Up to £1500 what road bike would you recommend? A potential newbie roadie!

You would get a much better response if you gave more information about the kind of riding you imagine you are going to be doing.

Wow – how long's a piece of string etc? 😉

Flat out racing roadie on a budget – Boardman or Planet X (with change to spare from both!)
Touring roadie – plenty of choice that I'm not really qualified to suggest.
Sportive (or middle aged!) roadie – Specialized Roubaix (if you can stretch to it) or the cheaper Secteur.

I can recommend the Roubaix from personal experience, but there's so much choice. The big brands (Giant, Trek, Specialized) don't get much wrong these days and all offer racing bikes and sportive bikes – the difference being more comfortable and compact geometry on the latter with typically higher headtubes, but don't discount the likes of Ribble, Planet X and the like as some of the complete bike deals they do are incredible.

Planet X have a new showroom too, so it gives you the chance to try for size. I guess you're going to have to try a few first but have an idea of the sort of riding you want to do beforehand and that'll help you thin down the candidates. Hope that helps a litte…? Just my 10cents of course and I've probably missed a few obvious one out too, for which I apologise in advance. 8)

For £1500? Almost any of 'em. Boardman and Planet X give very good spec for the money but aren't very sexy. Italian brands are sexy but more expensive. Big name brands are somewhere in between. Got to a shop so you can get help with sizing etc. Make sure it is a nice colour.

I bought a Roubaix and love it – it's a race bike but with slightly fatter tyres and flexible zerts things in the frame to soak up a bit of chatter from rougher roads. But I never asked myself whether, having bought a road bike, I might get into longer trips where I might want to take some luggage along. The Roubaix has no pannier attachments and a carbon seatpost prevents seatpost attached luggage racks from being used. I'm looking at swapping the seatpost for an alloy one to use my Topeak QR rack when I go on a couple of 100 mile+ rides later in the year.

I've just gone back to road biking to get my fitness right back up and just been looking at this price range. I looked all over including the Boardmans and Planet X. I ended up deciding on these two
http://www.evanscycles.com/products/cannondale/caad-9-105-compact-2010-road-bike-ec020236
http://www.allterraincycles.co.uk/product/119164.html

Went with the Orbea as fancied having Carbon, something I'd never had before and also they come with a lifetime guarantee on the frames. 3 weeks or so delivery time as they get hand built in Spain when you order them, mine's coming in red, can't wait. Best thing to do is shop around and try as many as you can.

wow thanks, didn't realise there were different types! I would be using it to improve fitness and eventually would like to try and do some of the tour stuff in france, eg mont ventoux, les deux alpes.
Would love a carbon frame, but would also look at a cheaper decent alu option. at the moment there are a few of the entry level Trek Madone that would fit the bill and I've also seen a nice Giant TCR advantage 3 in white.

Bit up in the air at the mo!

where are you based?

if its near worcestor, i can rate epic cycles very highly, lots of bikes in stock, and they will do a good fitting session and let you demo bikes. Alwyas get a good review on the roadie bit of the bikeradr forum

Home

I'm one step ahead of you chameleon, I bought my first bike last year (a cube attempt) then upgraded to a cannondale CAAD9 this year.

The CAAD9 is a lighter, faster frame, and its beautiful to look at, good classic aluminium design, ribbon like seatstays and coke-can chainstays so its sprints and climbs very nicely. I didn't want Carbon for some stupid luddite reasons of my own so was glad to get such a nice aluminium frame.

I tend to use it for 90-100 mile rides, and although I haven't settled on the pefect saddle, the bike itself is very comfy.

The Roubaix equivalent in Cannondale speak is the Synapse.