new bike required throw up some options

Crankmeister

I ride mountain bike but would like to start road riding again.
im not up to scratch with knoledge of road bikes to be honest ,so i thought id ask for some advice and options on here my budget would be a maximum of 3k
i know that may seem alot but i would like it to be near the quality of the mountain bike i ride

Anonymous

Good man, no point going half cocked!

Bottom line is, there are no bad bikes for that sort of money.

Find a good LBS that you trust and like and get what fits best...

Chip \'oyler

Crankmeister wrote:

I ride mountain bike but would like to start road riding again.
im not up to scratch with knoledge of road bikes to be honest ,so i thought id ask for some advice and options on here my budget would be a maximum of 3k
i know that my seem alot but i would like it to be near the quality of the mountain bike i ride

For 3k you could get a made to measure Carbon Viner

For instance the 2010 Volata with 105 Shimano is around £2600

Slow Downcp

What sort of riding are you going to be doing? I guess not 10 mile slow rides given your budget, but are you going to be racing, sportives, general pleasure? Lanes, A and B Roads etc?

Crankmeister

well my local bike shop sells scott and giant bikes.ive been considering the addict and the cr1 but would i be right in thinking the cr1 doesnt have a replaceable rear hanger?
the addict may be to much of an aggresive riding position.i think i,ll need to ask for a test ride.
what are the giant carbon bikes like? or should i be looking at more exotic companies spending that much. the viners frame maybe great but i wouldnt be satisfied having a 105 groupo on my road bike when my mountain bike weighs in at 18lbs

what about a carbon ribble build? they seem to get good reviews on their carbon sportive frame and i could have a real high spec build?

oh just one more thing what would be the difference between campag and shimano of a similar price bracket? as if i have a ribble build i wouldnt know wether to choose campag chorus or the shimano equivalent.
i wont be racing the bike but be taking long rides and may be a sportive as the summer months arrise thanks

Chip \'oyler

Obviously the choice is yours but I was given some great advice many years ago. Buy the best frame you can afford, you can always upgrade the equipment, but the frame is the heart of your bike.

For an extra £3299 you could get the Viner Perfecta with Ultegra

http://www.epic-cycles.co.uk/Viner.htm

Anonymous

I would seriously consider the Giant offering...

mfin

Id go and buy a £600-£800 bike that you can demote come the good weather (and when you have your new wonder bike) to just being a winter/bad weather bike and use this bike for now through the winter ....if you then have got the bug properly then come the good weather you'll have more experience of what you like/don't like and have immersed yourself in more options, you'll aspire to something by then I predict.

Then I reckon you'll get to buy a great bit of kit come spring that you know will be 'right' and in the meantime ride something perfectly good to get the feel of road biking and work up any fitness you need to (if any). I wouldn't necessarily say go for a 'dedicated' winter bike (low end kit, mudguard eyes), you can always get something you like the look of and fit race blades/new crud things to it. I ride a Cube for that, but there's loads of choice, take your pick.

What mtb do you ride then by the way?

Chip \'oyler

mfin wrote:

Id go and buy a £600-£800 bike that you can demote come the good weather (and when you have your new wonder bike) to just being a winter/bad weather bike and use this bike for now through the winter ....if you then have got the bug properly then come the good weather you'll have more experience of what you like/don't like and have immersed yourself in more options, you'll aspire to something by then I predict.

Then I reckon you'll get to buy a great bit of kit come spring that you know will be 'right' and in the meantime ride something perfectly good to get the feel of road biking and work up any fitness you need to (if any). I wouldn't necessarily say go for a 'dedicated' winter bike (low end kit, mudguard eyes), you can always get something you like the look of and fit race blades/new crud things to it. I ride a Cube for that, but there's loads of choice, take your pick.

What mtb do you ride then by the way?

Good idea

Crankmeister

I ride a scott scale http://liverpoolfc.pinkbike.com/ and im happy to ride this over the winter to help keep my fitness levels respectable.

Mfin if i had a bike for bad weather i would only ride my nice weather bike for like 14 days a year as i live in england

im not going to rush in to something that wont serve my needs.

cheers for the advice

mfin

Nice Scott... spotted the KCNC cranks and the Stan's rims straight away... makes me think you might be the kind of person who'd enjoy getting a frameset and speccing the whole thing up? ...what dyou reckon to the cranks by the way, I nearly bought some for my Pace a while back.

14 days?? I get to ride my good bike a lot more than my winter bike !! EDIT: maybe 60/40

Still think there's mileage in getting something and riding it myself, if I was getting my first modern road bike for 3k then I reckon I could end up wishing Id got something else, maybe you'll get it bang on first time though.

