Merlin Felt F95 deal – what do you think?

Value for money etcMerlin deal

As a first bike? That'd be superb.

i would be happy with that for that price

Cant go far wrong if it fits and your comfortable on it. I bought a beginner road bike to train on and i do some daft mileage on it. Its always fun to mix it with people on multi thousand pound bikes on your cheap beginners bike wearing mtb helmet and shoes still covered in mud 🙂

What's your budget?

Looks good, carbon forks!! only 8 speed though 😉

Good value – only query really is that the Sora specced is 8 speed, current Sora and Tiagra are 9 speed, and everything else from Shimanois 10 speed so you may find upgrading and/or parts replacement difficult and/or expensive.

This is above my budget really – was looking 2nd hand but ebay prices are steep probably the TDF effect.

Go Outdoors would do me the 2010 Raleigh Airlite 300 for £475 with full Tiagra.

I have a Planet X SL pro with SRAM red being delivered today hoping it will be a good bike to get into road riding with. I have not ridden a road bike since I was about 16. Really looking forward to it. My goal is to get a few 100milers under my belt by the end of the summer.

I might be tempted to wear lycra bib shorts but draw the line at shaving my legs 🙂

Bazzer

Looks OK for the price but as others have said the 8-speed bit would be a red flag for me.

Tiagra is the minimum you will be happy with once you start riding rather than shopping – can you get a test ride on the Raleigh?

The Airlite frames are bobbins, don't get the Raleigh.

The 2300 kit on the Felt is alright stuff- it's had a revamp this year and is good stuff now, even if it is 8 speed. You won't get 9 speed on a decent frame on that price.

Definitely one to see if you like it then trade in if you do, rather than upgrade based on 8 speed stuff.

I would try to get better STI's as there really is a big difference between Sora and Tiagra (I had both). An the one on the Felt is 8sp so not the current Sora model. Comparing 9sp Tiagra to my current 9sp Ultegra the difference is not that big. So try to get at least Tiagra on Your bike. For that price second hand if You look a bit longer (try gumtree as well) You will at least get full 105 or even some Ultegra on the bike.

What size would You be looking for?

On Edinburgh Gumtree there is a brand new Focus on 10sp 105 for £500 CLICKY

That would be a very very good first road bike that won't need upgrading anything in the near future.

The stuff on the Felt is current, it's just the lower tier 2300 "sora" kit, not the 9 speed stuff.

If it's the new Sora at 8 speed it is still not bad. I had the older 8sp Sora and it worked fine on my first road bike. However if I was able to stretch my budget and get a Tiagra equipped bike quicker I would, as there is a big difference IMHO.

Your budget is a bit problematic. £400-470 will not get You a well equipped road bike brand new and is just a bit too low for a very nice second hand bike. When I was looking for a bike the Tiagra/105 (9sp) equipped ones were going for £300-400 than nothing and Ultegra for over £500.

Keep on looking for a good second hand bike and if the one from Edinburgh would fit You than drop me a line and I would probably be able to help (I'm not the seller).

Good thing about road bikes is they don't loose as much in value. I sold my old road bike for more than I actually bought it a year ago (just a good clean, new cables, tape etc).