Advice on my first road bike?

tolgan
tolgan Posts: 3
edited November 2008 in Workshop
I've been cycling to work for many years, and am looking to spend £500-£700 on my first road bike. I'll use it to get to work on fine days (3 miles each way) plus the occasional weekend longer run.

Looking round the local shops in Cambridge:

Halfords have the Boardman range, Road and Hybrid. Impressed by the weight of these but slightly surprised they only have 18 gears and not easy to get Halfords to let me take one out to try.

The Merida Cyclo Cross 3 looks nice but at the top of my price range (£700)

Another shop has the Scott range.

Any advice, reviews, other suggestions?

Thanks

Chris

PS It looks like many brands are at the end of their 2008 stock, and prices are going up sharply for the 2009 stock (weak sterling?)

Comments

  • brownbosh
    brownbosh Posts: 602
    Look on this site under bikes and gear, bikes, road then slect price range £500-750 and rate by highest rated. That gives some good budget bike reviews. A lot of it is down to how your body is shaped and personal preference at that price level.
    Good luck!
  • Rockhopper
    Rockhopper Posts: 503
    The vast majority of road bikes have a compact double front chainset (50 - 36 or 50-34 or similar) plus nine or ten at the back (11 is the new toy for this year!) Some bikes are available with a triple front chainset but they tend to be the more touring biased bikes.
  • Al_38
    Al_38 Posts: 277
    Also have a look in Ben Hayward and Mike's bikes (i think) (the one at the bottom of Regent street). Ben hayward sell trek and the other one specialised.
  • torin
    torin Posts: 102
    people have recommended cube bikes to me they might be worth a look
  • torin
    torin Posts: 102
    you could always buy one online
    you could even get sized up in a shop then use those sizings to buy online
  • cougie
    cougie Posts: 22,512
    Dont do as torin suggests - you are abusing their goodwill. A good bike shop is invaluable especially for starters.
    I do like the boardman range tho - and they get good reviews too.
  • tolgan
    tolgan Posts: 3
    Thanks everyone for their advice.

    Boardman is sounding like a good buy provided I can find someone other than Halfords to set it up! I was imagining the road bike, but actually the hybrids look good too (they are a lot cheaper, anyone know where the costs have been cut - the gear changers for one thing I believe)

    Looking at the reviews, the Giant SCR also 1.5 sounds worth a look if I can find a stockist, as I will be using it on busy roads quite often I expect and could use decent steering!
  • torin
    torin Posts: 102
    cougie wrote:
    Dont do as torin suggests - you are abusing their goodwill. A good bike shop is invaluable especially for starters.
    I do like the boardman range tho - and they get good reviews too.

    i meant get the shop to order it for you most good shops do stuff like that
  • Al_38
    Al_38 Posts: 277
    tolgan wrote:
    Thanks everyone for their advice.

    Boardman is sounding like a good buy provided I can find someone other than Halfords to set it up! I was imagining the road bike, but actually the hybrids look good too (they are a lot cheaper, anyone know where the costs have been cut - the gear changers for one thing I believe)

    The combined brake lever and gear shifters on road bikes are particularly expensive - so a flat bar road bike with will be cheaper as they use seperate shifters and brake levers.
  • djaeggi
    djaeggi Posts: 107
    Chris,

    I recently went through a very similar loop with a friend. The bike shops in Cambridge we found relatively uninspiring. Anyway, for that kind of money, we actually ended up going down the secondhand route. Reason being that £400-700 on ebay actually gets you something quite decent for your money. If you're patient, you can find a decent bike that has seen little use with a good frame and good groupset; I found the component quality quite poor on some of the cheaper new bikes I saw, this is not stuff that is going to last. Fair enough, this was on £500 bikes and by the time you spend £700 the quality has jumped up a little. But, fundamentally, I think better value is to be had secondhand. OK, you need to know what size frame you're after, and there is some risk. But this can be mitigated by good research. And if you're relatively new to the world of road bikes, you might need advice from a friend.

    My friend ended up getting a very nice bike for £350 - campag daytona/centaur, decent frame, nice wheels, in excellent nick. Other bikes we saw flash past were a very nice scandium frame, chorus groupset and virtually no miles on the clock for £600, a good older 753 steel frame with a virtually unused full 2007 record groupset for £800. Lots more in the £300-400 range. Amazing, but true - you get all kinds of reasons for sale: people buying a nice bike then deciding cycling's not for them; gear junkies who have 20 bikes then the wife throws a fit so they have to sell a few; back problems; unexpected babies. Just takes some looking, a bit of research and some patience.

    Also, two more good reasons for spending less first time round... Until you've ridden a road bike a bit, you don't know what you like/need out of a bike. Thus, better to spend less now and maybe trade up in a year or two. Then, it's also worth budgeting for pedals, shoes, saddle, as these will all make a material difference to how you feel on the bike. Spending a little less than your maximum on the bike itself allows you some flexibility in both these areas.

    Dan

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