The new BMC URS is one of the most innovative and progressive gravel bikes on the market. All three are made of carbon fiber,. Filter bikes by year, weight, components, price, and performance. Viathon G.1 GRX 600 gravel bike review: Carbon at alloy pricing Hardtail race XC bikes seem to be going away in favor of short-travel, full-suspension options. Viathon says it wants to bridge Walmart's current low-price offerings to the bike-enthusiast business. Walmart.com brings on bike brand called Viathon that is - Reddit Viathon's goals seem to be crystal clear with the R.1: Build a race-ready road bike for a high-end audience without the high-end price tag. The M1 carbon hardtail, with a SRAM GX Ealge driveterain comes in at a bargain price of $2,200, with the top-level SRAM AXS electronic drivetrain equipped model hitting $6,500. Equally, I found the Selle Italia Novus Boost saddle and unpadded Fizik bar tape odd choices. As it happens, I prefer this kind of steering, which youll commonly find on aero bikes and endurance bikes with longer trail figures. Walmart Slashes Prices on Viathon Bikes for Pre-Black Friday Sale And while low, Viathon pricing was at parity with any number of other name-brand carbon models, including Trek, Specialized, Cannondale and Canyon. "We're trying to build a culture, building an education," Jordan said at the introduction. Get access to more than 30 brands, premium video, exclusive content, events, mapping, and more. Viathon G1 Bike: Checkpoint - Riding Gravel | But that lack of local shop support is a risk of buying a bike through direct channels. Viathon's brand manager is Zach Spinhirne-Martin out of San Bruno, California. The frames are engineered and designed in partnership with Kevin Quan, a longtime designer whos responsible for well-known bikes from well-known brands like Cervelo, Parlee, and Pivot. Terms of Use The quick and dirty synopsis? Good question, Dan, and one we'll come back to in just a minute. The history of the bicycle business is, in one sense, a history of powerful outsiders coming in to teach us dumb yokels how things are done in the Big Leagues. And I suspect Viathon isnt relying on a deep tech story to market its bikes for a simple reason: the frames dont seem to offer clear innovation in design or materials. Viathon builds a quality bicycle at a competitive price. Such a purchase sight-unseen typically favours the experienced; those who know their preferred setup on a bike and understand why 10 millimetres here or there is a big deal. The Viathon G.1? And if you did want a different saddle or bartape, then they could probably arrange that, too (at a cost). The R.1 feels like a high-end bike, except for one minor nitpick: While most high-end race bikes have taken great efforts to hide all cables, the R.1 has all four cables exposed around the cockpit. Why Ultralight People Need to Chill Already, Kershaw Iridium Review: A Great Flipping Knife Under $100. The head tube feels firmly connected to the bottom bracket, and that to the rear axle. The bike reviewed here, the new G.1 GRX 600, provides a perfect example of those economies of scale. For now, no. However, there were a few things that stood out to me while cruising through a pretty punchy section of Sun Valley singletrack. In that sense, Viathon hit the nail on the head.. Aint nothing wrong with that! Viathon M.1 GX Eagle Mountain Bike Review - YouTube Best Bike Trails | A Viathon representative told me that Walmart simply wanted the story to be more about the bikes than the company behind them. Thanks to its featherlight framea mere 2.2 poundsthe Viathon was a dream to pedal. Its a company that gains a pricing advantage through Walmarts huge buying power, and leverages an existing online sales channel to get the bikes to customers while they wait at home. I set up the G1 with a quick home fit, and away I went. ''', And indeed they were. Viathon G.1 GRX 800 review Call it a 'Walmart' bike if you must. Slowtwitch approved IT Band rehab? From SRAM drivetrains to Stans wheels, it has the look of a proper bike. Support us! "The negativity starts in-store with reports of forks installed backward. Heading out the door? The brand is starting with three. Spinhirne-Martin says yes, and reiterated that he wants to grow the bike industry, not put other brands or bike shops out of business. Personally, given the sporty nature of this ride, Id have preferred to see the larger 48-31T chainring combo used. Andy reports that the bike has razor sharp handling