Advice on buying a road bike

[CMR]

Hi all,

I'm thinking of buying a road bike for fitness with a view to competing.

I'm after advice on which websites, magazines or cycle shops in the Essex Area would be a good source of advice for a total novice!

I've been to the Specialized concept store in Chelmsford who were very helpful but a little bit above my budget of around £500 for a bike and kit!

Any suggestions?

Cheers

[Rolls]

Head to decathlon, and look at what they have to offer if you want to have any chance of staying within your 500 IMO!

[944fan]

Do a search on here. This subject comes up every week almost.

I am not being facetious, but there is bags of info on here.

If £500 is your budget for the bike and kit, then you are going to be looking at 2nd hand stuff from the big names or something like the Triban 3.

[Joey Ramone]

If you're going to be competing, you'll need more than £500. A lot more.

[nammynake]

Joey Ramone said:

If you're going to be competing, you'll need more than £500. A lot more.

I disagree. The strongest and smartest rider wins races, not the bike they ride.

[agentnomad]

To compete you will need a fair bit more money

British cycling membership and race licence around £75 without actually looking it up.
Club membership £25ish
Club kit shorts and top £100 skin suit same again
Shoes unless you already have some clip less shoes and pedals same for helmet

With most of the cheap bike you would probably want to change the tyres as a minimum for racing keep the originals for training.

Race entry and travel costs soon add up

[anonymous-user]

agentnomad said:

To compete you will need a fair bit more money

British cycling membership and race licence around £75 without actually looking it up.
Club membership £25ish
Club kit shorts and top £100 skin suit same again
Shoes unless you already have some clip less shoes and pedals same for helmet

With most of the cheap bike you would probably want to change the tyres as a minimum for racing keep the originals for training.

Race entry and travel costs soon add up

Skin suits?!?!? Eh?! We're talking cat 4 surely?! Bronze membership gets you a provisional license which means you just need to pay another £5 or so on the day everytime you race. You don't need to be a club member to race and you can race in cat 4 wearing whatever you like too, organisers appear to be far more relaxed about this nowadays. Don't put the guy off before he's even started!!

[henrycrun]

Something like this to get you started http://www.giant-bicycles.com/en-gb/bikes/model/20...

If you get bitten then a better bike next year

[CMR]

Thanks for the advice chaps. Very useful.

[jamiebae]

Wiggle have some great deals on 2013 model road bikes at the moment. Avoid Shimano 2300 if possible and go for Sora if you can.

[TheLemming]

Standard budget buy advice -

Red triban 3. They are a bargain.
The red ones have carbon forks, the white ones don't.

I've never heard of anyone buying one and NOT being happy with it and you have to spend a lot more to get much better.

A couple of the guys on my club rides run them and are very happy.

No real downsides to it but I would swap the tyres for something grippier and better rolling.
They were on sale recently, might still be.

There are lots of "good buys" out there but this one pretty much universally gets the nod and there's nothing better that's cheaper (excluding eBay bargains of course).

[jamiebae]

This is where my money would go.

http://www.wiggle.co.uk/felt-f95-sora-wiggle-exclu...



The red Triban has 2300 shifters, and is also not as readily available as they used to be. The one above has better tyres, better wheels and a better groupset too, and I prefer the colours, although that's subjective I know.

You could always blow the budget on this one too though...

http://www.wiggle.co.uk/bianchi-c2c-nirone-7-sora-...