Please help me decide...

NAZty

Hi All,

I'm only a week or so away now from receiving my CycleScheme voucher and would appreciate some advice please

I've narrowed my selection down to the following and was wondering whether you experts could take a quick look at specs etc as I am looking to use the bike for around 3-4 years! I am a newbie and am not looking to race (that may change over time lol) but mainly for commuting and recreational use...

PS - I will be looking to put slightly bigger tyres on the bike as I would like the option for a bit of semi off-road riding (if its not possible then that may be a determining factor)

http://www.evanscycles.com/products/spe ... e-ec030707
http://www.evanscycles.com/products/bmc ... 9#features
http://www.cyclesurgery.com/wilier-mont ... duct/40291
http://www.cyclesurgery.com/cube-bikes- ... duct/41564

sloppyschleckonds

On looks, i'd go for the Cube
On spec, i'd go for the Cube

sd517

Proud Cube owner here. Used advice from this forum when buying and haven't heard a word said against them - best value bikes out there in my opinion (if you can find them in stock!). Has the best spec out of the 4

alihisgreat

I would probably go for the BMC because it looks the best... have a look at the 2012 Giant Defy 1 though (i've got one) as an alternative to those because its getting great reviews at the moment.

NAZty

Thanks for the replies!

Yeah I really like the look of the Cube and BMC but obviously I wont make my decision on that alone...

Do you know whether or not I would be able to put bigger tyres on either of them?


In terms of reliability is there much between them? I know Cube is German and BMC is Swiss so I'd expect them both to be pretty reliable long-term

t4tomo

None of the above. If your budget is sub 1000 I recommend:

http://www.evanscycles.com/products/bianchi/via-nirone-7-xenon-2012-road-bike-ec031957

actually shop around a bit and you can get it with 105

http://www.jejamescycles.co.uk/bianchi-via-nirone-7-alu5-compact-road-bike-id60092.html

NAZty

Thanks for the input!

I was actually looking at Binachi's as well -is this the 105 but 2012 model?http://www.evanscycles.com/products/bianchi/dama-bianca-tiagra-compact-1-2012-road-bike-ec031989

When you say none of the above, are you referring to fitting bigger tyres on?

shinyhelmut

NAZty wrote:

Thanks for the replies!

Yeah I really like the look of the Cube and BMC but obviously I wont make my decision on that alone...

Do you know whether or not I would be able to put bigger tyres on either of them?


In terms of reliability is there much between them? I know Cube is German and BMC is Swiss so I'd expect them both to be pretty reliable long-term

I suspect you'll find they're both Tiawanese, or maybe Chinese.

giant_man

Have you ridden any of these bikes? Only then will you find the bike for you imo .....

t4tomo

NAZty wrote:

Thanks for the input!

I was actually looking at Binachi's as well -is this the 105 but 2012 model?http://www.evanscycles.com/products/bianchi/dama-bianca-tiagra-compact-1-2012-road-bike-ec031989

When you say none of the above, are you referring to fitting bigger tyres on?

No thats a Tiagra model, the 105 group set (your front & rear gears and shifters etc) are one step up from Tiagra and generally considered to change gear better smoother etc.

With Shimano its chepaest to most expensive: 2300,Sora, tiagra, 105, ultegra, Dura ace

none of the above was a flippant dismissal of all your choices in favour of my biased preferance of a Bianchi

Kamzter

This is a looker too, though specs arnt too fullfilling: http://www.damianharriscycles.co.uk/pro ... acing-Bike

keef66

None of the bikes mentioned above will take bigger than a 25mm tyre really. If you want fatter tyres for venturing off road you'd be better off with a cross bike

t4tomo

keef66 wrote:

None of the bikes mentioned above will take bigger than a 25mm tyre really. If you want fatter tyres for venturing off road you'd be better off with a cross bike

Ah ye didn't spot that - if you want to go shilly shallying down canal paths etc as well as commute then its the dark side of CX (cyclo cross) bikes for you. 35mm tyres and mudguards etc as standard

NAZty

ShinyHelmut wrote:

NAZty wrote:

Thanks for the replies!

Yeah I really like the look of the Cube and BMC but obviously I wont make my decision on that alone...

Do you know whether or not I would be able to put bigger tyres on either of them?


In terms of reliability is there much between them? I know Cube is German and BMC is Swiss so I'd expect them both to be pretty reliable long-term

I suspect you'll find they're both Tiawanese, or maybe Chinese.

Well at least now I wont give a manufacturer preference over the other...

NAZty

giant man wrote:

Have you ridden any of these bikes? Only then will you find the bike for you imo .....

Agreed - well my voucher has arrived today so I can start going to the shops and test riding the bikes

I just wanted to ask the question so that I wasn't buying a bike with inferior spec and thus regretting it later down the line

NAZty

t4tomo wrote:

NAZty wrote:

Thanks for the input!

I was actually looking at Binachi's as well -is this the 105 but 2012 model?http://www.evanscycles.com/products/bianchi/dama-bianca-tiagra-compact-1-2012-road-bike-ec031989

When you say none of the above, are you referring to fitting bigger tyres on?

No thats a Tiagra model, the 105 group set (your front & rear gears and shifters etc) are one step up from Tiagra and generally considered to change gear better smoother etc.

With Shimano its chepaest to most expensive: 2300,Sora, tiagra, 105, ultegra, Dura ace

none of the above was a flippant dismissal of all your choices in favour of my biased preferance of a Bianchi

Thanks for breaking down the Shimano range to me - that will definitely help!

NAZty

t4tomo wrote:

keef66 wrote:

None of the bikes mentioned above will take bigger than a 25mm tyre really. If you want fatter tyres for venturing off road you'd be better off with a cross bike

Ah ye didn't spot that - if you want to go shilly shallying down canal paths etc as well as commute then its the dark side of CX (cyclo cross) bikes for you. 35mm tyres and mudguards etc as standard

Just wanted a bit more stability over canal paths/towpaths/gravel but doubt I'll be going off road!

Would 25mm tyres be sufficient for this and also would they be much of an improvement over the 23mm? I was really hoping they would take 28mm as I would have thought a 5mm increase would be enough - or am I wrong?

NAZty

Update

After reading everyones feedback on here I thought I'd probably be better going for a CX so I started looking online at them instead. Liked the look of the Specialized Crux Elite but that was about it.

My voucher arrived on Thursday and as there's a Specialized Concept Store round the corner from me I thought I'd pop in there first. To be honest they were terrible! They didn't have the bike I was looking at (Crux Elite) so I thought ok might as well check out the Allez Elite, called over the sales assistant and asked if they had it in my size so I could take it for a test ride, he went to check but they didn't have any in. So I asked whether or not they could order one in for me and his response was "yeah but you'd have to buy it"...

Went to Evans on Saturday and they were much better. Was looking around trying to spot some of the bikes I'd been looking at but straight away the BMC caught my eye. It looked really nice in person! Started speaking to the sales assistant and he was showing me a few CX bikes but I just couldn't stop looking at the BMC. I explained to him what I'd be using it for and my concerns of road bikes but I decided I'd be fine with one and wouldn't really mind the 'restrictions'. I asked him if I could take it for a test ride which I did and I was blown away by the ride...it was smooth, responsive, precise and fast!

I know I may have been a bit nieve by not test riding any other bikes but I'd basically fallen for the BMC. I thought this is what I've been looking for and there's no need to ride anything else. Plus you get 7 days in case you change your mind so if I find I hate something about it in these next few days I could always take it back but so far its riding like a dream...


http://www.evanscycles.com/products/bmc ... RRWidgetID