Former MTBer seeks basic road bike for £400. Help please!

pete236
pete236 Posts: 204
edited May 2014 in Road buying advice
Evening all.

Well, it's been a while since I was last online here, and then I was covered in mud and pretending to be a mountain biker! Now I've exhausted the local woodland, my mates have settled down with clingy birds and don't want to travel so I'd like to try some tarmac - but with something more suited than a mountain bike with commuter tyres!
I'm pretty restricted on budget, £400 being the absolubte upper limit.
I've got a decent crash hat, ok SPD's and shoes, other bits are ok for now but will need replacing this year, though there's no hurry.

I've had a quick look round t'interweb, and trawled through the search on here and have managed to completely confuse myself!
I've never sat on a road bike before, I've no idea what to expect. I'd like to build my (appalling) fitness, do some organised rides (like London to Brighton) and I've a pie in the sky hope to try a bi or triathlon in the next year. Summer commuting ain't out of the question if I can find a less daftly dangerous route that avoids the '13 bends of death' as the main road is called!
My eye has been drawn to the Carrera Zelos 2014 on Halfords - to my untrained eye it looks good, seems to have not-too-bad kit and is a perfect price that allows a little over for tinkering. I've read and heard that Carrera ain't the best quality, and that the Halfords 'offer' price is probably the real value of the machine. I'd prefer something new to 2nd hand simply because I'm a tart and I like to know the history of what I'm buying.

So, any advice on a Sub £400 bike for a total newbie, that will be nicely average all round, will be very welcome!
Cheers :) Pete.

One fine day in the middle of the night, two dead men got up to fight. Back to back they faced each other, drew their swords and shot each other.

Comments