The Moose
Decathlon’s Riverside Touring 520 is the mysterious entry level option to their latest and growing innovative bike touring range. It offers so much at an extremely competitive price. We will be putting it through its paces, testing its limits and exploring the RT520’s capabilities.
Decathlon’s Riverside Touring 520 (RT520)
After much Facebook Marketplace trawling, Gumtree vine swinging, and custom titanium build ogling, we landed on an unexpected discovery at our local Decathlon store! The Riverside Touring 520 pretty much met all our requirements for a dogpacking bike and even excelled in some points.
Our main goal was to have the following features for a multi-day bikepacking/bike touring setup:
- A bike with a high rear rack weight limit for safely carrying Chino and supplies
- Ability to fit 29″ tyres around the 2.30″ width range
- Flat handlebar geometry for improved singletrack handling and stability for an overzealous shotgun passenger
- Hydraulic disk brakes
- Lots of mounting options
- Nothing longer than a mid-tail cargo bike since we pack our bikes into our Rav4 when driving to trail start points.
The other options considered were:
- Yuba Boda Boda All Terrain (discontinued)
- Salsa Blackborow (discontinued)
- Kona Minute (discontinued)
Our previous bike used was Aldi’s 2017 29er in a medium frame (Polygon made) with a Topeak Super Tourist DX rear rack and its maximum 26kg weight limit. This bike has seen 7000kms of use, roughly 2500km of that carrying Chino in a renovated milk crate. The thread for the rear rack mounting point began to shear on one side and was no longer a safe carrying option.
In came the Riverside Touring series which was a collaborative design effort between Decathlon and their chosen fleet of cyclists who provided feedback and design input over a combined 500,000kms of testing for what they would want in a bike touring setup. The range puts forward the 520 entry level flat bar model, a 900 flat bar model with higher components, and the drop bar offering 920 model with a few extra bells and whistles. Yes, the model numbers are quite an obvious reference to Trek’s own 520 and 920 models.
It’s interesting to note from the information currently available (sometimes not official), that the models all share the same frame design. This could potentially mean that a conversion from flat bars to drop bars or visa versa should be possible with minimal negative effects.
Decathlon’s Specifications
NOTICE:
For the sake of easy referencing, below are the provided specifications on Decathlon’s website as of June 2023.
CLICK HERE to see the original page.
Our Spec Corrections and Observations
These are our own observations that deviate from Decathlon’s published specs. Your own experience may vary depending on your market, model, or batch of the RT520.
- Provided 620mm handlebars come with integrated bar ends. The bar ends effectively shorten the neutral riding hand position to a width of 580mm
- Stem fits 31.8mm handlebars
- Riverside Touring double-walled rims on our model were 23c, not the stated 19c
- Front thru axle is a quick release, rear is fastened with an Allen key
- Rear light: Decathlon state has a steady light function for 4 minutes of light when stationary. This was not the case on our bike. When stationary, the rear light turns off.
Our Review Points
Here’s where the Riverside Touring 520 excelled, and fell short for us.
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