Commuting bike advice

nicholas_yiu

Hi,

I'm normally a mountain biker and put slicks on my mountain bike for my short commute to (~2 miles) to Uni in London and occasionally the ~10-15 miles detour to Hyde/Richmond park on my way home for training.

I'm graduating this summer and got myself a job which will probably involves a fair bit longer commuting distance as where I will work is in a rural area.

I absolutely want to commute on my bike for health/training but I want to get a much cheaper road bike as I worry about my mountain bike getting stolen every time I lock it up + it's less efficient.

When I say cheap, I don't want it to be so cheap that I'd have an unpleasant commuting experience so I'm looking at spending ~£200 on a second hand bike as a second hand will look worse and less likely to get stolen, and I'd probably have a better chance of having some quality components which will also improve my commuting experience.

Is £200 too much or too little to spend?

My upper spending limit is probably around £500 but I worry that it might be so "bling" that it'll get stolen on the first day I own it. I can always replace it on my insurance but I just do not want to go through the trouble especially with a commuter.

Also, I want to put panniers on the bike but I see that most road bikes don't have the braze on.

So my second question is how good are the seat post mount pannier racks?
Should I look for one with braze ons or should I just go for a good bike and use a seat post mounted rack? As this really limit my choice on second hand bikes.

Thanks in advance

ddraver

People like Giant do cheap 300 squid roadies - don't do what i do and use halfords (although as an MTBer you ll know that too) - have a look on wiggle too, and if its a flat commute perhaps consider a singlespeed/fixed for a new angle on biking

most cheap road bikes have pannier fitting s too so i would nty worry overly, although a proper courier bag makes you look down with the da street !!! and if you re not carrying too much is actually way more comfy than a rucksack!

andrewc3142

- I'd go for a road bike. 23 tyres, no mudgards, no rake, etc. Simplicity. If you don't you'll probably regret it having already spent your budget

- Carradice post-mounted SQR bags are excellent. Some (including me) don't fit a carbon seat post as a result. Lots of people carry stuff in courier bags (convenient for couriers, otherwise not the best solution) or rucksacks (I personally don't like wearing one, especially in summer, but opinions vary)

- Try getting second-hand what would cost about £1,000, the price really nice road bikes start at

- For a general-ish and commuting bike, look outside carbon at steel frames

- The advice on a fixie is good. My commute's too long for that to be practical, but you can build one up yourself for next to nothing

nicholas_yiu

My knees are quite sensitive so single speed probably isn't a good idea for commuting.

A fixie had always appealed to me though, but maybe only as a third bike.

Thanks for the suggestion of Carradice bags, they look excellent and would be plenty large enough for me. I won't be too worried about getting a bike with pannier mounts then.

Other than ebay and the ads here, are there any other good sites for getting 2nd hand road bikes?

Alibran

Re: mudguards. If you're not worried about it "looking good", use mudguards. I'm too precious about my pretty little road bike to put mudguards on it, so I use race blades in the rain (when I remember to put them on) and although they solve the problem of the brown stripe up your back, you still get some spray off the front wheel.

A - W

Try and buy last years edition of bikes, should save you some dosh and still get a quality ride.