I recently bought my first "newer" bike – I've always had single speeds or vintage bikes I pieced together until now.
I bought a used ~2021 Breezer Radar Expert, I got my fit dialed in pretty well and added a dropper post just to feel a little more confident going downhill. I just climbed 2100ft over 16 miles of mixed road, gravel, and singletrack. I've got many longer rides to come. 🙂
For a mini-review since I didn't find a ton before buying this bike:
So far I've felt like the spec is really clever – using Sora levers with a deore 9 speed derailleur put this bike in a really reasonable price range ($500 lightly used, new they're about $1k) and gets you a 30/36 low gear and 46/11 high gear, which is pretty great as far as I've seen. The newer bikes have switched to Microshift but still the same gearing.
The mechanical disk brakes are miles better than the rim brake mountain bikes I've ridden for years, and are powerful enough. At the end of the season I'll probably find better cables and housing, but they're fine as is once you get the adjustments right.
I'd describe the bike as "predictable" on trails – you're not going to win any downhill speed records, but you'll be reasonably comfortable, and the geometry is stable/relaxed, at least more than my vintage rockhopper.
This isn't a light bike at about 30lb, but I found myself passing a lot of mountain bikers going uphill (only to be passed when going downhill, but oh well). I weigh 220lb, so the bike isn't a huge percentage of the total weight I'm lugging uphill.
Overall – I'm very happy. I have the privilege of being able to ride a few miles of roads to get to a significant network of trails and park roads, and this is a great bike for that type of mixed riding, as long as you aren't trying to break any records.
by BeastmasterDar