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BUYER'S GUIDE

GO Outdoors road bikes – get to know the value-for-money Calibre range

Get the lowdown on GO Outdoors’ Calibre road bike range

Outdoor sports retailer GO Outdoors first started producing road bikes under the Calibre brand name in 2014. Starting out with three aluminium bikes, the range has since expanded to include endurance-orientated and carbon-fibre-framed bikes as well.

Prices range from £349 for the Calibre Rivelin and Loxley up to £899 for the Calibre Nibiru 2.0. Prices are higher if you don’t have a GO Outdoors discount card, but being as it only costs a fiver, we’re assuming that you’d make the investment.

GO Outdoors also sells bikes by other manufacturers, including Raleigh, Viking and Orbea, but for the purposes of this guide we’re just going to look at its own Calibre offering.

Calibre Rivelin — £299

Calibre Rivelin.jpg

GO Outdoors initially dabbled in sub-£300 road bikes, but the entry-level bike is now this very well-specced sportive bike. The hydroformed aluminium frame is hung with Shimano's eight-speed Claris groupset, which is decent entry-level stuff. The fork has carbon fibre blades, the Schwalbe Lugano tyres are a sensible 25mm width and there's a decent gear range from the 50/34 FSA chainset.

Calibre Loxley — £299

Calibre Loxley

The women's version of the Rivelin actually has a frame with women-specific geometry that's different from the men's bike, which is almost unheard-of at this price. The stem is also shorter for a given bike size, catering to women's general preference for a more upright position.

Calibre Lost Lad — £299.50

Calibre Lost Lad.jpg

The Lost Lad is a new endurance model with disc brakes, and Shimano's Claris components. As well as the different brakes, there's a bit more room in the frame than the Rivelin, so you could fit fatter tyres than the stock 25mm Schwalbe Luganos to improve comfort and roadholding. There's room for mudguards too, so as well as its main billing as a countryside explorer, the Lost Lad would make a good fast commuter.

Calibre Lost Lass — £299

Calibre Lost Lass.jpg

The women's version of the Lost Lad, the Lost Lass has the same spec, but with a female-specific geometry.

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John has been writing about bikes and cycling for over 30 years since discovering that people were mug enough to pay him for it rather than expecting him to do an honest day's work.

He was heavily involved in the mountain bike boom of the late 1980s as a racer, team manager and race promoter, and that led to writing for Mountain Biking UK magazine shortly after its inception. He got the gig by phoning up the editor and telling him the magazine was rubbish and he could do better. Rather than telling him to get lost, MBUK editor Tym Manley called John’s bluff and the rest is history.

Since then he has worked on MTB Pro magazine and was editor of Maximum Mountain Bike and Australian Mountain Bike magazines, before switching to the web in 2000 to work for CyclingNews.com. Along with road.cc founder Tony Farrelly, John was on the launch team for BikeRadar.com and subsequently became editor in chief of Future Publishing’s group of cycling magazines and websites, including Cycling Plus, MBUK, What Mountain Bike and Procycling.

John has also written for Cyclist magazine, edited the BikeMagic website and was founding editor of TotalWomensCycling.com before handing over to someone far more representative of the site's main audience.

He joined road.cc in 2013. He lives in Cambridge where the lack of hills is more than made up for by the headwinds.

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6 comments

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ktache | 4 years ago
0 likes

Yours for £412-

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kevvjj | 4 years ago
0 likes

Ordered a Calibre Bossnut online. Paid for it. They cancelled the order - no contact, no explanation. Called them, emailed them multiple times. EVERY time I phoned they said "we'll call you back". NOT ONCE did they return a call. Great value bikes, SHITE shop. Sad. Spent my £1000 at another shop that had some idea about customer service.

Avatar
abedfo | 5 years ago
0 likes

Bargains all around, probably get the Nibiru 1.0  and upgrade some stuff over a year or two.

Avatar
ChrisB200SX | 5 years ago
1 like

The new Reading shop has sent me a 15% discount voucher and says purchasing the Go Outdoors card will be free, not sure if they've sent that voucher/leaflet thing to all locals or whatever?
The Nibiru frame is actually the old MEKK Poggio 1.6 (2014? which I've got), so lookup those reviews if you're looking. Better finishing kit though IMHO.

Avatar
SilverBugle | 5 years ago
2 likes

Agreed, but with the exception of the Lost Lass I am not convinced about the paint jobs.  They are bit like the Voodoo range at Halfords, also great value but a lot them look radioactive.

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ianguignet | 5 years ago
0 likes

all of them look amazing value

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