Triathlon bike and work commute bike?... £1000

Tricky84

Hopefully this is in the right place now?.. :oops:

I've been given the opportunity with work to join the Cycle To Work Scheme and have been given a budget of £1000.

This is supposed to include everything bike, helmet, lights etc but I could buy these out of my own money if £1000 wasnt enough for what im after.

I have been toying with the idea of doing a triathlon or two next year and was wondering if there was a bike that could be used for comuting 40 miles a day and then with a few tweeks being turned into a bike that I could use for triathlons?.

This may well be a silly question but I thought id ask

Any help / advice would be good as I am a complete novice when it comes to cycling!

Tricky84

Could something like this work for both?

http://www.wiggle.co.uk/focus-mares-2010/

rozzer32

I would suggest looking at getting a road bike for that £1000.

Use the search function because there has already been loads of threads on it. Then you can just get a set of clip on aero bars for when you do your tris.

Squillinossett

For £1000 you could do worse than the Boardman Team Carbon, it has a more aero frome than most at the price, and is specced well enough to race with.

Im only replacing mine as I want something a little more "bling" but I am 100% happy with it.

Put some aero wheels on it and some clip on bars and your flying.

Alot of triathletes choose this bike looking at race pictures from different tri mags.

Tricky84

Cheers for all the advice!

Im having a look at the Boardman Team Carbon this weekend

fleshtuxedo

Sorry to urinate on the pommes frites, but isn't the Team Carbon £1200 now?

hammerite

If I was travelling 40 miles by bike each day all year round I'd want something that could take full mudguards. Not sure how good the crud road guards are though so they could be an option.

Clip on tri bars on a road bike is a good option.

So it's whether you can be bothered with the faff of removing tri bars to ride to work, and removing mudguards to race tri. There's nothing to say that you couldn't do both with mudguards and tri bars on, but my personal preference would not to.

Tricky84

Yes but you get 10% off with the cycle to work scheme in halfords. 8)

Then was hoping to put the extra £100 towards it?

Hopefully I can do this?.. not 100% sure but will find out this weekend

Pokerface

hammerite wrote:

If I was travelling 40 miles by bike each day all year round I'd want something that could take full mudguards. Not sure how good the crud road guards are though so they could be an option.

Clip on tri bars on a road bike is a good option.

So it's whether you can be bothered with the faff of removing tri bars to ride to work, and removing mudguards to race tri. There's nothing to say that you couldn't do both with mudguards and tri bars on, but my personal preference would not to.

I don't know many people that are racing triathlons over the winter - so I would think the OP would be OK with putting mudguards on and leaving the tri extenstions off for that period!

As for Crud Guards - easy to install and they will do the job of keeping you relative dry and clean over the winter. Especially the Mark II ones.

hammerite

Pokerface wrote:

I don't know many people that are racing triathlons over the winter - so I would think the OP would be OK with putting mudguards on and leaving the tri extenstions off for that period!

As for Crud Guards - easy to install and they will do the job of keeping you relative dry and clean over the winter. Especially the Mark II ones.

True, although it does still get a bit damp over the summer (if you can call August summer).

I pick and choose the days I ride in based on the weather, but if I had to ride in everyday (dunno whether the Tricky has to) summer and winter regardless of the weather I'd probably want mudguards.

Pokerface

hammerite wrote:

Pokerface wrote:

I don't know many people that are racing triathlons over the winter - so I would think the OP would be OK with putting mudguards on and leaving the tri extenstions off for that period!

As for Crud Guards - easy to install and they will do the job of keeping you relative dry and clean over the winter. Especially the Mark II ones.

True, although it does still get a bit damp over the summer (if you can call August summer).

I pick and choose the days I ride in based on the weather, but if I had to ride in everyday (dunno whether the Tricky has to) summer and winter regardless of the weather I'd probably want mudguards.

Most people don't worry about mudguards in the summer. Unless they have a dedicated winter bike that they will ride on wet days in the summer.

It's as much about keeping the dirty WINTER crud (and SALT!) off your bike in the winter as it is about keeping dryer.

I'm not as worried about the bike getting wet in the summer - it doesn't corrode quite as fast.

Tricky84

Cheers guys for all of your responses!

If im completely honest I hadn't even thought about mudguards.. :oops:

They are a deffinate for winter but I dont think id use them for summer?.

Are specialized allez any good for what im after I've seen a few posts about them and they seem to fit better within the budget?

Again any help or advice even reccomendations of bikes would be great.. 8)

rhext

I use a Specialized Tricross for commuting. Can't really comment on suitability for Triathlons...but it's got rack and mudguard mounts which come in very handy for winter commuting.

Tricky84

Is that this one?

http://www.bestbikeproducts.com/products.php?plid=m5b25s6p2068&rs=gb

There seems to be a few models.

The thing is they all look the same to me and I dont have a clue when it comes to gear sets etc whats good and whats not.

