Okay so I have been on the web round 4 LBS and ‘Halfords’who wont let me take a bike for a test ride, as people dont come back !!!and I’m suposed to spent £650 in their store.
Ok that all said the bike with the best spec for under £700 I have found is the boardman comp Tiagra front and rear mech and flight deck, but comes with a compact chainset 50-36, should I change it to 52-39, should cost £60 no labour charge as it is a new bike.
I really would prefer to spent my money in a LBS but, have really looked and nothing else really comes close. Thoughts please, i know none of you are doing anything else this weekend, need to get it sorted by tuesday for work C2W.
Will ask to see manager at Halfords, to test ride the bike, its a small town store in the south east and most people would say I’m respectable…..

well actually this is the chat not Bike forum but hey who gives a flying……………

True but is Chat on a MTB forum

[but bike-related so moved to it’s rightful place! – Mod]

Won’t they take a credit card imprint or your passport or perhaps a child as security while you have a spin round the block?

I would keep the compact a 50×12 is enough gear for most people

Speak to the Halfords C2W people to see if they can help. You’ll be ordering through them anyway.

Oh – and the compact should be fine. Why do you want to change it?

The Boardman Comp got some excellent reviews. Do have a look at http://www.road.cc over on the other side, it really isn’t very scary and a fair few of us visit from time to time. 🙂

Don’t get hung up on the compact chainset issue either. When I originally specced my roadbike I got a 53/39 and a fairly easy cassette. I thought I’d be racing more than I actually have, and with hindsight a smaller ring for big hills at the end of the day would have been rather nice.

It’s a nice bike, I wouldn’t be massively worried about test riding it TBH, as long as you can make it fit, it’ll be fine. Compact chainsets are nice.

I am having the same dilemma as you. Boardman team carbon is 1k, which is about my budget. However, I am convinced there is a lot more to buying a road bike in terms of fitting you to the bike and buying the right geometry bike for the purpose you want it for. The Boardmans are supposed to be fairly racy, which isn’t what I really want. If Halfords won’t even let you try the bike for size (this is my first road bike, and yours?) then I wouldn’t even consider buying the bike from them. I am likely to go for one of the C2C bianchis. The spec on it isn’t quite as good, and it has an alu/carbon frame, but I know it will fit and be comfortable to ride long distance.

To chuck a spanner in the works, have you considered one of the flat bar road bikes? I have a Marin Lucas Valley and find this ideal for a short commute. It gives you a fairly upright position which is good in traffic, but obviously not quite as fast as an equivalent roadie. I found it about 25% faster than my MTB on an 8 mile commute. It’s got mounts for mudguards (and panniers I think) which are pretty important for a commuter.

Seriously, if you haven’t got a lot of experience on drop bars, don’t just go for a flat bar for the sake of it. Drops are so comfortable, and work so very well, that they are worth perservering with. I have a racer and a trainer, both with drops. The bars on the trainer are really high (Rivendell style) but I still use the full range of hand positions. 🙂

Big Dummy, I am borrowing a Cervelo from the LBS today and taking it out for 50 miles or so. I’ll let you know how I get on! Quick question, how fragile are the frame and wheels likely to be? I am prone to hopping the Marin off kerbs and the like, an not as bothered about pot holes as maybe I should be. Am I right in thinking that what I’m borrowing will be more delicate and should be treated as such?

Not terribly fragile. You’ll get pinch punctures and do damage if you slam it into things as though you had a 2.2″ tyre and 130mm of suspension, but it isn’t just going to disintegrate because you go over a bump. Have a look at some footage of Paris-Roubaix.

That said, I would be quite gentle with a borrowed Cervelo. Having to buy it after you’d broken it would be gut-wrenching. 😯

Yep, after nearly sliding sideways into a grass bank at 30mph last weekend, I’m going to take it easy. Braking on a road bike isn’t for the faint hearted!

