Hey everyone,

I made a post about a week ago about picking up a first road bike and provided suggestions which seemed fairly well received.

However today whilst having a search I found this.

It’s a Planet X RT-58 alloy. With discounts, I can get it for £530. Spec-wise, it looks like easiest the best value for money, however I haven’t heard much about SRAM road groupsets.

Is Apex a decent groupset, and generally is SRAM any good in the road scene?

What about that bike overall? I can sub in Fulcrum Racing Sport wheels for free so even the wheels seem half decent.

Just looking to get the best value for money from this bike as I won’t be allowed any upgrades (wife) for a while I’d imagine!

Any help would be much appreciated.

fit is more important than specs, so better going to a bike shop and trying a few, and getting one that fits and is comfy

Ah I already know I’m a 52cm and at a stretch 54cm.

I’m not buying a high-end bike and it’s not a huge amount of money so I don’t mind too much if it isn’t a perfect fit, I’m in the correct ballpark for sure.

I’m looking more at getting the best value for money, I’ll dial in the fit when I buy a higher end one (if I ever do, I’m much more into MTB)

For just over £500 that’s a very good bike for the money, very good indeed. If you’re only allowed 1 purchase throw a carbon seatpost and some Vittoria Open Pave tyres on at purchase time, it’ll still be under £600 and they’ll make a good difference to the ride.

Fit is a factor though so, whatever you buy, either be prepared to pay for a fit (£75 from PX) or at least be prepared to try a few different sizes of stem.

Fantastic that’s what I wanted to hear. How about SRAM generally – I hear bad things about the double tap system but is it realistically that bad?

SRAM is fine, personally I prefer Shimano but my wife has SRAM on her road bike and has no issues with it at all. The double tap just takes some getting used to, within a ride or 2 you’ll have it, it’ll be even easier if you’ve never used Shimano STI’s, no real problem with it from a technical perspective, it’s just different.

Ah OK so it’s obviously just a preference thing as opposed to there actually being an issue.

That’s fine, as you suggested I’ve never used Shimano road stuff anyway.

Out of the free wheel upgrades, which are the best out of those? It looks like the Fulcrum Racing Sport wheels are worth the most as a standalone buy, doesn’t mean it’s the best though?

All those wheels are much of a muchness, I’d go with the Fulcrum Racing Sport I reckon, though again suggesting you spend a touch more, the RS330 are worth thinking about for an extra £20.

I use sram double tap. I got used to it quickly and now couldn’t go back to shimano.

Apex is the entry level sram group set but it performs well for the money.

Ah I already know I’m a 52cm and at a stretch 54cm.

I’m not buying a high-end bike and it’s not a huge amount of money so I don’t mind too much if it isn’t a perfect fit, I’m in the correct ballpark for sure

not being rude but that just makes it more obvious that you need to go in a shop and get a fit. 🙂

I’ve got no doubt I would benefit from a fit, I did it on my MTB and it made leaps and bounds of difference compared to my old one.

It also cost me about 1/20th of the price of my bike at the time to actually fit it so it was a relatively small investment to get the absolute correct size.

This is a cheap bike and I’m treating it as such – it’s to help keep me fit and potentially smash out the turbo when I can’t get to the off-road parts 😉

That’s the same as my roadie. I love it. Carbon seat post would be a good addition but I don’t think it needs one, just get a decent seat when you get it as the standard ones are filth.
Love the fact the SRAM levers are straight pull and not dual blade wobbly malarky’s like shimano, I feel more confident in braking. I used to hate my old shimano levers, they should be cast into the fires of hell. The wifli (yes spelt correctly) cassette is good, it gives you an fair amount more teeth and means you could ride up something damn near vertical if you’re any good, which I am not.

For ref, I am 5’9 with an inside leg of 30 and I ride a 54, but I swapped the stem from 100mm to 65mm (Deda Zero) and it was a much comfier ride after that, but my bars are 42, so relatively narrow for my chest and I wanted a more upright position. Hopefully I will get some 44s or 46 CX style bars and get some better breathing going on. Make of that what you will…
Specialised Allez seem to be a fairly close fit if you want to go to an LBS and try something ‘similar’ out for size.

