Cycling UK Forum

Hi Forum,
Apologies if this has already been answered. I really want to take up cycling for the exercise and just generally getting out of the house.
Can anybody recommend any starter bikes, kit, and general advice. Budget is about £1,000.
Thanks in advance.
Andy

The sorts of decisions that you need to make are:

1. Handlebars: straight or drops. If you don't have much experience I would start off with straight bars.

2. Gears: if you live somewhere flat you could go for a single speed but if you live somewhere hilly you will need some gears. For a good range of gears at a sensible price you could do worse than a B'Twin Triban 520 from Decathlon which has 3 x 9 Sora gears and the choice of straight or drop bars. Or you might consider a hub gear instead of derailers.

3. Are you going to cycle in all weathers? If so get a bike with clearances and eyelets to fit full sized mudguards (e.g SKS chromoplasic) so you don't get a long streak of carp up your back

4. Are you going to stick to tarmac or do want to go off road? For tarmac a road bike or narrow tyred hybrid would do fine but offroad an MTB or hybrid with fat tyres e.g. Pinnacle Lithium from Evans would be a better idea. Or you could get a tourer as a bike that will do most jobs apart from serious off road.

5. Try out a few different bikes at your LBS to check for comfort and size. Decathlon and mail order are not too good for this.

6. Do you want to carry luggage? If so pick one with eyelets for a rear rack at least.

7. You will probably have to choose between an aluminium or steel frame at this price although you may find a carbon frame either in the sales or second hand.

As for kit, you could just wear ordinary clothes for starters but if you start racking up the miles it would be worth getting some proper cycling shoes, padded bib shorts and longs, proper cycling glasses (to keep insects out of your eye for one thing), various tops to suit the weather and a helmet'

You also need a portable pump (e.g Topeak Mountain or road morphe), spare inner tubes, a multitool, tyre levers to take with you and may be a saddle bag to keep them in. If you may be out at night, you will need lights (Lidl have some cheapish ones at the moment ). If you are going to leave your new steed anywhere dodgy, you will need a lock.

hello and welcome.

I think everything has been covered above, if you know what type of cycling you want to do, etc., we can then probably advise on bikes / kit. May also help to know what sort of size you are... also where you live (area) so we can maybe point you to some reasonable shops in your area. Once youhave a rough idea of the type of riding and style of bike, a bike fit at a local shop may well be the next step and they may be able to advise some bikes that would fit you.

Make sure you have nice low gears so its easy to pedal - "Hybrids" are good for this (straight basrs, mountain bike gearing). Rule of thumb - you'll have 2 or 3 chainrings on the front, and a number of sprockets on the back. Best bet IMO is to have at least 3 rear sprockets that are bigger than the smallest chainring.

Don't go for a "sports", "Gravel", "Road" bike - these will probably have gearing that is far to high for you. Mountain bikes may be a bit heavy for you to ride on the road. A hybrid (straight bars) or tourer (dropped bars) will take you quite happily on rods, canal towpaths (reasonably surfaced ones anyway), the South Downs Way,, railway-based cycle paths (tarmac or crushed stone/gravel).

Personally I wouldn't go for super-duper lightweight carbon frames/forks.

Again, personally, disc brakes (yeah I know) will probably be better for a newbie - cable-operated for simplicity and cost work perfectly well. I recently adjusted the disc brakes on my son-in-laws bike and was astonished how easy it was compared to fiddling with rim brakes - a few seconds with an allen key and job done! (easier in fact than my own twin-piston disc brakes which are easy enough)

I agree with the "straight Bar" sentiment if you are a complete beginner, unless you used to use a dropped-bar bike in your youth. If you do go for dropped bars, look for brake levers with the gear change included - I've switched to them and would not switch back to the downtube versions. A straight-bar bike is most likley to have gear changers that you can get at without moving your hands off the bars.

When you get your bike, practice using the gears lots, and whenever you find a suitable gear select a lower one to make it easier to pedal. After a bit you'll find that you are using higher ones anyway.

ESSENTIALS (My opinion!) - Mudguards, mudflaps (on the front anyway), a rack, a cheapo pair of panniers or even just a rubber bungy to hold things onto the rack, lights. QR wheels if you plan to pop the bike into a car to find and explore cycle tracks (recommended if you can!)

If you put your location into this thread someone will give you details of a recommended bike shop (one that won't make you feel like a fool when you go in!), in the meantime sit on a few bikes at Halfords, Decathlon etc. The more you do this the more confident you will be about trying things out in the shop. (Whenever I need to replace the family car I do this, even if I go back to the one I first saw later). You will also get some ideas of where to get used to riding your bike traffic-free until you get your skills sorted.

Having said all this if its a bike that grabs your attention when you see it as well as ticking all the boxes, you'll ride it more than one that just ticks the boxes. Which is why the tourer in my signature is OTT for my day/afternoon rides - I simply enjoy riding it, nuff said!

Maybe instead of us all suggesting some of the many options, you get back to us and say what sort of cycling you want to do. Also any other useful info, clothes, location, age, fitness, etc, etc.

Questions can then be answered and suggestions made.

Do not buy a bike, borrow one of a colleague for a while. The. Go on a couple group rides and see if you can have a go on someone else's bike. Buy a lock, gloves, pump and spare inner tube ... oh, and lights. Everything else will depend on how you ride, which you will work out for yourself. If you enjoy cycling and use your bike a lot it will be worth spending the whole £1000 on a bike, but you will know this in the first 3 months.