Best road bike in £500 range, maybe Raleigh Airlite 400 ?

alebleicker

Hi there, I'm trying to find the best road bike for £500 so now I'm thinking about the Raleigh Airlite 400 http://www.ashcycles.com/power/index...oducts_id=1679 for £509.
But I've being researching on the web and forums about another models in the same range and found Boardman Comp, Giant Defy, Bianchi Nirone and Specialized Allez. I would like to know if you guys can give me some advice about models in the same range of £500 with a good setup (shimano tiagra perhaps?) and lightweight.

Thank you!

desperate73

the Airlite 400 for that price i like. (here's an unbroken link)

http://www.ashcycles.com/power/index.ph ... ts_id=1679

Get a light one (say 9ish kg's) with tiagra and brand name as well for sub £500 and you'll be doing very, very well. better than i could do at least i i tried very hard.

Mine isn't tiagra but sora... spec wise it's good for sub £500... Although i thought at the time that Claud Butler was a great name (well it is) but it's really a Falcon as it's owned by that Falcon/Scorpion/Optima/Butler group.

http://www.mailordercycles.co.uk/produc ... 1b0s6p5626

Takis61

New mag on sale today, Cycling active, has 4 £500 entry level bikes on test including the Raleigh, not read it all yet but it comes out well, Trek 1.2 & B'Twin 2 (Decathlon) got highest scores.

alebleicker

desperate73 wrote:

the Airlite 400 for that price i like. (here's an unbroken link)

http://www.ashcycles.com/power/index.ph ... ts_id=1679

Get a light one (say 9ish kg's) with tiagra and brand name as well for sub £500 and you'll be doing very, very well. better than i could do at least i i tried very hard.

Mine isn't tiagra but sora... spec wise it's good for sub £500... Although i thought at the time that Claud Butler was a great name (well it is) but it's really a Falcon as it's owned by that Falcon/Scorpion/Optima/Butler group.

http://www.mailordercycles.co.uk/produc ... 1b0s6p5626

I sent an email to the store asking for the weight of Airlite 400, if it is sub 10kg it is fine. I had a bike with sore gears/shifters several years ago, they were good, the bike was lightweight as responsive. But I'm finding this particular model cheap for all the specs. Carbon fork, nice design, very good gear/shifter set. For another brands I could only find the similar specs for more than £600.

I was looking at the claud butler models as well, But i just think £450ish is way too much comparing to the airlite 400 with all tiagra setup for £509

Well, it was a long time ago since I've gave up cycling due to work abroad so things could have changed, but I still think that £509 for a tiagra setup is quite good. Whta do you think ? cheers

goobs

I was looking at the 400 too.

How did it come out in the review and what was the weight ?

Gav888

Have you thought about the Saracen Tour 3, Sora equipped with carbon forks and looks really nice. Currently £530 new or £400 second hand for one that is under a year old in the for sale section....

amaferanga

That looks like a lot of bike for £500. Just a few years ago Giant, Trek and Specialized were doing (almost) full Tiagra bikes for around the £500 mark, but these days as you're well aware you only get Sora for that kind of money. There seem to be some good reductions on Raleigh bikes just now (one of the carbon ones is down to £999 from £1499) making them amongst the best value around.

I doubt you'll find anything better or lighter for that money unless you go second hand, in which case you could get something much better (not mine btw, just spotted it in the classifieds).

skellator3

I GOT AN AIRLITE 400 I WILL DO FOR £520 DELIVERED ITS A SIZE 56 BRAND NEW RETAIL PRICE IS £699.99 WEIGHT IS APPROX 9.7 KG
TIAGRA SHIFTERS, FRONT AND REAR MECH, 12 - 25 REAR CASSETTE AND A FSA COMPACT CHAINSET 50/34

BRAND NEW I AM A RETAIL SHOP

amaferanga

skellator3 wrote:

I GOT AN AIRLITE 400 I WILL DO FOR £520 DELIVERED ITS A SIZE 56 BRAND NEW RETAIL PRICE IS £699.99 WEIGHT IS APPROX 9.7 KG
TIAGRA SHIFTERS, FRONT AND REAR MECH, 12 - 25 REAR CASSETTE AND A FSA COMPACT CHAINSET 50/34

BRAND NEW I AM A RETAIL SHOP

Don't think you've got much to shout about since another shop is doing it for £509.

skellator3

BUT IS THAT DELIVERED

amaferanga

Why are you shouting?

neil²

I've got an Airlite 400, and paid a lot than you are going to!

I have been really pleased with it. At the time, all the competition at the price was coming in with Sora but the Airlite is equipped with Tiagra. The stem that came with it was too long for me and so I replaced it with a slightly shorter one. It's not noticeably heavier than my race bike and feels very stable on the road. The tyres don't hold their pressures very well, but replacement tubes would fix that, and it's not so much of a problem - I just need to top up every week so no great demand there.

I would recommend it, but theres a lot of other choices out there at that price. The Tiagra GS swung it for me.

skellator3

the review in cycling active was for the AIRLITE 300 sora group and alloy fork not a patch on the 400

goobs

Just been down to my LBS to try it out and they weighed it without pedals at 10.17 KG on a 54cm frame.

Skellator3 - whereabouts are you ? and yes that was £509 delivery is free to UK.

skellator3

im in dumfries s/w scotland

afcbian

Can't comment on the Raleigh personally but I was looking for a road bike a few months back and my LBS guy pleaded with me not to waste my money buying a Raleigh road bike. In his opinion they were all sh*t and I would regret it. He recomended buying a Giant defy 4, which was up for £475.
In the end I found a bargain unused but 2nd hand 6 month old Ribble with complete Campagnolo Mirage groupset and carbon Alpine fork for £275.00

holybinch

If you look a bit into what you need, try a couple of bikes to know which size you need, and basically do your homework, I really think second hand will bring you more joy.
Else in that price range, the decathlon seems to be pretty well rated.

alebleicker

goobs wrote:

I was looking at the 400 too.

How did it come out in the review and what was the weight ?

I've got it, it weights around 9-10kg i think, it is very light
I'm loving it, for £509 there is no another brand with tiagra setup

alebleicker

afcbian wrote:

Can't comment on the Raleigh personally but I was looking for a road bike a few months back and my LBS guy pleaded with me not to waste my money buying a Raleigh road bike. In his opinion they were all sh*t and I would regret it. He recomended buying a Giant defy 4, which was up for £475.
In the end I found a bargain unused but 2nd hand 6 month old Ribble with complete Campagnolo Mirage groupset and carbon Alpine fork for £275.00

maybe he never used one to say this, the setup for the price is excellent, so it is crap and use almost the same pieces as giant and another brands, how can it be so bad ?

neil²

afcbian wrote:

my LBS guy pleaded with me not to waste my money buying a Raleigh road bike. In his opinion they were all sh*t and I would regret it. He recomended buying a Giant defy 4, which was up for £475.
I

Sounds like a cr@p salesman if he thinks that their high-end bikes are no good! I guess that the commission was better for the Giant. Can't believe that he recommended a 2200 groupset with composite fork over carbon and Tiagra. Anyway, Giant do make some great bikes but an Airlight 400 is superior than Defy 4.

Compare the deals - bikes are very similar at this price. My logic was that the bits that break are the groupset components and so go for quality there. If things are like for like then go on fit, colour, bling, weld quality, nationality, prejudice, whatever other things go into your decisions.