If you do pile right in I liked the carbon Viner suggestion. Epic Cycles are worth a visit, they'd have you on something that fits you bang on and have some great bikes.

Crankmeister

mfin wrote:

Nice Scott... spotted the KCNC cranks and the Stan's rims straight away... makes me think you might be the kind of person who'd enjoy getting a frameset and speccing the whole thing up? ...what dyou reckon to the cranks by the way, I nearly bought some for my Pace a while back.

14 days?? I get to ride my good bike a lot more than my winter bike !! EDIT: maybe 60/40

Still think there's mileage in getting something and riding it myself, if I was getting my first modern road bike for 3k then I reckon I could end up wishing Id got something else, maybe you'll get it bang on first time though.

If you do pile right in I liked the carbon Viner suggestion. Epic Cycles are worth a visit, they'd have you on something that fits you bang on and have some great bikes.

glad you notice my rims and cranks etc but you missed the tune hubs!! they were quite expensive but rare in these parts.
the KCNC cranks are really quality light and slick changing which was great as im used to shimano,s quality
although fitting the cranks wasnt as easy as its seemed with the scale frame.its 73mm bb with an Etype frontmech so it didnt line up at all but i was having this crank on my bike no matter what..... i had to use a bb facing tool to remove 1.5mm of material off the driveside to make things work as they should,it was a scary thing to do but it turned out bloody great and lowered the q factor with being able to fit the KCNC crankset as i did.i would gladly recommend to anyone kcnc products as i have quite a few of them and they are great.
Clee cycles have always delivered what ive ordered the next day.
well getting back to road bikes i will look at viners bikes at epic and see what they have to offer thanks again

mfin

Crankmeister wrote:

mfin wrote:

Nice Scott... spotted the KCNC cranks and the Stan's rims straight away... makes me think you might be the kind of person who'd enjoy getting a frameset and speccing the whole thing up? ...what dyou reckon to the cranks by the way, I nearly bought some for my Pace a while back.

14 days?? I get to ride my good bike a lot more than my winter bike !! EDIT: maybe 60/40

Still think there's mileage in getting something and riding it myself, if I was getting my first modern road bike for 3k then I reckon I could end up wishing Id got something else, maybe you'll get it bang on first time though.

If you do pile right in I liked the carbon Viner suggestion. Epic Cycles are worth a visit, they'd have you on something that fits you bang on and have some great bikes.

glad you notice my rims and cranks etc but you missed the tune hubs!! they were quite expensive but rare in these parts.
the KCNC cranks are really quality light and slick changing which was great as im used to shimano,s quality
although fitting the cranks wasnt as easy as its seemed with the scale frame.its 73mm bb with an Etype frontmech so it didnt line up at all but i was having this crank on my bike no matter what..... i had to use a bb facing tool to remove 1.5mm of material off the driveside to make things work as they should,it was a scary thing to do but it turned out bloody great and lowered the q factor with being able to fit the KCNC crankset as i did.i would gladly recommend to anyone kcnc products as i have quite a few of them and they are great.
Clee cycles have always delivered what ive ordered the next day.
well getting back to road bikes i will look at viners bikes at epic and see what they have to offer thanks again

Ahh... didn't miss the tune hubs..! Notcied the rims straight away as I wanted some ZTR rims built up from justridingalong but never got round to doing it... more roading meant Im almost at the point of selling my Pace MTB now as it doesn't get used.

Yeah, I spotted Clee... I almost bought KCNC road bars, but got a good price on Deda Newtons so never did it.

The guys in Epic are really good if they have something you like the sound of getting... mainly Viner, Scott, Bianchi, Argon 18, Orbea, Look, maybe some Ive missed too. I ummed and ahhed over a Viner recently but went with another Cervelo in the end. Viners are nice looking in the flesh... not too bendy looking if you don't like that kind of look, which isn't my thing at all, but thats just personal taste. A lot of the Viners come in 3 separate geometry choices too and some can be custom made to fit instead at a <gulp> cost.

Chip \'oyler

mfin wrote:

Crankmeister wrote:

mfin wrote:

Nice Scott... spotted the KCNC cranks and the Stan's rims straight away... makes me think you might be the kind of person who'd enjoy getting a frameset and speccing the whole thing up? ...what dyou reckon to the cranks by the way, I nearly bought some for my Pace a while back.

14 days?? I get to ride my good bike a lot more than my winter bike !! EDIT: maybe 60/40

Still think there's mileage in getting something and riding it myself, if I was getting my first modern road bike for 3k then I reckon I could end up wishing Id got something else, maybe you'll get it bang on first time though.

