Against my better judgement (last time I had one, I didn’t really use it, circumstances have changed a bit now and I would use it a lot more) I’m looking at a road bike again… I’m in the middle of raising some cash by the sale of a mountain bike, and some surplus parts, and I can probably raise somewhere in the order of £1k soon.

Now that’s not to say I want to spend £1k on a road bike. I would possibly if it was worth it, but not if it wasn’t… My obvious reaction has been to go and check out the Boardman range as they’re cheap, appear very good value, and there’s a Halfords in every town. I remember looking at a Trek and a Specialized about 12 months ago, and they were significantly heavier, nowhere near as well specced, and generally seemed poor value by comparison.

But what else is there? If it helps, I’m Mr. Average at 5ft 10 and just over 12 stone, I generally ride a 17.5-18″ MTB (I’m guessing a 54, or medium sized road bike?), I’ve had a sit on a Boardman Road Team Carbon (£999 now, VERY nice it was too) in a Medium, and it seemed spot on. But is it worth spending £999 over say the much cheaper Boardman, at £559 now, which has only got an ally frame and 9spd Shimano (vs carbon and 10spd SRAM), but will the extra £400 odd be worth it to me?

Or what else is there that’s worth having? I don’t want some overweight, under specced bike, just cos it’s cheap, or just cos of the brand name on it. I’ve got nice Mountain bikes, but to me a road bike will purely be a way to stay fit in the week, as currently I only ride on Sundays (something I want to change, but I live miles from the trails, hence the idea of getting a road bike). I’d rather spend less, but am VERY tempted just to blow the budget on the Carbon Boardman… Though it’s only 2lb lighter than the ally one, at almost half price.

Oh, and resale value, should circumstances change, will be important too. So I’d rather buy something that I can sell for 70% of its purchase price in say 6 months as long as it has been well looked after, than something that’s worth less than 50% if you get me. To my mind, the Carbon Boardman looks a strong option again there!

So what else is there? Anyone selling anything good 2nd hand at the moment in my size? (if so, please drop me an email)…

Little bit over budget but I doubt you’ll find better value.
http://www.planet-x-bikes.co.uk/i/q/CBPXSLPFOC/sl-pro-carbon-sram-force

Imo you realy cant beat boardman bikes at the moment. They are so good for the price. Otyer option is modus range, agin very good and british firm too.

http://www.tredz.co.uk/.Specialized-Allez-24-2010-Road-Bike_27449.htm

Looks like they’re still on sale. Great price. If you can get past the curvy top tube it’s a really good bike for the money – I love mine 😀

fwiw I’m 5’9″ with a 29″ inside leg, riding a 54cm.

I don’t know how a Boardman rides but according to a bike shop near me you can get ‘one of those type of carbon frames for £60’. As in they are one of the cheaper types of carbon from the far east.

Obviously they are being a bit elitist and snobbish but I got thinking whether it was worth going for cheaper carbon over a high end aluminium frame. The guys in Wheelbase in Staveley (I really value their opinions – some are v. good sponsored racers) suggested I could go for a Cannondale Caad 10. A close look shows just how nice these frames are.

Of course it all comes down to how much money you want to put into a frame versus components. Also consider how racey you want the angles of the frame to be. Some companies offer far better warranties than others too, (Trek and Cannondale apparently are v.good).

A friend has a Wilier Escape – very nice racey geometry and ride for £800. IMO that’d be v.good for the money.

Whatever you decide,have a road test,however short;you will know if that bike is for you.It should just feel right and you should be feeling,yes,I,m gonna have some fun on this.

I doubt you could get a Boardman carbon for £60 but I was quoted £370 delivered for a Hongfu FM015 (google it), full carbon forks, headset, carbon ‘wing’ handlebars and a carbon seatpost so it’s pretty cheap. Great things said about the ebay chinese/ hongfu/dengfu frames on other forums. I would have gone for it but a steel frame I’ve been lusting after just came up.
How the hell I’ll explain that one to the permissions officer I’ll never know…

Wont go far wrong with this. Grand Tour winning pedigree frameset and 105. Only weak points are potentially brakes and chainset.
I’d probably go with the planet x or boardman though.

http://www.tredz.co.uk/.Cannondale-CAAD-8-105-2011-Road-Bike_39585.htm

If i had that budget i’d be going second hand. Should be able to get something pretty special for close to a £1k.

£60 I assume would be the price you could get such a frame directly from the factory but yes, seems unlikely to me too. I have heard a few others say the Boardman carbon isn’t great, not just snobs either! I’d still be aware that there’s a difference between cheap carbon and high end and a decent aluminium frame could be better for the same money as ‘cheap’ carbon. .

