Sorry, another "What Bike for me" thread!
Discussion
OK, new to all this "proper" cycling so please go a little easy one me!
I commute about 4-5 miles to work each day in Bristol and the roads are crap. I've been doing this on an old mountain bike, diamondback, I inherited and that’s been fine, a little hard work but ok, until Tues when, with a lot of people, I came off hard. The bike is now making a few strange noises and my local shop had a quick look and have diagnosed that they think the bottom bracket is shot. Now I’ve had the bike for 3 years and know that it was unused for at least 2 years before I took it on and it has not been serviced in that time. My local shop is a Giant shop and they have warned me that the service and repair costs may well be more than the bikes worth. They are suggesting that my money might be better spent towards a new road bike rather than my old one.
This brings me to my dilemma, I know nothing about bikes really. I am just over 6’2’’ tall and have an inside leg of about 33’’. I have been off exercise for about 2 years whilst they have sorted out a long term problem with my back which, I hope, is now getting towards stable. My physio has said that I am ready to start swimming again and I am going to try and lose all of the weight I’ve put on over the last two years. I have never used a road bike, although I am happy cycling my mountain bike, and the thought of my weight on those thin tyres scares the life out of me, although I am assured it will be fine. My plan is to continue to commute and, as long as my back holds out, try to lose weight and regain fitness. In order to give me something to aim for (read give me an incentive to get off my fat arse and do something) I’m thinking that I might enter a short or sprint triathlon. I already cycle to work and like swimming but hate running and that is supposed to be good so having a reason to run would be useful.
I have never bought a bike before and reading up online I am completely confused about what I really need and what size I should buy even if I knew what it was I wanted! That makes searching very difficult as you can imagine. I would be able to spend about £300-£400 and am happy to go second hand, as long as I can work out sizes etc.
I have done some searches, including here, and think that this is probably a “how long is a piece of string” question but would welcome any suggestions. My initial thinking is either this:
http://bicyclerichmond.co.uk/collections/clearance... found on a thread here or one of these:
http://www.halfords.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/... from another suggestion on here, or see what the local Giant shop will do on a Defy, probably 4.
Any and all help welcomed thanks,
Jon
I commute about 4-5 miles to work each day in Bristol and the roads are crap. I've been doing this on an old mountain bike, diamondback, I inherited and that’s been fine, a little hard work but ok, until Tues when, with a lot of people, I came off hard. The bike is now making a few strange noises and my local shop had a quick look and have diagnosed that they think the bottom bracket is shot. Now I’ve had the bike for 3 years and know that it was unused for at least 2 years before I took it on and it has not been serviced in that time. My local shop is a Giant shop and they have warned me that the service and repair costs may well be more than the bikes worth. They are suggesting that my money might be better spent towards a new road bike rather than my old one.
This brings me to my dilemma, I know nothing about bikes really. I am just over 6’2’’ tall and have an inside leg of about 33’’. I have been off exercise for about 2 years whilst they have sorted out a long term problem with my back which, I hope, is now getting towards stable. My physio has said that I am ready to start swimming again and I am going to try and lose all of the weight I’ve put on over the last two years. I have never used a road bike, although I am happy cycling my mountain bike, and the thought of my weight on those thin tyres scares the life out of me, although I am assured it will be fine. My plan is to continue to commute and, as long as my back holds out, try to lose weight and regain fitness. In order to give me something to aim for (read give me an incentive to get off my fat arse and do something) I’m thinking that I might enter a short or sprint triathlon. I already cycle to work and like swimming but hate running and that is supposed to be good so having a reason to run would be useful.
I have never bought a bike before and reading up online I am completely confused about what I really need and what size I should buy even if I knew what it was I wanted! That makes searching very difficult as you can imagine. I would be able to spend about £300-£400 and am happy to go second hand, as long as I can work out sizes etc.
I have done some searches, including here, and think that this is probably a “how long is a piece of string” question but would welcome any suggestions. My initial thinking is either this:
http://bicyclerichmond.co.uk/collections/clearance... found on a thread here or one of these:
http://www.halfords.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/... from another suggestion on here, or see what the local Giant shop will do on a Defy, probably 4.
Any and all help welcomed thanks,
Jon
Bristol, Giant LBS... Are we talking Bradley Stoke?
4-5miles is nothing really. I'm of the opinion that a MTB is better and requires more effort and offers more flexibility for riding when trying to exercise.
If you get a roadie you will have to ride on the road with traffic, ride many more miles to get equivalent calorie burn and worst of all, wear Lycra!
Oh, and spend at least 50% of your time changing inner tubes. Why is that with roadies?
4-5miles is nothing really. I'm of the opinion that a MTB is better and requires more effort and offers more flexibility for riding when trying to exercise.
