Thinking of making the switch to road

dg74

Used to ride incessantly (200 miles plus per week + off road) a few years back and have just got back into riding trails on my MTB but it's not cutting the mustard. I'm looking more and more into road bikes.

What is a good entry level cycle (300 - 500 - I know it's not much but anymore and it'd kill the wife).

Any help appreciated.

Cheers

rapid_uphill

do you want gears or ss?

cougie

Blimey - thats some mileage.

You could do worse than check out the Boardman range at Halfords/Bike Hut.

I'm assuming you must be pretty competent spanner wise anyway ?

kevinharley

This ...

http://www.chainreactioncycles.com/Mode ... elID=25458
(which I've recently got), or this ...

http://www.chainreactioncycles.com/Mode ... elID=25459
(but only in 59cm frame now)

dg74

rapid_uphill wrote:

do you want gears or ss?

Gears. I am planning on riding to work as there is one nasty hill on the way (strangely enough it's there on the way back too but not as bad).

dg74

cougie wrote:

Blimey - thats some mileage.

You could do worse than check out the Boardman range at Halfords/Bike Hut.

I'm assuming you must be pretty competent spanner wise anyway ?

I was a fit lad in my 20's. Now in my mid-30's and after a decade of wasting my life and not being very healthy, I want change!!!!

I'll have a look at the Boardman range and I'm crap with spanners and used http://www.bikerepairman.co.uk for all my maintenance work when I was riding.

gtitim

Boardman or the giant defy range are prolly good bets. If you can try them out first then even better.

Headhuunter

kevinharley wrote:

This ...

http://www.chainreactioncycles.com/Mode ... elID=25458
(which I've recently got), or this ...

http://www.chainreactioncycles.com/Mode ... elID=25459
(but only in 59cm frame now)

Wow those 2 seem v good value!

Headhuunter

dg74 wrote:

cougie wrote:

Blimey - thats some mileage.

You could do worse than check out the Boardman range at Halfords/Bike Hut.

I'm assuming you must be pretty competent spanner wise anyway ?

I was a fit lad in my 20's. Now in my mid-30's and after a decade of wasting my life and not being very healthy, I want change!!!!

I'll have a look at the Boardman range and I'm crap with spanners and used http://www.bikerepairman.co.uk for all my maintenance work when I was riding.

Funny, I'm the opposite. I drank and smoked my way through my 20s, all nighters at bars and clubs etc. Now I'm in my mid-30s I eat almost 100% organic, don't drink much, stopped smoking and cycle about 100+miles and run about 10-20 miles per week....

dg74

Headhuunter wrote:

Funny, I'm the opposite. I drank and smoked my way through my 20s, all nighters at bars and clubs etc. Now I'm in my mid-30s I eat almost 100% organic, don't drink much, stopped smoking and cycle about 100+miles and run about 10-20 miles per week....

Stopped biking at 25 (after a good 6 year stint of solid riding, running, swimming, football, etc), just gave up one day, it wasn't a gradual decrease, just sold all my kit to a lad I worked with and went crackers from then on, mirroring your life. Now I'm paying the price when I'm starting to ride again....not good, my lungs are wrecked!

Headhuunter

dg74 wrote:

Headhuunter wrote:

Funny, I'm the opposite. I drank and smoked my way through my 20s, all nighters at bars and clubs etc. Now I'm in my mid-30s I eat almost 100% organic, don't drink much, stopped smoking and cycle about 100+miles and run about 10-20 miles per week....

Stopped biking at 25 (after a good 6 year stint of solid riding, running, swimming, football, etc), just gave up one day, it wasn't a gradual decrease, just sold all my kit to a lad I worked with and went crackers from then on, mirroring your life. Now I'm paying the price when I'm starting to ride again....not good, my lungs are wrecked!

You'll soon be fit again. I started running as I turned 30. I used to run 2 miles home from work but I could barely manage 200 metres without stopping for a breather and a stroll. Now I run to and from work (6 miles in, 6 out) with rucksack without stopping.

If you've got some residual fitness your body'll return to its previous form quite quickly. However don't push it too hard to quickly. I've ended up with a stress fracture in my lower right leg from running too much too quickly. Your body needs a bit of time to strengthen.

prawny

I've just done the same, picked up a Boardman Road Comp just before xmas it's ace only riding to work a couple of days a week cuz it's 20 miles but i feel better already.

Can't wait till its lighter in the mornings so I can blast over cannock chase at the weekends before the wife and nipper wake up.

rapid_uphill

id go for a boardman they are well equipped and you can still get 08 models with discounts on the halfords website, that BeOne Storm 2.0 from crc has quite a good discount on it also.