Road bike, TT bike, Cyclocross bike

DavidBelcher

Jen J wrote:

I think cross bikes are a bit of a compromise as they are intended as fast off-road bikes that can be carried over obstacles, and seem to be a bit of jack of all trades, master of none. That said I am still fighting the urge to buy one.

As someone has already said, the 'cross bike is great if you use it for the sort of off-roading it's intended for, so I'd disagree with the 'master of none' bit. Having raced a lot of cyclo-cross, it's top dog on its 'home' territory - MTBers rarely do as well in 'cross events as the folks riding the more usual style of bike. They can make a decent trainer/commuter bike, though a decent one will lack the frame fittings for mudguards; a real purist's 'cross bike won't even have bottle mounts!

David

Crapaud

LiT, you'll get all the information you'll ever need, and probably a whole lot more, in Road Gear and Know-how - there're some very knowlegable folk hang around in there.*

Lost_in_Thought wrote:

I am now looking at getting myself a nice bike for riding on the road, and possibly doing some racing on if I ever get fast enough.

You might want to have a look in Training. You can, and many do, use your commute for training.

You're not very specific about what type of road riding you want to do apart from 'possibly' racing. Different types of bike can be pressed into sevice of more than one cycling disipline, eg. cyclocross: a Sunday tootle about, utility, commuting, touring, audax, sportives. If you give us a better idea of what your thinking of we'd be better able to give advice / suggestions and the cyclonerds'll tell you why and what to look for.

I tend to agree with jashburnham; £1500 gets you most 'bang per buck', though recent searches for audax, cyclocross and touring bikes suggests to me that that's rising rapidly to £2000. Though there're some exellent bikes at around £700 - £800 - just upgrade as parts wear out / you get a better idea what aspect of road riding you want to do.

*I see that some of them have already landed here.

lost_in_thought

Thanks people! It's becoming clearer!

So: what I have learnt so far...

Cyclocross - out - I have no intention to go off-road.

TT/Tri bike - no good at climbing hills, uncomfortable position. I guess I liked the idea of sitting further forward, as I'm short of back and long of leg I always seem to be as far forward on the saddle rails as I can be in order to sit comfortably within reach of the bars. Also I feel like it gives me more power, perhaps wrongly. I like the idea of aero bars, but not as the only option... therefore, I think these are also out!

So the road bike it is. What's this 'criterium' (street circuit) bike, as mentioned by Bugly?

And I can definitely stand last year's gear!!

Then... carbon is worth it. I can understand that!

Deep rim wheels - I won't be commuting on this - I have the Bowery for that. Good but tricky with the tyres. Are they all like that?

For the shops - I will check out Sigma and Condor, thanks.

Do they let you ride the bikes? I know it seems like a silly question... but they're expensive pieces of kit! :oops:

Also, do they do a good fitting service anywhere? That's the problem with being a slightly-taller-than-average girl - I've been told that many womens' frames won't fit me. And I don't want to buy a bike that's the wrong bloomin' size!

UnworthyPapaLazaru

If you visit Condor LiT can you ask them when their 2009 bikes are coming out. I like the Italia but want to wait and see what the 2009 version is like. I understand Condor also do a good fiting service.

singlespeedexplosif

Deep rim wheels - I won't be commuting on this - I have the Bowery for that. Good but tricky with the tyres. Are they all like that?

let's get this straight - there's deep, and there's deep Plenty of mid-depth ones take clinchers (normal tyres). For not a great deal of cash you could try something like Campag Sciroccos.

Any bike shop worth its salt should both make sure you get the right size for you, and let you have a test ride. You may need to leave a credit card/keys/kidney there as collateral in case you don't come back...

lost_in_thought

Crapaud wrote:

You're not very specific about what type of road riding you want to do apart from 'possibly' racing. Different types of bike can be pressed into sevice of more than one cycling disipline, eg. cyclocross: a Sunday tootle about, utility, commuting, touring, audax, sportives. If you give us a better idea of what your thinking of we'd be better able to give advice / suggestions and the cyclonerds'll tell you why and what to look for.

Types of road riding I would use it for:

Sunday pootle - currently do around 30-50 mile round trips.
Longer distance rides - would love to start getting into charity rides, cycling holidays etc
Triathlon - am toying with entering one next year, but need to work on my running

Would be keen to get involved with shorter distance circuit or track racing, but that's a bit of a pipedream right now.

