New Bike help please Budget £500-800

Jonny17291

Bit of detail about myself I'm 5ft11, New to the Road scene, Currently have 2012 specialized rockhopper, but its not great for road so looking to get one with the cycle to work scheme. I'm looking for a Road bike and will use my other bike for off road trails ect.

I want to do the London>brighton bike ride next month along with a few friends, did the KM 50km a few sundays ago with my current bike and found it wasn't great on the road.

I live in Kent and have been to a few cycle shops, ideally want to avoid halfords entirely heard too many bad stories about them, Cycles UK looks like the best bet for my location.

http://www.cyclesuk.com/en/Mens-Road-Ra ... scountDESC

If you can assists me on any bikes you think are good for the price as there seems to be some nice discount on some, any tips as well will be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance

lesfirth

Dolan L'etape with campag veloce group set £799.99. Fantastic bike full stop.That's from one very satisfied owner.

Jonny17291

Thanks Lesfirth bike looks really nice but really would like a local shop near by where I can test ride it.

Thanks Ocoman about the cannondale synapse 2014 tiagra model but I was told for the same price I can get the Moda Echo carbon in black and yellow and was told was a lot better, due to the fact its full carbon, other than that I got no idea if its better. Just what the person told me.

Jonny17291

I test road the Moda 54 yesterday, and just wasn't sure about it, just saying to myself no its a £1100 bike its gotta be good but just didn't feel right

what are you opinions on the Giant defy range?

ayjaycee

I see that the 2015 Specialized Elite is available from Cycles UK and, from personal experience, cannot recommend it highly enough - a fantastic bike if it suits you and one which looks even better at the recently reduced price of £720.

There are one or two regulars on this forum who dislike Specialized for their own reasons but even more who like them a lot - I'm obviously one of the latter.

dj58

Jonny17291 wrote:

I test road the Moda 54 yesterday, and just wasn't sure about it, just saying to myself no its a £1100 bike its gotta be good but just didn't feel right

what are you opinions on the Giant defy range?

£749.00 Gets you a 2015 Defy 2 from Rutland Cycling and Paulscycles.

Matthewfalle

Planet X Pro Carbon in the sales.

Jonny17291

I phoned up Ashcyles yesterday and spoke to a women and said I'm looking at getting the Giant defy 1 for
£995.00 £698.95
Save: 30% off
with the cycletoworkscheme, and she asked who I work for and said that they will have to add 10% of the price of the bike onto it as they get charged or something like that, have you heard anything of this?

Also she said normally the cycletoworkscheme is only on full prices bikes not bikes on offer

Also does the Frame size matter a huge deal? I'm 5ft 10 11 ish and on ashcycles http://www.ashcycles.com/site/giant-defy-1-2014-black the only size they have for this price is 53.5, but I should get a 56cm - 58cm. does it really matter? or would you recommend getting the http://www.ashcycles.com/site/giant-defy-1-2014-blue which is 55.5cm but theres a £20 difference?

dj58

Regarding the Defy sizing, I would estimate that the 55.5 Large bike will be too big for you, the 53.5 Med./Large bike may even be too big, depending on your reach. Some people your height ride a medium frame. You need to go to a Giant stockist and sit on the M and M/L bikes to see which fits you the best.

Do you have a road bike already, if so what and what size is it? Read the thread below, page 3 in particular and what Lambretta_Special says.

viewtopic.php?f=40020&t=12882623&start=40

ai_1

Jonny17291 wrote:

Thanks Lesfirth bike looks really nice but really would like a local shop near by where I can test ride it...

I'd suggest not worrying too much about a test ride.
They're over-rated. You end up testing the way the shop set up the test bike (tyre pressure, gear and brakes, length of stem, saddle position, etc), the roads around the shop, your form and mood on the day, and the weather, rather than the bike itself. I'm convinced typical test rides are 99% worthless.
What matters most is getting something with appropriate geometry for your body and preferences. Then to a lesser extent getting the spec you want such as the most appropriate chainring and cassette combos.

When I first came on here and was looking at buying a new bike I was inundated with advice to make sure I test rode whatever bike I was considering. Initially this sounded eminently sensible to me and i did indeed test ride a couple of bikes but I quickly realised that this wasn't telling me a damn thing. A typical test ride is simply an opportunity to deceive yourself into believing whatever you like or, potentially to be put off a perfectly good bike by problems during your test ride which were not specific to the bike model.

Do spend time satisfying yourself the fit is right or can be made right with a little tweaking.
Don't allow the feel of a test ride sway you either way without a very concrete reason.