and when one puts the pressure on the . Basically, just a gravel bike. Is Viathon's new mountain bike the real deal? Because all XC bikes are light compared to enduro. Viathon's G.1 carbon gravel bike is Walmart's attempt to capture some of the high-end, direct-to-consumer bicycle market. Get This Deal. Like books, we cannot judge a bicycle solely on its coverin this case the graphics and business connection. At this writing, the various models are listed at "Summer Sale" prices on the Viathon website. Complete builds start at $2,300, and top out at $3,500 for the gravel models and around $6,000 for the road and mountain bikes. Members get 15+ publications right in your pocket. I pitched the idea to my management as a way to more quickly enter the market and change our perception, he said. Whats it like to be an American cyclist living in France? It turns out that Walmart bike buyers, as much as theyre dismissed or even ridiculed, include some passionate fans. Need a Doctor in the LA/SD area who specializes in Endurance Athletes Platelet-Rich Plasma injections (PRP Injections), High Hamstring Tendinopathy Rehab Protocol. [, Re: Did Wal Mart pull the plug on Viathon? Some of the editors at GearJunkie wondered why Viathon launched with a 29er hardtail as its flagship mountain bike. For Spinhirne-Martin, creating the brandwas about making high-end bikes more accessible to the general public, and Viathon hopes to do that through their price point. transition-DOT-area-AT-slowtwitch-DOT-com. Viathon states that a 54 cm painted frame tips the scales at 1 kg, with the matching fork an equally respectable 380 g. The result is an 8.9 kg complete bike that simply needs some pedals before its ready to have a race number attached. The R.1 does feel responsive and supportive when you stand up to sprint. Battle of the frames: Felt IA 10 vs IA 1? Brand manager Spinhirne-Martin said a search of similar Trek, Specialized, or Canyon bikes will net a conclusion that they are all significantly more expensive for a similarly specced product., Spinhirne-Martin came to Walmart after 10 years working in the industry at Competitive Cyclist. Viathon seems to have taken a conservative aesthetic approach on all of their bikes, including the G1. & Walmart Black Friday Deals 2019 | Deals for Cyclists - Bicycling Theres a low 69mm of bottom bracket drop, making for increased stability and cornering, and a 74 seat tube angle and a 71.5 head tube angle. I just got a G1 1x Rival a few weeks ago, and really enjoyed on the the two rides I got in before the 12+ inches of snow last night and today. Over the past several years, Canyon Bikes has gotten attention for its direct-to-consumer model that allows it to sell high-end bikes at competitive price points. My first takeaway on the G1 was how light and stiff the frame is. The company cited industry data. The new brand is launching with carbon road, mountain and gravel bikes. In so many ways, the Viathon is like the middle manager whos tried to mimic their boss style on a tight budget. Viathon made the G1 with certain features in mind: Thru-axles, flat mount disc brakes, and dropped seat stays for compliance. Viathon G.1 105 Highlights. And when you have fun, you ride more." Everyone knows that Black Friday is this week, but Walmart and Viathon can't wait until then to. Thus, I gave the Viathon a more thorough riding test. And they certainly didnt skimp out on components. Company Lets be honest. Crickets. One, the fact the writer states that his review is skewed because he is an enduro rider. 1 - Walmart didn't buy Viathon. Are modern bicycles the end of DIY maintenance. The spec matters a whole lot on a bike like this, and really, its a significant part of Viathons value proposition. Geometry on the G1, like the M1, is fairly conservative. Per my more enduro-focused background, Id also opt for a shorter stem. Viathon-via-FB wrote: Hello, we are not out of business, our website is down due to some technical issues and while it is down we are taking the opportunity to make some changes. Did Viathon offer some bold new technology,jaw-dropping value, or an irresistible brand story? With a network of green-rated trails down the street from my house, the G1 came into my hands at the right time. Walmart didnt opt to adopt more modern geometry, possibly because its current customer base will have to take a few steps to catch up to the rest of the bike market. It's October - go swim (monthly fish thread), For the Fish: Ankle Flexibility and