New here and looking for advice

asillars
asillars Posts: 4
edited September 2009 in Road buying advice
Hi everyone, im Andy and totally new to cycling. Im looking to get into road cycling mainly for fitness. Went to my local bike store the other day and was shown 2 road bikes in my price range, Trek 1.5 triple '09 (£700 with £70 free of charge accessories) and Specialized Secteur '10 (£550). I was told the Trek is a better bike pound for pound and to be honest i liked the look of it alot more. Plus as i don't have any gear what so ever, not even a helmet, then it makes this deal of buying the Trek even better.

Any thoughts on the whole situation? Also after i choose the bike, what are the essential accessories (eg. helmet, puncture repair kit, etc..)?

many thanks in advance

Andy

Comments

  • asillars
    asillars Posts: 4
    anyone any thoughts or advice?
  • beaders
    beaders Posts: 21
    Hi,

    I am also new to cycling and had narrowed my choice down to 2 cycles. The best advice I had was to test ride both bikes, I was then able to see which one felt the best for me to ride. The bike shop I used were happy to throw in a load of gear that I hadn't even considered at the time of pricing the bikes such as pedals etc.

    I ended up with a Trek as eventualy i decided that I preferred the paint job!

    Still happy at my purchase just due to holidays haven't been able to ride it as much as I'd hoped.

    Maybe if you look at other bike shops that you'll find more bikes in your price range, I did loads of research on the internet before I went to look at them.

    Whatever you buy, enjoy yourself

    exercise.png
  • Evil Laugh
    Evil Laugh Posts: 1,412
    http://www.bikeradar.com/forums/viewtop ... highlight=

    Check that thread out, a guy asked the same thing about equipment though don't think anyone mentioned a lock, which would be a good idea.

    You could get cycling insurance for less than £10 a month I'd imagine on a £700 bike. That would mean you have to get a lock from a specific list or makes like Kryptonite do a sort of insurance thing within the price of a lock, I got one from discount cycles for about £25 i think that covered theft up to £800 but it's not valid on my insurance so I had to replace it. A soldsecure gold rating is a safe bet if you decide you may wanna get insurance.

    Initially I'd think lock, lights, helmet, pump and at least a set of allan keys to adjust everything, if not one of those bike tools. A bell if you live in London. Then I'd think about different clothing, shoes, pedals etc as you will get by without them.

    Re the bike, just try as many as you can in your price range and take them out for as long as you can too, the longer you go for the more subtleties you'll notice in different geometries/ fits. Evans in Waterloo let me take bikes out for 15 mins at a time.

    You'd probably be better, when you find something you like looking for a deal on the 2009 stock, I just got 25% off my bike doing this as all the new 2010 models seem to be coming out.
  • asillars
    asillars Posts: 4
    thank you very much for your help. much appreciated

Categories