Complete beginner seeking advice!

Guini

Hello!

I'm a student who has become sick of commuting daily on the bus, and figured investing in a bike would save me some ££££ in the long run.. so I've been searching the Internet for articles, forum posts and videos on road bikes for beginners, but I guess I need one that's the most up to date for bikes right now.

So, my question to you far more experienced folk is can you get decent introductory road bikes for under the £300 mark? Doesn't matter if they are second hand, last years models, or whatever.. I'm pretty much on the lowest budget available so I do NOT want anything fancy, expensive or not suited to a complete road beginner.

Any advice or links on good/cheap reliable models would be greatly appreciated!

Cheers

smidsy

Short answer is new - no, 2nd hand - yes.

thecrofter

Check the clearance sections of the online retailers, especially if you're a bit short or a bit tall, you might be lucky. I doubt you'll get anything under 300 but you might get close for last year or the year before model. Also some of them do 0% or pretty low rate finance over 3 or more years my Giant cost me less than £20 a month. That's not even two pints a week, converting into student currency.

MichaelW

If you want to use your road bike for commuting and everyday transport, will you need to fit mudguards and a luggage rack at any point? If so, consider one with a full set of threaded eyelets and sufficient tyre clearance. Having these features is no disadvantage but lacking them will limit you to an array of clamp on devices which are butt ugly and dont work as well.
Last years bikes are just as good, if not better. People are downgrading components to meet a pricepoint when the cost of stuff from China is increasing by the year.

Evans are doing the Dawes Giro 200 for your budget which is a decent, useful road bike. If going used, beware worn components and crash-damaged frame. Inspect for sharks-teeth on the rings and a ripple under the paintwork, esp at the headtube/top and downtube junctions.

You will have to budget for accessories:
Lights, lock, helmet, pump, repair kit, gloves/mitts, mudguards, rack/panniers as required. Cheap bikes come with cheap tyres, one place you shouldn't skimp for a get-to-work style bike.
If you want to haggle, ask for extras rather than cash off.
You really should have 3rd party insurance (from a club membership) or your bike insurance.

cyberknight

The btwin triban 3 is an excellent bike and comes in on budget but you still need to budget for your acessories.
If £300 is your total budget then a second hand bike might make sense.
I use a second hand carrera virtuoso for commuting and for the money it is an excellent bike.

rob21

i have this bike below i use as my winter bike over your budget but worth a look....

http://www.halfords.com/webapp/wcs/stor ... yId_165710

mar_k

rob21 wrote:

i have this bike below i use as my winter bike over your budget but worth a look....

http://www.halfords.com/webapp/wcs/stor ... yId_165710

This seems to be a popular bike, I see them everywhere lately

ForumNewbie

If you are going to be using your bike mainly for commuting, you may want to consider a new hybrid rather than a full road bike. A hybrid has slightly wider tyres, straight handlebars and can take mudguards and rack, and they are comfortable yet still reasonably fast. I use a lightweight hybrid for a commute of 18 miles each way a couple of times a week. If your commute is say, less than 10 miles each way, a slightly heavier hybrid could still do the job for you in comfort. You can get a Dawes Discovery hybrid for example, new for £300 - see link below, so it may be something for you to consider:
http://www.dawescycles.com/p-543-discov ... gents.aspx

rob21

mar_k wrote:

rob21 wrote:

i have this bike below i use as my winter bike over your budget but worth a look....

http://www.halfords.com/webapp/wcs/stor ... yId_165710

This seems to be a popular bike, I see them everywhere lately

ive had mine for 10 months and kit on is resonable and it serves me very well as a winter bike and ive done 1500 miles on it problem free lol

Guini

Thanks for all the advice guys, going to be going through the links and comparing some different bikes to see what I like. With regards to the carrera that may be a viable option as I work at Halfords (I don't work on the bike department, obviously) and so could pick up a discount on one of those maybe!

Thanks for the replies

migrantwing

+1 Carrera TDF. Especially with staff discount

mouth

rob21 wrote:

mar_k wrote:

rob21 wrote:

i have this bike below i use as my winter bike over your budget but worth a look....

http://www.halfords.com/webapp/wcs/stor ... yId_165710

This seems to be a popular bike, I see them everywhere lately

ive had mine for 10 months and kit on is resonable and it serves me very well as a winter bike and ive done 1500 miles on it problem free lol

I paid £260 for mine last year in some bank holiday sale. Done about 1k on it so far and have only replaced one tyre and one tube. At £330 it's ok. At the £260 I paid it's a really good bike.

rob21

Mouth wrote:

rob21 wrote:

mar_k wrote:

rob21 wrote:

i have this bike below i use as my winter bike over your budget but worth a look....

http://www.halfords.com/webapp/wcs/stor ... yId_165710

This seems to be a popular bike, I see them everywhere lately

ive had mine for 10 months and kit on is resonable and it serves me very well as a winter bike and ive done 1500 miles on it problem free lol

I paid £260 for mine last year in some bank holiday sale. Done about 1k on it so far and have only replaced one tyre and one tube. At £330 it's ok. At the £260 I paid it's a really good bike.

i managed 1300 miles before i replaced the back tyre lol