Kick Free vs Back. America's low price leader served up a single no-name (and possibly open-mold) model with full mechanical Ultegra group, complete with wheelset, at a very low price point. The question is, what sets it apart from other high-end bikes at this pricepoint or higher, if anything? Performance, comfort, speed, agility, and other characteristics require in-person evaluation, which is tough to prove for a brand like Viathon, which is available only online. Privacy Policy That's a fine goal, but let's not kid ourselves: $2,300 is both a lot of money and also. Buy Viathon G1, Rival, 56cm, Disc, 700C, Matte Black/Silver at Walmart.com . Viathon Bikes - Browse Models & View Specs So the supplied contact points of the bike werent a good fit for us, but paying customers will at least be given the option to fix this. If you think the pricing for the big mainstream brands is out of control, you'll be happy to hear that the Viathon's direct-to-consumer business model means an R.1 with all the fixings. Amazon Pick. Viathon Bicycles made waves at its launch earlier this year as a premium bike brand incubated under an unlikely source. Viathon G1 Bike: Getting Rolling - Riding Gravel As technical editor Dan Cavallari pointed out in our sister publication VeloNews, "Viathon ticks almost all the high-end boxes for a bike with a lower pricepoint. After every order is placed, a customer service agent calls the customer to confirm the order and determine the stem and crank length, handlebar width, and seatpost offset to ensure the customer gets the best fit possible, said Zach Spinhirne-Martin. Theyve taken notes about the shoes, style of jeans, shirt design, right down to the style of watch. Bike shops could benefit from more riders on more bikes. I have a few issue with this review. The Viathon G1 is a bike that is a high performance machine with a good set of components out of the box. But given youd be in person with the bike store, theyd most likely have a better chance in getting the specifics absolutely dialled. Hip Labrum Repair - How long did yours last? A handlebar with any degree of flare through the drops would be nice as well to widen the riders stance going downhill. Any Canadians with/had a hip labral tear here? Additionally, two of Walmarts heirs, Tom and Steuart Walton, are cycling fanatics. That also translates to some good pep when youre climbing out of the saddle. Competitor Discount Codes: Get Up To $200 Off With These Viathon Bicycles Competitor Coupons for Bicycle Components (March 2023) See Competitor Codes. Its certainly no Huffy, but heres what stood out to me: Light as a feather:This thing is nimble. Releasing some fluid from the system remedied this, but we can only hope production bikes dont need the same treatment. Members get 15+ publications right in your pocket. Its noon on Michigans Upper Peninsula, where I came to ride Copper Harbor and the IMBA-ordained network in and near Marquette. At the end of the day, we bike people live and work in a quirky, parochial and, more than occasionally, incestuous little industry, one with its own set of business realities. For the M.1 XX1 Eagle, Viathon dropped its original $6,000 price recently to $4,998. Viathon Photo. Although from a bike industry perspective, the geometry is a few years outdated even for a hardtail. Viathon expects stock on these bikes sometime this Fall. 1600 Pearl St., Ste 300Boulder, CO 80302This website copyright 2023. Viathon G.1 GRX 800 review - VeloNews.com Companies like Raleigh and DiamondBack have also embraced the model. Our sample had no foam liner to silence it, but again, Viathon assured us production bikes do. Nov 01, 2020 There is no denying that gravel bikes have taken the cycling world by . Wealthy enthusiasts? So, what does Viathon say that the G1 is? I lifted the bike from its box, the staff leaning in for a first look. Walmarts immense buying power and pre-existing online sales channel means that for just US$2,298 (shipped, within the United States), this new brand can offer a full-carbon gravel bike equipped with quality components, including a Shimano GRX 600 groupset, Mercury G3C tubeless wheels, and Zipp Service Course cockpit components. They enter the frame at the downtube, so this is an internally routed frame, but the handlebar and stem are fairly traditional in the sense that theres no internal routing to get rid of those round tube shapes at the front of the bike. Did Wal Mart pull the plug on Viathon?: Triathlon Forum: Slowtwitch