Cyclescheme... the "what bike" question again.... (sorry)

haddock_n_chips

Hey everyone,

My work currently run the "cyclescheme" system and i am thinking of getting a bike through this

I am currently riding an old 1983 Puch road bike. Which is great, i love it to bits but it's 30 years old, the brakes are more than useless in the wet and its pretty heavy, I bought it off ebay in a sorry state and have got it back to working condition again, but i think it's time for something a little more modern to cycle to work. .

Now budget wise I dont earn a huge amount of money so was looking to spend around £500 with the cyclescheme voucher. I dont need any accessories as i have all this from the other bike and can swap over etc.. so the £500 is purely to spend on the bike

My commute to work is a flat smooth ride for 5 miles each way, couple of tiny inclines but mainly flat (good old Cambridgeshire, we dont do hills around here!)

I was looking at stuff like Ribble and some decent Scott bikes, ended up coming in around £700. Whilst they are great bikes at the end of the day all i need is something fairly simple to get me to work and back.

My initial thoughts were something like the B'twin Triban 3, but A.) finding one isn't that easy anymore and B.) cant get it on cyclescheme.

As the Triban is £300, this is where i'm getting my rough budget from i.e. Triban retails at £299, a £500 cyclescheme voucher will cost me £340 overall.

Before the Puch, i also had a Specialized Allez 2011 model (so carbon forks etc) which i picked up very cheap in an end of season sale. I ended up selling it as i wasnt using it at the time, wish i hadnt now!

But this is the reason i'm sticking to Road bikes and not getting a hybrid or similar. I'm used to them now and it would nice to have one i could potentially use for more than just cycling to work.

So my question (in a long winded way) is

- Whats the best i can get for my £500
- MUST be a "CYCLESCHEME" seller

Ribble looks great, the cheaper ones are almost affordable, however they slap a £65 admin fee on top of the price for cyclescheme orders and by the time you add delivery too it makes it fairly expensive

Pauls cycles are the same, charging a 10% admin fee on any sale bike (no fee on full rrp bikes though) which rules out a few again.

So far i have visited a few of my LBS (ones on cyclescheme) and not been impressed with anything on display

The best i have seen though was the Merida Ridelight 90, but for £599 the specs didnt seem overly great

Anyone got any ideas?!!

I could really use some help!

Thanks

WiLL.....

passout

You could do a flat 5 mile commute on pretty much any sort of bike. So I'd probably just go with what you fancy. However you may want to think about a frame that takes guards and maybe a rack? The ability to take wider tyres (say 28mm. 32 or 35mm) adds flexibility & comfort too. I wouldn't bother with any suspension or disc brakes.

My top choice would be the Revolution range of cyclo cross bikes form the edinburgh bicycle cooperative or whatever its called, which start just slightly over your budget - great value. On-One do some interesting urban / hybrid type things too. Both do cyclescheme.

PS I do my flat 5 mile commute on a singlepeed with full guards (SE larger). I wouldn't go fixie/ singlespeed unless you are sure & have another geared bike for longer rides though.

haddock_n_chips

Thanks Passout

I dont want a "fixie", tried one of a friends once and wasnt too keen,

Definitely dont need suspension

I just prefer road bikes and like the speeds you can get etc...

i'm not opposed to a decent hybrid, just never found anything i like. I particularly like the fact that a road bike is designed for speed and are very lightweight.

I'll have a look at the revolutions....

haddock_n_chips

I really like the look of the merlin malt-r, anyone have any experience of these?

Will....