My mate has decided we are going to do the Walney to Whitby C2C next year, i’ve done the Workington to Sunderland route in a day so i pretty much know what to expect.
He doesn’t have a road bike as yet, so would like some suggestions as to what he needs.
Price around £400 ( i know) and nothing too ‘bum up head down’ full on racer type.

Try halfords.
They do loads of non bum up heads down type sub £400 pound bikes.

Have a look on here.

http://www.paulscycles.co.uk/offers.php?cat=7

Ridgeback Velocity.

Halfords, Decathlon and Paul’s, the holy trinity.

I did it on my giant NRS full susser…..still got the frame and its for sale if he’s interested in building one up??

Carrera Kracken £450

I have a Carrera XC Titan and its EPIC. If you can get over the name buy a Carrera.

http://www.halfords.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/product_storeId_10001_catalogId_10151_productId_810671_langId_-1_categoryId_165499

Proper Job! Don’t listen to this lot… they’ll have you on a Santa Cruz by the end of the week 😉

I finally retired my Kraken a few weeks back, it got upgraded then part-donor’d for my Scandal, then got rebuilt out of leftover bits and used as a spare, then scrapped again, then rebuilt and raced as a rigid xc bike. Some of the parts were pretty poor but it was an excellent package, and surprisingly nice handling frame.

The new one shares few parts with my ’08 model, mind

My mate is selling his Cotic Roadrat for around £500.

Just sent him a link to a carrera Zelos limited edition for £329.99 down from £599.99.

The B’Twin Triban 3 is incredibly well reviewed.

beware discounted limited edition carreras, ime they’re no where near worth the full rrp and discounted price is about fair.

I bought my wife a Genesis Aether for that sort of dollar when discounted.
It’s a great bike, really nice handling frame.
Bits are a fairly basic, but functional.
Looks nice too. That Genesis crowd seem to spec bikes quite intelligently.