First road bike for a mtb

bletherskite

Hello all,

First posting and I’m hoping that you can give me some advice.

After years of concentrating on mountain biking and using my old rigid mtb on slicks during the winter, I’ve decide it’s about time I bought a real road bike. I’m very much what you would term a “recreational rider” – no racing or time trials involved, just riding for the freedom and sheer pleasure of it.

Having had a look around at what’s on the market at the moment, there are three candidates that seem reasonable;

Claud Butler Roubaix at £400. Definitely seems to be a starter bike but with good reviews in the press. Comes with a carbon fork and a Shimano Sora drivetrain. Brakes, wheels, etc don’t seem to be branded but my first mtb was a Claud Butler. Proved to be reliable and tough and is still on the go.

If I stretch a bit more to around the £600 mark, then I have some other choices, either;

a) Specialized Allez or Allez Sport – once again carbon forks with full Tiagra drive train on the Allez Sport; (the allez has a Tiagra rear with the rest being Sora)

Or

b) Scwinn Fastback Comp – carbon fork and carbon seat stays, Shimano 105 throughout, 24-spoke wheels. (This is the 2005 model but I’m not too concerned about that.)

Or am I better going with something like a custom mail order Ribble bike?

I’m likely to be doing around 40-50 miles per week during the winter (sometimes more) so I don’t need something for all-day epics. Having said that i reckon I should try to buy the best that I can afford without spending a fortune (already done that with the mountain bike!).

Any advice or suggestions that you have would be gratefully received.

tarpaullynn

Welcome to the forum, being a comparative newbie myself I'm afraid I can't help you with your query but I'm sure someone will be along later with good advice.

Only thing I will advise you of is looking at some of the other posts on here, you better be prepared for a 'numb todger' and a sore bottom'

richa

Alot of people on here have praised the Allez family for a good entry bike.

Which one. We ll go for the best spec'd that you can justify/afford.

I went for the Allez Sport and have been pleased.

PS One warning. If you really enjoy it you'll want to upgrade. I have and I do. I now get a serious bout of carbon envy when on ther club run.

willbevan

i'm a newbie to, something i would mention though as I to went from a MTB to a Roadbike, I bought a double on the front.

This was a bit of a shock as I used to use the entire range of gears on my mountain bike, the largest ring being the same size as the smallest on the Roadbike I bought so hills became a bit of a challenge.

I'm finding its helping building my legs, but im still droping it to a compact crank, really I wish I had bought a tripple (many people may say this will make you lazy though) so I could just cycle for miles without going to a hill thinking that its going to tire out my legs as I am going to need to get out of the saddle and push to get up at the top rather than lowering the gear and keeping a cadence of 80-90

Gussio

If you can, go to your LBS and try each of the bikes you list. There is no substitute for doing this - hopefully one of the models will stand out head and shoulders above the others and your decision is made.

bletherskite

Thanks for the help - I guess that a triple would be best as I am used to the mtb gearing. is it really that marked a difference between a double and triple? Both the Allez and the Fastback are doubles so that's the main thing that gives me doubts.

The Allez looks really good but the Schwinn is about the same price - is a bike with carbon seat stays as well as carbon front fork overkill for the use it's going to get?

Inevitably there will be a time I want to upgrade so i'm thinking that it's best to buy a well equipped bike perhaps at the £550/£600 end of my budget in order to try and delay the time when I start to thinking about new shiny bits for the bike.

Are there any other alternatives in the £400-£500 range? I'm really just looking for something that's fast, reliable and tough enough to handle Scottish winters and our mucky, salty roads without falling to bits.

Many thanks for the advice thus far!

chopsocky

I was in the same position as you, used a mtb all the time and decided to get a road bike for commuting etc. I settled on the Allez Sport, spoke to my employer and got it on the cycle to work scheme. It was reduced from 700 to 600 at Evan's and through the scheme should work out about 380-400 quid.

I am not that clued up on road bikes but i find it really comfortable and much better than i thought it would be. I have to admit though, i got the triple and still struggled on the hills at first :oops: . Checked the gear ratio's on both bikes using a calculator on Sheldon Brown's website and found that the smallest gear on the road bike was about the same as the middle gear on the middle ring of the mtb. Has made a notable difference to my fitness though even after just one month.

allaction

How about the Giant SCR range. I got a SCR 3 which is about £450. Plenty upgradeable and comes with a triple as standard. A mix of Sora/Tiagra groupset. The stock wheels are awefull mind so you'll want to upgrade them as soon as you can. Could be tempted to sell mine for £275 if you're interested. I have upgraded to Shimano R550 wheels (which cost about 115 quid) and the bike is a medium which is the most common size. Leaves plenty of scope to upgrade to whatever you like then.

coltrane

Hi there, I went from years of MTBing to a road bike three months ago’ although I probably spent 3 months researching the change and took lots of advice from roadies, the LBS and forums.

Firstly you need to set your budget and stick to it’ its very easy to start climbing the money ladder when you really don't need to (as you probably know from your MTB days). I got initially caught up in carbon v alum frames. The best advice I got and took is to use your LBS as much as you can; go for a bike fitting and then test ride as many as you can.

