Another "what new bike?" thread

FocusBoy

Hi all,

Ive been looking into getting a new bike and have been reading the net and hundreds of threads in various forums. So thought i'd stop here and ask my questions.

The reason for my interest for a new bike is that I've always been keen on cycling and can manage to push a cheap and nasty hybrid (picked up new for £79) 30miles fairly easiliy. And the other day I was out with a friend on his new road bike (nothing overly flash like) and we swapped bikes for a few miles and I couldn't get over how much faster I could make the bike go for so much less effort and I got quite a buzz from that.

In looking for my bike i'd like to keep costs under the magic £500. It'd be mainly used for leisurely day trips along the quieter roads. Also with the possibility of light weekend touring, being able to carry enough gear for a few nights as recently I have discussed with friends in doing a few short tours of NI, only about 2/3days

Ive looked at Ridgebacks Horizon and Voyage, basically cos they are ones that I can source in my LBS, as I'd rather that than buy over the net. My understanding is the Horizon is a audax? and Voyage a tourer? What I wanted to know is if the Horizon would be capable of carrying enough gear for a few nights, including a share of a tent. And on the other hand if i went for the Voyage would be fast enough to give me that buzz I felt on my mates bike?

Any sort of advice is welcome. I'm from N.Ireland btw, incase anyone can recommend a good bike shop (but I'd imagine i'm in the minority here).

Thanks in advance.

feel

If you want to tour on it you will lose the chance of the super light racy thing, but it will still be massively better than your £79 bike. Two to possibly consider are claud butler and Dawes, both are on the evans site, link to the Butler HERE

edit : just noticed THIS as well which looks pretty interesting.

meagain

No doubt lighter than your current bike, but I doubt that the Raleigh will come in much under 30lbs. Carrying stuff/racy light a bit of a contradiction unless spending a fair wedge.

Maybe check out the second hand market if you want to keep to 500 quid?

feel

meagain wrote:

No doubt lighter than your current bike, but I doubt that the Raleigh will come in much under 30lbs.

Reynolds 725 is quality and comfortable though, just take the racks and mudguards off in the summer when not touring. Audax bikes btw are unlikely to have the front mounting points for panniers which will be very useful if touring is important to you.

Rich Hcp

You'll get a really nice £500 bike from somewhere like Evans.

There are bargains around on 2007 bikes too.

You'l wish you'd done it sooner