Looking for something around £300-350 mark...

portland_bill

Morning all,

Yes, another message asking what to buy.

I've been riding my Boss Equipe (I'm sure it's meant to be Raleigh. Do a search on Boss Equipe and nothing comes up, do a search on Raleigh Equipe and the bikes look very similar. I digress...) for around a year and a bit now and I'm definitely "into" road riding now. I ride with my local club as often as I can and most of the time I love it.

I'm getting to the point where I would really prefer some "flightdeck" shifters and a slightly smaller frame though so I've been looking at the Carrera Virtuoso which seems ok, but I was wondering if any of you knew of anything any better that could be bought online for the same price.

I've seen the Dawes Giro 500 which looks pretty good for £400, but I was hoping to keep the price down so it's less likely to pop up on the wife radar.

Something with only a double chainring too. No need for a triple at all.

Cheers

Kristian

Anonymous

If you can be bothered to do the research, go 2nd hand. you must by now be aware of what size you need and what level of components etc you need/want, so its without a doubt the best VFM you're gonna get.

Only thing is that everyone is buying given TDF and Olympic success so prices may be a bit inflated.
Given your location (not London) you should be able to get some good prices if you can travel. I paid 250 (+50 to collect, so 300) for full ultegra, carbon forks, immaculately kept bike - just had to go to Notts to collect it.

mroli

+1 - for around that mark you are looking at a "basic" model - it'll do you ok, but (I think) the advances you get from spending up to around £1k are quite noticeable on a bike (better groupset/wheels/lighter frame) etc. Obviously new is a little bit out of your reach, but if you work on a 50% discount rate v new, with a bit of patient trawling of the classifieds, you should be able to get something "much" better than for new - bit like buying a car after the initial depreciation.

You should work out what you want from the bike - ie size/general geometry (ie race/sportive/tourer), have a look at prices and see what sort of groupset people are selling on the bikes (tiagra/sora/105/apex/veloce etc) and then focus your search.

One of the most important things to keep an eye on is no of miles the bike has done - if it is tired and needs a new chain/cassette/tyres/chainrings etc, that'll set you back about £100 - so it starts to be less of a bargain!

Good luck

mystic.bertie

i bought the virtuoso a few weeks ago, i dont regret it one bit, its £380 in halfords, i ended up paying £303 for it so great value.

muckyhaud

If you can pick up a Carrera Vanquish 2010 model you aboslutely will not regret it. Second hand they are about £300 for a mint one. Had mine 3 years and it is still great. Really annoys other riders when it keeps up with their expensive bikes. If I remember rightly it was £700 new (I got mine for £600) The spec is much better than their 2012 model. Tiagra, Carbon fork, better wheel set etc. I will be selling mine shortly as I am looking at a new bike, unless I can convince my wife I should keep it for winter

gabriel959

Decathlon Triban 3

Right on budget - good spec for the money

http://www.decathlon.co.uk/triban-3-id_8167038.html#

portland_bill

Sorry guys I've responded twice to this thread while I've been out and about but it's obviously never worked and actually posted my messages.

Ok so yeah as you were saying I do have an idea of what I'm after and I've been looking at getting a Ribble Gran Fondo for a while, but the arrival of our new daughter 4 weeks ago has forced me to reconsider and just wait a while on a slightly crapper bike and as Muckyhaud has pointed out, I have little trouble keeping up with most (in fact was probably the least knackered on my last ride out) on my bike and they're all on their fancy carbon summer bikes.

I'd happily buy second hand if I could find something nice enough but everything on eBay seems to be either worse than mine or ancient. Gumtree never has anything decent on around here and apart from the classifieds on here, I'm not sure where else to look really.

Where did you find your steal Coriordan?

Anonymous

eBay!! It's called a fausto coppi San remo. Lovely looking and a few pop up on eBay every now and then. Took a while to find but generally I made a massive custom search which searched for all road/town/racing bikes in my size up and down a size all under 400 and also included "not specified" as there are some beauties there too which people haven't categorised.

