Beginners set up

JIMMY86

Hi all.

Looking at start road cycling.

Can anyone advise on a good beginners set up? Would really like to keep costs very low while I try it out. Do you think it's realistic to get set up for sub £300? If so what would you advise? Happy to consider 2nd hand bikes.

Any thoughts would be appreciated and if there is any meet ups suitable for beginners in the notts/leics/derby areas, would be good to hear about those too.

Thanks in advance.
Jimmy

shirley_basso

Definitely go second hand if you can as you get a lot for your money, but it helps if you have some cycling mates who can show you how to service it and give you an idea of sizing.

Now is an ok-ish time to buy used but remember as we come into summer there will be lots of people with the same idea as you.

Otherwise Btwin Triban from Decathlon is a great bike, but make sure you get one with the carbon fork. May be a smidge over budget but is the best bang for your buck at that price range.

If you go on the british cycling website and use the club search then it should show you local ones in your area and you can check their website for beginner inclusiveness.

svetty

eBay should have something suitable for around £300. Just be patient and don't go for the first bike you see that's local

figbat

I did exactly this for my first road bike - it was Gumtree in the end that yielded a used Cannondale Synapse (with newish Mavic Ksyrium Elites) for around £300. I have since changed a few parts (cassette/chain, saddle, BB, stem, bar tape, tyres) but it has been a sound bike to get me going. It is now my winter/wet weather bike with guards on it as I bought another bike s/h (almost new Fuji Altamira 2.7 off of a work colleague) which is now the 'best' bike.

In fact of my current fleet of 7 bikes (2 are the kids') only one has been bought brand new. There are plenty of people who buy nice bikes then give up on them - my Fuji is one (bought to do the L2B, then not ridden again).

yiannism

A bad bike is one of the reasons for several people to quit cycling. On 300 you can hardly find even a passable bike other than 2nd hand, but you dont have the knowledge to chose what is good for you, so an LBS or someone who has some experience is essential to advice you.

I was on your position some years ago, and given my bad back i was very skeptical to try it. My friends convinced me to spend some more to buy a decent alu bike with decent groupset. It was a wise decision, even if i sold that bike just 15 months after i bought it. It helped me to embrace road cycling, i stick on it, and then ive spend lots of money to get a good bike, that makes me to want to ride it every time that i am watching it.

So my advice increase your budget up to 500, to buy something decent. If you stick you will sell it without any huge loss for an upgrade, if you dont like it the same.

JIMMY86

Thanks for the advice.

Am looking at some used bikes on eBay. I'm abiut 5ft 9. What frame size do you think I should be looking at?

Thanks

shirley_basso

52/54cm at a rough guess.

Look on a few cycling shop websites (Evans, chain reaction, wiggle, cyclerepublic, tredz etc) and look at a few of their bikes and their size guides. Also look on these sites for anything which comes up used so you can get a feel of how the come up as some bikes come up a bit smaller or larger than the sizing appears.

AX10

You can also find a good few deals on Gumtree as well, so keep an eye out on there as well!