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First Road Bike????

benwhitakerbenwhitaker Posts: 8
in General Chat
Hi, Im sure these sort of questions get posted regulary on here but I would be really greatful for some advice on the best road bikes available. I have entered the London Triathlon 2008 and have no knowledge on bikes at all



Unfortunately I only have a budget of around £500, but I am willing to buy the clip pedals, seat, aerobars,



Thanks for your time, I look forward to your suggestions



Thanks

Ben



Comments

  • rpopper65rpopper65 Posts: 171
    Well, the good news is that this is a good time of year to catch some sales and you can still get some discounts if you buy last year's model from most of the bigger/more familiar names (Specialized, Trek, Bianchi, Felt). Another bit of good news is that £500 seems to be a good cut-off point, where you are likely to get something decent (i.e. aluminum frame, carbon forks, decent gearset from Shimano or Campagnolo, decent light wheels maybe with aluminum rims and alloy [maybe aluminum] hubs, etc).



    The bad news is that there is a huge range of choice out there and some of the most important things, like how does the bike feel to you (a 54 cm frame can mean one thing from one manufacturer and something completely different from another, so you really want to go in and try them all out) and will the bike be suitable for everything you want to do with it (e.g. commuting, training, turbo training, racing, summer rides, winter rides, etc) are tougher questions that would benefit from the advice of a helpful, knowledgeable, experienced salesperson and not just some poor schnook who wants to make a commission off of you. And, you can quite easily get sucked into the "well, if spend another £50 you could get this better groupset and this better seat post and that better water-bottle cage" (which I had to avoid doing to you when I was looking at the Canondale road bikes in the £550 range).



    Anyway, these seem to be good entry-level bikes from the bigger names, and I have provided links to the Evans Cycles web site because they have a lot of variety and information on their web site and NOT because I recommend them:



    Specialized Allez 16, 2007 model for £450 - http://www.evanscycles.com/product.jsp?style=70071



    Trek 1000 double, 2007 model for £400 - http://www.evanscycles.com/product.jsp?style=70764



    Bianchi C2C Vis Nerone, 2007 model for £500 - http://www.evanscycles.com/product.jsp?style=70439

    (seems like the best spec with Shimano 105 gears on it)



    Felt Z90, 2007 model for £450 - http://www.evanscycles.com/product.jsp?style=70359



    Hope that helps and gets you off to a good start. Good luck.
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