£500 Road bike

Anonymous

Have just started looking for a friend and have so far got 2.
The Boardman sport and Triban 5. Get 10% off the Boardman with British Cycling which makes it £450.

Any opinions which to go for out of these and maybe suggest a third option.
Simpler to stick to £500 max, and rule out used and anything complicated.
Saw a nice Raleigh (heavily discounted offer) on wiggle with Tiagra (nearly bought it myself) but you had to grab it quick.

Thanks if you can help me, er, help him

snowjho

Going on spec triban 5 wins. Carbon fork (& seatstays?)and sora. The triban 3 is more similar to the Boardman but only 299 however triban 3 beats it by having carbon fork.

wongataa

Merlin Cycles have some own brand bikes at that price.

nochekmate

Go secondhand @ £500.

Anonymous

Thanks guys. The Triban is my fave at the mo. I like the spec and it will be easy for him to buy.
Not sure there is any advantage in the Merlins/Sensa's and Mail order is a complication.
I would go secondhand if it were me, or wait for a big discount to pop up, but I would have a better idea of what I wanted and could pounce on something.

Anonymous

If the budget was upped to £600. Would a Boardman Race (£669 with 10% BC Discount = £603) be a much better option than the Triban 5?
£100 would get better Wheels/finishing kit, its almost a kg/10% lighter, has good reviews and brand/looks/resale advantage.
Am I missing something?

goonz

Isn't the Specialized Allez available for close to £500?

Anonymous

goonz wrote:

Isn't the Specialized Allez available for close to £500?

Looks to be £50 less but a fair bit lower spec.

zx6man

new tribans due out too

Anonymous

Yes, good point.
Not sure of details though but might be worth a look

prawny

Triban 3 and some proper wheels.

Anonymous

prawny wrote:

Triban 3 and some proper wheels.

Thinking outside the box eh

My thoughts were to get components up to Sora and I think the concept of buying two sets of wheels would fry his brain at this point

I will run just getting the Triban 3 past him again though. I was only looking at the Boardman as an alternative to the Triban 5. As the Boardman is twice the cost of the 3 it's probably worth re-concidering the Triban 3 now though

prawny

I don't think sora would be much of an upgrade to be fair, you need to be aiming for tiagra to get the improved levers.

Has he got much kit? £200 won't go that far in the shorts/jerseys/helmet/shoe buying area.

j.higson

Carbonator wrote:

goonz wrote:

Isn't the Specialized Allez available for close to £500?

Looks to be £50 less but a fair bit lower spec.

The Allez 2013 is 550 at Evans cycles. http://www.evanscycles.com/products/specialized/allez-compact-2013-road-bike-ec040963 I have one and its a brilliant budget bike! it'll hold its value well when i come to resell it on when the tour de france comes round an people want to ride a bike for two weeks.

Anonymous

j.higson wrote:

Carbonator wrote:

goonz wrote:

Isn't the Specialized Allez available for close to £500?

Looks to be £50 less but a fair bit lower spec.

The Allez 2013 is 550 at Evans cycles. http://www.evanscycles.com/products/specialized/allez-compact-2013-road-bike-ec040963 I have one and its a brilliant budget bike! it'll hold its value well when i come to resell it on when the tour de france comes round an people want to ride a bike for two weeks.

Your selling it! What will you get when you sell it on then

There are lots of great bikes but I just think the Boardman is worth the extra £56. It becomes personal taste looks/colour etc when they are that close I guess.

Anonymous

prawny wrote:

I don't think sora would be much of an upgrade to be fair, you need to be aiming for tiagra to get the improved levers.

Has he got much kit? £200 won't go that far in the shorts/jerseys/helmet/shoe buying area.

I would go 105 if it were me but I'm pushing the brief as it is. Sora is 18 as opposed to 16 speed and there must be some other benifits.
I am not familiar with what is below Sora, but it reminds me of those bikes you see in car accessory shops that say 'Shimano gearing'. I am sure its fine (apart from the 8 cogs), but you have to aim somewhere.

I am only helping with the bike. I dont want to get involved with another mans lycra

I will check out the Shimano gearing pecking order before I offend anyone :oops:

♠ChumBucket♠

In approx 2 weeks the triban 5 will be replaced with a new version. The new version will have 2013 sora- so no little thumb shifters, carbon forks & will retail for £100 less than the current model. However, it wont have carbon seat stays. It does look better than the current version though IMO.

Anonymous

Thanks. Sounds good. Have a link?
Guess its a triple. Suppose the Boardman may be old Sora?

♠ChumBucket♠

These are the 2013 bikes (if link works)

http://www.btwin.com/blog/wp-content/up ... r-2013.pdf

Anonymous

for the link.

tkoppis

Is the new Triban 3 utter rubbish? Or will it suffice for a female newbie trainer that will do approx 20-30 miles a week and one triathlon (not aiming for 1st...)?

ademort

Just bought one of these for my Son.http://www.fietssportief.nl/nl/producte ... a-2012/976
Works out at £320 approx. I have to say i was surprised it,s a bloody good bike for the price.
Ademort

tkoppis

ademort wrote:

Just bought one of these for my Son.http://www.fietssportief.nl/nl/producte ... a-2012/976
Works out at £320 approx. I have to say i was surprised it,s a bloody good bike for the price.
Ademort

from that site? shipping to the UK?

ademort

Yes from that site.Phone them. I,ve had 2 bikes from them now and no problem at all. This latest is definitely a bargain and a full kilo lighter than my Giant Defy 4.
Ademort

zx6man

Weird how the triban 5 says sora 9 speed but doesn't look to have the 2013 levers

prawny

zx6man wrote:

Weird how the triban 5 says sora 9 speed but doesn't look to have the 2013 levers

Decathlon bikes are often supplied with odd or last years groupsets. Possibly how they manage to get them out so cheap.

zx6man

could be, I thought sora 2012 was 8 speed for some reason

prawny

2012 looks 9 speed, according to Chain reaction anyway. I have to confess I'm not an expert on super budget groupsets.

zx6man

Im on 2300 , sora would be an upgrade :-)

prawny

zx6man wrote:

Im on 2300 , sora would be an upgrade :-)

Probably not as much as you'd think. I rode a bike with 2300 back to back with a tiagra one and there was no difference other than the extra sprocket, then went from tiagra to 105 when I bought my lastest bike and again no real differnce. I tried a mates Ultegra a couple of weeks ago and I gould feel the difference at the levers straight away.

Anonymous

zx6man wrote:

could be, I thought sora 2012 was 8 speed for some reason

Sora has been 9 speed since 2009 according to wikipedia.

Daughter has a 2013 model Felt with a Sora rear derailier. It has Microshift levers though, which have the button on the outside (so not thumb) just above the lever behind brake lever.
The derailier is black, on the 2012 model its silver.

So am I right in thinking a 2013 (3500) Sora groupset would be a pretty good upgrade on 2300 (as it is 9 speed and no thumb button), and not much different to Tiagra?