If you get a roadie you will have to ride on the road with traffic, ride many more miles to get equivalent calorie burn and worst of all, wear Lycra!
Oh, and spend at least 50% of your time changing inner tubes. Why is that with roadies?
OP,
Despite the general cyclist view of "all local bike shops are lovely", I has similar advice from mine for my very old Trek MTB. They said it probably needed a chain, cassette, rear mech and maybe even needed front chainrings too. Since the bike was old, it was more economical to buy new.
in reality, it needed a chain, some 3 in 1 and 2 screws adjsting on same said rear mech. Luckily, I worked this out with the help of a friendly biking neighbour before I gave them a penny.
If the BB is shot, they're pretty easy to replace. I've done the one on my road bike myself, without the special tools (but mine is only a press fit BB30). Of course, it MIGHT be that your bike is toast, but I rather suspect it's them trying it on - if's a mountain bike, it was designed for a bit of rough and tumble. It'd have to be a pretty drastic off to kill it IMO...
Despite the general cyclist view of "all local bike shops are lovely", I has similar advice from mine for my very old Trek MTB. They said it probably needed a chain, cassette, rear mech and maybe even needed front chainrings too. Since the bike was old, it was more economical to buy new.
in reality, it needed a chain, some 3 in 1 and 2 screws adjsting on same said rear mech. Luckily, I worked this out with the help of a friendly biking neighbour before I gave them a penny.
If the BB is shot, they're pretty easy to replace. I've done the one on my road bike myself, without the special tools (but mine is only a press fit BB30). Of course, it MIGHT be that your bike is toast, but I rather suspect it's them trying it on - if's a mountain bike, it was designed for a bit of rough and tumble. It'd have to be a pretty drastic off to kill it IMO...
Jonleeper said:
My local shop is a Giant shop and they have warned me that the service and repair costs may well be more than the bikes worth. They are suggesting that my money might be better spent towards a new road bike rather than my old one.
Well, they would say that 
How close are you to here? http://www.thebristolbikeproject.org/ You'll be able to get your existing bike properly sorted for less than £100 I'd suggest.
bulldog5046 said:
Bristol, Giant LBS... Are we talking Bradley Stoke?
4-5miles is nothing really. I'm of the opinion that a MTB is better and requires more effort and offers more flexibility for riding when trying to exercise.
If you get a roadie you will have to ride on the road with traffic, ride many more miles to get equivalent calorie burn and worst of all, wear Lycra!
Oh, and spend at least 50% of your time changing inner tubes. Why is that with roadies?
If the OP is thinking of entering triathlons a road bike is really the best option. Maybe consider getting one with a slightly more upright position and putting 25mm tyres on it. A cyclocross bike may be a good option, but I cant think of any in your price range.4-5miles is nothing really. I'm of the opinion that a MTB is better and requires more effort and offers more flexibility for riding when trying to exercise.
If you get a roadie you will have to ride on the road with traffic, ride many more miles to get equivalent calorie burn and worst of all, wear Lycra!
Oh, and spend at least 50% of your time changing inner tubes. Why is that with roadies?
As for worrying about your weight on thin tyres, I weighed about 17 stone and trained a lot on a CAAD8 Tiagra bike. I have done 1500 miles in the last year and have yet to have a puncture.
Have you looked at the Decathlon road bikes?
bulldog5046 said:
Bristol, Giant LBS... Are we talking Bradley Stoke?
4-5miles is nothing really. I'm of the opinion that a MTB is better and requires more effort and offers more flexibility for riding when trying to exercise.
If you get a roadie you will have to ride on the road with traffic, ride many more miles to get equivalent calorie burn and worst of all, wear Lycra!
Oh, and spend at least 50% of your time changing inner tubes. Why is that with roadies?
Yup, I live in Bradley Stoke most of the time and work in Bristol.4-5miles is nothing really. I'm of the opinion that a MTB is better and requires more effort and offers more flexibility for riding when trying to exercise.
If you get a roadie you will have to ride on the road with traffic, ride many more miles to get equivalent calorie burn and worst of all, wear Lycra!
Oh, and spend at least 50% of your time changing inner tubes. Why is that with roadies?
Some Gump said:
OP,
Despite the general cyclist view of "all local bike shops are lovely", I has similar advice from mine for my very old Trek MTB. They said it probably needed a chain, cassette, rear mech and maybe even needed front chainrings too. Since the bike was old, it was more economical to buy new.
in reality, it needed a chain, some 3 in 1 and 2 screws adjsting on same said rear mech. Luckily, I worked this out with the help of a friendly biking neighbour before I gave them a penny.
