First Decent bike

redddraggon

I planned on getting a laptop, but since getting a bike for commuting, I feel that I'd rather spend the money on a decent road bike for training rides at the weekend.

Ideally I want a carbon bike, with campagnolo components. I'm not bothered about who makes it as long as the quality is there. My budget is <£1000. I'm not bothered about the year of the bike so hopefully I can get a 2005/2006 or even a 2007 model when they've been reduced.

I've seen this bike,

http://www.evanscycles.com/product.jsp?style=60298

It's in my size (54), anyone got any opinions on the bike or any know of any other decent bikes in my price range?

JustRidecp

How about this:

http://www.wiggle.co.uk/ProductDetail.aspx?Cat=cycle&ProdID=5360026005

or this:

http://www.planet-x-bikes.com/road/index.php?module=pagemaster&PAGE_user_op=view_page&PAGE_id=234

I'm afraid I dont own either of them but heard good things about them and If you had a spare grand, cant really get better for the money. I'm sure there's a few Focus and Planet X owners here that'll tell you how happy they are with them.

They're both Ultegra (Planet X) or Ultegra 105 mix (Focus) so no campy but Ultegra's higher spec than Veloce anyway.

Also, the bike you've looked at has a CAAD 8 frame. Thats aluminium, not carbon. (Correct me if I'm wrong!)

TechnoBuddhist

Whatever bike you decide upon, make sure you trawl the internet for the best price!! You may be able to save up to £150 on a £1k bike! if you can wait a while longer, all the new 2008 kit will be hitting the shelves and you will get either a bigger saving on a 2007 bike.

redddraggon

TechnoBuddhist wrote:

Whatever bike you decide upon, make sure you trawl the internet for the best price!! You may be able to save up to £150 on a £1k bike! if you can wait a while longer, all the new 2008 kit will be hitting the shelves and you will get either a bigger saving on a 2007 bike.

I'm aiming to get the bike early november, so hopefully the 2007s will be a lot cheaper.

JustRidecp

I'm afraid you wont get the Focus or Planet X much cheaper as they're both sold exclusively by either wiggle or planet x. IMHO though, I dont think you'd get better value than those two.

binghamboy13

go for a raleigh team carbon full carbon for £999.99 great bike for the money.

http://www.raleigh.co.uk/bikedetails.aspx?ID=2920

acorn_user

I was just about to post the Raleigh too. Veloce is a good call.
You /could/ get hold of a frame on sale, and build it up with your choice of Campag bits. Plenty of cheap deals on the groupsets. The expensive bit in this route is buying bars, stems etc... My Centaur bike came in at 600 pounds after I needed some help with the cabling. Not bad...

Monty Dog

You may be able to find a Bianchi or similar in the sales shortly - Bianchi have an entirely new range for 2008 for 2007 models will be cheap. If you're not worried about the brand, then for value, how about a Ribble?