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Bike for Newbie

Hi all,
New to triathlon, finished first sprint beginning of May, second last weekend. I started with the idea of minimising outlay on new kit and got by with buying a pair of More Mile tri shorts (brilliant investment). Have since had to invest in new running shoes and an open water wetsuit. Intended to get through the season with this, using my trusty old Raleigh Vitesse road bike, but the strain is starting to show on that and last week whilst out on a spin, a minor maintenance issue arose !! Whilst fixable in time for the next sprint in 3 weeks, I've also signed up for an Oly in July and am considering getting a new bike.. But what to buy. Budget £1-£1.2k. Carbon or Aluminium. Sora/Tiagra/105 ??? Have come across Merlin MALT-CR which at 1k seems to tick all the boxes (carbon and 105) but is it too good to be true ? Any advice / comments would be welcome.

Comments

  • gavinpgavinp Posts: 168
    A grand will get you a nice bike. There are so many on the market now which are pretty good. Start by checking out the bikes in the 'Gear' section of this website.

    Get a bike that fits 'you' (by spending some of that money on getting it fitted properly) and that you like the look of (it's surprising how much 'the look' factors in ).

    You'll notice a huge difference from your old bike, so have fun!
  • Having ridden it for nearly a year now, I would wholeheartedly recommend the Giant Defy 4 as a fantastic beginner bike. Bolt on a set of clip-on tri-bars and some decent tyres/latex inner tubes and off you go. The stock tyres are pretty rubbish but the wheels that come with the bike are pretty good for training wheels.

    Well worth having a decent bike fit done too once you have put the tri-bars on.
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