Lots of winter off-road training this year has persuaded me that I probably need a road bike for next winter, as the ratio of riding:bike/kit cleaning is pretty crap. Thing is, I know absolutely nothing about road bikes.

So, I guess I have questions like…frame material…is the difference between alu/steel/carbon/Ti of similar importance on the road than off? Components…do different levels of components make that much difference or is it mainly a weight thing? I’d need something comfortable for all-day (10+ hours) rides…does that mean I need to be looking at something like an audax bike, or are those racey types capable of being comfortable all day?

Any other pointers for a road dummy appreciated. Budget might be somewhere in the region of £2k…my 40th is in October 🙂 Cheers!

Nice budget!

Id say road biking is all about the fit
Make sure you get the right size
I went from MTB to road and found the riding position to be bl00dy uncomfortable until my back got used to it

Id also suggest buying something ‘cheap’ to see if you get on with it
Ribble get a lot of flak but their Audax winter trainer looks the business at the price
It has full guards which are essential in winter
You can fit the Crud Racers which are good but you still get your 2k dream machine filthy

Spend 500 quid on a winter bike then if you like it spend 1500 on something nice for the rest of the year

Carbon or Ti both good
Carbon prob beter value at that price point
Ultegra = XT roughly speaking
105 = LX/SLX

Id definitely expect Ultegra for 1.5k
And upgrade the wheels when you have a windfall

Planet X as good a place to look as your LBS

Good luck

Not sure if they have any in stock but Tredz have a sale on the Specialized Allez at the minute. Wayy under your budget but the rest of the money can be spent on a flash gps etc 😛

Don’t get a 2k bike for winter use!

Get something cheap secondhand, plenty of decent bikes for £400. This will let you see if you like it, and more importantly help you work out size etc. Trying to buy a 2k road bike based on MTB experience could lead to costly mistakes. You can then either buy a good road bike with much better knowledge and keep the cheap bike for winter, or flog the cheap bike and lose hardly any money.

Oh, and the answer is always carbon!

I’d say if you want to ride a road bike through the winter, get a ‘winter’ road bike. I find that riding my road bike through the winter leads to nearly as much cleaning and fettling as riding off road. Lots of salt, grit and grime around that you don’t want sitting for long on carbon and posh drivetrain bits.

Mudguards ❗

As above spend £1k or less, save the bling for a summer bike.

Not sure I get all the winter bike/summer bike thinking. I’ve just got a reasonably fancy carbon road bike and I’ll use it all the year round. It gets mucky in the current weather, but I just clean it. 10 minutes is all it takes. At a push, I may consider a set of cheap wheels for the winter and good ones for the summer, but I’ll decide whether that’s necessary when I find out how long the current wheels last.

Seriously, £500 on a “winter” bike? £500 would keep your “summer” bike serviced well enough for a few years for you not to have to worry about the gunk picked up during the crappy weather.

thanks guys, good info & I’m already learning stuff :-). Whilst I’m referring to it as a “winter” bike, I’m also likely to use it over the summer for training rides instead of the turbo when I can. I actually use a ~13 yr old Giant TCR clunker on the turbo trainer, but it’s a terrible fit for me (something I can get away with on the tt, not out on the road).

I’ve recently gone through this myself. I decided to go for a Ti frame because I thought it would be more resilient than carbon for an all year bike. I bought 105 because it is just as good as Ultegra, a little weightier, but cheaper to replace. All my gear was used or stripped from other bikes, but came in at about half your budget all in. I’d be inclined to put out a wanted ad for a frame and see what happens. Worked very well for me.

http://www.kinesisbikes.co.uk/product.php?id=39

this is my winter bike with ultegra group, is actually quite light and you could simply whip mudguards off once weather gets better

use mine for commuting / winter rides.

Have a race bike also but find I am always on this for most of year.

My mate raced crits on his when his other bike was damaged in an accident

You will find lots of these on club runs in winter

Sorry, I know they’re the current ‘niche-du-jour’ but I still feel I should suggest a wee singlespeed CX bike for winter duties, I’ve just come back from a two hour spin fest in the mud, wheels going sideways round every corner, my heart jumping up my throat and my lungs burning.

Not only was it at least as much fun as the MTB at this time of year, careful route choice means you can sit at a really high cadence pretty much constantly, which has to be good training.

My genesis day cross cost me £350 although they retail at £500, run the stock drivetrain into the ground, stick something more durable on and enjoy! 8)

Don’t dismiss aluminium frames – many are as good and in some cases better than carbon.

Might be worth your while going round a few bike shops as there appears to be some bargains to be had as shops are still trying to get rid of 2010 models – saw a couple of Specialized carbon bikes (Tarmacs and Roubaix) at between £500 and £1000 discount in one of their Concept stores.

don’t spend £2k on your first road bike, they may all look the same to you right now, but there are important differences between them.

you may decide you really need to use mud guards, but you’ve bought a bike that doesn’t really have room.

you may buy a bike that’s too stiff, too compliant, too racey, not racey enough, you really don’t like the graphics, etc. etc.

get a cheap one, and ride the hell out of it until you get a better idea of what you want.

there is a difference between alu/steel/carbon/ti – but until you know what you want no-one can say which is best.

at the cheap end, you’ll be looking at an aluminium frame and carbon forks – this is a very good combination.

personally, i think modern road bikes seem to have been designed by the same graphic designers who work for ‘max-power’ – and that the main driving force behind the adoption of carbon frames is that it allows for increasingly large down-tubes to accommodate the manufactures name in increasingly large font.

and now i’m ranting.