£1000 road bike???

AntG

£1000 to spend via Cycle2Work scheme (through Halfords), but only 10 days to finalise which bike I go for! Any thoughts hugely appreciated..

Contenders are;

Ribble Road Carbon Sportive Racing Centaur 10 Double £999.99
http://www.ribblecycles.co.uk/SpecialEditionBikes.asp
Looks nice, but never used Campag before -and can't tell from picture if wheels are same on this model as the more desirable Ultegra kitted version (sadly out of price range)

Dolan Mythos £1000
http://www.italian-solutions.co.uk/prod ... ctid=16144
Ultegra group

Viner Gladius Ltd Ed. £999
http://www.cycle2work.info/employees/viner.html

Kiron Scandium £999
http://www.roadcyclinguk.com/news/article/mps/uan/3540

Focus Cayo 105 £999

Boardman Pro £999

AntG

add the Cube Attempt to that list - £900
http://www.winstanleysbikes.co.uk/produ ... _Bike_2009

redddraggon

AntG wrote:

Looks nice, but never used Campag before -and can't tell from picture if wheels are same on this model as the more desirable Ultegra kitted version (sadly out of price range)

Surely Centuar is more desirable? Ultegra is only more expensive because of the value of the Yen v the Pound

doyler78

Are you sure you can get those Wiggle bikes ie Focus or Kiron as their retail cost in both cases is £1099 though they are listed with a 10% discount however that's neither here nor there as Halfords can only buy them at full retail cost putting them outside the scheme. Also the Scandium is out of stock in every size bar 52 Race chainset.

Suggest before you start doing all your hard work whittling things down you may be better to speak to Halfords and see if they can get any of the bikes you want other than the boardman which isn't a problem as they sell them.

UnworthyPapaLazaru

doyler78 wrote:

Are you sure you can get those Wiggle bikes ie Focus or Kiron as their retail cost in both cases is £1099 though they are listed with a 10% discount however that's neither here nor there as Halfords can only buy them at full retail cost putting them outside the scheme. Also the Scandium is out of stock in every size bar 52 Race chainset.

True, you cant get the Focus/KIRON That's why I'm going for the Boardman.

jamieh5463

go for either the Boardman or the Kiron they are the lightest, the parts are all good and they wont fail on you.

alfablue

You can't get Wiggle bikes through Halfords cycle to work, also The Kiron is discontinued (only smallest size left). Ribble will be awkward, and if they do bother to sell you one (they showed complete disinterest when I tried) they will add a £50 fee.

Go Boardman, and consider paying LBS to give it a once-over after purchase.

SPOODZILLA

Are you sure you can't get wiggle bikes & discounts through the C2W scheme? I did it 18 months ago and bought a Merlin Malt 1 which could only be bought through Merlin Cycles, and still got the 10% discount they had on at the time no problem. Halfords were happy to help (not like them I know).

alfablue

Things have changed - Halfords may well still get Merlin's, but Wiggle have informed me they don't deal with Halfords. Halfords also can't get Bromptons or Planet-X apparently. Most other bikes are okay if you get them to cooperate.

bendertherobot

http://www.epic-cycles.co.uk/cyclescheme.html

Stuey01

I'm looking at getting my first road bike, with a similar budget. Not restricted by the C2W scheme however.

I'd spend up to a grand, but would happily go lower if poss!

Looking at:

Focus Cayo
Boardman carbon
Focus Variado expert
Cannondale Six 105
Cannondale caad9 105
BeOne Storm

All are spec'd with 105, except the Boardman which has SRAM. I'm really torn between frame materials. There is a mix of full carbon, alu with carbon fork and rear and alu with carbon fork I don't fully understand what benefit I'm going to get from spending the extra to "upgrade" from an all alu frame.

Also, is 105 noticeably better than tiagra? The standard variado has full tiagra and is quite a lot cheaper.

I'm going to use the bike for weekday night training, probably once a week long ride at the weekend and work up to doing a charity ride such as the Alps Cycling Challenge. Also will serve as a summer commuter.

I weigh in at 15st currently so that may influence how appropriate the differing materials are.

Help me please!

alfablue

Carbon frames are reputedly more comfortable than aluminium, however Alu frames can be as good as carbon, depends on the design. I have read that the Cayo gives quite a firm ride. I would suggest an important aspect is the geometry of your chosen bike, some are more relaxed (and therefore comfier for long rides) whereas others are more race oriented - more aero, but less comfy. I would suggest test riding where possible, though this isn't possible with Boardman or Focus. I am not sure you would notice the difference between 105 and Tiagra, I wouldn't make this an overriding consideration - more about the whole package and how it fits you and rides. If you are going to ride in the Alps you may want to specify a compact or triple chainset and a 12-27 cassette. Given your weight, maybe a triple is best.

redddraggon

The Boardman is a bargain

doyler78

alfablue wrote:

Carbon frames are reputedly more comfortable than aluminium, however Alu frames can be as good as carbon, depends on the design. I have read that the Cayo gives quite a firm ride. I would suggest an important aspect is the geometry of your chosen bike, some are more relaxed (and therefore comfier for long rides) whereas others are more race oriented - more aero, but less comfy. I would suggest test riding where possible, though this isn't possible with Boardman or Focus. I am not sure you would notice the difference between 105 and Tiagra, I wouldn't make this an overriding consideration - more about the whole package and how it fits you and rides. If you are going to ride in the Alps you may want to specify a compact or triple chainset and a 12-27 cassette. Given your weight, maybe a triple is best.

