Recommendation for daughter’s general purpose road bike?

bice
bice Posts: 772
edited March 2016 in Road beginners
My daughter (23) is living in Newcastle and can get a bike through cycle to work.

What she wants is a good general purpose road bike, capable of having mudguards and being ridden along gravel tracks and into town to shop, and commute occasionally, and do a 30-40 miler if she wishes. Or, the coast to coast.

Gravel / Anyroad bikes seem to be the latest marketing terms for the sort of thing she is after.

£600 - £700 would be about the right price. I know I could make her up something quite good for that price, although a new bike, especially of a previous year, through cycle to work could be better value.

I reckon 8-10 gears would be fine, and a good frame and components are more important than things like disc brakes, which add complexity but not value for the kind of riding that she is going to do.

I like the look of the Genesis Croix de Fer, but it is perhaps too expensive. I like steel and think it is still a very valid choice.

I would consider the Giant Anyroad bikes, which has the right approach, but it is costly and maybe you are paying for marketing hyperbole: with gravel bikes, anyroad etc being latest terminology.

A cyclocross bike with slicks might also be a good choice. Is there a good value one from mainstream makers?

Touring bikes are too heavy and over-kill for her purposes.

My hope is to get her a bike that encourages her to do more ambitious riding. Friends of hers are quite keen cyclists, and she enjoyed doing the coast-to-coast last year.

She is adamant that she wants a proper bike with drops, not a heavy hybrid.

Any thoughts?

And is there a Newcastle shop that could make up something interesting?

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