Hi guys, I’m looking for some help with choosing which bike to buy as my first road bike.

Work have set up the cycle scheme so looking at using the max £1000 allowance to buy the bike and helmet/shoes etc.

I’m torn between either a nice and cheap Planet X RT-58 and a Ribble 7005 Sportive built up with Shimano 105 groupset and Mavic Aksium wheels which will leave me with £100’ish for shoes and a helmet.

Any other options you can recommend?

dunno.. there’s a lot of good deals at that mark

I might throw these into the mix

ribble 365
kinesis tk2
Pinnacle Dolomite Five

How do you feel about having ‘Boardman’ written on your bike?

Seems as I have a crappy ‘Halfords’ Voodoo Bokor, a Boardman is a bit classier?

The Boardmans are nice 🙂

http://www.merlincycles.com/sensa-romagna-special-57892.html

Just spotted this?

I bought a Planet X RT-57 18 months ago – £999 with SRAM Rival. I’ve been very happy with it.

http://www.planetx.co.uk/i/q/CBSABCLARIV/sab-classico-sram-rival-alloy-road-bike

What about this?

PX charge you a 10% ‘admin fee’ to use a cycle to work voucher. Shame, stopped me from getting a bike from them on it

Out of interest why not the px pro carbon.

It goes up to 11 dont yer know

Planet-x don’t ‘charge’ you a 10% admin fee, they simply pass on the fee that whoever provides you with your voucher levies against the purchase. Your voucher is actually worth 8% or 10% less than the face value when it is redeemed by the retailer, Halfrauds wear the cost PX don’t.

That said their Pro-Carbon comes with full Ultegra 11 speed currently at £999, and there’s nothing to touch that from anyone at under £1400. Not sure how long they intend to keep offering it at this price.

The Pro Carbon is a brilliantly specced bike but I think it might be too racey for me and for my first road bike?

I wouldn’t justify that sort of bike, I’m not a racey person lol.

There are two Planet X RT-58 bikes, the aluminium one and the carbon one, which one did you have in mind??

there’s nothing to touch that from anyone at under £1400.

Its not just about the groupset

I went through a similar process OP. If you can afford it the RT58 is worth it.

I went for a ProX in the end. The full Ultegra 6800 and decent wheels for just 1k did it for me:

http://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/giant-defy-composite-1-or-cannondale-synapse-105

Planet-x don’t ‘charge’ you a 10% admin fee, they simply pass on the fee…

Which is why many shops dont let you apply the voucher to ‘sale’ bikes, theyve already given the scheme a discount and can’t afford to give you one as well and still put food on the table.

The Pro isnt particularly racey and it’s THE road bike bargain,

Its not just about the groupset

It’s a tried and tested, well rated frame made with reputable materials. I’m far from a P-X fanboi but if I had £1k to spend on a road bike right now, or who had a mate that did, I’d be heading their way. Even the wheels are half-decent: semi aero and reasonable weight.

Hora posted this elsewhere

[video]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1InKLTp1Ics[/video]

except the current bike has ultegra rather than a “non group” chainset. Haven’t heard that Matt Stephens is on their payroll.

^ this is what I think too. Upto date full Ultegra, not a mix like the big brands. The only problem I had to overcome was ‘its too cheap surely somethings got to ‘give’.

The frame is tried and tested- why is a Giant or 2012 Dale any better for someone who isn’t going to be challenging for Crit or Sportive etc podiums?

In 12months time you could easily sell the frame and forks too and swap in something ti etc etc and have a really decent bike too.

The Pro carbon isn’t racey- from what brant etc said the RT57 is the more focused/stiffer one.

With Giant etc buying muscle you’d expect PlanetX to have the mixed cheap build with a nice rear mech not the other way round. Which makes Giant insulting to its punters IMO.

At somepoint PlanetX wont offer full Ultegra, they’ll wake up and say ‘shit! what have we been doing’ 😀