First Road Bike - Which to get

marvt74
marvt74 Posts: 4
edited March 2018 in Road buying advice
I'm looking to buy my first road bike, this is mainly to be used with a direct drive turbo trainer and Zwift, although with scope to actually use it on the roads should i decide i want to.

Could anyone please give me some advice as to which is best? The plan is to remove the cassette from the bike and put it on the trainer. Am i right in thinking i'm better with a 10 or 11 speed cassette on that basis?

Due to discounts i can get it needs to be from Evans Cycles and i've narrowed it down to the following list (price i'd pay is listed to help compare at the price points. As mentioned i've not ridden a road bike before so something more relaxed would be good. I'm 6ft 3 and about 105kg (this will hopefully come down!)

Focus Cayo Al Sora 2017 - £175 - https://www.evanscycles.com/focus-cayo- ... e-EV308650

Trek Domane - £220 - https://www.evanscycles.com/trek-domane ... e-EV311989

Cube Attain - £242 - https://www.evanscycles.com/cube-attain ... e-EV319175

Jamis Ventura Comp - £252 - https://www.evanscycles.com/jamis-ventu ... e-EV306033

Pinnacle Laterite 3 - £292 - https://www.evanscycles.com/pinnacle-la ... e-EV299415

Cannondale Synapse - £316 - https://www.evanscycles.com/cannondale- ... e-EV239411

Comments

  • yiannism
    yiannism Posts: 345
    Only from the groupsets you have actually 2 choices, the Cannondale and the pinacle. Dont even think about Claris.
  • kingrollo
    kingrollo Posts: 3,198
    If its only for turbo (or mainly) I would go used.
  • joebristol
    joebristol Posts: 327
    Seems like a lot of money to spend for a bike to sit on a turbo if you were paying full price, but if the amounts you quote above are correct thats an outrageous discount!

    I’m fond of Cannondales - but from your use I don’t think you need disc brakes - and I’d avoid Claris as mentioned above. For me I think it would have to be the pinnacle - it’s sub 10kgs and has 105 on it.
  • aw255
    aw255 Posts: 20
    I've got to ask. What do you do, to get discounts like that?
    If it's a Saturday job at Evans, I'm about to sign up!
  • cld531c
    cld531c Posts: 517
    Have I gone mad or is the above post complete gobbledegook?
  • jgsi
    jgsi Posts: 5,062
    The whole thread has gone mad................
    It went out of control when the bike was described as a race bike .. not a bike that was going to be raced in BC crits etc.
  • webboo
    webboo Posts: 6,087
    JGSI wrote:
    The whole thread has gone mad................
    It went out of control when the bike was described as a race bike .. not a bike that was going to be raced in BC crits etc.
    Wrong thread. This ones about a road bike that will only be used on the turbo and do they need 10 or 11 speed.
  • cld531c
    cld531c Posts: 517
    JGSI wrote:
    The whole thread has gone mad................
    It went out of control when the bike was described as a race bike .. not a bike that was going to be raced in BC crits etc.

    That one is mad too!
  • marvt74
    marvt74 Posts: 4
    Well just to update this.

    In answer to the above post, the discounts are through Vitality Health. 50% off up to £1000 (depending on your level)

    In the end i took some advice and bought a used Giant Defy off ebay for £180. It came with a dumb trainer and some clip pedals/shoes which i hope to sell on (don't expect much from them)

    Picked the bike up on Saturday, the bike came with some clip on pedals and he gave me his trainers. They don't fit me so i'll be selling them on with the pedals (is there much of a market for them? They're Shimano pedals and Muddy Fox shoes)

    The bike is only 8 speed (3x8) and all the direct drive trainers seem to suggest they need 9, 10 or 11 speed cassettes. I rang Evans who advised it should work ok but i might need to use a spacer. Went into the Preston store and the guy dug out a spacer for me and even removed the cassette saving me having to battle with that. He also took the pedals off for me. Because the bike had been sat for a long time everything was seized up so was glad they tackled it as i'd have probably been worried about using too much force and breaking something.

    I bought some pedals which they fitted, more expensive than i'd have expected but was there and didn't want to delay things buying online, also bought some wet lube for the chain and a tool to re-tighten the cassette on the trainer (no idea of the name)

    Got home and unboxed the trainer. Opened the instructions and was greeted by lots of confusion around "bike lingo". Managed to get things setup and i think it's all done properly. It seems fairly stable.

    Got it all paired with Zwift and started cycling. I like the interaction. But i need to get a phone mount sorted as i was holding the phone in my hands whilst pedaling so couldn't really change gears!
    I'd also been using a static bike last week in the gym and set on a hill program i didn't have to think about gears so that will be a learning curve. When i did change gears it all seemed very clunky. Last night i spent some time googling techniques for smooth gear changing and about avoiding cross chaining and things so will see if that helps.

    Otherwise would it be worth getting someone to service it?
  • cld531c
    cld531c Posts: 517
    which trainer did you get?
  • bendertherobot
    bendertherobot Posts: 11,684
    The Vitality health is 50% cashback, if you're platinum, over a year. But depends on the price.

    So I'm not sure any of the original prices are valid. There are caps, so you get £500 back, max, on a purchase of £1000 if you're platinum. But not £500 back on a £639 bike
    My blog: http://www.roubaixcycling.cc (kit reviews and other musings)
    https://twitter.com/roubaixcc
    Facebook? No. Just say no.
  • marvt74
    marvt74 Posts: 4
    I ended up getting the Elite Direto. I initially got the Snap but then realised i didn't have space in the current shed so it'd need to be inside so a direct drive would be better.

    Bender - Yeah i know, i had gift cards from doubling up Tesco points aswell which i was expecting to put towards a bike which brought the discounts down further and was also factoring in cashback through topcashback into my final price. It was only afterwards i realised Vitality doesn't issue rebates if you use gift cards so it would've bumped the prices up considerably, that led me to look more at used bikes.
  • kingrollo
    kingrollo Posts: 3,198
    Tell us about the decals !

Categories