New Bike help please Budget £500-800

[Jonny17291]

Bit of detail about myself I'm 5ft11, New to the Road scene, Currently have 2012 specialized rockhopper, but its not great for road so looking to get one with the cycle to work scheme. I'm looking for a Road bike and will use my other bike for off road trails ect.

I want to do the London>brighton bike ride next month along with a few friends, did the KM 50km a few sundays ago with my current bike and found it wasn't great on the road.

I live in Kent and have been to a few cycle shops, ideally want to avoid halfords entirely heard too many bad stories about them, Cycles UK looks like the best bet for my location.

http://www.cyclesuk.com/en/Mens-Road-Ra ... scountDESC

If you can assists me on any bikes you think are good for the price as there seems to be some nice discount on some, any tips as well will be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance

[Brucey]

I think you need to ask yourself a few questions;

1) what size tyres might you want to fit?
2) do you want to fit mudguards?
3) do you want to be able to get up ditchling beacon even when you are feeling a bit tired?

There are gazillions of road bikes out there which will not allow decent sized tyres or mudguards, and don't have very low gears, or even the possibility of them. There are a few bikes (often described as 'audax') that allow mudguards, 28mm (or larger) tyres, lower gears etc and sacrifice little in terms of weight vs a typical 'road bike clone' (RBC).

Unless you are actually going racing, proper racing that is, I'd suggest that 99% of riders would be better off on an audax machine than a RBC, and if they buy the latter (as their 'only road bike') it is usually because they either don't know any better or that they truly value style over substance...

If there is a good local dealer and they have what you want then buying locally is a good thing to do especially if you will derive benefit from the after-sales support. But if they have poor after-sales service and won't sell you what you need then it is a dead loss all ways round.

hth

cheers

[al_yrpal]

Have a look at the Decathlon Triban bikes. They get accolades aplenty from all the magazines. And learn to maintain and adjust your own bike by watching the thousands of YouTube videos. You will save shedloads of money, a Triban 3 is about £300 I think.

Al

[Vantage]

+1 for what brucey said.

Visions of long, smooth, winding traffic free roads in summer sun are all very well but we live in the uk and the ride will be more like potholed traffic light and car clogged cheese grater like roller coasters in freezing cold torrential rain. Mudguards are important if the bike is used all year round. Bigger tyres will be nice when the going gets rough (if indeed it ever stopped).

[maxcherry]

Evans are doing it atrade in which may help you save some money on your purchase

http://www.evanscycles.com/pages/vouche ... 41#tradein

As well as road bike, you may want to look at Adventure bike and Cyclocross bikes which may may cycling on roads
trails more comfortable.

Best to try before you buy for comfort and fit.

PS If you can get Puncture protective tires when you get them, they will save you a lot of grief.

[TrevA]

Decathlon don't do the CTW scheme, so although their bikes are good value, they may not be for you.

The main players are Trek, Specialized, Cannondale, who will all have something in your price range. Consider what gearing you want - traditional road (53/39 front rings), Compact Road (50/34) front rings or Road Triple (52/39/30 rings) and do you want to put mudguards or wider tyres on. Most bikes come with 23 or 25mm tyres and may not be able to fit anything wider and may not be able to fit mudguards (it can get vfery messy in winter without them). I ride a Trek Domane 2.0 with a road triple - it's nice to have that 30 ring in reserve, even if I don't use it much.

Others to consider are Genesis, Bianchi, Fuji, Cube.

[cheesypeeps]

Decathlon did do the CTW a year n a half ago... I got my first bike through the scheme thru them!
Opened up a new world to me! Off on a week tour in a couple of weeks! (On my new ridgeback voyage.... Not thru the CTW)!

[Jonny17291]

Thanks for all the replies, all very helpful.

Well in the winter months Ill most probably use my Specialized bike as it will be more wet and muddy and use the new bike in as much as I can while the weather is good. So I don't want to fit mudguards on it, and Yes I will refuse to walk up ditchling beacon so want to get up that. regarding Tire size, I'm not sure I was told that the thinner tyres are faster lol believe that was in halfords.

I've heard a lot of people mention the decathlon bikes, Im going to pick up a bike rack near lakeside and there is a decathlon shop there I've seen, so will pop in.

I will be going on a lot of country roads not so much main roads as will be most often on sundays.

if you can advise any bikes on the CyclesUK website I can go down there and test ride them but there are quite a few on the site and not sure whats best value for money. Thanks

[Brucey]

and use the new bike in as much as I can while the weather is good. So I don't want to fit mudguards on it....

reports that we may have a 'summer' may have been greatly exaggerated....

.......regarding Tire size, I'm not sure I was told that the thinner tyres are faster lol.....

and indeed they can be, on a billiard-table smooth road.

But when did you last see one of those? Even the pros are using 25s more than 23s these days and 28s make pretty good tyres for use on a road bike in some places, nearly all the manufacturers now offer their 'best' tyres in 25mm and 28mm these days...

cheers

[chocjohn9]

These guys offer HUGE discounts....worth traveling from Kent to Norfolk for and there are loads of different bikes in stock.

http://www.paulscycles.co.uk/products.php