http://www.viking.org.uk/2012-viking-san-remo-59cm-gents-16-speed-road-bike/

posted a thread yesterday asking about the decthalon deals, lotsa helpful advice, in decathlon i stumbled across the above bike and unless i’m told they’re horrible bikes i think it will be the one i go for…

289.99 in decathlon, 10quid cheaper than the 300quid bargain one everyones snapping up and has the same chainset as the 500quid decathlon one.

opinions please before i hand over the credit card 🙂

thank youuuu

Another £300 option 🙂

http://www.merlincycles.com/bike-shop/bikes/road-bikes/merlin-road-bikes/merlin-s2200-road-bike.html

Will you die? Well…

And it’s not the same groupset, that’s a Sora double/8 speed, while the more expensive Decathlon model is triple and 9… Not sure what the cheaper one is, though.

i thought i’d anger the riding gods if i bought a road bike with a triple? 😆

philc – I have a triple and a mtb rear cassette (for extra gear-age) on my road bike … the riding Gods are not just angry but apoplectic 🙂

Personally, I just enjoy the fact that I can spin up the steepest mountain climb while others are gurnying and grunting their way to the top.

Get what you want, and enjoy!

cheers sue 🙂 i’m not a spinny person, have always preferred to mash my way up stuff! this wont be used for mashing up mountains however, it’ll be my commuter to work and back… hoping to build up from once a week to replacing my morning spin classes for maintaining base/cycling/cardio fitness.

personally i would spend my money with merlin.

what i really want is to go out for a spin on a proper race bike, like the TdFrs are riding. Just to see what its like.

In reality I wouldnt use a road bike any more than i currently commute – so my buying decision is still between audax and SS

but i would love to try a really fast bike.

Saw the thread yesterday, but didn’t comment due to most of my thoughts being covered elewhere. I’ve done a fair amount of road biking in my time and commute every day by bike. The Viking has a better spec (Sora as opposed to 2300 groupset) than the Decathlon bike, so I’d probably go for it. Neither of the bikes you’re looking at is going to kill you. They’ll both work fine. However, when you buy a cheap roadbike, you’re making a number of compromises (like mountain biking really). The most major one is going to be the wheels. If you want to get the best out of your bike you’re going to want to replace them asap. Also you need to think about the tyres (road tires are a trade-off between weight, longevity, rolling resistance and puncture resistance). Continental Gatorskin are a very good medium priced tyre that do everything really well. I would also consider the gearing. The Viking comes with 53-39 at the front and a max 25 tooth rear cassette. that’s a fairly aggressive racing set up. If you’ve got lots of hills you may want to get something a little more compliant (though some on this forum will invoke rule 5). Just my two penn’orth

i thought i’d anger the riding gods if i bought a road bike with a triple?

Big ride I did a couple of weeks back, grinding up the side of a mountain, it was a real pleasure to drop down into the little ring. I made sure all the other people around me knew about it, too, by cheerily informing them all of the fact. I’m not sure about “angry riding gods”, but they were certainly disgruntled as I spun past them 😈

understood about the cheap bike trade off on wheels etc 🙂

good comment on the gears, i’m reasonably confident as the commute isn’t overly hilly and any hills are either long and hardly noticeable as a climb if i’m driving them (have to look hard to notice you’re going up hill) or short and not overly snappy. i’m used to riding with either a 1X9 set up on the FS or singlespeed on the HT so i’m hoping i’ll be ok.

cheers for the heads up on the conti gators too btw! will try to keep an eye out for them appearing at a decent price.

Mate, I’ve been on the cusp of listing this for some time as I’m moving away from road bikes and want to free up cash for a Turner FS frame I’ve been trying to buy (long story). I’ve got a 60cm Dawes Sportif Elite. Its a Reynolds 853 frame, with full 105 groupset (broadly the equivalent of SLX), its got Shimano R520 wheels (good entry level performance wheels) and the ubiquitous gatorskin tyres. Finishing kit is all Dawes. It’s only 6 months old and has been used for commuting a few miles each way and not much else (its basically in as close to mint as you’ll get, a bit of foot rub on the cranks and not much else). It was orginally listed at £1,800, I picked it up for £800 (fair price would probably be £1200). I was going to ask £500, but would be willing to let it go for £400 if you were interested? Let me know.

Edit – should mention it’s a compact, so front crank is 50-34, rear is up to 25. Its a 10speed as well, so really smooth changing

How about a 2008 Specialised Allez, double. £250. Never been on the road. Has done a toltal of 500 miles on a turbo trained (tacx fortius). Its a bit dusty but apart from having a blue turbo tyre on the back its in good nick.

