Helping a friend choose her first bike and it’s down to these two mentioned above, end goal is to do a round island trip (just under 1000km) at relaxed pace
Main differences:
Langma has a more aggressive seating position, Avail has a more relaxed geometry
Brakes: Langma rim, Avail mechanical disc
Avail costs 2000ntd more (~60usd)
Material: Langma ALUXX-SL, Avail ALUXX
Tyres: Langma 25c, Avail 32c
Seat post: Langma Variant, Avail D-fuse
Similarities:
Both brand new from same shop
Both use tiagra groupset
Both under 1k usd
https://www.liv-cycling.com/tw/langma-sl-2-2021
https://www.liv-cycling.com/tw/avail-ar-2-2024
My instinct is to get the 3 year newer model with the disc brakes but the shop mechanic strongly suggests Langma for the following reasons:
– Langma is more popular, better resale value
– Rim brakes are easier to maintain
– Mechanical discs do not “feel good”, upgrading to hydraulic will be costly
– Easier to fix lopsided rim brakes than bent rotors
– Any bike can be configured to have relaxed geometry by adjusting
What do you think?
by burntspaghet