A quick few minutes unearthed these beauties

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Fuji-Team-Pro-Special-Edition-2010-Carbon-Road-Bike-/220745167233?pt=UK_Bikes_GL&hash=item33656ff181

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Custom-Built-Vitus-Zenium-R-Road-Bike-Medium-/200579170707?pt=UK_Bikes_GL&hash=item2eb3734193

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Specialized-Roubaix-Expert-Carbon-Road-Bike-Medium-54cm-/260743018697?pt=UK_Bikes_GL&hash=item3cb57eb8c9

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Felt-F3-road-bike-54cm-Dura-Ace-Ultegra-v-good-cond-/270709647824?pt=UK_Bikes_GL&hash=item3f078d69d0

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/2008-WILIER-MORTIROLO-ROAD-BIKE-CYCLE-CAMPAGNOLO-CHORUS-/250778579458?pt=UK_Bikes_GL&hash=item3a63917202

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Giant-TCR-Alliance-1-Road-Racing-Bike-/280633910874?pt=UK_Bikes_GL&hash=item415715a65a

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Cannonale-CAAD-8-Road-Bike-105-Carbon-Fork-54CM-/140515291787?pt=UK_Bikes_GL&hash=item20b75d328b

Reading your post, i get the impression you are not that keen on spending £1,000 but will if necessary. I am a big fan of Specialized bikes and their warranty is excellent, they replaced a 10 year old frame top of the range Ally frame for me with a Tarmac frame. However, I wouldn’t go 8 speed on a road bike (and I am a user of 8 speed on a couple of bikes). The bike that jumps out to me from the Tredz site is the Giant Defy, Tiagra will be fine (I still use 10 year old 8 speed Sora on one bike and it’s great). You have got a frame that is used on more expensive bikes plus a reasonable component range and Giant are supposed to have good after sales support and warranty. But the Ally Boardman will be great as well.

I had the same dilema and spent it on a ribble carbon evo.
The spec. was top notch. I figured the components hanging off it was worth the punt on the frame.

Hi mboy – I was in exactly the same position as you a while back, with very much the same attitude too! I ended up buying a secondhand Boardman Pro off ebay, it was a 2008 so ally with carbon stays but sith 10 speed Dura Ace Kit, got it for a ‘buy it now’ of £650 and it was ace!

I think above the nice light weight and handling, etc I really appreciated the slick shifting – the whole thing just worked beautifully.

Sadly, it has since been nicked from my garage with my other 2 bikes 🙁 but if the same deal came up again I’d definitely go for it again!

Cheers for the responses so far… Will look at all the options and weigh them up! Looking at some of the cheaper options though, thinking I’d be better off spending at least 600 quid or so as it seems to get you a lot more bike.

What’s a good weight for a bike at say 600 quid… And again at £1k?

Oh, and like the look of that carbon planet x a lot, but… How does it compare to the boardman? Wheels don’t look as good etc… And to be fair, would rather not spend 1100 quid! Though I do have enough MTB parts to sell to fund it if needs be…

I have a boardman carbon pro from a couple of years ago. Fantastic bike for the money, only weak point were cheap wheels but it did represent fantastic VFM. Buying from Halfords (B2W scheme) wasn’t great, but other than that, no complaints at all. Light, stiff, mostly decent kit (except wheels) and nice to ride.

Reading your post, i get the impression you are not that keen on spending £1,000 but will if necessary

Spot on

Basically, trying to work out the point where the laws of diminishing returns kick in. So can I get a 600 quid bike that really rides 95% as good as a £1k bike, or do you really get a whole lot more if you spend a bit more? Certainly, mountain bike wise I can’t think of anything at £600 i’d really be happy riding (I’d go 2nd hand for defo), but there are a few mtb’s between £1k-£1200 that I’d be proud to own! Does the same apply is what I’m getting at?

Oh, and how do SRAM roadie gears compare to shimano? Personally I hate their MTB gears, but that’s cos of the shifters action. I’m open to their roadie gears if they’re any good.

Defiantly worth looking at the options from Ribble too.

For just under a grand you can get a carbon framed bike, some of which are exactly the same as some high end Italian stuff.

The Planet X bike looks like a steal though with that groupset, Force is comparable to Dura Ace if the reviews are to be believed. That’s a fair bargain I think.

Road groupsets are like MTB, people subjectively think each one is better, of course there is the Campag option too. SRAM stuff does tend to be lighter though, and I prefer it to my previous Shimano equipped bike.

If you are in no rush either, a grand will get you a blinding second hand bike as well.