Hope this helps.

Ah I already know I’m a 52cm and at a stretch 54cm.

All the more reason to try some, 52-54 between manufacturers means a LOT of variation in actual sizes (in various places) versus published size. It’s even more complicated than MTB fit

I’m looking more at getting the best value for money

The best value for money is the bike you spend the most time on and get the most miles out of, and that’s a lot more to do with one you can comfortably ride for hours on the road than it is about the difference between rear mech X and rear mech Y.

I did it on my MTB and it made leaps and bounds of difference compared to my old one.

And it’s even more important on the road because there’s much less variation in position as you move around, and comes down to mm here and there to a bigger degree than MTB, honestly, you’ve asked for advice, and everyone is saying the same thing, take the hint, fit>spec 😉

If you really are treating it as a cheap bike for fitness then don’t sweat over which exact wheelset it has and spec minutiae, go and try some out from different manufacturers in various sizes and let the LBS prove their worth over a blind online sale.

The PX bikes are always very good value for money on paper in terms of kit for the money, and are decent bikes, but as above, that’s not the whole story, there are lots of other decent bikes out there too, some of which will work better than others for you. if you really really like the PX then can you get to one of their stores/showrooms ?

I am 5’9 with an inside leg of 30 and I ride a 54, but I swapped the stem from 100mm to 65mm… Make of that what you will…

What I make of that is that you bought the wrong size frame.

65mm on an old 70s-80s racer with 120mm reach bars maybe, but not on anything modern with compact 75-85mm reach bars, that just smacks of the bike being too long for you.

I swapped the stem from 100mm to 65mm

that must be about the shortest stem around on a road bike ! 🙂

I don’t disagree at all that I would be better off getting a fit – I completely agree in every way. I just cannot justify spending £75 (in PlanetX’s case) or even more on a fit when the bike only costs 500 quid.

I’m aware I won’t be getting the absolute best fitting bike on earth.

Also to add to steviebates comment – I’m 5’8 with a 29 inch inseam, so what you are suggesting would mean I’m bang on – I need the 52.

I’ve had a spin on a mates Cube a couple of times and it has very similar geometry to this bike so I’m just gonna go for it – this price is insane for the spec, it genuinely blows everything else in this price range that I could find away.

I completely agree in every way. I just cannot justify spending £75 (in PlanetX’s case) or even more on a fit when the bike only costs 500 quid

You don’t need to go that far at this stage, your LBS should at least do a very basic fit with you to get you on the right size bike in store to try, and a few LBS throw in full or discounted proper fits with purchase.

It’s more about being able to actually go in and try some different bikes and sizes of the same bike in person first, and get basic advice on any tweaks, full fit can come later if necessary.

it genuinely blows everything else in this price range that I could find away.

Of course it does, they are exceedingly well spec’d and decent bikes for the money, but it also comes with all the pitfalls of buying unseen online, ie: no sizing advice as above, no stem/bar changes in store before leaving (including lever positions/re-taping), no easy support if you have any problems or need re-adjustment, no free service/tune up etc, all of which could be worth more than the difference in spec with another model, especially if it’s your first ever road bike.

have you asked any friends or any local clubs to see if anyone has one of the PX’s you could actually try to make sure before you buy?

BTW – have you actually been to your LBS to see if they have any deals that would match or better the PX offering?

I swapped the stem from 100mm to 65mm
that must be about the shortest stem around on a road bike !

Haha yeah, definitely.
I have quite the beer gut so it lets me get more upright, rather then kneeing my fat bits when I am hunched into ‘aero attack mode’ which is 90% impossible because of my beer love and 52 felt like a bmx to me.

I’ve sat on a few road bikes – problem is most of my road riding mates are well into it and have quite aggressively setup bikes, obviously meaning they feel uncomfortable.

Also I live in the middle of Surrey mate – local shops don’t do deals around here :p