not as much of a secret now that this channel has picked up the Triban range (which was brilliant to see!), but what fantastic (value) bikes they are. Really enjoyed the Malaysia videos but completely missed that Francis was on a Triban! I've done tens of thousands of miles on my RC520 (including multi-day tours like the NC500) and, with a bit of looking after along the way, it's never missed a beat! Great bikes to work on and mess about with in terms of swapping components, too!

Tailfin have a quick release option for the frame bolts too. See their "Frame Mounts + Fast-Release Dropouts" option.

looking out for the bricks 🧱

I've been riding the Triban RC520 since last summer and love it. My first road bike, use it with Zwift and outdoors and runs like a champ. Already had an accident, and was easily able to replace the rear derailleur hangar and re-index the gears myself. I've now just upgraded to 32mm Continental Sport iii tires and TPU inner tubes, and it's extremely comfortable. I had it fitted at Bicycle in Richmond and they were pretty shocked seeing Shimano 105 on a 850GBP bike.

Congrats on the trip. Nice video and your choices well explained..

go any where with Ben. He is amazing I would like to see more of him on your channel.

I'm really enjoying my Triban RC520. All around bike. Thanks for the very good content!

Excellent. This is you and your channel at its best. Thanks.

I find it amazing that you do all this content on entry level bikes! The market is far too skewed on top end which most can't afford.

Thanks Francis. Really found the info on the brakes interesting. Clearly a great option for home mechanics who don't want the issue of full hydraulic, or already have a set of full mechanical shifters.

Loved watching the journey!

I own the GRVL 520 with 105 and two chainrings at front. It's just a great bike: reliable and tough. I traveled the entire lenght of Portugal and i crossed the pyrinees from Hendaye to Cap Creus on it. My latest "upgrade" was a 11-36 cassete in order to have a easier gear when loaded or in offroad . Decathlon makes great bikes in every price tag they are in, they just lack the "premium" sticker at the front. i'm fine with that as I prefer a nice build bike with nice equipment to ride than a posh name on the frame and pay more for a lesser bike

Decathlon have made great bikes for years. I remember my friend having a mountain bike a good 18 years ago and we were all very jealous of how good it was.

Great video on simple things that work well for a good touring ride

This is a good price point for a bike. It’s something most people can relate to, or envisage buying for daily driving duty. Thank you for keeping it real.

Good review! I'm looking forward to Tailfin releasing that longer TT bag!

It's good that you use and review stuff that people can actually afford! And in this case it has been intensively used, meaning this is actually a good product.

Thank you for visiting Malaysia! Admittedly it was the hottest time when you lot came for the bike packing trip.

About mounting a taifin directly to the frame. The bosses on some frames like these can only take a very limited amount of weight, over time the bosses will fatigue and possibly fail due to high amount of stress from especially when carrying excessive weight over a long period of time. This was what happened to my bike frame which had a braze on mudguard boss, which I mounted my tailfin to. The universal thru axle is possibly the best solution to mounting a tailfin rack since it's a replaceable piece of equipment, doing no damage to the bike frame if or when it fails

The Malaysia trip looked epic. Great videos. I’m biased but I highly recommend coming here to Norway for a trip. So many road and/or gravel routes!

I found the OEM seat on the 520 to be fine. Just swapped it out after 3 years because the rails got bent

The Triban looks good but you should look at Dolan. For £1500 the RDX comes with fully hydraulic 105 and you can decide your crank length, stem length and bar width.

My wife has the 520 GRVL with the 105 groupset in XS size... The original 42mm handlebars were too wide for her, changed to 38mm, the casette was a cheap and strange ratio 11-30 microshift one. changed that to 105 11-32. So far running the original 36mm Hutchinson's set up tubeless. She is loving it. Great value and performance for a weekend rider. 100% recommendation from us. (bought exactly 1 year ago, barely used 2nd hand for almost half the price, with papers and warranty).

I use these panaracers for the last two months. They are a nightmare. Great to see you and the boys back on bike packing trips

The Panaracer Gravel Kings are amazing tyres, however, you had the lightest version with no puncture protection. I had these and shredded them in 3 months (4000 km) on UK roads (tubeless set up). Changed to the + version, they are a little heavier but far superior on puncture protection. Enjoying the videos, keep 'em coming.

