Buying a "beginner" road bike 101. Help!?

lindalonger

I've been riding a "Giant" brand hybrid bike for a couple of years. I "pimped" it up by getting thinner ( road ) tires, proper seat, and putting the handle bars in their lowest position. It weighs 33 pounds! I still manage an average speed of 22-25 mph over a 2 hour ride. I would like to buy a road bike but don't know where to begin. What are the important specs? I don"t want to go "high end" - maybe "medium end". I am 5 foot 11 inches tall with longer than average legs, tipping the scales at 200lbs. Any suggestions for makes, models, or important considerations I should keep in mind?

Note : My bad! I average 25 km / hour - about 15 mph!! I do a 52km ( 30 mile ) loop in about 2 hours. Thanks to Bob A. for making me think about that. And yes, it's a heavy bike. That's why I'm thinking I'd like to try a much lighter one.

Thanks.

ai_1

Most important is that it fits!
What's your budget?

After that there are 3 main elements: frame, groupset and wheels.
I suggest you regard the frame and groupset (gears, cranks, brakes, etc) as permanent and the wheels as potentially upgradeable. Many bikes come with heavy wheels and cheap/poor tyres but these can be easily swapped out for something better later if you wish.
There are 3 main brands of groupsets: Shimano, SRAM and Campagnolo. You'll see different people have different preferences but all three work well. Shimano is the most widespread.
There are 4 normal arrangements for the gears at the front of the bike (this is the chainrings which the pedal cranks are attached to). Either a standard double, compact double, triple or "quasi-compact double". Either a compact or triple will be the best choice for most cyclists in my opinion.

It's really impossible to give advice on specific bikes without a lot more information, like budget, type of riding you do and plan to do (flat, hilly, fitness only or maybe some cycling or triathlon competition?), whether your priority will be speed or comfort, how flexible you are and of course how much you have to spend!

pete8uk

+1 to Ai_1, the most important thing is that it fits.

Second most important is that you like the bike

The type of riding you intend to do, not to mention your budget, will lead you to a selection of bikes to choose from (e.g. if you want mudguard clearance, that probably rules out quite a few). But, you'll still have a choice to make.

Which leads back to fit, and your personal taste. Even if it's just on looks! If you like your bike, and it fits you well, you'll ride it more. Whether you have, for example, 105 or Tiagra brakes won't make a huge difference to your enjoyment (IMHO)

BTW: I'm not saying ignore specs, just don't be ruled by them!

alimaysports

If you're considering such a investment in a bicycle, you should really consider getting a bike fitting session for yourself. Then depending on the results of the session you should be able to narrow down the type of bicycle best suited for your body. Armed with this information you can usually find the usual suspects of popular bicycle brands out there that are more suited to your tastes.

markhewitt1978

Impossible to say unless you give us some idea of your budget. Some peoples medium spec is £750, for others it's £3,000.

JayKosta

For a rider weight of 200 lbs, I would not go any fewer than 28 spokes per wheel, and preferably 32.
Shimana 105 or Ultegra components, compact gearing unless never riding big hills, and hopefully a comfortable saddle so you don't have to immediately buy another.
And of course, frame, stem, and bars sized to fit you.

Jay Kosta
Endwell NY USA

p1212

I was in a similar situation and I chose the triban 3 to start road biking, perfect beginner road bike, weighing just 11 kgs, has the same components as other bikes for 500-600 pounds, carbon fork, and I am very happy with it for more than a year now. If you don't want to spend zillions and don't care about how shiny it is, read the reviews and buy that one.

Also the red is on sale for 249 in decathlon at the moment, you can't go wrong for that price, second hand ones are going for that much on ebay.

Just check the bike and especially the wheels before buying one.

http://www.decathlon.co.uk/triban-3-red ... 74036.html

p1212

Actually it says weight of bike in size 57 is 10.5 kg.

meagain

And don't forget that lightweight does not demand drop bars! I have only two bikes these days (health inability to ride more than 15-20 miles makes more unjustifiable!) - a carbon Planet X on drops and an alloy framed/carbon forked Trex 7.5FX with flat bars. The Planet X weighs about 17.5 lbs and the Trek not more than 19. Bought 2nd hand, the two stand me at £850 in total.

Ringpeace

Here's a suggestion that should be in room 101 - stop asking questions that have been infinitely answered but because you are too lazy to search and read - you ask them, yet again!

Yeesus - Room 101 - stop asking repetitive questions.

markhewitt1978

Forum search is goosed at the moment.

meagain

Ringpeace wrote:

Here's a suggestion that should be in room 101 - stop asking questions that have been infinitely answered but because you are too lazy to search and read - you ask them, yet again!

Yeesus - Room 101 - stop asking repetitive questions.

If other folk don't mind answering why should you object? You don't have to read, never mind reply.