Don't really know what an Audax or a Sportive is...

linsen

My road bike is a mix of steel and carbon for the frame (steel on the downtube where the stones might chip). It's a dream to ride and I picked it up after 300 miles for half the retail price. If your LBS won't let you take bikes out for a spin it's worth finding one that will - a risky outlay otherwise!

singlespeedexplosif

congrats on the 1000 posts

Audax/Sportives = long rides which officially aren't competitive (yeah, right..)
Audax/Sportive bikes tend to have a more relaxed geometry than out-and-out race bikes. Bit more comfortable for long rides in the saddle. And more likely to have rack/mudguard eyes on them.

lost_in_thought

singlespeedexplosif wrote:

congrats on the 1000 posts

Audax/Sportives = long rides which officially aren't competitive (yeah, right..)
Audax/Sportive bikes tend to have a more relaxed geometry than out-and-out race bikes. Bit more comfortable for long rides in the saddle. And more likely to have rack/mudguard eyes on them.

Thanks - clearly i don't work hard enough... if at-all...

And aha! So they're basically the same thing... So much jargon...

I guess it's about finding a medium between comfort and performance. Rather like cars.

greg66_tri_v2.0

lost_in_thought wrote:

Types of road riding I would use it for:

Sunday pootle - currently do around 30-50 mile round trips.
Longer distance rides - would love to start getting into charity rides, cycling holidays etc
Triathlon - am toying with entering one next year, but need to work on my running

Would be keen to get involved with shorter distance circuit or track racing, but that's a bit of a pipedream right now.

For those types of riding you should consider a Cervelo Soloist. All round road bike which has a reversible seat post head, allowing you to switch it to a tri-specific geometry (actually, it's not *quite* that simple, but it's close).

How tall are you LiTs - I've got 5'6"-5'7" in mind - is that about right?

PS I work quite close to Condor & would be happy to provide hand holding/bullsh!t shielding services if required.

cjcp

Greg66 wrote:

PS I work quite close to Condor & would be happy to provide hand holding/bullsh!t shielding services if required.

Any excuse to skive off work and look at bikes.

il_principe

Greg66 wrote:

lost_in_thought wrote:

Types of road riding I would use it for:

Sunday pootle - currently do around 30-50 mile round trips.
Longer distance rides - would love to start getting into charity rides, cycling holidays etc
Triathlon - am toying with entering one next year, but need to work on my running

Would be keen to get involved with shorter distance circuit or track racing, but that's a bit of a pipedream right now.

For those types of riding you should consider a Cervelo Soloist. All round road bike which has a reversible seat post head, allowing you to switch it to a tri-specific geometry (actually, it's not *quite* that simple, but it's close).

How tall are you LiTs - I've got 5'6"-5'7" in mind - is that about right?

PS I work quite close to Condor & would be happy to provide hand holding/bullsh!t shielding services if required.

You would say Cervelo, given Lit's predecliction for limited bike spending a Cervelo maybe out of the price bracket though! Lit - you can always buy a pair of clip-on tri bars to convert your road bike to a TT machine. My friend Tom did this for the UK ironman and still managed a ridiculously good time.

I reckon you'll be leaning towards a "sportive" bike, basically a road bike with slightly relaxed geometry - designed for long days in the saddle. Having said that, the Prince is an out and out road race bike but I can spend 6-7 hours in the saddle with no discomfort. Fitting is key.

greg66_tri_v2.0

jashburnham wrote:

You would say Cervelo,

I can't imagine for a moment what makes you say that

jashburnham wrote:

given Lit's predecliction for limited bike spending a Cervelo maybe out of the price bracket though!

Ah. Yes. I'd forgotten the top end of the budget will be in the £125-150 region ...

cjcp

jashburnham wrote:

Greg66 wrote:

lost_in_thought wrote:

Types of road riding I would use it for:

Sunday pootle - currently do around 30-50 mile round trips.
Longer distance rides - would love to start getting into charity rides, cycling holidays etc
Triathlon - am toying with entering one next year, but need to work on my running

Would be keen to get involved with shorter distance circuit or track racing, but that's a bit of a pipedream right now.

For those types of riding you should consider a Cervelo Soloist. All round road bike which has a reversible seat post head, allowing you to switch it to a tri-specific geometry (actually, it's not *quite* that simple, but it's close).

How tall are you LiTs - I've got 5'6"-5'7" in mind - is that about right?

PS I work quite close to Condor & would be happy to provide hand holding/bullsh!t shielding services if required.

You would say Cervelo, given Lit's predecliction for limited bike spending a Cervelo maybe out of the price bracket though! Lit - you can always buy a pair of clip-on tri bars to convert your road bike to a TT machine. My friend Tom did this for the UK ironman and still managed a ridiculously good time.

I reckon you'll be leaning towards a "sportive" bike, basically a road bike with slightly relaxed geometry - designed for long days in the saddle. Having said that, the Prince is an out and out road race bike but I can spend 6-7 hours in the saddle with no discomfort. Fitting is key.