Its a rural (country lanes)commute of 13 miles direct route, and I expect/ hope to do a few tri races this year, if the running gets better, so need something a bit racy feeling for that, quite happy with handle bar setup being drop style.
Chainset change just wondering because research some come with compact or you get the 52-39 double and then the triple option, do not intend to climb the alps so not going down the triple route.

for an every day (?) commute definitely get something that will take guards, otherwise you’ll be spending a lot on changes of clothes and running the washing machine!
with the amount you’re saving buying through c2w i would write-of halfwits if they won’t let you test ride, and make damn sure they understand why – test rides sell bikes, and there’s no reason why, if they take passport and cc as suggested they shouldn’t let you go out on one. probably has more to do with selling display models as new, as anything else. **** ’em.
the alternative i guess would be to get a fitting from one of the stores who do this. they look at your position and pedalling and all that and give you the numbers you need for saddle position, bar height etc. etc.

I commuted on normal road bikes for years, I never thought that I might need flat bars so I could see better. I also hardly ever used mudguards I used cycling kit for commuting and changed when I got there anyway. You can fit SKS raceblade gaurds to any bike and they do work fairly well. I only bought some when I started slowing up and changed from the fasy club run to medium. The medium guys were more pro-mudguards, and it is much nicer following someone who has them on. I also for a long time used a triple with a large chainring with 48 teeth so 48 x12 was my biggest gear. Some quick people used to ride with the club and I was never dropped due to lack of gears!!

I only know a few people who can properly ride 52 or 53/11, and one of them rides for some team or something called Garmin? 50/12 or 11 will be enough for most weekend warriors. An old friend of mine used to race on 48 in the early 90s and she found it acceptable enough to be National Champion.

Compact chainsets (usually 36/50 or 34/50) are often coupled with a 12-27 cassette thus giving you very similar low gears to a triple and “regular” cassette combination. If you get more into racing/tri then you could always just swap the cassette to an 11-19 or 11-21 to give you closer and slightly higher ratios but as mentioned above, its rare to be spinning out 53-12. Last time I did that on the flat was in a crit race with a certain Mr B Wiggins… 😉

Road bikes are capable of much more abuse than people realise, you only have to watch Paris-Roubaix (which is tomorrow – yay!) or see what normal road wheels will cope with in a cyclocross race to realise that.

Re buying: try as many shops as you can in the short space of time you’ve got. Most LBS will be open today, the chain stores like Halfords and Evans Cycles will be open all over Easter weekend. Good luck!

I don’t know what your commute is like but I would seriously consider single speed. The ease of maintenance and operation does out way the inconvenience of not having the ‘ideal’ gear depending on your route of course. They are considerably cheaper and much more robust.

I have a SE Lager with 48 x 16 gearing and bull horn bars which is a great commuter (steel equals robust).

I also use a lower geared (41 x 16) cyclo cross alu framed bike (old Alan top cross) with drops (which I can recommend).

Have picked up the Cervelo, it’s an R3 with a mix of Durace, Ultegra and 105. Holy **** shit this thing is light, I am a bit worried that a stiff breeze will knock me over….

Had a chat with LBS bloke, the choice for me looks like being between a Bianchi Via Nirone with Veloce or £500 more for same groupset with a 928 Carbon frame and Khamsin wheels. The carbon one is about 1.5lbs lighter. Will I notice much difference? Any comments?

Oh, and the LBS just gave me the bike and told me to bring it back at some point next week, none of this faffing around with passports and the like!

I’ve recently got a 2008 Bianchi C2C Via Nirone with a mix of 105 and Ultegra on an aluminium frame with carbon forks, seat stays and seat post (really good deal from Evans – 2009 model now approx £400 more expensive). Would thoroughly recommend it – a really smooth ride with no road buzz and an ideal (for me) riding geometry. Not sure how much better a more expensive full carbon frame would be – I think you can often make more difference by getting fitter.

I tried a number of other bikes but most felt too stretched out, and a couple felt (including a Felt) too upright – for me the Bianchi was an ideal position in the middle. Size, fit and geometry seem much more important on road bikes than mountain bikes.

You really need to have a test ride if you can, and if you are commuting you may want a bike with mudguard mounts.

Trek 1200 from Pauls cycles.

Why not a Giant Defy 2.5 with Tiagra 27 speed set up? Decent frame and fork and good spec for the money, plus a higher and lower gear than the Boardman