Admittedly mine is the 9 speed ultegra, but hey, who's counting?

Gladiator

Had and still have a Dawes Giro 500 since 2008, been an amazing bike for the price, still have it now as a trainer bike. Cant recommend it enough, soild bike for the price.

portland_bill

Unfortunately they only have them in 48cm but if I can find someone selling bigger ones at the same price I'd go for that like.

There's nowt on eBay like. And that's increasing my budget by £100 too!

nochekmate

Specialized Allez should come within budget on eBay.

Just sold a Bianchi Via Nirone (not celeste) for £380 on eBay myself

portland_bill

I'd love a Bianchi for that price! There's a nice one on the pit now but it's still got 2 days left and already it's up to £440 :-/

FSR_XC

Bill

You mention that you were after a Ribble.

There are a couple of options that might make this possible:
Are you able to use Cycle to Work Scheme?
Would you consider it on finance - Looking at Ribble's site £1000 = £32.62 over 3yrs with no deposit.

Alternatively, I would keep an eye out in the classifieds for something. In the long run a second hand mid range bike will give you the options to upgrade later, where as a low end new bike will not be worth upgrading. (midrange bikes tend to have similar frames to their more expensive counterparts)

Mongoose1981

I too had to stay off the wife radar, but went to Tredz and bought a Giant Defy 3 and stuck it on finance, then told my wife I can get a bike on cycle to work scheme. I work in Norway, so how I pulled it off is a mystery but there you go, job done.

portland_bill

Ha ha!! Good effort!

If I could get a bike through work I'd already have a Gran Fondo by now. I even had the order in back in February for the bike but my Hotels' owner pulled the plug on the basis he couldn't be arsed to has to roll it out to all his hotels and properties around the country. I tried to explain to my boss that the more people who use it the better for him, but there you go... I've sent 5 or 6 e-mails direct to head office about it now but not had a response so I've pretty much given up on it.

g00se

it was either Cycling Plus or Cycling Active that had a review of sub £500 bikes and the Btwin (Decathlon) Triban 3 won it hands down and a bit more.

g00se

Sorry - it wan't a review of sub £500 bikes but different sub £1000 bikes for value. I found it here:

http://www.cyclingscotland.org/news/cyc ... -3-review/

portland_bill

You've got me wondering now Mongoose.... "Hmmm, maybe if I could get one on finance and just put the cash I've got in as a deposit I could get a half decent one for now..."

Any ideas if I added a couple of hundred to my budget then?

portland_bill

My only problem with the Triban 3 is the triple chain rings. I never use all the rings on my MTB let alone my roadie. I just find them pointless.

I've now found the Sintesi X1 Pro Tiagra at Tweeks Cycles for £559 which wouldn't be too bad. Carbon forks and Tiagra set. Looks good too.

portland_bill

Or there's the Canyon Roadlite 6 with 105 groupset... But then Canyon don't do finance.

This is getting out of hand! Ha ha!!

Mongoose1981

Thats the way I would go man, just stick a deposit down and get yourself a higher spec bike. Although several reviews I've read of the bTwin 3 make it sound like crazy good value.

portland_bill

Ok chaps, I didn't realise you could check availability of the Canyon bikes and there are none in my size so it's back to the drawing board.

Other than Bianchi, could you all give me some decent bikes to look out for on eBay? There's a nice Bianchi ending tomorrow at £446 at the moment.

I'm now looking at going up to and around £700-800.

Gladiator

Portland Bill wrote:

Ok chaps, I didn't realise you could check availability of the Canyon bikes and there are none in my size so it's back to the drawing board.

Other than Bianchi, could you all give me some decent bikes to look out for on eBay? There's a nice Bianchi ending tomorrow at £446 at the moment.

I'm now looking at going up to and around £700-800.

In that case a Felt Z85.

portland_bill

Good call!

Ordered!