Ridley Brontes ?

mike.adams

Hi, I'm new to the forum and also about to purchase my first road bike. I was after a bit of advice over the Ridley Brontes. Merlin are selling the bike for £719 which seems like a good price for a bike with Shimano 105 gearing. I was previously looking at a Specialized Allez Elite which was more expensive and on paper anyway a lower spec. The only issue I have is that although a number of people at work say that Ridley make good bikes I can't find anything about the Brontes anywhere - reviews etc. It also doesn't appear on the Ridley website. Could it be that Merlin are building the bike from another Ridley frame and re-naming it ? Does anybody know / use the bike ?
The link to Merlin is http://www.merlincycles.com/bike-shop/b ... -bike.html.
Very confused at the moment as I don't know much about road bikes.
Thanks in advance.

laurentian

In the spec, there is the following line:

"Limited Edition special offer 2013 model from Ridley"

The fact that it's a limited edition may explain why you can find no reviews (unless Bronte is a regular model - but I know next to nothing of Ridley bikes except that they make some nice ones).

Secondly, again I'm no expert, but I have seen people on these boards say that a "limited edition" is more often than not, last years model or a lower spec of an existing model with a different colour scheme - might be worth digging a little deeper. Having said that, 105 with carbon stays and forks and so on doesn't look bad to me

There was a post on here for a Merlin bike that looked exceptional value:

viewtopic.php?f=40013&t=12924617

Good luck

lawrences

It's only really got half of a 105 groupset. Still looks like good value though.

mike.adams

Thanks guys. Always worries me when I can't find any reviews but my collegues tell me they make good bikes. I've taken the plunge and put down the deposit so fingers crossed it's not a cut and shut :-)