On forums I listed a number of bikes and asked for advice, guess what, I got completely differing views. Apply the same principles as you do for a MTB, its what suits you.

I went to the same LBS's for about three Saturdays and test rode about 10 bikes. I eventually chose the bike that I enjoyed best (within my budget), which happened to be from the Giant SCR range, and was full carbon; it may not be to everyone’s tastes but it suited mine. Good luck you will love it.
P.S. Don't get rid of the MTB you can't get as dirty on a roadie.

duckiciao

coltrane wrote:

P.S. Don't get rid of the MTB you can't get as dirty on a roadie.

I beg to differ! I went out this afternoon for a quick 20 mile jaunt and I was absolutely blathered with road krud by the time I got home. My white bibshorts will never be the same...

mea00csf

Sorry, 2 corrections to the above posts, the SCR's now come with compact chainrings not triples, unless you can find last years first release (the second release was also a compact) and the the SCR's don't come as full carbon as standard, there are 2 versions, the normal SCR (SCR1, SCR2 etc) which is aluminium and the SCR Composite (SCR C1, SCR C2 etc)

Max_Man

mea00csf wrote:

Sorry, 2 corrections to the above posts, the SCR's now come with compact chainrings not triples, unless you can find last years first release (the second release was also a compact) and the the SCR's don't come as full carbon as standard, there are 2 versions, the normal SCR (SCR1, SCR2 etc) which is aluminium and the SCR Composite (SCR C1, SCR C2 etc)

Are you sure, I think the SCR2 & 3 are still triples...the 1 &1.5 are compact's and the 4 a double...that's what the website and my catalogue say's. Might be wrong though.

benny2891

I just looked at the SCR 2 and 3 (2008's) in the flesh.

They both had triples on the front.

Hope that helps,
Ben

Zendog1

You can get the Allez in double or triple. The 2008 "double" is a compact 50/ 34 on the front and 11- 28 on the back.You should be OK with that unless its really hilly where you live.

fossyant

Lot's of good advice 'ere - you'll love it - they feel terribly twitchy - I remember when I got my first 'proper' road bike when I was 16 (after having a heavy gas pipe one) which was a Raleigh Road Ace 531 tubes and Shimano 600

Fantastic bike, but the steering was a major shock, so light and fast......

When you get fit, you'll only ever use a 53/39 front ring and a max of a 21 rear sprocket in the UK..honest.......

John Stevenson

Some general advice for mountain bikers adding road riding to the activity quiver.

Look for a frame that'll take 25mm or 28mm tyres and have the dealer swap out whatever's on the bike. The extra rubber will help with your confidence, can be run a shade softer than the more common 23mm width and is a bit more forgiving while you learn to avoid potholes instead of ploughing through them.

44cm and 46cm (centre-to-centre) handlebars are good. You'll find anything narrower feels really cramped compared to a mountain bike bar.

You probably don't need a triple unless you're off to the Alps, or planning to, say, tow a BOB, but a compact is definitely a good idea. That said, there's no big disadvantage to a triple. But you will almost certainly find 39/53 and 12-21 gearing way too tall unless you're somewhere flat.

If you're used to MTB clipless pedals, just slap on a set of compact clipless like PD-M520s, Eggbeater/Candy etc. Single-sided road pedals are a bit of a pain to get used to and the shoes are a sod to walk in.

muz250

hello just joind the forum, am getting into road cycling aswell, although I am not a mtb.

I actualy bought a bike off of ebay for £139 just to see if i liked it, and its good and after like 2 weeks of cycling am feeling way fitter already.

But the bike is rubbish the gear levers are on the frame, and the gears require adjusting because they tend to jump between gears at will. After investigating I found that a starting out bike would be more in the £500 - £600 range. So am also looking to treat myself to a new bike at the end of next month.
I was looking at the trek 1.5 for £600 at my lbs, I never had a shot but it was way lighter than the cheap bike I got off ebay and looked like a quality bike. I know this would be a better bike than the one I have got, but is it worth that money or is there better bikes for the money, i,v had a look round a few web sites I cant seem to find a reveiw / test ride report on the bike. I notice the giant bikes are mentioned quite alot but I cant seem to find a local dealer, I think I,d need help getting the right size of bike kind of got shortish legs and a long back making the right fit more important.

bletherskite

Thanks for the info so far - it really does help to have the advice of those who know something about road bikes! So far the balance opinion seems to be in favour of the Specialized allez and Giant SCR (as in other threads here) so will be off to the LBS this weekend for a look at them.

I'm still intrigued by the Schwinn option - as a 2005 year bike it's been reduced from around a grand to £595 which seems a reasonable discount. It's very well specced but I'm struggling to find any reviews on Schwinn road bikes - does anyone have any experience with this brand or know whether they are any good (build quality, reliability, etc). Thought it might be a nice 'out of the ordinary' choice but not if it needs lots of fettling or the parts are unreliable.

Any other suggestions and advice welcomed.

Getting quite excited at the prospect of trying out new bikes now - at least it stops me from spending more money on the mtb!