first road bike

cnbarlow

Hi guys,

I'm looking at buying my first road bike and I've narrowed it down to 2 within my price range.

The first is the Btwin triban 3 from decathlon.com....

http://www.decathlon.co.uk/EN/triban-3-173178017/

The second is the Carrera TDF limited edition from Halfords.

http://www.halfords.com/webapp/wcs/stor ... 65710#dtab

As i'm a novice i don't really know what to look for when it comes to the spec....any advice on these two bikes would be appreciated!

Thanks,

Chris

zn533

Hello.

I've had a look at the websites, and I'd recommend the Decathlon one. For starters, it mentions a carbon fork, whereas I'm quite sure the Carrera has a steel one. This sounds good to me. Next you have customer service. My experience of Decathon staff is really good - polite, efficient, friendly and skillful. Halfords staff are a bit hit-and-miss at best. Your shiny bike will PROBABLY be better built rolling out of a Decthlon store. The bikes are really more similar than different otherwise.

That said, I'd suggest you go and try both bikes out. You might find you just prefer one over the other. As your first road bike, either one will feel super fast compared to any other bike you've owned. You'll love it.

Finally: which colour do you prefer?

At some time I'd recommend buying a pair of posh, fast tyres as a (relatively) cheap but effective upgrade. And maybe some decent brake pads. These will transform the ride.

Happy times!

jayrider

I recently purchased the B'twin Triban 3.

I checked out the Halfords TDF as well, but in the flesh, the Triban is MUCH better. Trust me, the website images do not do it justice.

The Decathlon staff were very helpful too...

Highly recommended :-)

cyberknight

For the money the triban is a better bike .

I had a tdf and it was quite a lump on the hills.
( i keep tellign myself it was the bike it has to be )