The agony of choice!

Col69

Hi, I am looking to take advantage of the ride to work scheme & need some advice from seasoned campaigners as i am starting from scratch. I will be doing about 30 miles a day on "decent" commutable roads & the max grant is £1k via Evans.
I am looking at getting a road bike & will need clothing and equipment etc but .. am I better off splitting the £1k between bike and clothing etc or spending the whole grand on the bike?will the dif between a £500/£750/£1k bike be something that i will be tutting over from day one!! I have been into Evans and tried various bikes but can't decide which is my best option.
Thanks in advance for any help.

Teach

I suppose the main question is do you have extra money to spare? If so there are lots of bikes reduced at Evans which will give you a very good set of wheels for £1000.
If you want to buy bike and clothes for £1000 it can be done, but most people on this forum have green eyes and always want more/better, so you may regret only spending a percentage of your £1000 on a bike. How important are looks? You can spend a fortune on kit.
Whatever you do, buy a bike that fits, forget the bargain, if it doesn't fit you wont like it, you wont use it and you will either a) stop using it altogether or b) spend more money and buy a new one.

Teach

Read through some of the previous threads there is loads of advice and it would be worth looking on the commuting section. It does depend what the roads are like and how much your rate security and visibility. You can easily spend £200 on lights! Jacket £100, Shoes £80, pedals £20. Helmet £50. Shorts £40, long trousers £40, gloves £20. Bike lock, chain security for home and work £100. That's £650 without trying and there are lots of people on here who spend a lot more than the on each of those items. Looks like you are only buying a £350 bike. :shock:
You can do it for less as well.

Welcome to the forum.

upperoilcan

Is the bike only to be used for your daily commute ? if so look at trying to get as much as you can from your voucher bike clothing and so on,however if you intend to use the bike for keeping fit on then i would do the opposite of above and use the grand to obtain the best bike you can,then buy the clothes/accessory's in drips and drabs........

Col69

Thanks for the advice it is appreciated & the welcome.
In general terms I'm not to worried about looking good & in anycase thebike & clothing can't peform miracles :oops:
I would be looking to use bike to get fit whilst commuting so in light of the advice I'm edging towards more money on bike & just cover essentials - and in reality that will probably see me around the £800/£850 bracket.
During my trips to Evans I have been looking at Scott & Trek mainly but had the Fuji and Pinnacle brands suggested - not keen on Specialized style of frames - any thoughts? and I am presuming that it's worth going for the 105 group set if possible.