New bike around the 1000.00 mark ? any advice ?

dillonw

Looking to get a new bike which I hope to use in triathlons

Pretty new to it all but didn't want to grab a bike that I end up replacing in a year or so. I would rather pay a decent chunk of money and then maybe upgrade as I go along.

I've read some good reviews on planet x bikes and the team boardman.. The strange thing is that every bike i've looked at has either been made unavailabe or in the case of the boardman... put up by 200 quid.

From reading reviews the boardman is a bit worrying all because of the comments about halfords..

I know it's the budget end of the market for carbon and you get what you pay for but any advice would be great.

As I say i'm looking for something that's going to stand the test of time.. for a few years anyway and isn't something that i'm going to think is slowing me down on the tri's!

Thanks

oscarbudgie

CAAD9

dillonw

i did look at the caad9 but noticed in a few reviews that people were complaining about the components being limited

danowat

Specifically a tri/TT bike?, or a roadie that you are going to fit aero bars to?

dillonw

i'd have been looking more at a roadie with aero's as i go along

in all honesty if i got a tri bike now you'd be picking me up out of every hedge on every bend ! lol

danowat

My spesh allez elite does fairly well with aero bars on it, TBH, there are a TON of bikes around the £1000 price point, none of them are particularly "bad", just pick one that you like the look of, and most importantly, fits you.

Bar Shaker

The Boardman TC is stunning for the money, hence the mag reviews/test results.

The Halfords tie up is a bit of a poisoned chalice for them. Without the Halfords network Boardman would need a distribution centre and would have storage and transport costs to add on to the price tag. The Halfords deal means they sell a lot of bikes because the price makes them so competitive.

The downsides are two fold. First Halfords stores tend to be very good or really shit. They are Marmite - There is no in between. I'm lucky, my local store (Chelmsford) is really good but the store I bought my TC from were useless. Many owners do their own maintenance, use a good LBS or drive to a good Halfords. Tip - only deal with the BikeHut manager if its regarding Boardmans. The second downside is that because the bikes are priced so competitively, some people have concluded they are somehow sub standard. Even more so because they are loaded up with gearsets that are way beyond what rivals are fitted with. This is certainly not the case. The frames are light and stiff and made to such a high standard that they are lacquered rather than painted. You need to be very confident in your manufacturing and your quality control to sell naked carbon bikes. Mag tests have quite rightly raved about the frame stiffness.

I think its this second reason that made Boardman put the TC up by £200. It was such good value that it threatened the perception of quality. This must have been a difficult decision as it puts the TC out of reach of C2W voucher holders, unless they top up the voucher.

The Planet X stuff is in a similar situation. Until the cycling world realises that the new composite plants in the far east can make frames better than the best that existed 5 years ago, for a fraction of the cost, some people will always diss them as 'cheap carbon' or 'bendy frames'. Neither term is applicable, they are just made using the very latest technology and are excellent value.

Everyone who has ridden mine has been stunned at how good it is for the grand that I paid for it.

dillonw

thanks for that bar shaker... very informative

i started with a budget which has gone higher and higher. i could just about rise to 1200 ish. it just narks me that i could have had the same boardman for 200 quid lighter afew months ago.

i did actually send halfords an email as some people had suggested that halfords had waived the increase. not sure how true that is but worth an email

i'd heard a lot of good things about the planet x and again noticed they had put their prices up as well.

the other thing i did wonder about is next years models. again, reading through the forums someone mentioned the 2011 will be available for order in october but not sure when it would be out. ?

Bar Shaker

I bought my TC just before I went on holiday, at the end of June. I was going to leave it until I came back. Whilst away they went up!

I have also heard that some stores will haggle over the £200. Someone from Halfords posted that 2011 bikes won't be in the stores until the end of this year/start of next year. I imagine the unsold 2010 bikes will be put in the January sale. Normally Boardmans are excluded from discounts, sales, special offers etc.

