Well after having issues with my cycle to work operator I am looking for a new winter hack road bike, for my commute and winter rides

Basic info is it must be able to take 28mm tyre, guards, have hydro disk brakes and run shimano, budget is cheap so up to £1,800

Been looking at the Giant Defy advanced 2, and was wondering about the specific fitting guards for them and how well they work and fit?

Came on here to look and found people recommending the Cube Attain GTC SL bike, which has guard provisions

Am I missing any other bikes? ruled out Genesis as I don’t think they are well speced for the price and are heavy too, ruled out Planet x range as they all come with SRAM now

Anybody ridden both? Anyone tried the Defy with the specific mudguards on? how do they fit

Hack?
Cheap?
£1800?

You serious?

Decathlon will do you a hybrid that hits all those spots for about five hundred quid – now THAT’S a winter hack.

budget is cheap so up to £1,800

Is £1800 cheap for a bike? I think you need a bit of perspective in your life.

What would make an £1800 bike a hack bike?

Or have you added an extra 0?

My best bike fits most of the criteria but it was £400 so no good.

Play on the bike build feature of the Condor website and see if you can get a Fratello Disc* down to your budget.

*Lovely bike as my one and only road bike.

norco threshold – paid about 600 for mine, tiagra, takes 28mm tyres, cable disks but they are fine.

Buy 2 so you can have one in the wash

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Start at £799, bit more fancy one is £1206 with hydro 105 group. That should be about bang on?

Second the Norco Threshold, 1200 quid for 105 groupset and hydro brakes, has fittings for full guards, though I haven’t worked out which screwed in ones will go on, on the front yet as the mount point are inside the fork and half way up, strap on ones will be fine anyway. Got mine last week and so far I think it’s ace 🙂

Carbon Defy doesn’t have mudguard eyelets. For a proper winter bike, you need them. I ran the Giant Defy mudguards on an alloy Defy last winter and they didn’t survive.

There are very few carbon bikes with mudguard eyelets. Other bikes you might consider are a CAADX, which has the right mounts. A swap of cassette will see it morph from a CX bike to a very competent road bike.

Whatever you get, if it’s for winter, get something with guard mounts.

I’d set aside some money for dynamo hub and lights too.

I reckon the hydros are worthwhile (I’m assuming you want drop bars, therefore you’d struggle a bit with a £400 budget unfortunately as new != cheap)

hack/winter/cheap bike?

don’t rule out mechanical brakes, even the bb5’s on my commuter feel ok, work very well, and have been completely reliable for … ? 5 years?

in that time, and about 20,000km, they’ve been re-cabled once, gone through a few pads, and the static-pad needs an easy tweak once a month or so.

9speed Sora is also cheap, robust and reliable.

I think despite all the people saying mechanical brakes are fine, if it’s a bike you’re putting the mileage on you’ll appreciate self adjusting brakes, particularly in bad weather or when the roads get particularly covered in cack.

£1800 is next to nothing compared to the cost of buying and running a car for 2 years. And running a car wouldn’t get you riding or give you a bike.

New Spa cycles Elan? Over budget a smidge though.

Good shout on the Elan. In for £1800, might as well round it up to £2k!

+1 for dynamo lights and guards.

Although if it were me Id get a genesis vagabond and upgrade the brakes. Unless I was strugling to keep up with a group on road bikes big tyres are undeniably nice to do winter miles on.

To the killjoys, the same ones that tried to make me feel stupid for riding a Ritchey Logic through winter…

£1800 is next to nothing compared to the cost of buying and running a car for 2 years. And running a car wouldn’t get you riding or give you a bike.

If the choice is binary, then quite… Running an expensive bike is cheaper than running a fairly inexpensive car. Even still though, the joy of riding a nice(r) bike far outweigh the cost implications when compared to the alternative in my book.

I think despite all the people saying mechanical brakes are fine, if it’s a bike you’re putting the mileage on you’ll appreciate self adjusting brakes, particularly in bad weather or when the roads get particularly covered in cack.

If you’re really putting in the milage through winter, riding in all conditions, hydraulic discs are WAY better than mechanical. In fact, rim brakes are better than mechanical discs in this respect, cable discs require far more maintenance than either in my experience, although obviously their stopping power is greater than rim brakes when the weather is poor in general.

If there’s any chance you can top your budget up slightly, take a look at the Whyte Wessex. Perfect all round UK all conditions bike, has everything you’re after and more. Have had a quick go on one, it’s a belter!

I would go hydro if possible.

I’ve got trp spyres on my road bike with campag levers, they’ve tried to kill me a few times on steep decents – they get really hot really fast and then go soft enough for the lever to touch the bar! (my beloved 7 year old sidi’s paid the price of having to stop me the last time – wore half the sole away and the cleats got hot enough to burn my foot through the sole of the shoe and my socks!)

I’m guessing the calliper goes soft or the cable expands with heat… either way, I wont ride it anywhere steep anymore and “I’m out” as far as road cable discs are concerned.

