Edit: Budget Increased £500 (go to pg2)

The Northern Monkey

budget... less than £300

Dawes Giro

Raleigh Airlite

Like the look of the dawes atm...

only gonna use it for commuting and a few laps round richmond park now an then... its gotta be easier than on the MTB!!!

Cheers for any input whatsoever, utter n00b at road bikes

B

PostieJohn

There's a thread here, banging on about how great Carrera bikes (Halfords) are, for the price.

The Northern Monkey

I do like carrera (MTB's) and would go for a carrera road bike, however they start around £400 and are above my budget

The Northern Monkey

Anyone got any opinions n the above bikes? good or bad.

If I could stretch, how about this
Carrera Virtuoso

bigmat

I'd go second hand at that price point, however if you want new maybe try Decathlon or the sales. You should be able to find something with integrated gears rather than downtube shifters - I'd say that should be a bare minimum.

A quick google search comes up with these - haven't looked in any detail but look better than the ones you've been looking at. The one with Sora gears in particular.

http://www.cashconnector.co.uk/viking-s ... -642-p.asp
http://www.ashcycles.com/power/index.ph ... urrency=BP
http://www.rushcycles.co.uk/products.ph ... 2835&rs=gb
http://www.chrispaulsoncycles.co.uk/pro ... p459&rs=gb

kingrollo

Have a look at the decathlon website - they do an entry level racer for £260 - £300 - Ive got one and its pretty spec for the money - no problems 3 years on.

waytogoyet

any chance of using bike to work scheme?
My TCR1.5 is costing under £30 per month

volvicspar

My 7.1 weighs 9kg with on the carbon bling I added. Nice bike and only cost me 124 quid in the sales 8)

The Northern Monkey

Unfortunately I can't use CTW at uni atm... hense the low budget

I've checked out the decathlon bikes, however I can't get the correct size at my local store. I was pretty set on getting one until I realised that

MatHammond
Sorry if i'm being simple, but whats the difference between integrated shifters and downtube shifter?
Got some nice looking bikes in there, cheers for the options


I am checking the classifieds and ebay for a bargain, but i've been outbid twice and most stuff on here is over budget/seller doesn't respond

keef66

judging by his location he's a student, so the bike to work scheme probably doesn't apply. I'd recommend finding a friendly roadie (Uni got a bike club?) to advise on a second hand purchase. You'll get a lot more bike for your money that way, and second hand will likely be less shiny and less attractive to thieves.

And get a decent D lock!

The Northern Monkey

Aye, def looking at 2nd hand.
Unfortunately we don't have a bike club.. really wish we did, although i've only seen around 10 bikes locked up!

Got a nice big D lock thats required by insurance for my other bike so got no probs there.

psychle

I bought a Carrera Virtuoso a couple of months ago for leisure/holiday use.

I had to make a few adjustments to the Halfords build, the biggest thing being re-positioning the front mech (chain rub was evident in every gear combo). And I fitted a set of mudguards.

Overall, I'm very impressed with it. It gives a very comfortable ride and I like the gearing ratios (50/36 with 12-26 8-spd cassette). The steeering is a bit slow but very stable at speed and obviously it's not the lightest bike (but not too heavy either).
The mechs and integrated shifters are still shifting very well, but I've noticed that the bottom bracket is now a little loose.

I got it for £240 and for that money I'm very pleased with it.

bigmat

Integrated shifters are the ones where the gear shifters are part of the brake levers design - means you can change gear without moving your hands from the brakes. Downtube shifters are the ones where the gear shifters are on the frame of the bike. Its pretty antiquated technology these days, and I would avoid if at all possible. Try loot.com / gumtree websites if you want second hand without the ebay bidding frenzy.

kingrollo

If Decathlon have the bikes - ask the store to get them for you - just because they haven't got the bike locally doesn't mean you can't have it - Ring them and ask them to get you one in ....Ive done this loads of times !

The Northern Monkey

kingrollo wrote:

If Decathlon have the bikes - ask the store to get them for you - just because they haven't got the bike locally doesn't mean you can't have it - Ring them and ask them to get you one in ....Ive done this loads of times !

Really? Might phone them up then
I though it was a bit like the halfords collect at store scheme, you can only get it if its available at that store.

