Decisions, decisions

The Rookie

I'm an MTBer at heart and so my commuter is a flat barred hybrid and despite being a 700c frame I run 26" wheels and 1.5" slick tyres (another benefit is parts compatability with my MTB stuff).

However I work overseas quite often and a local company produces a road bike which to me (having no real idea on anything with bendy bars) looks good value, so tempted to get one on the basis it looks OK for a tryout to see how I feel about bendy bars, plus it ticks my must have box of rack mounts on the dropouts, if I don't like it I can sell it on!

Spec (breifly) is
Sora 3300 drivetrain (compact double, FD, RD and STI shifters), alloy frame and forks, VP BB and headset, Kenda (? model) tyres, wheel make/model unknown, Tektro brakes, Zoom finishing kit (Yeah I know.....but that's easily replaced!), I can get this back to the Uk for an all in cost of about £230, does that sound like reasonable value or not, any links to similar specced road bikes for sale in the UK (wouldn't have a clue where to start, athough this looks worse specced for more money! http://www.halfords.com/webapp/wcs/stor ... 65710#tab2 )

UndercoverElephant

Looks possibly reasonable value, certainly you wouldn't get anything near Sora for that price over here. Makes me wonder, though, do they do a higher-spec model too? You might as well go for the proper one if you can, it'd really show you what you've been missing.

The Rookie

That IS their highest spec model........

Most bikes here (India) are 35lb and made of welded up bar with rod brakes, any gears are a luxury, so this positively stands out from the crowd!

Decathlon are imported but import tax on any bike kills the 'value' for me, this is the only indiginously assembled bike I can find worth looking at at all (except for getting one of the rod braked monstrosities as a laugh!).

walkingbootweather

Fine if you want to buy and ride something while away.

I wouldn't bother buying just to bring back to the UK. If you get it and you find you like 'bendy bars' you will want something better, if you don't (and that might be just because this particular bike is not very good) you will want to get rid. Either way you will quickly want to move it on and may have trouble shifting something that nobody has ever heard of.

IMHO better to get something half decent second hand. If you buy wisely you will get pretty much all your cash back if you sell on.

Shopping for n+1 is almost as much fun as riding.

The Rookie

That's a good point WBW.....may have tpo consider that.......although as most bikes are worth more in bits than as a whole I don't sell whole bikes very often!

Only almost though.........mind you shopping for upgrades is even better (My XT brakes will be waiting fitment to my MTB when I get home.....woohoo!)

walkingbootweather

The Beginner wrote:

Only almost though.........mind you shopping for upgrades is even better (My XT brakes will be waiting fitment to my MTB when I get home.....woohoo!)

I see your woohoo and raise you a woohoowoo Can I ask where you got your XT brakes from as I have just got a rigid fork for my MTB and want to fit some decent v-brakes to this to speed up the change from rigid to suspension and back again. The suspension fork has XTR, but these are silly money so XT would do just fine as an alternative. Some of the german suppliers seem to have decent prices.

The Rookie

I'm a scavanger, so I have bought a pair of good used M775 XT levers, a used Saint M800 front complete (same as an M775 XT) front and an XTR rear calliper and hose and will be making them up into a 'set'.

As for V-brakes, there are some XT's on pinkbike at the moment......same seller has 1 pair for £15 or 2 pairs for £20 (guess where I found mine!) search for "v XT" in the brakes section (buy and sell, europe obviously), there are also some avid single digits if you just search for "v" (upto £20 or you'll get hundreds of hits!)