Many of you helped me decide on the mountain bike I should choose and helped me understand the requirements. So I thought you may be able to help me with picking out a road bike.
I am looking for a racy type that’s around 16″ frame. Me and a few friends are taking part in a UK cycling event, I have checked on Halfords and they are very large in comparison to mountain bikes.
Cheers
P.s I am not looking for a racy bike over a touring bike but i’m not dead set so any recommendations are good

Go second hand.

Jkomo- That’s what I was thinking, any particular model I should look for second hand around that price?

Planet X?

second hand all day..
picked up an unridden 1999 dale saeco copy
on tiagra for 300 2 weeks ago……
never worth buying new as i really dont use
roady stuff lol

bianci

caad8

CAAD

You’ll be wanting carbon forks for comfort over long distance (or steel if you’re real)

STi gears (that combine shifters and brakes) are good, but you’ll pay less if you can handle down tube shifters (on old steel bikes)

If you can, look for a compact or a triple chain set, Pro roadies and wannabes will mock you, but a regular double set up is hard work. Make it easier with a compact (smaller chanin rings) or a triple (like a mountain bike)

http://www.paulscycles.co.uk/products.php?plid=m7b0s6p0&tbv=_Road_Bikes_Racing_-_Road_Racing

Pauls cycles for some ideas

16″!!! Thats tiny. As an example my XS Tricross is 19″ and thats too small for me at 5’7″
Sorry but at 16″ you are not going to get full sized wheels. In fact thats really a kids bike or something pretty rare built on 650c rims, maybe from Islabikes.
Are you sure thats what you mean?
Things have changed a bit but I think you will find that your frame size on a road bike is larger than a MTB and as MTB’s especially are measured in all sorts of funny ways that is little to go on.
Why not take a trip to a bike shop and try a few for size.
if you do fancy new, look out for good deals on Raleighs. £500 plus Raleighs got great reviews and you often see them discounted as being last years.
Shimano Sora or 2300 are the shifters you should be looking for really . These are a good guide to reasonable bikes. Campag and SRAM don’t come that cheap and anything else is odd ball.

+1 go to shop and try some for size. Road bikes are measured in centimetres, not inches. I ride a 16″ MTB and a 51cm road bike.

You’ll find the geometry very different on a road bike, it can feel very stretched out particularly on a more race oriented bike where you’ll be ‘long and low’. Something a little more audax oriented would be more comfortable. Don’t be tempted to get something shorter in the top tube because it feels more comfy coming from MTB, you’ll get used to the longer top tube and will soon feel cramped if it’s too small (although you can fix this to some degree with a longer stem, layback post etc).

16″!!! Thats tiny.

+100

thats 40cm. 😯

check out edinborough cycle coop if you have one local. Their Reoloution bikes are pretty good.

Ohh, I just thought that the frame size would be the same for MTB as it is with a road bike. So for someone who is roughly 5ft5 what size should I roughly look at.
Would this be a half decent bike to start with?
http://www.halfords.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/product_storeId_10001_catalogId_10151_productId_840917_langId_-1_categoryId_165710

Lower bb and high top tube make the frame measurement longer. 56 cm here and that would be medium / large (say 18″ equivalent) you prob want 52 / 54 cm maybe 50?

uwe-r- that do i want the 51cm version if i am 5ft5 or should i go 46?

Road frame sizes do change from brand to brand.
My giant tcr was a m(50.5) but my Spesh is 56. Both are roughly the same size just designed and measured in a different way.

As above you need to go and try some

With road bikes it is more important that you ride before you buy. Just buy what you find comfortable. For the love of god, don’t let this be a repeat of your mountain bike thread – you cannot decide on a bike purely based on the opinions of 100 people who have never even met you.

Some good second hand stuff out there. Reckon you’d be looking at 50cm.