I am based in the west midlands for picking up purposes, if you are interested. Email in profile

cheers for the offer mr funk but my budget is a huge deciding factor (currently paying for wedding and honeymoon) and manchester is a big old distance from me!

sounds like it’ll be snapped up in no time though if you got it on the classifieds 🙂

soobalias – Member
what i really want is to go out for a spin on a proper race bike, like the TdFrs are riding. Just to see what its like.

I want a go on the BMC TMR01 they had on roadcc the other day:

Love the stealth brakes!

Phil, from experience, I think you’d be far better off with a semi decent 2nd hand road bike for the money you’re looking to spend than you would a brand new one. Sub £500 new, road bikes get VERY heavy, and have very cheap wheels and components fitted.

I’d look at something like a 2nd hand Giant Defy, or Specialized Allez or the likes. You’ll pick one up with Sora or possibly Tiagra on it for your budget, it’ll be a year or two old but more than likely hardly used (someone bought it to get into road riding, and either did and upgraded soon, or didn’t and it sat in the shed unused), and you’ll be paying half the price they paid or less for a barely used bike.

Can’t remember how tall you are, pretty sure you’re taller than me though… This one is roughly equivalent to a 58cm frame…

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Giant-Defy-3-5-Large-Road-Bike-/271009740044?pt=UK_Bikes_GL&hash=item3f1970750c

Bit closer to you…

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/2011-Giant-Defy-2-Mens-Large-55-5cm-Road-Bike-/290736656938?pt=UK_Bikes_GL&hash=item43b141522a

A newer one…

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/2012-Giant-Defy-2-L-Large-55-5cm-Road-Bike-Bicycle-/280913910108?pt=UK_Bikes_GL&hash=item4167c6195c

Another…

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Giant-Defy-4-/110909627030?pt=UK_Bikes_GL&hash=item19d2ba9a96

Specialized’s here…

http://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/i.html?_nkw=specialized+allez&_sacat=7294&_odkw=giant+defy&_sop=1&_osacat=7294

Not that a cheap road bike will kill you, just think you’d enjoy it more on something a bit better that’s 4lb lighter, that has been used briefly before.

vikings i see all look awful. decathlons seem a whole lot better imo, particularly on bits like no one looks at; hubs, headsets etc.

merlin bike looks good for the money too.

+1 for ebay/secondhand

I got my Cannondale CAAD with tigra for £300, weighed about 19lb, similar prices for trek 1.0’s etc. But buy after the TDF is over and the hype dies down a bit as prices always drop a bit. Oddly the opposite seems to be applying to £1500-£2k bikes, crap weather meens less sold so they all seem to be on sale with £500 off despite the TDF!

A friend recently got a 631 reynolds racer from a good builder (the name escapes me now) with good kit (inc SKKS mudguards) on it for £300 off ebay recenly, now that was a bargain, it looks like it was either almost new or someoens pride and joy as the frames imaculate!

the viking already has Sora on it and carbon fork 🙂

cheers for the links though, will have a browse through them… i will admit the 5year guarantee on the frame and 2 years on parts is a big factor too!

weight isnt the biggest issue as i’ll be wearing a backpack with a small amount of stuff for work and the gym when i commute. i’ll leave a set of clothes and stuff at work though so i’m not having to worry about putting a rack on it or nuffink 🙂

sorry if the post sounds dismissive, i will definitely have a browse through those links tonight when i get back from a spin with the wimmin

EDIT – more posts whilst i was typing! will spend some time on ebay tonight, problem is i dont know what i’m looking for with road stuff!

Any of the big brands will be Ok so Trek, Scott, Cannondale, giant, etc,(cannondale are generaly assumed to be the best frames at a budget level), also the more roadie brands like deda, cinelli, pinarello, bianchi, BMC, etc. It’s harder to make a bad road frame than a bad MTB so as long as it looks good thats half the battle.

I think theres a system 2000 or something right at the bottom which is the really cheep stuff then,
Sora = altus
Tigra = deore (probably the best value groupset – work suit)
105 = slx (probably the best the average rider needs – interview suit)
ultegra = xt (sunday best)
Dura ace = xtr (dinner jacket)

SRAM and Campag have similar pricepointed groupsets, SRAM are usualy lighter, campag usualy prettier.

Phil, just in case you’re still thinking about it, £375 gets you this….

Untitled by velocipede65, on Flickr

😀