LiT - I used my Scott for each of the purposes you list. It's not a nuclear bomb on two wheels like Jash's Prince, but it's stiff and doesn't have the sportif-style geometry and was equally at home on the cobbles of Flanders as it was during hillier rides like the Dragon Ride or Highclere. I have to compromise a bit on the TT/triathlon position, but I only do short distances so don't ever feel uncomfortable.

Littigator

LiT

Go for between 1000-1500 spend on a road bike, if the thought of spending that much doesn't make you lose your lunch

In that range you'll have a choice of alloy/carbon or mostly full carbon frames.

Go for deep rims as an upgrade at a later date, spend your budget on a decent basic set up.

Come on give us a budget and we can all start getting shouty with 'IMHO' suggestions etc etc.

ps there seem to be lots of dodgy types from 'Road' sniffing around this thread

lost_in_thought

Greg66 wrote:

For those types of riding you should consider a Cervelo Soloist. All round road bike which has a reversible seat post head, allowing you to switch it to a tri-specific geometry (actually, it's not *quite* that simple, but it's close).

How tall are you LiTs - I've got 5'6"-5'7" in mind - is that about right?

PS I work quite close to Condor & would be happy to provide hand holding/bullsh!t shielding services if required.

Thanks for that Greg! Appreciate the offer, and may well take you up on it. I am a paid-up sceptic, but due to limited knowledge on nice bikes would be rather inept at filtering the useful tips from the sales talk.

I'm just over 5'8", and rather short in the torso. This Cervelo soloist seems like an interesting option... but I can't find a review which tells me about this seatpost...

jashburnham wrote:

given Lit's predecliction for limited bike spending a Cervelo maybe out of the price bracket though!

Actually, I'm going along the lines of if it's worth doing, it's worth doing properly, so the only proviso is that I have to be well-placed on the value for money curve.

cjcp wrote:

it's stiff and doesn't have the sportif-style geometry

Stiff = good then? Gnurk etc...

Geometry is where I'm struggling a little at the minute, conflicting reports on womens' geometry abound, the only concrete thing I can find is that women are longer of leg and shorter of torso compared to men.

What do you mean by a 'relaxed geometry'? What makes it relaxed?

Professional fitting seems to be calling me...

Jen J

lost_in_thought wrote:

Greg66 wrote:

Geometry is where I'm struggling a little at the minute, conflicting reports on womens' geometry abound, the only concrete thing I can find is that women are longer of leg and shorter of torso compared to men.



Professional fitting seems to be calling me...

That's the main thing that I found with women specific bike frames. Unfortunately I was 'blessed' with disproportionately short legs, so am better suited to a mens frame.

For that amount of money I'd hope that professional fitting would be a necessity, but also that the bike be custom made for you. Mine was, and it was half your budget.

Littigator

LiT you could also try Cyclefit in Holborn if you're going for a reasonable budget bike



http://www.cyclefit.co.uk/

linsen

[quote="Jen J
That's the main thing that I found with women specific bike frames. Unfortunately I was 'blessed' with disproportionately short legs, so am better suited to a mens frame. .[/quote]

That makes two of us, Jen

lost_in_thought

Jen J wrote:

For that amount of money I'd hope that professional fitting would be a necessity, but also that the bike be custom made for you. Mine was, and it was half your budget.

TBH, I don't really have a clear idea on budget, hence the vagueness of the 'I want it to be good VFM' approach. In for a penny in for a pound and all that!

I'm aiming to establish (and it's working thanks to y'all) at what point you stop paying for a better bike and start paying for 'ooooh pretty'.

lost_in_thought

Littigator wrote:

LiT you could also try Cyclefit in Holborn if you're going for a reasonable budget bike



http://www.cyclefit.co.uk/

Now that looks useful..

Will they give you a print-out or similar of your ideal geometry? Or do they insist that you can only get the perfect fit from them?

Littigator

Not sure but give them a bell and ask maybe. I've spoken to a lot of guys who swear by them.

Crapaud

lost_in_thought wrote:

Don't really know what an Audax or a Sportive is...

Audax
Audax UK FAQ's Basically it's long distance, endurance, cycling. Officially long distance is defined as 200km + (longest IIRC is 3200km), but there are many 50 - 150km rides called Brevet populaires. More details in the link.

