Advice on picking my first road bike.

andy46

hello everyone

i've been mountain biking for a while but lately i have found myself riding on the road a lot more.
so i have decided to get saving and buy a proper road bike, something i can ride to work and go for a good ride on a weekend. I have set my budget at £650 and have got it narrowed down to these two.

http://www.bikesportltd.co.uk/product.aspx?id=436

http://www.halfords.com/webapp/wcs/stor ... yId_165710

I have heard all the horror story's about halfords service, and to be honest i am looking more at the specialized as this would be from lbs.
if anyone could give any advice on these or any other bikes it would be greatly appreciated, thank you.

Grazy81

I have recently purchased an allez and am very pleased with it so i can strongly recommend this however what i have seen on here the boardman is highly reguarded aswell so if i was you i would try and get a test ride on both or at least get a sit on them and then see how each feels from there

Garz

I have the boardman, but the spesh is a nice bike too!

If you consider yourself au fait with bikes (being a MTB rider) then the halfords horror service might not apply as you can check the basic stuff yourself. If your leaning towards the spesh then I think your mind is already made, get down to the lbs then!

andy46

Thanks for the fast response guy's can you see anything in the spec's why i should pick one over the other?

irvini

I've got the Allez too and very pleased with it so you can't go wrong with it.

Although I would say if you wait a month then you would see a few more bikes discounted from various retailers

Garz

I wouldn't say wait a month personally as that's a month of no riding!

Escargot

andy46 wrote:

hello everyone

i've been mountain biking for a while but lately i have found myself riding on the road a lot more.
so i have decided to get saving and buy a proper road bike, something i can ride to work and go for a good ride on a weekend. I have set my budget at £650 and have got it narrowed down to these two.

http://www.bikesportltd.co.uk/product.aspx?id=436

http://www.halfords.com/webapp/wcs/stor ... yId_165710

I have heard all the horror story's about halfords service, and to be honest i am looking more at the specialized as this would be from lbs.
if anyone could give any advice on these or any other bikes it would be greatly appreciated, thank you.

Wow the Boardman spec looks very good indeed. I realise it's only the rear mech but a splash of Shimano 105 for £650 is not bad at all.

I'm not sure if you've considered Bianchi but I rode a Via Nirone a few weeks back and it was superb. Smooth, extremely comfortable and good looking too. If you're not fussed about a 2009 bike then I'm sure you would be able to pick up a bargain if you shop arround. I'm sure that applies to all brands so you could get an Allez with a higher spec for the same sort of money.

Best of luck with the purchase

hotspur

Definitely wait it out. I got my Bianchi a few years back and got a very nice discount.

andy46

thanks for the advice guy's i will be waiting a bit so i can save up a bit of money (credit crunch and all that ) but i'll definitly take a look at the Bianchi and i'll keep my eye's open for any discounted 2009 bikes. Make's no difference to me when it was made!

Thank's again everyone!