Looking for a new bike.

Anonymous

Well its my birthday coming up soon and I found another bank account I forgot about, so I've decided its time to buy a bike, and one that fits me, I've got a budget of around £400-£600 and would like some recommendations and possible what the best I could get for the price is.


Thanks
Will

redddraggon

http://www.ribblecycles.co.uk/SpecialEditionBikes.asp

You'll need MS Internet Explorer to see the bikes.

Something like one of those, I'm guessing you'll want a bike for all year around, and that takes 'guards and can still be pretty racy.

Anonymous

I'll want something thats basically good all around, would like tripple chainset aswell.

Even with IE I cant see any bikes.

redddraggon

Works for me.

You can choose all the bits you get with Ribble, like frame size, bar width, crank lengths, triple/double, etc

redddraggon

Click on "Ribble" in the middle of the page and it should show you a list of bikes.

keef66

If it's pictures you're looking for, the Ribble site isn't much help. Look at Reddragon's link to his Ribble Audax bike for an idea

Anonymous

His ribble audax bike looks really awsome but I'm guessing it cost much more than £600 and possible those rims did not come with it?

scapaslow

A possibility might be the Merida 880-24 as reviewed in the July edition of C+?

£399,at the lower end of your price range with 8 sp triple and a very good review. You could add lighter wheels and still be in budget.

redddraggon

willhub wrote:

His ribble audax bike looks really awsome but I'm guessing it cost much more than £600 and possible those rims did not come with it?

I built it all myself, cost me roughly in the region of £500, although I did reuse various bits out of my tool box (like brake calipers, saddle, initially tyres,). I did spend a while sourcing cheap bits from Various different suppliers.

I got the wheels "cheap" off ebay nearly new with a brand new Veloce cassette for about £100.

Anonymous

I think I will just go down to my local bike shop tonight so that I can see what they can do. Dont think I could build a bike myself yet its all abit confusing for me.

keef66

The wheels are Ventos, and if you use the bikebuilder you can get the audax frame / carbon fork / Vento wheelset for:-

£517 with campag Xenon
£571 with campag Mirage
£639 with campag Veloce

I'd find the extra cash for the Veloce myself. If you're wanting cheaper, their 9speed £399 offer is outstanding value.

huggy

Don't forget second hand stuff either, you know about my new bike, full carbon and deepsection stuff for £400 and it was never used by the previous owner. It's worth a look at some ads.

Anonymous

I dunno, someone is offering me a giant bike for £250, carbon forks and all that but dont think its in good condition, I'll see it next week.

Ribble bike builder seems good but I dont know what to choose so many parts, dont know whats best for my budget.

keef66

That's what I thought when I first looked; now I have a pretty good idea of what I want so I think I'll use their bikebuilder.

You could always phone them and they'll talk you through selecting components according to your budget / needs

Anonymous

Does not look like a free phone number.

Also what about when it comes to selecting the size and all that? They can help you through that aswell?

redddraggon

willhub wrote:

Does not look like a free phone number.

It's a normal area code number.

(0)1772 336800

They ain't ripping you off, it should be pretty cheap.

Anonymous

Hmmm ok, still abit unsure, its still ordering online wont be certain if it fits untill I got it.

meagain

So few clues as to WHAT sort of bike the OP wants/needs and yet all this advice! Quite spooky!

Think I'll try it. Will soon have about a grand to splash on a bike - 2nd hand obviously, always let someone else pick up the 30-40% dpreciation. What should I buy?

redddraggon

meagain wrote:

So few clues as to WHAT sort of bike the OP wants/needs and yet all this advice! Quite spooky!

Not really, we all know who Willhub is, and what he does with his bike from his millions of previous threads, doesn't seem like rocket science to me.

Anonymous

I posted for advice on another forum too and some people are telling me I want an all arounder and some people say I should keep my Vanquish for a winter bike, I am thinking maybe would be best to go to a LBS near me? As they offer 10% discount with my membership card from my club, some giant dealers, cannondale. Need to get the money in position first though, I tried to get to the LBS yesterday to ask about bikes but I ended up doing a 20 odd mile loop when super heavy rain struck and I turned home as I was swimming nearly.

feel

If you want to buy a new bike willhub, in about 2/3 months time there will be lots of 2008 bikes marked down as it gets towards the end of the season and the big shops start clearing space for the 2009 models. If you are prepared to wait a few months not only will you have more money saved, have had more time to research but also will have access to the end of season bargains.
You could be potentially buying an £800 bike for your £600.
or
be looking at adverts of your £600 bike now selling for £495.

