(The info might be in a previous post but doing a search for De Ver is not very fruitful - you get any little word with d-e and v-e-r in it, eg. over or develop).
Does anyone have any knowledge about the De Ver track bike? Is it a real alternative to the Hillbrick bike, and a couple of hundred dollars cheaper (on special)? It comes with a carbon fork and is apparently lighter off the peg than the Hillbrick. The weight apparently is in the wheels.
I guess my real question is - is the oversized Al frame worth adding better parts (wheels) to later? Or is it a fat floppy noodle?
From what i have heard the De Ver are not very good bikes. I to just bought myself a new bike and i went with the hillbrick. Depending on what size you are there are a few going on ebay for cheaper than i got mine.
I spoke to a fair few people and almost everyone said that the Der Ver were not the best buy. Apart from not looking good they are meant to have a lot of trouble with the frame cracking etc, and the wheels.
The De Ver track bikes with all due respect, are awful.
Don’t let the carbon fork and deep V rims fool you- look at the details and you’ll notice the messy welds, cheap seatpost, cheap cranks and apparently, rims that aren’t exactly true.
And the colour scheme… oh the horror! Frogger anyone?
The Hillbrick is a much better bike- I’ve been riding one down at DISC for a while and they’re suprisingly good. Just get some better wheels!
I thought it might be too good to be true. The bike’s quality in terms of welding etc did look dodgy, but for someone looking at getting into track on a shoestring the price tag was tempting. But having said that I could see me wanting to get better wheels and a tighter fork pretty quickly which would soon put it over the cost of the hillbrick + better fork.
Can’t say the green impressed me - but I wasn’t on the floor writhing and convulsing in sheer disgust either. Mortgaged beggars can’t be too choosy.
Hey Mason, did you go the cro-mo standard or optional carbon fork?
HJB1000: When you say better track wheels, do you mean like Velocity track wheels or something more high end?
Can anyone suggest a shop that’s thorough enough with sizing a Hillbrick - I ride a 56 square road bike (I feel 55.5 top tube would be an ideal road size for me), but I’m told to go a size smaller for the track bike (usually Avanti dealers). Not sure who to believe.
You could get yourself a nice tubular wheelset, or a cheaper option is to use the stock Hillbrick wheels but replace the tyres with something like Vittoria Ultraspeed’s. The main problem with the stock wheelset is the crappy quality tyres they give you.
I only got the cromo option with the fork. I only got it last night so havent ridden it yet. It seems good the only things that need changing are the tyres so im told, but im going to use them to start with.
there are a few things i would upgrade on it like the bars and the wheels.
but hillbrick is making them as we speak and its like another 2 week wait, they told me late march hopefully they will have them ready
I actually bought mine of the inernet cause i did not want to wait the 4 weeks. if you know what size your after thats a good way to do it, cause they are generally a little cheaper.
as for price the best place i found was bikepro in balwyn, $850 for it. Most other places are generally $900-$950. Der Ver sells them too!
I ride a 56cm road bike too and thats what i bought for the track. There are actually a few cheap ones that look alright on ebay at the moment. you should have a quick look there. might get one even cheaper
Yes it is no patch on this sort of thing bellow is it?
A hill brick it must be - unless I find a bargin on ebay. (The Duratec that was up last night got snapped up in front of my eyes this morning as I was um-ing and ah-ing over the size description and the claim that it came with carbon omega campy rims - not sure they ever existed).
The shop i work in we had them at $799 at one stage just to help the guys up at Hillbrick to get them going. The new version of the bike will set you back around $999 but that’s only a guess at the moment. Paul Hillbrick has made a few changes with the bike and it now comes Carbon fork and Ally frame, no more Cro Mo fork. He might have even changerd the tyres, but i wont be sure until new stock arrives in Australia and that’s not due to happen until 25th March at the earliest. I can even start a rumour that there might even be a Full Carbon one landing at the same time.
Anyway, if you go Hillbrick or Allegro get better tyres and laugh your way to a better bike the Bile Green Grunge that is the De Ver.
I spoke to someone at Hillbrick today (not Paul - he’s in Taiwan). Apparently the new bike uses the carbon fork and a different headset. Asking price will be about $1,150. There will also be a new Al frame only in 7000 series instead of 6000. Didn’t ask about the carbon - won’t be in my price range.