Just a thought, I’ve just bought but haven’t yet really got to know a Salsa Vaya. It looks really, really exciting. Weight’s too much to pretend to be a road racer, but I reckon it’ll do chain gangs at a pinch, club rides and road rides by myself no bother, weekend tours and holidays with pleasure and is built for knocking around, maybe the HONC, byway stuff and general messing about. It’s got 32mm winter rubber on for the moment but will drop down to 25mm in the summer and when I’ve tyre-money.

It’s a little bit of a hoof up from your budget as a full bike, I just wonder whether you might look at something like that and actually think you want to spend the money on it rather than just tolerating it. 🙂

The 3 main roadie gears shifters are all pretty different, but all pretty good.
Shimano and Sram are fairly compatible with each other component wise, but Sram have a double tap thing at the shifters that some people like and some dont.
Shimano lever action and shifting is pretty smooth and slick where as Campag is more defined and mechanical (and has 11 speed for the top 4 groupsets).
Campag also has a thumb lever for up shifts (as does low end shimano, but nowhere near as good). I had sora on a previous bike and the thumb shifting wasn’t great as you can only go 1 gear at a time instead of 5 like high end campag.

Personally i’ve got Campag chorus 11 speed and think its great, however for under a grand and with no brand preference i’d probably be switching over to shimano 105 or sram rival as the cheaper campag stuff doesn’t feel as good (i’ve got mirage on the cx bike).

Double post

Go ride

At my budget for my last road bike (£1500) I thought I would end up with a carbon bike but I much preferred the aluminium/carbon rear triangle bikes at that price.

Less expensive carbon frames can feel a bit flat IMO you may think different

Boardmans always look amazing VFM

Whereabouts are you? My lil bro is selling his boardman road comp – size medium, bought in 2009 with less than 1000miles on the clock – about £400 I reckon. He’s in central London

at 1k iirc cycling mag rates planet x carbon, boardman pro s and Cannodale CAAD – forget exact model – prefereed late frame even though lower spec.
Personally I would get a s/h one plenty of folk do what you have done an dyou can get a near immaculate 2-3 year old bike that has seen next to no use. You will get most of your money back if you get in to it then get a more expensive number.
Road bikes are so light relative to a MTB, unless you intend to race, i would not bother with carbon

Ribble seem very good vfm

Probably the caad 9.
The planet-x frame looks very similar to the ribble.
not sure of the wheels on the planet-x bike tho. so do some research.

Topangarider

Could well be very interested… I’m nowhere near central London (good 2 hours on the train or more), but could still be interested in it…

Can’t believe no one has mentioned sh yet.

Best deal and best resale value, only downside is more buying effort.

I spent just over a grand on a planet x sl carbon pro (with loads of top notch sram kit on it). it is by far the best value bike for the money. however there will always be a debate to the quality of these kind of carbon frames. I’ve never heard a bad word about them (buy someone who has actually ridden one) the only negative thing I’ve herd is there is some flex if pushed to the limit (which I doubt many riders would). but make your own mind up there hundreds of posts around the net (with the vast, vast majority of them being excellent).

planet x are great to deal with too IMO.

For me it was a decision between a branded bike with entry level kit or a planet x with great kit. plus realistically how much better would a branded entry level ali frame be against a entry level carbon frame???

just to throw it out there but how about a CX bike with road tyres??

then you can ride it off road also. thats what i do and some of my mates also.

TBH mate I wish I had bought a Uncle John CX instead of the SL. they seem so versatile – plus you can have a go at cx!

Had thought about CX bike, but realistically would I use it? CX bikes in the sub £1k category are really heavy beasts too. Really I’m not that bothered by cx I don’t think.

I have however been thinking the ability to fit mudguards and a rack at some point though, might be very useful…

To that end, I’ve been reading about the Giant Defy. Seems to have some very good reviews. The Defy 2 with tiagra comes in at £660 at Pauls cycles for a 2010 model in my size, it’s just over 20lb (so 1lb heavier than equivalent boardman), but then it’s definitely got heavier tyres and saddle, both of which I can replace easily. But it has rack and mudguard eyelets…

Anybody got a Giant Defy? Rate it? Is tiagra ok or does 10spd really make a massive difference?

Take a look at Merida!

The RoadRide 91 at £749 – full Sora kit, 2200 hubs, Alexrace24 rims 9spd.
Or the Roadride 93 at £949 – full Tiagra kit, R500 wheelset, 9spd.
Both bikes were good last year but this year are truly great!!
Have a peek here:
http://www.massifoutdoors.co.uk/bikeinfo.php?id=137
http://www.massifoutdoors.co.uk/bikeinfo.php?id=136

Happy hunting!

So anybody got, or ridden, a Giant Defy then? Could you recommend it?