If the BB is shot, they're pretty easy to replace. I've done the one on my road bike myself, without the special tools (but mine is only a press fit BB30). Of course, it MIGHT be that your bike is toast, but I rather suspect it's them trying it on - if's a mountain bike, it was designed for a bit of rough and tumble. It'd have to be a pretty drastic off to kill it IMO...
I'm not convinced it's dead but I suspect that it might need quite a bit of work and that makes it uneconomic?Despite the general cyclist view of "all local bike shops are lovely", I has similar advice from mine for my very old Trek MTB. They said it probably needed a chain, cassette, rear mech and maybe even needed front chainrings too. Since the bike was old, it was more economical to buy new.
in reality, it needed a chain, some 3 in 1 and 2 screws adjsting on same said rear mech. Luckily, I worked this out with the help of a friendly biking neighbour before I gave them a penny.
If the BB is shot, they're pretty easy to replace. I've done the one on my road bike myself, without the special tools (but mine is only a press fit BB30). Of course, it MIGHT be that your bike is toast, but I rather suspect it's them trying it on - if's a mountain bike, it was designed for a bit of rough and tumble. It'd have to be a pretty drastic off to kill it IMO...
bigandclever said:
Well, they would say that
How close are you to here? http://www.thebristolbikeproject.org/ You'll be able to get your existing bike properly sorted for less than £100 I'd suggest.
I share your cycnicsm but even £100 could go a third of the way to a new / second hand bike.How close are you to here? http://www.thebristolbikeproject.org/ You'll be able to get your existing bike properly sorted for less than £100 I'd suggest.
Agree, bottom bracket will be a tenner. Even from Halfords. Even I can change one in way less than an hour.
I would say go and get a toolkit and watch some Park Tools vids, but you do need to make sure that is all that is knaackered. Happened to a mate of mine the other week. Big 25mph ice slide, and it did knacker his BB and that was the only (non superficial) damage. It's diagnosis is visible play in the cranks with noise as they rotate in said BB.
Edit. Anyway, new bike time
Road bike for sure. I like Giants not least for their lifetime frame warranty. Generally good spec for the £££ compared to other big brands.
I would say go and get a toolkit and watch some Park Tools vids, but you do need to make sure that is all that is knaackered. Happened to a mate of mine the other week. Big 25mph ice slide, and it did knacker his BB and that was the only (non superficial) damage. It's diagnosis is visible play in the cranks with noise as they rotate in said BB.
Edit. Anyway, new bike time
Road bike for sure. I like Giants not least for their lifetime frame warranty. Generally good spec for the £££ compared to other big brands.Edited by richardxjr on Thursday 16th January 14:20
bulldog5046 said:
My bad!
No problem here, if i could not buy another bike and save myself some cash I would! It just looks like I'm going to have to shell out and want to ensure that I spend as wisely as possible, especially as SWMBO wants plaster in the lounge rather than a bike in the garage, priorities, priorities... ;-)Sarkmeister said:
If the OP is thinking of entering triathlons a road bike is really the best option. Maybe consider getting one with a slightly more upright position and putting 25mm tyres on it. A cyclocross bike may be a good option, but I cant think of any in your price range.
As for worrying about your weight on thin tyres, I weighed about 17 stone and trained a lot on a CAAD8 Tiagra bike. I have done 1500 miles in the last year and have yet to have a puncture.
Have you looked at the Decathlon road bikes?
Looking online it seems that the Triban 3 would be the one in my pricerange. Is that better than the Cannondale or carrera?As for worrying about your weight on thin tyres, I weighed about 17 stone and trained a lot on a CAAD8 Tiagra bike. I have done 1500 miles in the last year and have yet to have a puncture.
Have you looked at the Decathlon road bikes?
Usget said:
£3-400 should get you something lightly-used, from someone who has either given up the New Year's Resolution already or who has upgraded on the C2W scheme.
Something like this, this or even a cheapy hybrid like this to get you started.
Whilst they all look good how do you ensure that you get the correct size? Every guide I've looked at seems to come out with a different outcome! Buying off e-bay looks to be the cheapest option but I am concerned that I'll end up with something that dosen't fit me and that will put me off riding it at all.Something like this, this or even a cheapy hybrid like this to get you started.
Get sized up in a shop. You are in the market, if they are really good they might sell you something 
I will guess at Large in Giant (the brand ) sizing though. Different saddle positions and stems available to fine tune.
Does your employer offer a cycle to work scheme? (only available through PAYE, not available to self employed etc)
I will guess at Large in Giant (the brand ) sizing though. Different saddle positions and stems available to fine tune.Does your employer offer a cycle to work scheme? (only available through PAYE, not available to self employed etc)
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