Totally not up on the componentry and whats good brand wise for road bikes but I’m considering getting one. Wanna spend about 1k and must be able to get it on 0% finance. Has anybody got any suggestions or purchased similarly lately?

my mate got herself a ribble just last week. loves it.

Guess it depends what you want to do…

I bought an Orbea 2nd hand from Ebay for just £300 and it is a great wee bike. It is a womens specific, has a triple chain ring and i love it. (EDIT – An Asphalt – just looked and they are no longer produced – an Aqua looks like the replacement and is just under the £1000)

I was into mtbing first, and like you didn’t really ‘get’ the order of road components – but as I looked into it I decided that it didn’t really matter so much on a road bike, and that getting a good fit was far more important. I live in Scotland and wanted a triple chain ring as I much prefer spinning up hills to pushing up them. The Orbea was a lucky find on ebay.

After riding the Orbea for a while I found myself getting more into touring and planned to ride Lejog. At that point I went to a local (to my parents) bike shop to buy a touring / audax bike. They were superb and fitted every aspect of the bike to me (bar width, stem length, crank length) and I bought a brand new perfectly fitting Ti audax bike for £1500. Again it was based on getting the fit right rather than the componentry. I would seriously recommend them (if you are near Yorkshire – Spa cycles in Harrogate) but that would be for touring rather than racing…

Sorry – lots of waffle, but basically – what kind of road riding are you looking at? Carbon forks always good if you can get them (IMO), triple chain ring if you are thinking of heading up this way, apart from that speak to a bike shop to get an idea of sizing (I understand Ribble are good at this – they take a lot of measurements over the phone and tweak the bike to fit you) and then try some.

I run Sram apex on the touring bike and Shimano tiagra on the road bike. Both work slightly differently to each other, but both are fine. Apex has a larger granny – which is great if your planning to carry any weight – and means that I am fine with a double chain ring on that bike.

Mostly just pootling from the house or riding like the Bristol to bath cycleway or disused railway lines you get a lot, certainly nothing extreme as at the end of the day I’d rather be off road and the dog can’t come on road rides. The main things I want are lightness otherwise I’ll just take the big bike and longevity of components so stuff isn’t wearing out all the time.

I`d second the comments regarding fit.

As to hierachy of components,road bike groups go Sora,Tiagra,105,Ultegra and Dura-ace.

At the 1k mark yuo’ll most likely be looking at mainly Tiagra or 105 groupsets.

SRAM and Campagnolo tend to feature less on bikes at this level though you may find some with SRAM Apex or Rival.

I’d not worry too much about the groupset though and concentrate on getting a good fit and put the money into the frame and forks. Most will be aluminium with carbon forks,ou may sneak in a carbon frame if you go the Ribble or Planet X route.

Lots of good bikes for this money, I’d start by looking at the reviews on Bike radar.

Cool.

Anything for £1k is going to be light, the feeling of a road bike is amazing after riding MTB’s.

You need to think about tyres though. Road bike tyres typically run from 23 – 27mm wide, most being 23/25mm. On railway lines and cycle paths skinny tyres will feel uncomfy and risk damaging the rim. If I were you I would ask if the bike can take slightly bigger tyres, maybe 28 or even larger. This will depend on the wheel rim and the clearance of the frame and may dictate which bike you go for. Also are you going to ride in the winter? If you think that you might want mud guards, over the thicker tyres you will also need to check the spec of the bike.

If I were you, I would also think about CX bikes with slick tyres. You can also get a CX bike with mechanical discs for that sort of price – heavier but very useful in the muck. I also ride with dogs and am happier with the stopping power of discs and slacker (less twitchy) head angle of the CX bike when they are about (but your may be better behaved than ours!!).

Hope this helps – not sure if I am just making it too complicated!

I won’t be out in winter no as I’ll only ride in daylight and in an evening because after walk and then walking/riding with the dog there’ll be no time before dark and won’t be going through any my muck etc. Only thing the wheels will ever touch is concrete or asphalt etc. If there’s a chance of unevenness like towpaths with thorns I’ll just take other bike and enjoy the tubelessness.

I’ve seen the Specialized amira on leisurelakes for just over 1k. End of day I’ll get out and sit on them and try them first but it’s good to know where to start.

These days you can’t really buy a bad road bike for £1k, it’s mostly about the fit and then it’s if the compromises on the bike fit in with your needs. By that I mean it’s common to have heavy wheels on a carbon £1k bike but if you’re light then you might prefer the ride of an aluminium frame but with better wheels. The other issue is are you considering that you might get hooked on road riding and want to upgrade bits in future, in which case getting the best frame you can to start with is sensible.
If your LBS seems to be wanting to fit you to a bike rather than the other way around then there’s always options like Wiggle with their 30 day tests.