First Road bike on a low budget - help required

shane r

Any chance your employer is in the Bike to Work Scheme? Went through some changes this year but is still going strong. Spread payments over 12 months and end up paying about 50% retail.

night_porter

Moving from mtb's to road bikes made me feel that the bars felt too "skinny" too so I bought some gel tape and wrapped it over the top of the existing tape to give a nice comfy grip.

As far as the Trek is concerned apart from the Bontrager Gel tape and Aluminium forks (not as comfy as the steel ones on the Carrera) both bikes appear very similar specs.

This just goes to show that the companies with better marketing can make people pay more for the same products because we believe they are more "desirable".

My advice would be to buy the Carrera and spend the £10 putting gel tape on it and ride now.

Part of us will always want something "better" oops I mean more expensive better is only what they want us to think. You could end up saving forever...

Note: I had to laugh when I saw that the Trek's colour was Carrera Blue.....imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.

Super Domestique

Sharkyssurfers wrote:

I brought the Carrera TDF last year and very impressed with it, it is actually quite quick to ride on and for the price couldnt grumble, i would have a look at that as well

The TDF is a good buy. On test in latest cycling plus mag btw. As I have mentioned in other threads recently, you can often push for further discount on the TDF instore.

cyberknight

blue07794 wrote:

I have done as you suggested dmont and called into Halford's and my local bike shop yesterday and sat on both the Virtuoso and the Ventura (which is £60 cheaper than the Carrera) and the things that struck me were the Carrera's handlebars seemed to be really "pipe cleanerish" and thin compared to the more rugged solid thickness of the Ventura bars.
I expect i get the tape on the bars changed to a thicker padded type.....Can't I?

The Carrera was lighter better looking (just my opinion - i'm partial to blue ) but the wheels on the Ventura seemed to be of better quality and stronger. The Ventura had a better quality saddle (think in was a Sam Malone) and more comfortable.

So there you have it after that exercise i am more confused than ever.

What i did see that i really fell in love with was a Trek 1.1 priced at £550.......do i wait and save the extra £180 and get this little lady? or do buy the Carrera and hope i dont pine for a better quality bike 2 months after buying it?

I never thought buying a bike would be so bloody stressful

Of course you can change the tape to a thicker one, 10 minute job and you can pick up bar tape very cheap, that said the bike set up is the most important part of comfort , once you get that right you only really need really thick bar tape if you ride really rough roads, i have mt commuter double taped but the roads are country lanes that are pitted and covered in that gravel stuff that is very "buzzy "
The treks are nice but looking at the spec you are mostly paying for the name as they have ali frame, ali fork and shimano 2300 groupset which is near enough the same as what the virtuosso has ....

blue07794

All roads keep leading me back to the Vertuoso - must be something in this bike as everyone has something good to say about it.

Think i need to sleep on this one.........yet again!!!!!! :?

cyberknight

How tall are you? i have the medium 54 cm ish frame ) if you wanted a test ride, mind you i am 50 miles from chestefield

blue07794

cyberknight wrote:

How tall are you? i have the medium 54 cm ish frame ) if you wanted a test ride, mind you i am 50 miles from chestefield

5' 8'ish - 50 mile a bit far but thanx for the thought.

dmont

Any update Blue ? how's you're search for a bike coming along

Childs_97

Which bike did you end up with, I am looking at the vertuoso and was wondering I you went with that or found something you preferred??