Recommendations for a road bike with low gears

[billy80]

Thanks again, for everyone’s response. I think I have learned what I need to know – I’ll have to compromise somewhere.

I admit that I am the victim of a terrible fashion sense and maybe I am being lured into getting the wrong sort of bike for its looks. I’ll keep an eye on that.

The apparent contradiction about the weight is that I am looking it use it both for a bit of touring and for day trips. Trimming the weight won’t make much difference when I am loaded up, but it might for unloaded day trips.

A budget of up to £1000 doesn’t feel cheap to me. The Spa Elan looks like a great bike and I expect Spa cycles would check that any custom bits I asked for were compatible, but they are over 200 miles away from me and the option to have the bike posted for a test ride adds about £90. Add that to £1750 for the bike, £175 for the custom rings, new pedals, etc. and it is double the original top end of my budget.

Yostumpy suggested customising my current bike, which has a 105 groupset, with compact chainrings and an 11-28T cassette. I think that putting a triple on that would mean changing the cranks, front derailleur, brake levers and shifters. Bar end shifters might keep the cost down, but I like having the shifters on the levers, especially in traffic, and my commute is 10 miles into the centre of Glasgow. I might also, to get the sort of granny gear I really want for touring, have to change to a bigger cassette, which would mean also changing the rear derailleur. Adding the cost of a mechanic to that shopping list is why I was thinking about a new bike. And the risk of snags and problems shifting gear on the customised result worries me. And it would leave me with a bike that is a compromise between the three sorts of riding I do (commute, touring and day trips) rather than having a really good commuter and a decent tourer/day tripper.

Again, thanks for all your good advice.

Billy.

[Bonefishblues]

I'm guessing you've looked at the many and various frame bags now available. Again Alpkit as an example: https://www.alpkit.com/bike-luggage

[reohn2]

Billy80
Another Spa option:-
http://www.spacycles.co.uk/m1b0s21p2866 ... -Triple%29
With a different chainset such as the one Colin linked to in his post

[reohn2]

I'm guessing you've looked at the many and various frame bags now available. Again Alpkit as an example: https://www.alpkit.com/bike-luggage

or a Carradice saddlebag

[Brucey]

if the Spa Elan appeals but is too expensive, this one

http://www.spacycles.co.uk/m1b0s21p3283/ROUX-Etape-250



might be worth a look? Now, I could pick holes in it all day long but when all is said and done it is 1/3 the cost and whilst it comes with low gears they can very easily be lowered even more by fitting a different chainset. Obviously you don't have to use the rack if you don't want to!

The weight is off-putting but you will lose ~1kg by taking the rack off, another 1Kg with different wheels/tyres and you will save a bit of weight with a different chainset.

I would say that if fitted with a lightweight wheelset and more supple tyres, it ought to be OK. If (say) the fork from the Elan can be fitted at reasonable cost, this will improve comfort and reduce weight still further.

I'm sure it won't ride as well as (say) an Elan, but it may be pretty good for that spec and that money. Worth a look?

cheers

[profpointy]

Suggest you look for an "audax" bike. This will be a drop handlebar "road bike" with more or less lowish gears and usually with a triple chainset. Will also likely have fitting for or be fitted with a pannier rack and mudguards. Nearly as light as a road bike proper, and quite a bit lighter and nippier than a tourer. Spa do them, Condor also do one, as do most of the UK makers like Hewitt, Bob Jackson and so on. Won't be cheap cheap, but price can be between, I don't know, £1500 and quite a lot !.

[djnotts]

Even at the Sale price - with the suggested alterations - the Roux Etape will only just fall within " price range £500-£1000."

As far as I can see, all the other "options" would be way beyond the OP's budget. And frankly silly money. In my recent experiments to counter balance the increasingly received wisdom that a bicycle has to cost north of a grand to be worth riding, I've so far got it down to 35 quid. A very little used 1990 Raleigh Mirage in 501 - pretty much as nice a frame as the "steel cro-mo" stuff (short of 531 and up admittedly) available at half a grand and up! Swopped c'set from 48/38/28 biopace to mtb 42/32/22 - once I sell on the biopace the net cost will be even lower! It's cost me 1 48th of just one of the two most expensive bikes I've had and guess what it does exactly the same thing.

[peetee]

There is somebody local to me that could supply what you want. I am sure there must be others. Where are you based and what size frame are you looking for?

[Andy3460]

Would certainly agree with the Decathlon BTwin Triban 500 SE. I fitted a new freewheel with a 32 tooth large sprocket ...

Hi.

Quick question if I may.

Thinking of fitting a 32 tooth set of cogs to my BTwin 500. Did you need to change the derailleur as well, or will the microshift one that comes with the bike be OK? Also, did the gears change as well after as before?

Thanks in advance.



I'm a trendy consumer. Just look at my XT1068 using hovercraft full of eels.

[landsurfer]

Only change required was the freewheel, everything else was fine ....

[karlt]

Even at the Sale price - with the suggested alterations - the Roux Etape will only just fall within " price range £500-£1000."

As far as I can see, all the other "options" would be way beyond the OP's budget. And frankly silly money. In my recent experiments to counter balance the increasingly received wisdom that a bicycle has to cost north of a grand to be worth riding

I don't know where this rather silly conception has come from, but my suspicion it's people who've spent two grand or so unwilling to face the fact that their steed simply isn't four times as good as one costing £500

Decathlon has a wide range; the road bikes especially get excellent reviews, especially and particularly the ones that are well south of a grand. Like you could buy one and a spare and still have change.

[Andy3460]

Only change required was the freewheel, everything else was fine ....

Brilliant. Many thanks.

Oh, another question, even the chain didn't need changing?

I'm a trendy consumer. Just look at my XT1068 using hovercraft full of eels.

[landsurfer]

Well would change the chain if i where fitting a new freewheel anyway .....

[Brucey]

if fitting a much larger sprocket the usual thing would be to find that the old chain is now too short (unless it was way too long to start with). If it is so short that you cannot select the big sprocket and the big chainring at the same time, this is a big no-no. Sure you shouldn't use that gear but plenty of people do select it, often without meaning to, and if the chain is too short the bike will break itself quite needlessly.

You can extend a new chain with a few spare links and a quicklink, but it is probably best to get another one. If the old chain is at all worn it ought to be changed even if it is the right length.

BTW that model of bike is fitted with a cassette hub, right? In which case you won't need a new freewheel, you will need a new cassette. The freewheel mechanism is built into the hub.

cheers

[531colin]

Yes, but "Landsurfer" has omitted to mention when talking about his 32T cassette that his bike is not "original".....on the previous page he tells us he has a single 36T chainring, so we don't know which change was made first.