Best Road Bike for £500

smeev

hi all,

You have probably heard this all before from various people, but what is the best road bike for £500.

I used to be very keen on cycling when i was a teenager, but now, after a year at the gym & 3 stone lighter, i want to go back into road biking. I have now got a job close to my home & it makes perfect sense to sell the car & bike it to work. But all to oftern, especially after a mentally & physical day at work, a 2 hour gym session after 8pm, doesnt sound that promising sometimes. Hence the road bike, i think a good physical bike ride for an 1 hour or so, will give me a perfect cardio workout & of course, i can cut my gym membership down to a reasonable rate.

But just which is the best bike to get. I looked at a Gaint Defy 4 & 3.5 & they look stunning, the lightness of the defy 3.5 was truely unexpected. A little out of my price range, but can get either of them for £470 & £520 online respectively. Has anybody any thoughts on the specialized allez 16 for £500 or the carrera vanquish for £479. But today i popped in my local decathalon store a had a look at the Btwin sport 2, this has decent spec on it, as much as the others, plus the price has been reduced to £429 on a 57" frame setup. Has anybody brought a BTwin sport 2 & what do you think of it??
Its not a name i have heard of. Or is it worth paying the extra money for a specialized/giant or trek bike for £500.


Many Thanks[/b]

Slow Downcp

Btwin - it's Decathlon's own brand - carbon forks and rear end, decent groupset and finishing kit. Decathlon are one of the biggest sports retailers in Europe so their buying power means they can sell at low prices. I have the MTB equivalent (Rockrider 8.1), after looking at offering from more recongnised brands - none could touch the Decathlon bike for VFM.

The other option is looking second hand?

smeev

i am currently bidding on orbea fleche 08 bike, which has pretty good spec on it.
frame Orbea Asphalt, Forks Orbea Carbon, Micelin lithium tyres, sora gropset all round,
Wheels Shimano WH- R500 Road Racing.

Just seems that £429 for that spec on a bike, is just too hard to pass up & it dont look that bad either. Just wish they had reduced the sport 3, because that looks very good.

I have got a £500 buget & thats it. Got 2 get a helmet & possibly some decent lights for the dark nights, thats why i am pushed towards the sport 2 & possibly the second hand option.

Has anybody got any feedback from buying second hand, especially from ebay??
been screwed over a few times with fakes & stuff, just a bit wary, or i suppose its the chance you take.
.

sicknote

Got my road bike from ebay and for what I paid for it I was very happy but it did need some work and did not pay too much for it.

daniel_b

2 years ago when I was looking, I was thinking about a Sport 3, it was on offer for £480 IIRC, and had carbon rear stays and forks.

Not sure how well specced the 2 is now, maybe they have ramped it up a bit.

I have made 3 ebay purchases, 2 have been fantastic buys, and one was ok.

The Ok one first.

Ridgeback Bullit hybrid for my gf to commute on, description made it sounds fairly mint, but it wasn't that mint, ended up paying £120 for a Deore equipped bike, and it's been mostly fine, though we have had to replace a few bits on it.
Had some stock of parts to swap over to it, so it now has new brakes and levers, and we had to get the rear wheel trued, this then started coming loose with regards to the hub, took it off and put new bearings in, and apart from coming loose again once, it now seems to be ok.

The best two:

My Felt F70, bought 2 years ago for £470 (RRP year before was £850) when it was only 1 year old, had been treated so well, and had only covered 500 miles, was in pristine, and I mean pristine condition, 105 throughout, at the time 3 month old Pro race 2 tyres, which lasted me until this summer, and he also chucked in a really nice endura saddle bag (Quick clip variety with tyre levers in) and gave me a very nice set of Cateye lights for £5 (I looked them up online and at the time they were around £50 for the pair - oh and he put new batteries in for me too!

That bike is a gem, and is still going strong.
I am in the process of changing the wheels, upgradng to 10 speed, and changing the crankset to a compact, changed the saddle as well.

Trek 1000 - bought for my GF 2 years ago as well for £300 (£500 was the going rate at the time), ex demo from a shop in Essex.
Perfect condition, it is a new bike basically but with 40% off, and has covered many miles including 2 sportives with no issues.

I would go ebay again I think, depending on what my budget was.
I think if I had enough to buy something that I desired, then I would go new, otherwise I
would go 2nd hand/ebay.

Enjoy the shopping!

Cheers

Dan

Dickie.F.M

hi there,
i use a defy 1 for my commuting to work bike each day. great bike for the commute. Also good if you are wanting to cycle on the weekends. Although the bike's your looking at are different spec the frame is identical and is great.

Dickie