It’s fair to say that many of us in the U.S. have not heard of the Decathlon brand. When I booked a meeting with their marketing team at Sea Otter, I hadn’t either. Glancing at their website reminded me of REI, or any other sizable sports retailer, with images of tents and columns for everything from skates to bikes to pickleball.
Fortunately, the folks at Decathlon — a brand that’s based in northern France — had a lot up their sleeves at their booth, including some good looking gravel and mountain bikes, aggressively priced and launching soon in the States.
Mountain bikers and off-road riders should be aware of two brands: Rockrider, Decathlon’s in-house mountain bike brand and Riverside, their gravel bike brand.
Because of Decathlon’s vertically-integrated business model—the brand makes its own product and sells it through its own website—they’re able to keep prices quite low and the bikes are specced as nicely as most any other manufacturer. In addition to selling through their own website, Decathlon will sell their bikes through additional online retailers and they were actively seeking independent bike dealers for an omni-channel approach at the show.
We scanned a few of their bikes at the show; a 120/120mm carbon cross-country trail bike, which was raced in the World Cup by the Rockrider Racing Team during the 2022 World Cup XCO season.
Though it’s currently sold out, the Rockrider RACE 900S retails for $3,999 on the Decathlon website. The build has a carbon seatpost, a SRAM GX AXS drivetrain, Reynolds carbon wheels and RockShox suspension. The all-around FEEL trail bike we looked at also starts at $3,999 and has a SRAM NX Eagle groupset, a RockShox Pike, a dropper post and a full carbon frame for $3,999. The RACE 900 hardtail below has integrated top tube protection in one section, a carbon frame, SRAM GX AXS drvietrain, and a RockShox Reba for $4,700. They are priced nicely, comparable to some other direct-to-consumer bike brands on the market.
Maybe the most interesting piece we saw though was the titanium GRVL 900 Ti, a complete gravel bike with Shimano GRX and a titanium frame for $3,999. It’s common to see titanium bike frames selling for that price alone, so to see a complete bike with a Shimano GRX groupset and a solid tire and wheel spec for that price was impressive.
Decathlon plan to launch the Race 900 hardtail and Feel 900 S in the U.S. in 2024.
Wait, we’re calling a $4700 hardtail with a Reba a good deal? When it costs $700 more than the equivalent XC full suspension that’s kitted out pretty well?
I agree, the Reba is an odd spec along with the AXS kit.
4k and NX drivetrain? 💀