Advice on road bike for beginner.

jonrwg
jonrwg Posts: 39
edited February 2011 in Road buying advice
I'm new to this forum and also new to road bike. Haven't been cycling a road bike since 9 years ago after a freak accident leaving me almost crush by a car. I'm an international student from Malaysia, currently in Birmingham, arrived last September and will be here for another 2 years or so. Hopefully nobody here mind about my nationality. :D

I'm going back on cycling as the bike riders in the UK has a very large community and this actually brings my confident back on riding. I'm going to use my bike to commute to/from University, Perry Barr to City Centre, not sure how far the distance is and I'm also going to start riding as my new sports. Been going to Evans store for the past 2 days and tomorrow I will be testing a ride. My budget will be less than £450 and this is what I found.

1) Pinnacle Sentinal 1.0 2010 Road Bike
2) GT GTR Series 4 2010 Road Bike
3) Jamis Ventura Sport 2011 Road Bike

Which one of these will be suitable for a beginner like me? I got no knowledge about components or parts and I'm still learning now. Hopefully I can learn more from the forumer here. Thanks a lot for your time and helping me out. Please forgive my poor English too. :lol:

Cheers.

Jon Wong

Comments

  • TMR
    TMR Posts: 3,986
    Consider decent condition second hand as well. Look on eBay.
  • cornerblock
    cornerblock Posts: 3,228
    Hi Jon, welcome to the forum. First of all no need to worry about your English, seems fine to me. And anyway, even with perfect English, some people on here make no sense :) Can't say I know anything about the bikes you have mentioned, sure someone will though. Again I have not ridden one, but just seen this, which fits your budget. http://www.halfords.com/webapp/wcs/stor ... yId_165710

    I know Halfords have not got the best reputation, but might be worth a look. Wish I could be more helpful. Good luck finding the right bike and enjoy your riding.
  • jonrwg
    jonrwg Posts: 39
    I'm kinda skeptic about purchasing through ebay. Lot's of bad reputation from my country, so I'm kinda set up my mind "never buy anything from ebay". LOL..

    Thanks for your warm welcome. Hopefully some "Guru" will advice me on this bike. :)
    I went to Halford store last week and I'm not sure I like their service, kind of doubt about their service too. I know they do sell some poor and some decent bike but I think I've been brainwash by some of the review I google up about halford. Thanks again for the link you gave me, will consider that as well. :D
  • kingrollo
    kingrollo Posts: 3,198
    if you are in Birmingham - a visit to decathlon is in order - they do great entry level bikes
  • arlowood
    arlowood Posts: 2,561
    Hi there

    Why not look out for a 2010 model from one of the larger well known brands. For example you can pick up a Specialized Allez 16 2010 from Tredz for under £400.

    http://www.tredz.co.uk/.Specialized-All ... _27448.htm

    If you want to try one out Leisure Lakes is a stockist and they have a branch in Wolverhampton.

    I think you would get better "value for money" by going down that route
  • cougie
    cougie Posts: 22,512
    My only worry would be about security - leaving a bike outside whilst you're in lectures. For that reason I wouldn't spend 100s on it. Must be plenty of students with bikes - what do they ride and where do they get them from ?
  • Uggi
    Uggi Posts: 24
    I can recoomend the Allez, First time out on a road bike ever last year. I got the basic allez and cant recommend it enough, I covered 1000km with not one issue.
  • jonrwg
    jonrwg Posts: 39
    cougie wrote:
    My only worry would be about security - leaving a bike outside whilst you're in lectures. For that reason I wouldn't spend 100s on it. Must be plenty of students with bikes - what do they ride and where do they get them from ?

    I think my university security is ok because the security office is placed in front of the bike parking space with cctv monitoring. 8/10 of the bike there are road bike so I guess is pretty safe? Not sure though and for safety I will purchase Datatag for extra safety. :)
    Uggi wrote:
    I can recoomend the Allez, First time out on a road bike ever last year. I got the basic allez and cant recommend it enough, I covered 1000km with not one issue.

    I wanted to get that too but Evans currently out of stock. Is Tredz trustable? Only Evans store is the nearest to me.
  • jonrwg
    jonrwg Posts: 39
    Hi all,

    My parents gave me permission to push up my budget after convincing her about cycling.
    :twisted:

    So now I got a few bike in mind but not sure about it. Mind to advice? :D

    1) Cannondale Caad8 Sora Triple 2010 ( I read some review about it and I've seen many people would prefer Tiagra? )

    2) Pinnacle Sentinal 2.0 2010 ( Read a lot of good review about this bike)

    3) Specialized Sectuer 2011

    4) Specialized Allez 16 / 24 2011

    5) Trek Pilot 2.0 2010

    6) Trek 1.1 Compact 2011

    7) Gt GTR Series 3 2010
    Possibly I would love to purchase from Evans itself as is the only one nearest to me and I don't have car to travel. Any other bike in mind that cost below £600?

    Thanks for your time.

    Cheers.

    Jon

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