What racer for under £500

[wideboy]

Im sick of busting my gut on my mountain bike for road use! its too heavy and slow!

Need a racing bike but there's so many to go for not sure which one,

what bike would you guys recomend for under £500?

thanks for help will get to the shops at the weekend and test some out.

[bga]

The Specialized Allez is supposed to be pretty good.

I've also heard good things about the Decathlon range: www.decathlon.co.uk/EN/Product_arborescence/cycle-and-rolle/bikes/roadbikes/road-racing-bik/product_6374438/index.html

[Nick_F]

For that money you should be getting something with a 9-speed Tiagra groupset and carbon front forks: it's the end of the 2006 season, so most of the retailers are clearing space for 2007 models and discounting 2006 ones as a result.

Specialized Allez and Giant OCR1/OCR2 are a couple you might try to begin with.

[wideboy]

Cheers for help guys.

what do you think of this www.paulscycles.co.uk/products.php?plid=m1b0s6p371

p.s this is my local shop i will be visiting tomorrow.

[woodies92]

i have last years roubaix double and i like it alot. Had very no real problems and the bike is great to ride but i would reccomend trying it first to see if you like it.

Woody

[Justin S]

Have a look at Ribble cycles for their own road bikes.Very good value.

[coopers]

Justin S said:

Have a look at Ribble cycles for their own road bikes.Very good value.

Are they??

I just speced up a similar spec'd bike you would get on a scott/trek/specailised etc and the price was about 100 pounds up from what you get offered by the rest and at this end of the scale every penny counts i presume?

How good are their frames im a newbie to all this and not doubting the quality just wondering if the frame is its selling point being hand built etc

i suppose what im trying to say is, do you get value for money at this end of the price scale??

tbh if it is a good as some of the reviews i've looked up and better than say trek 1000 i would be tempted as im still to buy my road bike and want to get out there soon(well when it stops raining!! )

[JPJ]

With that Claud Butler the groupset isn't that great (I think Sora is the bottom of the range for Shimano's road stuff) however the frame etc looks pretty good.

As someone else mentioned, it's end of season at the moment so lots out there to buy, and potentially haggle for.

Finally, don't forget eBay for road bikes. They're a lot easier to tell if they've had an accident than a MTB, so it's a safer second hand purchase. I just picket up a Specialized Allez Elite for under £500.

[wideboy]

Cheers guys i tried the claud bulter was ok, but im not going to rush into anything yet i might save up and spend some more cash,

Any more ideas,