Looking for a new bike

Grendalor

I've done a fair of cycling at times but don't know anything about bikes except some simple maintenance. Most of the cycling I've done in the past has been off road on trails, but I've been thinking of getting a bike to do some road cycling for fitness and hopefully commute to work once a week - it's 12 miles road, cyclepath & gravel sections with a few hills (about 700ft climb all the way back to my house) - I don't think I'd be able to do it right now but I used to actually like climbing hills I'd love to get to the point where I could climb the road out the back of my house which I used to be able to do 10 years ago on a MTB but it was horribly inefficient with the suspension and it being cheap and weighing a ton.

I was thinking of spending up to £500, but don't really know where to start - and I think I'd want to buy pedals and shoes etc. I've been in Halfords and looked at some of the cyclocross bikes like Voodoo Limba http://www.halfords.com/cycling/bikes/cyclocross-bikes/voodoo-limba-mens-adventure-bike-52-54-5-57cm-frames or perhaps something like http://www.halfords.com/cycling/bikes/cyclocross-bikes/boardman-cx-team-bike-50-53-55-5-57-5cm-frames but second hand. They look like they are more road bikes which could handle some gravel sections, however I think this would leave me with no money for shoes, pedals etc.

Alternatively I'd buy a cheap road bike - I've seen what seem to be some nice road bikes for under £300 on ebay (with a long drive to collect) or one of the carrera's from Halfords (I'll be able to get about 20% off at halfords). Would that handle a bit of gravel and maybe the occasional trail if I changed the tyres or something?

Any advice would be welcome. I'm a little bit afraid I'll buy the wrong thing, hate it or break it and then never do any again! On the other hand it could save me some money since I fear in a few years I'll end up with a road bike, a cyclocross bike and a MTB if I start enjoying it again.

dannyjames1

Grendalor wrote:

I've done a fair of cycling at times but don't know anything about bikes except some simple maintenance. Most of the cycling I've done in the past has been off road on trails, but I've been thinking of getting a bike to do some road cycling for fitness and hopefully commute to work once a week - it's 12 miles road, cyclepath & gravel sections with a few hills (about 700ft climb all the way back to my house) - I don't think I'd be able to do it right now but I used to actually like climbing hills I'd love to get to the point where I could climb the road out the back of my house which I used to be able to do 10 years ago on a MTB but it was horribly inefficient with the suspension and it being cheap and weighing a ton.

I was thinking of spending up to £500, but don't really know where to start - and I think I'd want to buy pedals and shoes etc. I've been in Halfords and looked at some of the cyclocross bikes like Voodoo Limba http://www.halfords.com/cycling/bikes/cyclocross-bikes/voodoo-limba-mens-adventure-bike-52-54-5-57cm-frames or perhaps something like http://www.halfords.com/cycling/bikes/cyclocross-bikes/boardman-cx-team-bike-50-53-55-5-57-5cm-frames but second hand. They look like they are more road bikes which could handle some gravel sections, however I think this would leave me with no money for shoes, pedals etc.

Alternatively I'd buy a cheap road bike - I've seen what seem to be some nice road bikes for under £300 on ebay (with a long drive to collect) or one of the carrera's from Halfords (I'll be able to get about 20% off at halfords). Would that handle a bit of gravel and maybe the occasional trail if I changed the tyres or something?

Any advice would be welcome. I'm a little bit afraid I'll buy the wrong thing, hate it or break it and then never do any again! On the other hand it could save me some money since I fear in a few years I'll end up with a road bike, a cyclocross bike and a MTB if I start enjoying it again.

I probably wouldn't go to halfords, from what I can remember from when I was last there, the groupsets on a lot of their bikes are a load of crap until you start getting into price points of £1000+ when you'll start seeing more Tiagra and above. If you went online to somewhere like Merlin you could get Tiagra/105 and a fairly bombproof set of mavic/fulcrum/shimano wheels for £500-£700. Here's one exaple: https://www.merlincycles.com/merlin-per ... 93470.html

Maybe a cannondale caad 8 which you can sometimes get for around the same price point. Cannondale do superb aluminium frames

Second hand could be an option too but whatever you go for I'd try and get a something with a Tiagra or 105 groupset though Sora wouldn't be terrible for a first road bike.

If your rides encounter a bit of gravel at most then from experience road bikes handle this fine with careful bike handling skills so I'd probably recommend a proper road bike over CX.

lostboysaint

Pick up this month's MBUK magazine as the "sub £1k" mtb test is in it and will give you some great pointers if you want new.

There's an enormous S/H market though and you'd benefit from that - if we can work out what would work best for you!

Grendalor

Thanks for the ideas.

The Merlin looks nice, but £600 seems alot (though with pedals and shoes at the same price does seem a great deal). I might see if I can work myself up to spending that much.

The ride to work has about 1 mile of OK gravel a couple of sections of that get a bit muddy, including a shortish muddy hill that I could carry the bike up but that's not ideal, the other 10 miles would be on the road or good tarmac cycle path. Most of the other riding I'd do on road/cyclepath or I'd try to fix up my old hulk of a horrible MTB. If you think that would be OK on a road bike I would try it - I haven't ridden a bike with thin tyres since I was 20.

I've seen some Boardman Road Team going second hand for around £400 which I think have Tiagra groupset and a 53cm frame which I think is about right for me though I might consider smaller. I'm 5'8" with short legs - from sitting on some bikes in Halfords it seemed about the right size.

Any other good suggestions would be helpful - I'm still considering Halfords if there are any good options due to the fact I can get an extra 10% off.

kajjal

Another type of bike to look at is gravel bikes to give you some more idea's. I take mine on a 50 mile mostly off road route on canal tow paths, forestry trails, byways, gravel track round a reservoir and also an abandoned railway.

The benefit over a mountain bike it is much faster on road. The downside is it will be much slower on the very rough stuff. It handles any relatively smooth trails faster than my xc mountain bike.


I have a Specialized Diverge which takes up to 33mm tyres with no problems. That and similar bikes are available a good prices second hand.

Grendalor

I think the Specialized Diverge is a bit out of my £500 budget at the moment unless I found one second hand. A gravel bike seems a good idea.

I have found a road bike that seems good a Lapierre Sensium 300 with a 105 + Ultegra that seems really clean and within my budget (second hand of course). I think I'd have take a slightly shorter but a few miles more road route - I prefer to keep to cyclepaths where possible. Does that sound like it might be a reasonable bike within my budget?

JackVet

Looking for a used mountain bike for 500-600 is anybody selling anything?

janwal

The Boardman cx team will be perfect for you. You will soon get used to the 1x11 gears which has all the range you will need,equivalent to about 12-33 gears on a compact. The SRAM Force groupset with the hydraulic disc brakes are superb and the bike takes full mudguards even with the tyres it comes with. I use mine around very hilly Huddersfield and not had any climbing problems yet even with my 64 year old legs! There are always plenty around second hand with hardly any use. Watch the sizing as the smaller like mine has a 54 top tube.

Grendalor

Thanks for the replies. I am looking at the boardman cx team and it does seem like with a few weeks i might find one my size within my budget. I am also looking at a bike from a friend a 2002 giant tcr for £50 which I hope will get me started - I'll get some pedals and shoes and then can find another at my leisure if needs be. Right now I'd prefer to be riding a bike rather than spending too much time trying to find one!

Thanks for all the input. If I buy something I'll post an update here.