Not true. Wiggle offer a 7 day test ride on all their Focus and Kiron bikes and if you don't like you just email them and they will get it collected (so long as you don't damage the bike but then you can hardly expect to send back damaged goods and not pay for them can you). Find me a LBS that will offer that kind of test ride

As for the bikes - well they all have good reputations so I would go with what rides the best or appeals the most.

alfablue

Yes, agreed, the Wiggle solution is excellent (though my LBS - John's Bikes allows test rides without any security, will haggle down price/ throw in free or cheap accessories, will customise the bike for parts cost alone (even "bought back" the fitted disc brakes and refunded me when I went for something cheaper), AND say bring the bike back within a week if it doesn't suit). I would have no qualms buying from Wiggle on the 7 day return basis, however it doesn't give the opportunity to try several bikes before you buy.

passout

I got my Ribble Nero Corsa through this scheme - they charge a £50 admin fee. I love the bike though - great value.

AntG

Well just found about the sting in the tail for the C2W Scheme...

..in order to keep the bike at the end of the 12 month period you have to pay a fee to your employer for the 'fair market value' - knew all about this and from looking online seems most companies charge between 3-5% - however, appears my lot want 15%!!!!!

So, a one-off fee of £150 to find at the end of the scheme - might not sound alot, but means the near 50% saving is actually going to be closer to 30%...

doyler78

AntG wrote:

Well just found about the sting in the tail for the C2W Scheme...

..in order to keep the bike at the end of the 12 month period you have to pay a fee to your employer for the 'fair market value' - knew all about this and from looking online seems most companies charge between 3-5% - however, appears my lot want 15%!!!!!

So, a one-off fee of £150 to find at the end of the scheme - might not sound alot, but means the near 50% saving is actually going to be closer to 30%...

Is it really a sting in the tail - 30% is still 30% or £300 on a £1000 bike. That's a decent set of wheels. Yeah some people may get more than you but still you are getting a good deal.

The value of the sale is supposed to be fair market value and is supposed to be bike specific however in practice this has been estimated to be between 3 and 10% by a lot of employers but in reality a 1 year old bike will have a much higher resale value than this so it seems the HMRC are turning a blind eye to this so just be thankful for that as the scheme if implemented correctly would basically make it not worthwhile for most.

For public sector workers in Britain they can't reclaim VAT and their saving is around 33% so not everyone gets the same benefits anyway so your no worse of than them really.

bendertherobot

My scheme requires me to have an LBS carry out a valuation. So I'll take mine to the one I got it from and ask them to do it.

Interesting times as mine are in the "fair market value" rather than the (illegal) fixed percentage.

I wonder if I can steer them in the direction of "Lemond have gone out of business, it must be practically worthless now," rather than the "Bloody hell, have you SEEN how much similarly specced bikes cost now!"

doyler78

bendertherobot wrote:

My scheme requires me to have an LBS carry out a valuation. So I'll take mine to the one I got it from and ask them to do it.

Interesting times as mine are in the "fair market value" rather than the (illegal) fixed percentage.

I wonder if I can steer them in the direction of "Lemond have gone out of business, it must be practically worthless now," rather than the "Bloody hell, have you SEEN how much similarly specced bikes cost now!"

I think you will find that if it is a LBS that is familiar with Cycle to Work (as most are now) then I think you will find they will value the bike pretty low so I wouldn't worry too much.

Given some are willing to fiddle the original sale value to allow people to spend beyond the £1000 limit (if that is imposed on that person's scheme) and the employee paying the extra above the £1000 without the employer ever knowing then writing down the resale value bike lower than really is shouldn't be a problem

bendertherobot

doyler78 wrote:

I think you will find that if it is a LBS that is familiar with Cycle to Work (as most are now) then I think you will find they will value the bike pretty low so I wouldn't worry too much.

Given some are willing to fiddle the original sale value to allow people to spend beyond the £1000 limit (if that is imposed on that person's scheme) and the employee paying the extra above the £1000 without the employer ever knowing then writing down the resale value bike lower than really is shouldn't be a problem

Particularly since they will be looking for that "winter bike" sale at the same time