Newbie road bike trek/ specialized

jones_88

FIrst of all hello.

I bought a Specialised sirrus sport about 2 years ago for commuting to work when I could be arsed on nice sunny days or dry winter days and it's perfectly fine for the 12 mile commute ( each way) I used to do with 250m of height gain on the way home ( which felt like a bastard to me as I don't cycle very often at all maybe once or twice a month)

I have now moved house and the commute is only 5.5 miles each way on pretty flat ground so I'm going to try do that twice a week for my fitness or maybe more ( I'm quite fit anyway as a climber/mountaineer in my spare time)
I say try as I have the option of a free lift every day so it takes quite a lot of effort to refuse a free lift and choose to cycle in which means getting up half an hour early for no reason at all.

Anyway life story aside I got the sirrus as I didn't like the idea of dropped bars for my not so amazing back and scepticism of road bikes.

Now I want to use the sirrus for commuting and maybe get a road bike just for pleasure ( wouldn't want to leave a nice road bike in work all day!)
I have £500 - £800ish to spend. Is it worth getting a road bike or am I better off sticking with the sirrus sport as I wouldn't really notice any difference in such a small budget change.
I was thinking a specialised allez elite or a trek 1.2/1.5 .
My main hobbies are climbing and mountaineering but I want to keep my fitness up so was thinking of getting out a lot more on the bike from now on and have the money but just don't want to piss it away when my current bike is good enough for me at the moment

Also as I know nothing about gearing apart from my old trek ex8 was amazing at going up hills will a road bike be easier or harder go get up hills than my sirrus sport?


Any advice would really be appreciated as I don't really trust sales people in shops that don't seem to be interested if your spending less than £1500.

Thanks

jones_88

Oh and I live in north wales where it is full of whoop off big bastard hills if any bikes are better at climbing than others.

night_porter

My mates wife has a Trek 1.5 triple and it is a really nice bike for the money.

It has 10 speed Tiagra and is a really comfortable ride.

You will notice the difference from your Sirrus but it will take some getting used to. The drops will feel alien to start with but stick at it and within 300 miles you will appreciate how comfortable they are and easy to use.

kajjal

I have a Trek 1.5 and the 10 speed is very useful as is the 12-30 cassette to help get up steeper hills. I have no complaints at all with my bike so far. The 2013 ones are about £700 in the sales if you look around as are other decent bikes.

arran77

jones_88 wrote:

Oh and I live in north wales where it is full of whoop off big bastard hills if any bikes are better at climbing than others.

The best bikes for climbing are the ones with a big engine on board so with the other sports you do that should help

Having said that as others have mentioned you might want to consider a triple or at least a compact.

Plenty of choice at the moment with sales on 2013 bikes so I would maybe expand the search wider than Specialized and Trek

jones_88

After much thought I reckon I can raise my funds to £1000 so I can stretch to a carbon frame and will be going for a compact.

Wise choice or waste of money?

Any bikes spring to mind for that price?

night_porter

I am not sure what you expect to get for the extra money but if you are happy to spend it then the very best £1,000 bike as far as I am concerned is the Planet X Pro Carbon Ultegra. An awesome bike with a superb groupset.

NP

jones_88

I have been looking at trek and specialised as they have 2 brilliant chops quite close to me so I can go and have a look/ test ride the bikes more than any other bikes.

I think I'm going for the specialised Roubaix or the tarmac when I get some cash. I wont be going for mega long rides but comfort does sound nice as opposed to the full on tarmac. more than likely in summer time I will go for a 2 hour ride after work or a full day on a weekend. And full days in the rain in winter possibly no night rides in it.

kajjal

If you know what you want spending more can help you get it. That's how I ended up buying a Specialized Carve mountain bike. It fitted the list I made of what I wanted and is was great on the test ride. I have adjusted it a bit but not bought anything extra for it so it has been a good buy.

For my Trek 1.5 the only upgrade I have done is to 105 brakes as being 15.5 stone the ones it came with were not sharp enough for me. Now the bike stops really well. The only danger is to balance buying the cost of buying a bike v the upgrades you may end up doing.

unixnerd

My mates wife has a Trek 1.5 triple and it is a really nice bike for the money.

A friend has one he got for 200 off a mate at work, bargain. Your kind of money buys a really nice used bike, sort of thing that cost 2k new. I'd think about that.

jones_88

Yeah I used to think that but then I got a second hand trek fuel ex8 about 2 years ago. All was well until the frame bent a little and needed replacing which would have been no problem at all if I would have bought it from new and had proof of purchase but if you don't have the original receipt from what I understood you have to fork out for a new frame!
So since that I have decided bike wise ill just buy brand new instead of saving a few hundred quid and then ending up spending more than I saved again when I brake it!
Rock climbing gear doesn't really gets a guarantee so I'm happy buying that second hand.
Although I realise I'm hardly going to bend a frame on a road bike I'm quite unlucky.