Help wanted finding right commuting bike.

George_Walker

I am looking to get a new bike for commuting to go 8 miles from my house to the sixth form college so that's 16 miles in total each day, not too demanding especially as around Cambridge it is completely flat. I want to buy a new bike so I went immidiatly to my LBS (I know this might seem a bit stupid as I work in that anti-christ Halfrauds but I wouldn't touch one of their bikes with a barge pole) After several years of deore shifters I want a change. There were several that caught my eye the first was a Claud Butler Urban 600 at £519.99 the second was a Claud Butler Urban 500 at £449.99 and the last was a used 2007 dawes galaxy for £599.99. The specs are as follows

Claud Butler Urban 600
Frame: 6061 Aluminium
Fork: Carbon Fibre
Shifters: SRAM X7
Rear Mech: SRAM X9
Front Mech: SRAM X5
Brakes: Quad QHD 4
Crankset:Truvativ Five D
Wheels: Ritchey Disc OCR with generic hubs

Claud Butler Urban 600
Frame: 6061 Aluminium
Fork: Carbon Fibre
Shifters: SRAM X7
Rear Mech: SRAM X9
Front Mech: SRAM X5
Brakes: Avid Digit 5
Crankset:Truvativ Five D
Wheels: generic rims with generic hubs

Dawes Galaxy
Frame: Reynolds 631 Steel
Fork: Reynolds 520 Steel
Shifters: Shimano 9 speed bar ends
Rear Mech: Deore
Front Mech: Tiagra triple
Brakes: Tektro Oryx
Crankset: Shimano Deore
Wheels: WTB with Tiagra hubs

This is just to replace my old and ratty Saracen Venture 4 and I am aware that steel is more comfortable bt I just want something that goes as fast as possible in a straight line. I also after using the X9 with X7 shifters combo it shifts far smoother than my deore shifters.

jonny_trousers

If you work in Halfords and get a staff discount then you should consider a Boardman.

bails87

Jonny_Trousers wrote:

If you work in Halfords and get a staff discount then you should consider a Boardman.

+1

But it boxed and put it together yourself if you're that worried.

Mark Elvin

Gad in interesteing conversation about the Boardman bikes last night, with a chap who was onvolved in the design.

Great spec on the component front, great geometry, but some corners have been cut on the manufacturing of the carbon frames, they are an injection moulded carbon, not a proper laminated carbon, therefore the fibre/resin ration isn't the best.

George_Walker

I don't want to buy a boardman after seeing one or two come back under warrenty because they have cracked around the bottom bracket which i mean it might have been the fault of the customer. (Which is completely understandable considering some of the advice given to customers by my colleagues*) but the bottom bracket and around te seat stays cracking just put me off as it doesn't particularly scream quality.

This being on one of the aluminium framed boardman comp road bikes.

George_Walker

An example of some of the "advice" given has been to use a pair of plyers on the preload knob on a sr suntour fork. I mean this is the full time mechanic we have there. Technically Halfords is suppost to put him through a Cytevh level 2 course which he has not been through and he was not aware of until I asked him.

jonny_trousers

Mark Elvin wrote:

Great spec on the component front, great geometry, but some corners have been cut on the manufacturing of the carbon frames, they are an injection moulded carbon, not a proper laminated carbon, therefore the fibre/resin ration isn't the best.

Interesting. I thought about a Boardman once as, on paper, they look like nice bikes, but there was always something about the pairing with Halfords that bothered me.

jimmypippa

I have a Dawes Horizon (C2W -this April) and it is a pretty good commuting bike (so far, about 1500 miles on it to date). From what I understand of the galaxy, it is the next spec up, and so for £599, if it is in good nick, I'd have thought it would be quite a bit better.