Not even staff are allowed a discount on them.

dillonw

I think thats a decent idea.. if i dont get anything back from the email i sent i may just pop up and have a word

as mentioned i think with this you are better just dealing with the bike hut manager and keeping the other guys out of it

good to know that it isn't going to end up back on sale at 999.99!!

i can't imagine they would change a great deal though for the new year?

kev77

I managed to get a pinarello fp1 for 1k, if you can too you will not be dissapointed!

oscarbudgie

dillonw wrote:

i did look at the caad9 but noticed in a few reviews that people were complaining about the components being limited

You will 'only' get Tiagra for a grand tis true, but the frame is such that its well worth upgrading as and when you can, unlike most other bikes at this money...

briantrumpet

oscarbudgie wrote:

You will 'only' get Tiagra for a grand tis true, but the frame is such that its well worth upgrading as and when you can, unlike most other bikes at this money...

... and it's now gone down to £900 at Evans.

Bar Shaker

oscarbudgie wrote:

dillonw wrote:

i did look at the caad9 but noticed in a few reviews that people were complaining about the components being limited

You will 'only' get Tiagra for a grand tis true, but the frame is such that its well worth upgrading as and when you can, unlike most other bikes at this money...

Don't buy a £1000 frame that comes with '£600 of junk for free'. CAAD9 is a nice frame, but no better than much of the competition. But if you want to buy a frame for fitting top components to, then just buy a frame. Buying a £1000 bike and then putting £750 of wheels and gearset on it will leave you with a poor quality bike compared to a new £1750 bike, such as a Bike Radar Bike of the Year, the excellent Cannondale Six Carbon.

Many other bikes for £1000 have great frames, decent components and don't need £500+ of upgrading to be enjoyable.

danowat

Tiagra = junk?, ok :roll:

Frame first, components second.

father_jack

Frame first, components second.

I'd say groupset is as important to get right first time round (due to cost) I guess if they skimp on wheels is the best thing since you can easily change them over. Shifters and chainsets are terribly expensive to buy And for quality groupset looking £500 easily

Tom Butcher

CAAD9 looks a good buy to me - not ridden one but I've known people with them and they've all been happy. If they came with Campag (which would allow me to use my best wheels) I'd be tempted by a compact just for trips to the Alps, hilly sportives etc.

Only problem might be most seem to be compacts if you are looking for a standard double.

The Boardman bikes look good value too but different geometry - personally it wouldn't suit me - it might suit you though.

Bar Shaker

Perhaps not junk, but Tiagra is more normally found on £500 bikes.

An SRAM Rival groupset is £509, a 105 set is £521. Ultegra is £50 more, Force is £190 more than Rival at £699.

caad9 frames are available new for £466 ($719 to be precise).

For your £1000, you need to think about what you are buying. Buying a caad9 frame with £312 of Tiagra on it does not seem like good value to me, when it will cost £500-£700 just to put a respectable groupset on it. Then you will be thinking about wheels and suddenly the Six Carbon would have been a much better buy.

For my £1000, I would buy a good complete bike. The groupset is a more valuable element of the bike than the frame and 105 or, preferably, Rival would be the minimum groupset spec I would look for.

If the frame was truly awful (they aren't at the £1k and above price break) then it would be cheaper to change that.

prb007

Diificult to beat this atm, I would have thought,
though the colourscheme is an acquired taste

http://www.planet-x-bikes.co.uk/i/q/CBP ... n-sram-red

Tom Butcher

CAAD10 with Shimano 105 is supposed to be out soon for around 1300.

I'm not sure about Tiagra being found on £500 bikes - I think things have moved on a bit from that in the last couple of years. I'm sure there are a few rare examples of bikes in sales for that money but full whack you will struggle to get Shimano Sora on a £500 bike now.

dillonw

some good suggestions guys

i quite like the planet x

i had a wonder into halfords yesterday and have been told that they are taking a last batch stock of the boardman 2010 in a few weeks and then the 2011's will be out for november. they didnt have any specs but seemed to think it would be the same spec with updated components !!! which sounds a bit odd