Sportives
Organised mass participation challenge rides, usually 100 - 200km. Timing chips, feed stations , marshalls. I can't find a definitive page to link to ATM.More inSportives and Road Rides. Some good links, including charity rides, inthis thread.

lost_in_thought wrote:

Sunday pootle - currently do around 30-50 mile round trips.
Longer distance rides - would love to start getting into charity rides, cycling holidays etc

I'd suggest that you need 2 bikes, but it depends what you mean by 'cycling holidays'. A cyclocross bike, with braze-ons for mudguards and a rack, would be perfect if you mean touring / cycle camping, IMO; not a racing bike, but not a slouch either. Robust, light, with a wide range of gears, run it with 25 - 28mm slick tyres for on-road. It's more relaxed geometry (more upright riding position) would be more comfortable.

If you mean day rides from a hotel base, a racing bike'd be fine and would fit in with your triathalon ambitions.

lost_in_thought wrote:

Triathlon - am toying with entering one next year, but need to work on my running

Would be keen to get involved with shorter distance circuit or track racing, but that's a bit of a pipedream right now.

A different sort of cycling altogether. I'll leave other more knowledgeable / experienced folk to comment.

Jen J

lost_in_thought wrote:

Will they give you a print-out or similar of your ideal geometry? Or do they insist that you can only get the perfect fit from them?

I read somewhere in the last few days, either on here or in a magazine, that in some places you can pay for a profesional fitting, which is then offset against a bike if you do buy from there. Think it was around £60. But it was just an anecdote and no shop names were given.

But at least that way you're free to decide to buy wherever you want, without the guilt of getting fitted for free and then buying elsewhere...

DavidBelcher

lost_in_thought wrote:

So the road bike it is. What's this 'criterium' (street circuit) bike, as mentioned by Bugly?

A slightly more extreme version of a road-racing bike, for use on short city-centre circuits[1] - shorter wheelbase, steeper angles and more ground clearance for sharper handling. Probably too 'twitchy' for general road riding and longer distance stuff, but such bikes tend to be built to order rather than off the peg.

David

[1] Not that you get many these days due to pedestrianisation - the era of racing round the centre of Leeds or Birmingham has long gone

always_tyred

lost_in_thought wrote:

Jen J wrote:

For that amount of money I'd hope that professional fitting would be a necessity, but also that the bike be custom made for you. Mine was, and it was half your budget.

TBH, I don't really have a clear idea on budget, hence the vagueness of the 'I want it to be good VFM' approach. In for a penny in for a pound and all that!

I'm aiming to establish (and it's working thanks to y'all) at what point you stop paying for a better bike and start paying for 'ooooh pretty'.

About a grand. At that price, you should be looking at a decent aluminium or carbon frame, definitely a carbon fork, and (for example) ultegra or 105 parts. These are very good parts. Definitely not worth forking out for more at this stage. You can always upgrade later.

Most bike in that price range have some "crappy" (i.e. own brand or unbranded) parts - which I wouldn't worry about. Probably made at the same factory anyway. So, the best thing is to ensure that you have a decent all round machine to start with, which has a frame and fork that it is worth bolting nice things to later (you know, pastel colours and all that).

If you think about it, £1k now buys you something about as good/light/stiff as the pros were racing 7 or 8 years ago. (a) they don't go any faster now and (b) its safe to say that none of us have therefore encountered the limits of the machinery yet.

You do not, imho, need a bike that can be converted into a tt bike. Bolt on tri-bars are fine for tt's and triathlons to start with. That said, Cervelo's are pretty bikes so you might want one anyway.

greg66_tri_v2.0

Littigator wrote:

Not sure but give them a bell and ask maybe. I've spoken to a lot of guys who swear by them.

I had always assumed that after the fitting there's a period of teeth sucking, followed by "Well, we could probably get you onto a stock frame if we use uneven length cranks, a mountain bike stem, 60mm of spacers and take a chance on the seatpost not snapping, but really you'd be best off with a custom fit Serotta. Step this way, and if you could just stand there, Steve will take off one of yours arms and one of your legs.".

Cynical? Me?

il_principe

Lit - get a Wilier Mortirolo. It's 100% Italian carbon fibre loveliness and a fab bike. Can be had for £1500.

itboffin

jashburnham wrote:

Lit - get a Wilier Mortirolo. It's 100% Italian carbon fibre loveliness and a fab bike. Can be had for £1500.

+1

That was my first choice but having never ridden a road bike before and having had a few bad carbon experiences I chose the Trek, cheap £700 carbon forks and seatpost with reasonable groupset Shimano 105, the only mistake was being talked into a compact rather than double.

When I get a new job a Wilier is def on the cards and a proper bike fit, having a bad back is no fun esp. when your 50 miles from home.

Happy hunting

redddraggon

jashburnham wrote:

Lit - get a Wilier Mortirolo. It's 100% Italian carbon fibre loveliness and a fab bike. Can be had for £1500.

Apart from it's made in Taiwan.......