Have this bike since 2021 with shimano 105, best purchase I made. So many great memories created on bike trips I rode.

Boardman ADV 8.9 at £100-200 more, full hydraulic, GRX groupset, thru axles, full carbon fork. It’s a winner in my book.

I love my RC520. 5 years old and it does everything. From road racer, to gravel grinder to daily commuter - only with a swap of tires. If only they used a common headset standard so I could upgrade to a Chris King or Cane Creek!

I'm riding a btwin forme 1 I bought in 2009. Most parts got upgraded over time but it still is a solid bike and still enjoy riding it. As a 7x it is a great commuter and winter bike

Malaysia was a fun series, really enjoyed that one, and the videos from your companions and MELVIN the legend of KL. I think you should try riding in Georgia, as it is a country that still seems to have some character of it's own and it is spectacular. Not the best grub there so that might not suit you, but you could learn to cook a sheep or soemthing, idk. Mexico has great food and some fantastic places, and you can chain together a south american series from Baja to Patagonia. That should keep you busy for a while!

Good honest review .

Great video, but I especially (and unironically) love the big ad banner in the beginning. Very transparent, setting a good example!

I have my own little trick for powerful mechanical disc brakes. On my road/gravel levers, I still use calipers with the MTB cable pull ratio. This means they have to be set up just right to not rub and also not have a lot of lever throw, but I found out that Avid BB7's are perfect for this. They're very easy to adjust exactly perfectly, and keep them perfect when the pads wear. And that's it! Super powerful, great modulation, still great feel with compressionless housing. Stoppies for days!

I’m an owner of an RC520…. Ridden hard in Thailand. For the price and spec…. I am VERY happy

I followed this trip like my life depnded on it! LOL. Great visuals and great entertainment. Next trip.... Maybe visit Nick's homeland and ride from Cape Town to Knysna around 550km along the East Coast? Thanks for the videos.

I totally agree on the brakes, I upgraded my mechanical disc brake calipers to the Hy/Rd and the braking is so much better! If you can't afford to upgrade to full hydraulics, this is a good upgrade for a reasonable price, it's not cheap (for me), but it's not a wallet breaker either.

Good bike for the money, I have a set of the TRP Hy-rd very happy with them.

Great summary video Francis 👏. It shows you dodon't nt need to spend a lot of money to get a good specced bike 👍. A summer tour of Scandinavia maybe? Or an early autumn north to south Portugal trip?

Decathlon really did a good job in putting together that bike, brand doesn't say much about quality, especially on entry-level bikes. I just got a Ridley gravelbike in a similar price range. OK, you get hydraulic GRX in all the range but if you don't opt for the better wheels the bike comes with (Shimano) rims that aren't tubeless ready - odd choice on a gravel bike. Plus mine had some quality issues from assembly: terribly noisy 12-speed (KMC?) chain that didn't want to work with the GRX cassette on largers cogs. After solving that, the bombproof Shimano BB had its drive-side bearing implode within the first 100 km riding the bike. I think it is heavier, too.... 12 kg in size S with pedals and mudguards.

I never clicked with such an engagement in order to watch a video.

thank you for a real video👍

I did always ride Decathlon Mountain bikes, in the last year i did go for a Triban 500 doing 36km per day for work. Last 2 weeks on my new "RACEFIETS NCR CF RIVAL AXS ETAP 12 S" and i had last week a very heavy week being truly exhausted, thinking to go sleep all friday. so exhausted. instead because of love.. decided to ride 71km to my bf in 2.51h which i am really proud. i would not have been able to do this if it was on my triban i think, but also made me love the bike so much more. ❤❤

Thanks for the review of this Francis as I was thinking of getting one of these . $1600 in Canada

I ride myself a cannondale Topstone 4 with the Microshift Advent X mechanical groupset and I gotta say that it’s all I would ever wish for. Had to upgrade the breaks to TRP Spyre and got lighter wheels and it rides absolutely perfect now. You don’t need those fancy 3000$ bikes that they advertise for. You can have so much fun on an entry level bike.

