First Road Bike

drew1493
drew1493 Posts: 3
edited March 2018 in Road buying advice
Hey I’m looking get my first road bike but have quite a limited budget of £500ish.

I’ve been looking at the B’twin Triban 500SE and 520. But not sure which one would be best. Or are there any other bikes you would recommend?

Comments

  • lakesluddite
    lakesluddite Posts: 1,337
    The main difference is the groupset that's included. With the 520 you get Shimano Sora, which is probably a step up from the Microshift groupset on the 500se. I'm not sure, but I think Microshift might be an 'in-house' brand of Decathlon? I am prepared to be enlightened on this!

    The Shimano Sora groupset is okay for a first road bike, it works well - not the lightest in the Shimano range of groupsets as it sits on the second step of the ladder (Claris, Sora, Tiagra, 105, Ultegra and Dura-Ace), but it should work absolutely fine.
    The Microshift, for me, is an unknown quantity - I've never heard any reviews or heard any particular gripes.

    Also, with the 520, you get (allegedly) Shimano brake calipers, whereas the 500se has generic B'Twin calipers - no idea about the difference in quality. Having said this, the pictures of the 520 show the brake calipers with B'Twin decals clearly showing, so you would need to check this.
  • drew1493
    drew1493 Posts: 3
    Thank you for your replies! Its good hear I was thinking along the same lines. Interesting about the brake, I had not noticed that before!

    I'm heading to Glasgow this weekend to give the bikes a try, currently the 500SE is reduced so about half the price of the 520. Do you think it would be worth spending the extra on the better specced, better known groupset?
  • mrb123
    mrb123 Posts: 4,787
    http://road.cc/content/buyers-guide/217 ... ins-under-£500
    In case you hadn't seen this...
  • yiannism
    yiannism Posts: 345
    Just save some more money and buy tiagra, lower than that if you get serious in cycling in a few months you will looking for an upgrade.

    P.S. Microshift are horrible.
  • froze
    froze Posts: 213
    while Microshift is not as well known their top of the line model was seen at the TDF, so evidently their not entirely junk.

    But I think the Btwin 520 is your best bet as well.

    Having said that if this is your first time doing any type of physical activity sport I would buy a used bike for around 200, then save up money as you ride your used bike, and if you are still riding after a couple of years and you want something nicer than step up into the 1,200 to 1,500 range. The problem is most people that start any type of new sport quit about 3 months into it, if by chance that happens to you you don't want a 500 piece of garage art, plus the resale on a bike like the Btwin would be next to nothing thus buying used you could probably resell it for what you paid for it. And used bikes are not necessarily junk waiting to break, I have several used bikes I bought and they're all highly reliable. Just an optional thought.

    By the way I found this bike on sale with Sora components: https://www.jejamescycles.com/trek-1-2- ... -bike.html

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