sub £350 road bike advice

philipmoore

Evening
I'm looking to start road riding. I currently own a mountain bike but am looking for something more suitable for road use. With it being my 1st road bike I didn't want to go mad. Looking at a budget of £300 - £350, does anyone have any advice? I was told recently by 2 road riding friends that I should consider looking at decathlon or halfords. Any advice gratefully received.

munzy

http://www.merlincycles.com/felt-f95-ro ... 72321.html

£355 with HNY10 code

Spec - Shimano Sora gears, carbon fork, good branded basic wheelset and Felt finishing kit are outstanding for the price.

Don't get all dithery as others do about 'race' vs 'sportive' geometry - as long as a bike frame is the correct size then bars, stems, seatposts and saddles can be adjusted to suit and tyre type/pressures for comfort.

I use one of these as a training bike and love it - well made, rides smoothly and looks great
I saved hard and have an F1 as my race bike but would happily race my F95 with just a wheel upgrade.

Also very important you budget for at least a pair of padded bib shorts - you can use your MTB pedals, shoes and gear to get you started.

http://www.merlincycles.com/northwave-s ... 67650.html

wotnoshoeseh

This ^^^.

Or if you want to stay within your budget, how about this...
viewtopic.php?f=40090&t=13004698

Currently on the Classifieds on this forum.

chippyk

I've a Triban 5 from Decathlon as a winter bike. Full Shimano Sora, carbon fork. IIRC this, or should I say last year's version the 500 SE is £330 albeit with a Microshift groupset.
That Felt looks very good value TBH, you'd not regret either but with my own money, I'd be buying the Felt.

passout

Good advice above. Merlin are good to deal with.

I recently bought a GT GTR series 4 from Pro Bike Kit as a winter trainer for 350. I bought it because I like the frame but actually I've been won over by the microshift components too - very smooth. It rides really well (comfortable & pretty fast) and looks good. The only thing I intend to change at some point are the wheels, which are cheap but seem to be lasting OK through this winter anyway. The only thing I upgraded straight away were the tyres (had some better ones in my shed) and brake blocks.

http://www.probikekit.co.uk/bikes/gt-gt ... 68388.html

philipmoore

Thanks for that everyone.