I really hope we will soon see more fully hydraulic disc brake setups. The upgrade to a new fully hydraulic 105 setup (brakes + sti + tubes...) is

I have the exact same bike with the original saddle and that one sucks as well (for me at least). I love the bike though, I've had it for almost a year and no regrets so far.

Really enjoyed your bike packing trip guys!! You need to do a bike packing trip in Scandinavia next 💛🚵🏻🚵🏻🚵🏻🇸🇪🇳🇴🇩🇰

Awesome series, and great insight. You, Laurence, Ben, and Shu (apologies, i don't know how to spell her name) are all LEGENDS!! :D If you managed to deal with that heat, why not try the Philippines? ^_^

Wow, this must have been a great adventure, and after this video series the cycling world will perhaps finally learn that there are more than 7 countries on the planet. :D (not only France, Netherlands, Belgium, Italy, Spain, Switzerland and UK)

The "Algarviana" route in the Algarve could be a possibility. Only 3 hours away, it's quick and cheap to get here. Great weather too. Could be a smaller adventure in between the big exotic ones.

Come to Brazil do the trip Rio - Florianópolis, it will take you a month probably but it's a great excuse to come see the Carnaval, the people and the nature! Its gonna be hot but not as hot as Malaysia (i guess)

i've had 0 issues on my gravelkings, love them!

I loved decathlon rc520 cause it suits to my cycling with extra baggage for gravel andd picnic ride

Next trip. Come to Tasmania, we’d love to see you here.

Where next? Denmark. Brilliant mix of fantastic coastal riding - dedicated bike infrastructure and OOOODLES of gravel. The West Coast of Jutland north of Esbjerg all the way to the tip of Denmark at Skagen would be a good start. But the riding in the islands too is also superb. Been on a few bikepacking trips round it drop me a message for routes and tips 🙂

Definitely Nova Scotia Cabot Trail , even my car struggled with the ups and downs on this trail . Some of the most spectacular views you will find to

Next trip, come to Western Australia and ride the Munda Biddi trail. 1100km of off-road trails through beautiful bush.

As a person with a RC500, I like this review, however being this is my first nice bike, at least it is for me, IE I only had cheep Raleigh's and Walmart bikes, I bought a small and I'm 5'6, I'm trying to figure out how I can ajust the reach on this bike but other than that I love my Triban, thanks for the review, love Cade media. Cheers.

You gents should take a trip to Canada. That would be an EPIC bikepacking trip if you could go from coast to coast. Certainly would take a lot longer than 2 weeks though.

Maui should be your next trip. Some classic rides and just amazing place all round.

Didn't realise you did it on a Triban, nice one and far more interesting than a superbike. Full mech brakes on my last bike are garbage, much prefer the base Shimano hydraulics on my present bike. A hyd caliper with cable is an excellent compromise.

If you are looking for left field options. Def try Buenos Aires to Santiago.

Come to Ciclovia Alpeadria guys! It's a stunning cycle route from Salzburg to the Adriatic Sea, 400 km of pure beauty

One suggestion: Get the Gravelking + series. They have way higher puncture resistance and weigh about 100 grams more per tire. I had two sets of SK tires and both had issues with punctures. Talked to the racer at the LBS where i bought my bike and he recommended heavier grade tires. I'm now on Maxxis Refuse 40mm tires fur gravel. They are file tread and ok for type 1 and 2 gravel. Forget type 3 and type 4 is "right out". As to size, unless you are carrying your own spares, stick to 700C.

Great video about the bike ... Where is the video about the trip ?

The decathlon bike does the job, nothing fancy needed, the brakes seem a decent upgrade for any disc-braked bike. Next trip: Japan with Ben & James as well as you & Loz.

Come to New Zealand. Next year to do the Sounds to Sounds ride. I am doing next year.

nice vid. by Georgetown you mean Penang. Gtown is flat as a roti ;) Penang however does have extremely steep hills. I used to live there and the daily ride around the island is lovely. The saddle... using a new saddle on a two week trip is a gamble as you know.

awesome decathlon

Great videos, I really enjoyed them. I notice you have a very long @TailfinCycling top tube bag. I can't find this on their website; is it a prototype they've given to you to try or can they be purchased elsewhere?