Forums Either way, its there as an intended feature. The mastermind behind the frame designer is Kevin Quan who drew from his previous experience with Diamondback, Cervelo, and Parlee bikes. $6,000 Walmart Bike: Box Store Launches Premium 'Viathon' Cycles Is swimming safe? For a new, and relatively small brand, Viathon stirred the pot with their debut. It will be back soon. To find out, I snagged a Viathon M.1 | XO1 for a ride while out at Sun Valley. Nowadays, a search for Viathon bikes on the Walmart website (see here, here and here) returns a notice that the item is no longer available; the image from the final link (also shown above) displays another brand and model entirely. Further build quality issues included the GRX brakes being over-filled with fluid, something that resulted in an uncomfortably short lever throw. In Marquette, a trail network overlays the infrastructure of a mining town, with outsize pipes and brick walls crumbling in the trees. I also wanted all of my bikes to perform when pushed hard, said Spinhirne-Martin of the frames stiffness. The Viathon fulfillment center is in Carlsbad, California. Walmart Says Its High-End Viathon Bikes Will Grow Cycling Right now, Viathon sits on the value end of the spectrum, alongside other house brands like Scattante or the now-closed Foundry: perfectly fine, but not particularly compelling. While thats a noble notion, is the Viathon bike really that groundbreaking? A. Its also worth noting that Viathon designs their own frames, as opposed to using open molds. Kev has 43,000 subscribers. Walmart isnt a brand most turn to for upgrading their bike, but Viathon could change that perception. Its also important to note whats not in the current lineup: womens bikes, utility bikes, and e-bikes. Re: Did Wal Mart pull the plug on Viathon? The dropper post was pretty finicky as well. With that in mind, it seems appropriate that Walmart is finally sinking its teeth into producing a line of proper bikes. All this went down in April and May of this year. And while its far from a silky-smooth ride (Ill come back to this), frame compliance was a design factor. Viathon was created to shift consumers thinking. $200 Off. Thats exactly what we sought to answer with the high-value Viathon G.1, a carbon gravel bike thats backed by the biggest of big retailers Walmart. CyclingTips global tech editor James Huang and I ended up testing, and enjoying, the bike with a 90 mm stem fitted, and would have preferred a straight seatpost, too. While everyone seems to be hung up about the Walmart partnership, its a bit of a superficial distraction to the companys larger goal. And just like any other reality, outsiders ignore ours at their peril. Walmart are best known for their $300-$500 bikes that. This latter element is certainly somewhat surprising when you consider Viathon R.1 road frame uses a PF30 shell, and that the use of a threaded shell arguably inhibits the available width for tyre clearance. For the M.1, its the generalist MTB enthusiast, Spinhirne-Martin said. I have been swapping parts around and will finally get to ride it today. In reality, thats probably enough to realise any manufacturer defects, and Viathon does also offer a crash replacement policy, but its something to consider nonetheless. Managing editor Dean Yobbi told the story in BRAIN's May dead-trees issue and online as well. Read more. Vosper: House of carbon cards, chapter two: Viathon revisited 1X drivetrains feel great, if youre riding your gravel bike exclusively on the trails. I asked about the response to the brand launch from customers and the bike industry. . At its inception, Kevin Quan Studios assisted in designing frames. YT Szepter first-ride review: a gravity MTB brand goes gravel, Ridley Grifn first ride review: Blurred lines. I also grabbed a G1. Ten minutes of testing was enough for me to spin around and swap in my preferred Specialized Phenom. The Viathon G1 Gravel Bike: Fast and Affordable, with a Little Room for And while Walmarts involvement with the cycling world has traditionally been one of mass-market and low-cost bikes bought in-store, Viathons entry signals a new age. shaping their hometown of Bentonville, Arkansas into a mountain biking haven. Viathon G.1 105 First Ride Review | Road Bike, Cycling Forums Viathon builds a quality bicycle at a competitive price. The history of the bicycle business is, in one sense, a history of powerful outsiders coming in to teach us dumb yokels how things are done in the Big Leagues.