Carrera Kraken Review

I went to Halfords because my GT Agressor I bought four years ago has finally died on me. Spoke to a guy there who was an ex BMX Pro and clearly knew his stuff. We talked about what I needed and what I was happy to spend and I wanted to go for the GT Agressor X2 for GBP 499. He convinced me that the Carrera Kraken suited my predominantly stree-orientated riding better and that for 429 I would have the same quality spec as on the 499 GT but with a slightly stiffer tail in the frame which would mean that I would lose less energy when pumping hard on the road. Sounded like it made sense.



When I picked the bike up nothing felt right. The handle bar was not aligned and despite trying 3 times to get it straight, it always ended up pointing one way or the other. The front gear changing arm constanty over-threw and made the chain fall off when I changed onto the biggest gear. The front disk break was dragging big style. The rear gears did not connect well, when I clicked one up, the arm in the back would go two up and then one down. Hardly the 'clicky' SRAM he sold me..



Long story short, I took the bike back and told him I wanted to return it. The guy was really annoyed with me but swapped it for the GT and all was good. Love my new bike, worth every penny of the extra 70 quid. It could be a bit lighter but that would have cost another 500 pounds for the top of the range one.



Good points were a springy fork and an overall pretty light-weight set-up. I also thought the handle was too wide - no good for city riding where you wiggle between cars a lot! Hope this helps!