North Coast 500 Francis. But I think Lawrence has already done it, from memory.

Ben shaking holding 25kg is my absolute highlight from this video!!!

Goto Hawaii next. Amazing terrain & weather

do south to north Quebec, the scenery change is going to be incredible and its a good way add some exposure to inuit and first nations to your audience!

"The are the ones that come pre-punctured" - Yep, sums up my experience with GravelKings

Should come to the province of Quebec in Canada. Lots of choices in cycling. There's urban (Montreal?) or more scenic such as the Gaspésie peninsula or the rolling hills of the Eastern Townships. Friendly folks and good eating.

mate, that echo is something else.

The best saddle Fizik ever made in me and my brother's opinion is the Kurve. It is awesome! But, for some reason it never sold well and they stopped making it. I guess becuase it doesn't have a see through cutout. It has a cutout but it is covered.

Hey everyone. I think Canada could be a great place to do a tour. There are lots of great paths from Toronto to Niagara Falls. Mostly flat here but you could also go to British Columbia if you want the mountains

The only thing I would add to this bike is thru axles. The QR axles tend to make the disc rub the brake pad when you take the wheels off and on again.

@cade_media great video as always. What is the name of the white Tallfin top tube bag you have been using. I cannot find it on their website.

Hey Cade, I grew up in southeast Asia and I've come to understand that the reason bikes aren't as accepted indoors/as much in some specific scenarios is because they’re equated to motorbikes. I worked in a gym on the 4th floor of a building and security would follow me up if they saw me take my bicycle with me (shouldered) and harrass me until I took it out of the gym and got he motorbike parking

I was also excited about these TRP HY/RD at first, however, one of mine didn't last 2 years, i.e. about 4000 km. First it stopped performing in winter at -5, then after refilling the oil at a bike service and riding another 100 km it started to leak. Couldn't be repaired anymore (said the expert from Decathlon). Would rather ride with fully mechanical ones like Spyre C or similar.

That tailfin full length top tube bag is great. Is it prerelease? Cannot find it on their website.

5:00 My bike has full cable mechanical disc brakes and i can launch myself over the handlebars if i pull the levers too hard. Something just isn't right with his brakes, could be the cable housing is compressing too much soaking up most of the force you're putting into the brake lever, OR a long pull brake lever being paired with a short pull caliper, or maybe the braking pad material....

i started biking again in 2019 on an e-mtb and got an triban gravel 120 in mai 2021 vor 629€ wich is now 799 (what a price jump) its a 1x10 setup with a pretty decent spread and mechanical disc brakes. i like it pretty much because its pretty sturdy and it traveld 5.500km so far with no issues! ok, i got some different drop bar bikes very soon after so that explains the low mileage on the triban bike. i only swapped the brake pads once! the only thing i had to complain are the stupid mechanical brakes and adjusting the brake pads and the very high weight. i got an xl frame with a weight of approx 14kg. it came equipped with the hutchinson override tires which have run the mileage with nearly no sign of wear so far - wonder how the do it. but they are not worth to be taken out on a ride in the wet. on the other hand they perfom really well on an indoor home trainer *lol*. really love that triban bike a lot :)

Big fan of Panaracer tyres

Next big trip…a modified Eurovelo 3, Spain to Norway. Start in Madrid, skip Paris and ride through Luxembourg to Bonn, then the rest of the route. Fly home from Trondheim. 👍

Wondering if it was not annoying to have to take off the full back including the rack, as you had the Aeropack. Wouldn't the rack plus separate back have been the better option? Also doing bike packing trips with hotels/Airbnb...and wondering what option I should get....as I want to upgrade from my seat bag...

this tailfin top tube bag - cant find it anywhere. top tube bags in their offer is dark color and much smaller - yours is more like frame bag size.

User tip: this derailleur with long cage can take 11-46 cassette easily. Then its a very different story with 40t chain ring.

Love the channel. Can I have your thoughts on triban rc520 (non gravel) vs Domane frame - AL2 or 4. Which would you buy? Also, I’m also considering rim Emonda ALR 5 (105). Do you know max max tire clearance? Can it fit 32c Looking to buy second hand vs new triban rc520. Appreciate your insight!