Anonymous

feel wrote:

If you want to buy a new bike willhub, in about 2/3 months time there will be lots of 2008 bikes marked down as it gets towards the end of the season and the big shops start clearing space for the 2009 models. If you are prepared to wait a few months not only will you have more money saved, have had more time to research but also will have access to the end of season bargains.
You could be potentially buying an £800 bike for your £600.
or
be looking at adverts of your £600 bike now selling for £495.

I wont have more money coz my current bike will need servicing, new cables due soon, new tires, new chain, new crank :shock:, I also need some more damn bib shorts as mine are worn out nearly so thats another £35.

But now you mention that about 2008 models been cleared I might wait.

blackhands

These bikes are good value - I use one of these frames on my training bike.

http://www.surosa.co.uk/complete-bikes. ... tegoryID=3

(Scroll down to the Audax bike)

Anonymous

Think I'll just go down to the local bike shop they having 20% off this week.

Anonymous

Any good?

http://www.ukbikesdepot.com/products.ph ... 16b0s6p522

It is 699 at my LBS and 10% discount on top of that.

DavidBelcher

blackhands wrote:

These bikes are good value - I use one of these frames on my training bike.

http://www.surosa.co.uk/complete-bikes. ... tegoryID=3

(Scroll down to the Audax bike)

Surosa used to do a frameset called "Bike One", which they reckoned was a good "tool of all trades" for most types of road riding - it had clearance for guards and some rack mounts (so good for training, touring & audax), but the geometry was just about tight enough for TTing and road racing. Don't know if they still offer this model, though.

David

Anonymous

Tried SPD SL pedals for the first time today, suuuuuppppeeerrr easy to clip in they are awsome and bigger surface area is kool too, think is I can move my feet slightly left to right, maybe some float thing? They are pretty tight in there I mean I cant unclip easilly, takes some pulling, not a problem really just wonder if I should slacken the pedal abit so its easier to unclip, maybe it would increase the life of the cleats?

Also got a new speedo today and it has a Cadance meter, I've set it up, now I measured wheel on floor with line and all that and then used a tape measure and it matched the number on the paper, now it picks the speed up fine, but I dont think it is accurate as today I went out on the new bike and flew on it, was doing 23+mph on one stretch and hitting 27 and not even pushing really hard and going into the wind I was doing 16-18+mph and this was not exatly just a super light breeze, maybe 10mph or higher so I'm kind of confused there, cadance meter seems to work, I seem to be jumping between 85-100RPM at the moment.

The bike is amazingly smooth and I dont quite know if the position is 100% perfect as it feels so odd, like so low yea I look in the window at me and it looks fine. In the end I did get the Genesis Aether, pretty happy I did aswell.

Garry H

willhub wrote:

Tried SPD SL pedals for the first time today, suuuuuppppeeerrr easy to clip in they are awsome and bigger surface area is kool too, think is I can move my feet slightly left to right, maybe some float thing? They are pretty tight in there I mean I cant unclip easilly, takes some pulling, not a problem really just wonder if I should slacken the pedal abit so its easier to unclip, maybe it would increase the life of the cleats?

Take it you have the yellow cleats them? If you want no float at all, get the red ones. Warning though, if you don't set them up properly, your knees/hips may be toast. The yellow ones will allow for some error in the set up.

Swannie

I take it you got the Genesis then?!

EDIT: Sorry, read your post properly. Nice make. I ride a Ridgeback (same company), and I'm still happy with it 4 months later.

If so, woooo! Congrats.

I'd use the wheel radius x 2 x pi to get the rollout. Then check it using gmap pedometer, or if someone from the club has a Edge 305 (or Forerunner).

Anonymous

Yea I got the Genesis, seems abit slower at the moment than my old bike but I think its just the speedo. Acceleration is much faster though, 0-20mph in like 8 seconds, was like 12 on my old bike :P

I notice going over something very bumpy I get like a bell sound or something from the front wheel :?

willbevan

willhub wrote:

I notice going over something very bumpy I get like a bell sound or something from the front wheel :?

hhehe i had that, then noticed they had put a free bell on it when i wasnt looking in the shop