What £1000 bike?

bendertherobot

Just about to get a Cycle to work type scheme bike.

£1000 max of course.

Question is this.

What £1000 bike will see me having a bike better than my 2007 Focus Variado Expert?

May be able to get a Planet X. Wiggle off the list.

Should I hold out for carbon, or is Alu with Carbon seat stays a fair choice?

bendertherobot

Or, in other words, which from:

Something like a Felt/Cube

1885 Bianchi

Bianchi Ultegra C2C Alu Carbon

Planet X

Mostly commuting, sportive and NEVER racing.

bendertherobot

Anyone?

Ewen

Have to admit got a soft spot for Bianchi's, the 1885 has a better quality frame that the Nirone but the hirone is fat from shabby. My brother in law has a Felt F55 and it is a really nice bike, at your price point it would be an F75 but it is the same frame only different bits. trek's 1.9 also gets a good crit, the Giant TCR alliance also has a fair shout at that price. I know that everyone seems to want carbon these days but a well sorted Aluminum or alu carbon is still very good. If I was put on the spot with my own money I would buy the Bianchi.

blorg

I'd go for the £999 Planet X carbon myself.

sicrow

You only get the £1K supported on the c2w scheme but remember you could add more of your own cash to it and sepnd another couple of hundred to it and get a number of full carbon frames just over the grand mark which may be a better bet if youre going to outlay that sort of money in the first place

bendertherobot

Thanks chaps. Yes, I've just posed that question to the scheme operator (onyourbike). Clearly £300 more would be a very interesting sum. I could get that easily by selling my Variado.

So, Roubaix's any good

bendertherobot

Many thanks for all the help including PM's.

Add the Dolan Mythos in there as well now.

I like the Onix Vuelta at £999 but that's Tiagra 9 speed?

So the Bira at £1099 looks good. Save that it's £99 "over budget" and may not be able to get it through.

blorg

Roubaix is a good bike from all accounts, talked to a guy on one who liked it a lot (as he stormed up a hill ahead of me ;-)

I would not go near Tiagra 9-speed at those sort of prices, with 10sp (105 up) you have upgrade interchangability.

bendertherobot

Aye. Orbea looks great but 9 speed too much of a nightmare.

cygnet

sicrow wrote:

You only get the £1K supported on the c2w scheme but remember you could add more of your own cash to it and sepnd another couple of hundred to it and get a number of full carbon frames just over the grand mark which may be a better bet if youre going to outlay that sort of money in the first place

Check this with your employer/scheme provider. It may be OK on accessories but not on the bike (due to ownership issues etc)

bendertherobot

cygnet wrote:

sicrow wrote:

You only get the £1K supported on the c2w scheme but remember you could add more of your own cash to it and sepnd another couple of hundred to it and get a number of full carbon frames just over the grand mark which may be a better bet if youre going to outlay that sort of money in the first place

Check this with your employer/scheme provider. It may be OK on accessories but not on the bike (due to ownership issues etc)

It's more the consumer credit issue. The IR don't like people "getting around it," apparently.

And there are the joint ownership issues.

At the moment, I'm waiting but it looks something like this:

Planet X - yep. OK, as long as Planet X will sell the bike to my LBS who participate in the scheme.

Dolan Mythos - yep. Pretty much the same. Unless Dolan will do the deal with the scheme.

Orbea Vuelta - same as above but Epic Cycles. No go because I'm not going 9 speed.

Orbea Bira - same as Veulta IF I can pay the balance somehow.

Spec Roubaix. Fine wherever but the problem of the balance.


Thing is, I'm going to weigh my Variado expert tonight just to see precisely how heavy it is and see how much weight I can save.

bendertherobot

I'm leaning towards a Roubaix Elite now. Just £1099 most places.

But how do I take care of that £99?

meanwhile

bendertherobot wrote:

Or, in other words, which from:

Something like a Felt/Cube

1885 Bianchi

Bianchi Ultegra C2C Alu Carbon

Planet X

Mostly commuting, sportive and NEVER racing.

Get the Planet X cyclocross bike (Uncle John?). 99% as fast as a pure road machine, 100% tougher, easier to put fenders and stuff on, can take wider tyres that laugh at pot holes, and it can use disc brakes - so 100% braking power even in the wet. Downside: it's steel - although you can have a carbon fork - and you seem to be set on carbon.

blorg

meanwhile wrote:

Get the Planet X cyclocross bike (Uncle John?). 99% as fast as a pure road machine, 100% tougher, easier to put fenders and stuff on, can take wider tyres that laugh at pot holes, and it can use disc brakes - so 100% braking power even in the wet. Downside: it's steel - although you can have a carbon fork - and you seem to be set on carbon.

This would be very good advice for someone looking for an "all rounder" but not for someone looking for a race bike I reckon. I have both a carbon race bike (Focus Cayo, and there were others before) and something very similar to an Uncle John (Van Nicholas Amazon) and I can assure you the Cayo is a hell of a lot lighter, faster, and generally "racier" in handling. Both set up with 700x23 tyres, road gearing, etc. (The components on the VN came off a Trek 5000.) You also get into the issue of braking being dreadful with cantis and STI levers which seriously reduces descending speed (I think we had a discussion about this, meanwhile ;-)

Uncle John is aluminum BTW, Kaffenback is steel.

bendertherobot

Aye. Got to be carbon. More of a trainer really.

Roubaix looks good as the frame can serve as the basis for constant upgrades.

meanwhile

bendertherobot wrote:

Aye. Got to be carbon. More of a trainer really.

Most of what people think they know about frame material is junk You might want to read this at least:

http://www.sheldonbrown.com/frame-materials.html

bendertherobot

Think I'm almost there.

Lemond Zurich Ultegra Carbon

bendertherobot

Or Felt F55.

Just a matter of riding both now.

Do like the look of the Lemond. Nice to be different.

gavinbyrne

Maybe this helps - Dolan Mythos 105 for £899.00

http://www.formbycycles.co.uk/product/3 ... Mythos_105

bendertherobot

Cheers!

Was hard to get that from the scheme.

Ended up with the Lemond. Mighty fine bike.