I think im best buying a few magazines and having a look through them then maybe coming back with what I've found for review?..

rhext

That's the singlespeed version. They do a geared version too.

http://www.evanscycles.com/products/spe ... gn=froogle

Mine's getting on a bit now, and components etc have changed over the years, so if you're thinking about getting one because it'll take racks/mudguards, probably a good idea to check they've not tweaked them out of the spec. I've found mine to be a very good commuting steed over the years: comfortable, good for load carrying, can take bigger tyres should you so wish, and confident on smoother bridleways if you're lucky enough to be able to include them in your commute. It's not a road-racing machine though!

MattMasters

Hi guys

I wanted to get the Boardman but its been put up to £1200 so priced it out of the cycle to work scheme unfortunately. You cant pay the difference as I have spoken with Halford about this. they have suggested this bike though as they are doing this for £1000 and its currently £1300 on the Dolan website -

Bike Name: Dolan Mythos Road Bike - Sram Apex -Omega
Component Description
Frame Dolan 12k Carbon Road Frame
Fork Dolan 12k carbon Road fork 1 1/8 Int, Carbon Fibre Blades.
Carbon Fibre Steering Column
Seat Post Alpina 12k Carbon
Headset Alpina 1 1/8th Integral - 45*45
Colour 12k Carbon Fibre, white decals, Gloss finish
Front Mech Clamp Alpina - Alloy - Black, 34.9
Seat Clamp Alpina - Alloy - Black
Chain Sram Apex
Chainset Sram Apex 50/34 Compact
Bottom Bracket Sram Apex, 68mm BSA
Brake Calipers Sram Apex, Dual Pivot
Levers/Shifters Sram Apex
Cables Clarkes - Brake + Gear, Black
Front Mech Sram Apex, Braze On
Rear Mech Sram Apex
Cassette Sram Apex 11-28
Spacers Alpina - Alloy - Black
Saddle San Marco Ponza cro-mo rails
Grips or Tape 3T cork ribbon/embossed 3T logo and 3T end plugs
Stem 3T ARX PRO aluminium 31.8 steerer 1 1/8'' with 6deg rise
Bars 3T ERGONOVA 31.8MM trple-butted aluminium 7075 T6
Inner Tubes Nutrak Inner tube Width: 18-23mmSize: 700cValve: Presta
Tyres Vittoria Zaffiro Clincher Road Tyre: 23mm & 700c, Black
Wheels Mach 1 Omega Semi Profile Rims - Shimano Hub - 32 Hole - Clincher

When I posted this tread some other forum users replied with this -

Got to be the boardman for £1k - others are Planet x - and Ribble Sportive.

Failing that, why not go Campag? By that I mean consider the Pinarello FP1 Xenon - there's shops out there selling it at pretty much the same price as the Dolan and Boardman. I'm amazed there was only the one thread about it earlier this year when it was on Wiggle.

I think I will go with the Dolan although it would be interesting to see if the Boardman comes down in price after xmas...

JKHinton

I am surprised Halfords will not let you top up the CTWS with a few £'s they are probably nearly sold out of Team Carbons, most of the time they are very keen to get a sale.

Pity the TC is a great bike.

don't know anything about the Dolans

MattMasters

Unfortunately you cannot pay the extra on top with the CTWS. It is classed as you own the bike if you did that and the reason you get the tax relief from the Government is because its classed as a hire bike for a year.

Its rubbish!

juankerr

The Dolan Mythos is a smashing bike. It used to be a C2W £1k Halfords favourite before the Boardmans came on the scene. I'm in the North West and you see quite a few round here as they are local. p.s. Chris Hoy rides a Dolan so if it's good enough for him..

The £1200 pricing for the TC seems to be shooting themselves in the foot as I reckon a good percentage of these are sold on the C2W. I can only imagine that stock is really low at the moment as the 2011 model is due soon.

scrumpydave

We've talked about the bikes to choose from here but does anyone have any recommendations for a decent set of clip on aero-bars to match with a standard road bike?

getonyourbike

tbh, the terms of the cycle to the C2W scheme have changed it no longer such a good deal. You might be better off finding a good deal or something with finance instead of the scheme, at least you'll actually own it then too.

n2014669

Hi all, just thought I'd drop a quick note here to let you know about the Halfords / Boardman £1000 issue.

Halfords have now recognised that 99.9% of team carbon purchases were through c2w, and will now sell you the bike in store for £999.99 if you turn up with your £1000 c2w voucher by applying a 'store voucher' to the sale (you can also reserve online and pay in store for £999 at the moment too)

I haven't got a clue why they don't advertise this fact, and I very nearly spent my voucher elsewhere but really wanted a full carbon frame, so just popped in to enquire about possible price changes.

Additionally, they're quite happy for me to pay for the bike now, then go and get a refund when the voucher arrives in a couple of weeks. Couple this with 3 for 2 on accessories at the moment, that's bike, shoes, pedals and mud guards sorted for £1,100.

I appreciate this sounds like a shameless plug for the H shop, but I'm well chuffed at the moment.... I will however be taking the bike to my LBS to get it set up properly as I don't expect for one minute that it will be done correctly in store.

Dan

The Spiderman

Focus Cayo £880 if you buy it this weekend and no CTW restrictions.