Cheers

Mark Alexander

I had a Dawes Giro but the flat bar version for around town. Not bad for the money. Don't spend anything less.

ShaunL

The Carrerra is the best of the 3 new bikes but there are loads of secondhand bikes in the free papaers etc where you would get a beter spec for possibly less money. If the budget is tight go secondhand.

droo74

Hi BigBen

I was using an Airlite 100 to commute for 6 months and think it's the best £200 I've ever spent!

I was doing about 18 miles a day on it in all weathers on a really bumpy route and have no complaints other than numerous punctures! (obviously not the bike's fault)

Got myself an Specialized Allez now (about £500) and to be honest it's not that much better than the Airlite. Ok it's lighter, has smoother steering and has alot greater speed potential but isn't nearly as soft a ride as the Airlite and it's gears don't seem as smooth either.

acorn_user

You could put 26" road slicks on an mtb, and have a very good bike for pootling around for very little money. That may be a better solution, unless you can find a nice 2nd hand bike.

The Northern Monkey

acorn_user

you obviously haven't seen my bike! would be a bit of a struggle to get slicks on my 4cm wide rims

The Northern Monkey

droo74 wrote:

Hi BigBen

I was using an Airlite 100 to commute for 6 months and think it's the best £200 I've ever spent!

I was doing about 18 miles a day on it in all weathers on a really bumpy route and have no complaints other than numerous punctures! (obviously not the bike's fault)

Got myself an Specialized Allez now (about £500) and to be honest it's not that much better than the Airlite. Ok it's lighter, has smoother steering and has alot greater speed potential but isn't nearly as soft a ride as the Airlite and it's gears don't seem as smooth either.

That sounds quite promising. what type of gear shifters does the raleigh and dawes have are they the integrated type?

I'm really not looking for anything highly spec'd. Obviously something that works tho

The Northern Monkey

Well I went down to halfords to check out their carrera and boardman bikes..

Waste of flipping time.

1st off the guy was foreign (not his fault obviously) but I just couldn't understand what he was on about. secondly, the only bikes they had in store were small! every single one of them a small!
Had a sit on one but it was like sitting on a kids bike so i'm still no nearer to finding what size I need!

However, i've decided that road bikes are lush! Even though I was cramped as hell it just kinda felt nice. really liked the feel to the dropped bars.

The carrera virtuoso was nice, but out of my price range

The Northern Monkey

Btw, I see what people mean about the integrated shifters, they're awesome!!

Does the raleigh airlight 100 have integrated shifters?

Also, I saw an "old" roadie on ebay with the gears on the downtube!!! take it thats last century's shifting style?

STEFANOS4784

Check out ebay, sometimes, well quite a lot of the time, things go for quite high seeming prices but something like this that looks barely ridden.:

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Carrera-Vanquish- ... otohosting


Would be better spec and if you can find something in your area or that the seller is willing to post then you're laughing. 8)

Also i spot some pretty good looking buys in the free-ads sometimes, always worth a gander.

The Northern Monkey

Interesting cheers Stefanos. Well within pickup distance for me

Bet that goes for silly money tho was bidding on something similar which shot up, being watched tho

Edit: ahh bugger I think it could be too small reaaaallly need to get on a bike and try it for size

The Northern Monkey

Out of interest, what are the best keywords to search for for road bikes?

I'm literally just putting "road bike" in, but surely there must be more!

davehiscock

have you checked the for sale section on here, i have sold my merida 880 on here last week for £200 pounds

The Northern Monkey

Yea have been checking daily
Contacted a few people

Mark Alexander

I could throw, single speed fun into the mix. I don't mean fixed if you're not confident, but thy are fun, fun, fun.

Headhuunter

bigbenj_08 wrote:

Btw, I see what people mean about the integrated shifters, they're awesome!!

Does the raleigh airlight 100 have integrated shifters?

Also, I saw an "old" roadie on ebay with the gears on the downtube!!! take it thats last century's shifting style?

Both the Dawes and the Airlite 100 which you posted details of have downtube shifters. It says in the description details and you can see them in the pic!!

Downtube shifters are not that bad, I have them on 1 of my commuting bikes and they're no problem at all, they're very simple technology so there's very little to go wrong. The only disadvantage is that you can't easily brake and change gear at the same time.

Marcosplace

Claude Butler Roubaix.....£340 ish pay cash....