Thanks for the replies so far, so some replies:

as for price £1,800 is cheaper than any of my cars which I will do less miles in, and a lot cheaper than the Storck I want to keep winter off. Its a bike to let get dirty, ride in the rain all day, leave out in the rain and not have to worry about it

I want it to be a road bike with drop bars as, that’s where I do most of my miles now, and find them comfortable

It has to be hydro brakes, as cable disks require more faff and general maintenance

Genesis although nice are just a bit too heavy and under specced for the monies. They are much heavier than my MTB, and nearly double the weight of the main road bike. I’d like a nice fast winter bike, hence the carbon

Ill look into the Spa cycles, never heard of them before

I already have a nice cannondale cross bike for that kinda stuff, but lack of guard options means its a pure offroader for fun and races

Never looked at ribble bikes, as I didn’t think they did many disk braked ones

Lights are covered by various handlebar setups and helmet lights and I currently like the way they work, plus they are removable for when its lighter on my commutes keeping the weight down

Genesis although nice are just a bit too heavy and under specced for the monies. They are much heavier than my MTB, and nearly double the weight of the main road bike. I’d like a nice fast winter bike, hence the carbon

I guess you mean the CDF? I have a carbon Datum and the frame and fork is as light as any other carbon frame (they are made by Ridley apparently), discs do add weight but will on any bike. Probably right about the price/spec though, but I got 15% off from my LBS so happy enough.

O O Titanium Pickenflick? £1k self build, £1500 built, hydro brakes.

I’d set aside some money for dynamo hub and lights too.

Just to note, that five hundred quid Decathlon bike I referenced earlier comes with dynamo hub and built in lights, as well as Shimano hydro disks, rack, guards and panniers. Just sayin’. 🙂

Genesis although nice are just a bit too heavy and under specced for the monies. They are much heavier than my MTB, and nearly double the weight of the main road bike. I’d like a nice fast winter bike, hence the carbon

I think to some extent you need to accept that your winter bike will be heavier than your summer bike by some degree – mine (Alloy frame/carbon fork with rack, guards, nothing that lightweight and dynamo lighting) is about the same as my hardtail (which isn’t particularly light) and 1.5 times the weight of my summer bike. It all adds up – and the summer bike will feel nicer when I next get on it! That said you could save a bit of weight.

Dynamos are a bit heavier, but once fitted are so much lower maintenance than anything else – probably more worthwhile weight wise than discs over rim brakes to be honest. The lights themselves weigh next to nothing.

I’m guessing the calliper goes soft or the cable expands with heat… either way, I wont ride it anywhere steep anymore and “I’m out” as far as road cable discs are concerned.

Neither, your just heating up the pad material so it loses it friction. Same issues will occur with Hydro really. Better pads will help, not dragging them will help also.

Can’t see the problem myself. I went for synapse Di2 ultegra disc as a winter bike. No issues at all.

But would you describe it as a ‘cheap hack’…?

See http://www.drakescycles.co.uk/offers.php?cat=1

Options from Scott, GT & Cannondale which might fit the bill for you – shimano groupset, hydro discs, 28mm tyre, mudguard mounts etc.

Have you looked at Dolan?

£1800 is next to nothing compared to the cost of buying and running a car for 2 years. And running a car wouldn’t get you riding or give you a bike.

Yep, fine, great, I get that*. But £1800 is NOT a cheap hack. Not even close.

*I’m running my 700cc motorbike for less per mile though. Way less.

EDIT
Scratch that, £1707.01 for the last 2 years and 14,563 miles, so less in total too.

Trek Domane with the hidden mudguard mounts
I’m running one with di2 and hydros, got schwable s ones 30mm with the guards
Fantastic bike very comfortable, ride it all year round

£1800 is next to nothing compared to the cost of buying and running a car for 2 years. And running a car wouldn’t get you riding or give you a bike.

Much as we may not want it that way, most of us run cars as well as bikes. 🙄

I wouldn’t worry too much about weight, especially for a winter bike.

I’ve just built up a Surly Straggler with 41c Knards, Hope 20Five wheels, 105 5800, big mudguards and nice finishing kit. It’s absolutely brilliant for winter commuting and general riding.

Of course it won’t accelerate as fast as some of the bikes mentioned earlier, but I do think it’s worth trying something like this as you – like me – may find the extra weight is outweighed by the extra control. I’ve also got a set of lighter wheels with skinny tyres for summer use.

Kinesis 4S disc? £1100 for frame and 105 disc groups at merlin. Leaves a bit for wheels etc

Oh, and yes – I should mention that the Straggler above replaces my 4S Disc. (Frame size 55.5 currently for sale!).

Not better, but different. The 4S was a fabulous bike, but just not “wintery” for me and my rougher road tastes.

I wanted something that I could tour and fit wider tyres to.

Ben, your bike looks awesome. Thanks for sharing!

any of my cars

Oh, Ambassador! You’re really spoiling us tonight 😉

budget is cheap so up to £1,800

Well I am humbled. My winter hack Cotic turned into my dream hardtail for £2,200. Cotic can help you with a superb bike for £1800.

I have seen some very nice CX bikes on here for £500, 6 months old and hardly ridden

Anyone tried the Defy with the specific mudguards on? how do they fit

Yes they fit and work very well as guards with the small problem of them cutting right through the seat stays! They may have been changed since I discovered the problem a year ago. Giant replaced my frame set with no questions very quickly.

one of the Cube Attain discs? you could pay £1700 for a 2017 SL, but the 2016s are going cheap at the mo,

http://www.hargrovescycles.co.uk/cube-attain-gtc-sl-disc-2016-road-bike.html

carbon, ultegra, hydros for £1300.

I would second that mechanical discs are the worst of both worlds – The more rapid pad wear from winter conditions means regular attention if it’s a single-side brake (everything but Spyre) combined with sitting in the line of cack (if you’re running mudguards then caliper brakes are usually protected) – mine seized after one winter despite trying to stay on top of them.

That Cube looks quite nice!