New bike advice

Cycle4shay

Ok so got back into cycling to do the london to Brighton for a terminally I'll little boy.
Brought myself a second hand Carreras zelos from eBay for £170. Entry level I know but wasn't planning on using apart from to Brighton. Iv got to say Iv been out 4 times and Iv fallen in love with cycling. I'm looking into doing the channel 50 challenge as a bit of practise and have decided I'd like to buy a "proper" bike. I'm more than likely going to take advantage of these 0% finance deals and looking to spend under £1000. Iv always had a soft spot for bianchi and the colouring. Found a bianchi via nirone 7 that looks pretty sweet. What do you guys think and what would you buy? I'm about 5"8 and 16.5st... hoping that changes........
Thanks for your time

bold seagull

Cycle4shay wrote:

Ok so got back into cycling to do the london to Brighton for a terminally I'll little boy.
Brought myself a second hand Carreras zelos from eBay for £170. Entry level I know but wasn't planning on using apart from to Brighton. Iv got to say Iv been out 4 times and Iv fallen in love with cycling. I'm looking into doing the channel 50 challenge as a bit of practise and have decided I'd like to buy a "proper" bike. I'm more than likely going to take advantage of these 0% finance deals and looking to spend under £1000. Iv always had a soft spot for bianchi and the colouring. Found a bianchi via nirone 7 that looks pretty sweet. What do you guys think and what would you buy? I'm about 5"8 and 16.5st... hoping that changes........
Thanks for your time

You'll find that for your top branded bikes like Bianchi, Specialized, Trek that you will pay more for less spec. on the bike, although frame quality and design etc. is normally very good. I've got a Bianchi Infinito C2C and absolutely love it, but I did buy in 2nd hand off a mate, and have upgraded parts over time.

For £1000 you can get an Ultegra spec. groupset PlanetX carbon with a good wheelset. With the internet shops you have to take a bit of a punt on size, feel etc. but check they offer a free return if it doesn't suit you.
http://www.planetx.co.uk/i/q/EBPXSLP6800FULL/planet-x-pro-carbon-shimano-ultegra-6800-road-bike

However, really you also want to try a few bikes if you can, to get a feel for geometry and start to sense the difference between bikes - they're not all the same, and even a beginner can simply feel one suits them better than another.

If you have a Decathlon near you, the B'Twins are cracking bikes for the money too, for £800, the Ultra 900AF is a lot of bike:https://www.decathlon.co.uk/ultra-900-af-road-bike-105-id_8377261.html My wife just got a B'Twin 540 £650 through her work's bike -2-work scheme, well worth looking in to if your employer offers it, a really solid, well built, well spec'd bike https://www.decathlon.co.uk/triban-540-road-bike-105-red-blue-id_8364452.html. Dropping right down the price range, for £300 the 500SE is a cracking bit of kit for the price, and not just for the price, it is a decent bike in its own right - https://www.decathlon.co.uk/triban-500- ... 06187.html