If you do pile right in I liked the carbon Viner suggestion. Epic Cycles are worth a visit, they'd have you on something that fits you bang on and have some great bikes.

glad you notice my rims and cranks etc but you missed the tune hubs!! they were quite expensive but rare in these parts.
the KCNC cranks are really quality light and slick changing which was great as im used to shimano,s quality
although fitting the cranks wasnt as easy as its seemed with the scale frame.its 73mm bb with an Etype frontmech so it didnt line up at all but i was having this crank on my bike no matter what..... i had to use a bb facing tool to remove 1.5mm of material off the driveside to make things work as they should,it was a scary thing to do but it turned out bloody great and lowered the q factor with being able to fit the KCNC crankset as i did.i would gladly recommend to anyone kcnc products as i have quite a few of them and they are great.
Clee cycles have always delivered what ive ordered the next day.
well getting back to road bikes i will look at viners bikes at epic and see what they have to offer thanks again

Ahh... didn't miss the tune hubs..! Notcied the rims straight away as I wanted some ZTR rims built up from justridingalong but never got round to doing it... more roading meant Im almost at the point of selling my Pace MTB now as it doesn't get used.

Yeah, I spotted Clee... I almost bought KCNC road bars, but got a good price on Deda Newtons so never did it.

The guys in Epic are really good if they have something you like the sound of getting... mainly Viner, Scott, Bianchi, Argon 18, Orbea, Look, maybe some Ive missed too. I ummed and ahhed over a Viner recently but went with another Cervelo in the end. Viners are nice looking in the flesh... not too bendy looking if you don't like that kind of look, which isn't my thing at all, but thats just personal taste. A lot of the Viners come in 3 separate geometry choices too and some can be custom made to fit instead at a <gulp> cost.

That's not strictly true. The four upper end frames, Volata, Perfecta, Mitus Plus and Maxima can be custom measured at no extra cost, they just take longer to arrive. However the Maxima IS only available custom made. Not only can they measure it up for you, they can build the frame and lay up the main tubes to match your weight and riding characteristics

mfin

Chip \'oyler wrote:

That's not strictly true. The four upper end frames, Volata, Perfecta, Mitus Plus and Maxima can be custom measured at no extra cost, they just take longer to arrive. However the Maxima IS only available custom made. Not only can they measure it up for you, they can build the frame and lay up the main tubes to match your weight and riding characteristics

Really, didnt know that... that makes it a very attractive proposition then.

Pross

[/quote]well my local bike shop sells scott and giant bikes.ive been considering the addict and the cr1 but would i be right in thinking the cr1 doesnt have a replaceable rear hanger?

I'm just waiting for my CR1 (much lower spec than you will get for £3k) and loved it on my test ride. It is a new frame for 2010 with flattened out forks and seat stays which makes it nice and comfy. Only thing was I forgot to ask whether they've made it with a replaceable hanger this time and didn't pay it any attention :oops: Seems a lovely ride though. None in the country in my size (58cm) at present despite them only being out a few weeks so I've got to wait another month or so.

Crankmeister

Hey chip thanks for that information they sound like an amazing company so do you have any information on the frame weights i know size will slightly change matters though.it would be nice to have some idea though before i contact them.

pross

sorry to hear that youll have to wait a while for your new bike.to be honest though im not rushing for my new bike ive got my mtb for the winter!!
it will be nice to see your cr1 when it does arrive though.
i cant wait for spring to be honest so i can join a road club and learn how to ride the roads of the penines.hills galore

Chip \'oyler

Crankmeister wrote:

Hey chip thanks for that information they sound like an amazing company so do you have any information on the frame weights i know size will slightly change matters though.it would be nice to have some idea though before i contact them.

pross

sorry to hear that youll have to wait a while for your new bike.to be honest though im not rushing for my new bike ive got my mtb for the winter!!
it will be nice to see your cr1 when it does arrive though.
i cant wait for spring to be honest so i can join a road club and learn how to ride the roads of the penines.hills galore

Crankmeister - I've sent you a PM

Crankmeister

thanks ive dropped you one back

Pross

Crankmeister wrote:

Hey chip thanks for that information they sound like an amazing company so do you have any information on the frame weights i know size will slightly change matters though.it would be nice to have some idea though before i contact them.

pross

sorry to hear that youll have to wait a while for your new bike.to be honest though im not rushing for my new bike ive got my mtb for the winter!!
it will be nice to see your cr1 when it does arrive though.
i cant wait for spring to be honest so i can join a road club and learn how to ride the roads of the penines.hills galore

Don't worry - will be plenty of pics as I try to earn myself one of NapoleanD's elusive OCP badges

Don't wait until spring to join a club, winter is often the best time as you get to meet more people who will be racing in the spring and summer. Join as soon as you have a bike or even borrow one if you have a friend with a spare.