Hi, set myself the challenge of training for a triathlon this year and am looking to buy my first road bike. Does anyone here embrace the darkside, and if so could you offer a bit of advice as I am farking clueless.
Budget of £400 give or take and will probably buy 2nd hand to make the cash go further. Can I expect a decent enough spec bike for that kind of money and what should I be looking out for / avoiding?
Cheers me dears,
Joe
2nd hand? 105 groupset. Possibly with Ultegra rear mech. carbon fork and seat post for sure. Probably looking at something weighing around 19lb, possibly a bit more. Think good but not red hot. Durable and reliable rather than speedy quick. Deore/LX equivalent standard.
Cheers barca, are there any issues buying 2nd hand with a roadie? Obviously a mtb takes some stick, but is it mainly drivetrain with a road bike?
Best to stick with shimano and ignore italian stuff? Plus whats the hierachy in terms of groupsets?
Ta
Buy "The Comic", and have a look at the classifieds...
There are loads of deals to be had..
Having said that, there are some blinding deals in the sales at the minute...
Heirachy?
Sora
Tiagra
105
Ultergra
Ultergra SL
Dura-Ace..
well, thats shimano...
Sram have
Rival
Force
Red.
I dunny know the campag ones.. sorry..
I got a nice specced alloy carbon bike with campag veloce for £300, so it can be done easily. Look on the bay and classifed. Look at a Ribble, Monoc, trek or specialized.
Well last year I got a very low mileage (knobbly bits still on tyres etc) one of these
[url= http://www.devercycles.co.uk/dever-a-bike-2006.asp?pid=XBGNTSCR00206 ]Giant SCR 2.0[/url]
form the classifieds for £200, new would have been RRP550, maybe £470 in a sale. So I'd say classifieds, but at the very least go to a bike shop and try a few for size, it's a lot more critical than an MTB as you don't shift around so much as you ride. Groupsets in Shimano go Sora-Tiagra-105-Ultegra-DuraAce. 9 speed Tiagra is very good these days but anything above is 10sp and mostly interchangeable, but with road STIs being stupidly expensive, you want a bike ready to go 10sp rather than upgrade later. At just over your budget, last year when I was buying mine, the STW orthodoxy seemed to favour the Giant SCR series, Trek 1.?, Spesh Allez, a good deal Ribble were doing at the time, and a bit higher up the scale a Planet-X. So any of those should be in your sort of price range for a 07 or 08 model without too many miles. If you're planning for all year round, make sure you have mudguard mounts and clearance, many road bikes don't.
Joe YGM 😉
Some would argue make sure you don't have mudguard mounts. They're not viewed on like reflectors on wheels but not to be seen at races. You don't really need them there are after market products to get round wet weather and close clearance.
How tall are you and where do you live? Quite a few Bianchis on eBay including this with easily removable 3/4 mudguards.
[url= http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Bianchi-Via-Nirone-Racing-Bike_W0QQitemZ300294713053QQcmdZViewItemQQptZUK_Bikes_GL?hash=item300294713053&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14&_trkparms=66%3A2|65%3A1|39%3A1|240%3A1318 ]Bianchi Via Nirone[/url]
Not mine just did quick search and that came up.
Don't worry about number of gears and upgrading later. At this level you'll upgrade the whole bike if necessary anyway.
Thanks for the advice guys - much to ponder. I did wonder about sizing, I guess a trip to halfords would do it. Is there any stw classifieds equivalent for roadies?
Cheers pulfaces, I'm a midges c*ck under 6ft and live in manchester, I'll have a good ebay session at the weekend. Yeah, I might veto mudguards as I like getting dirty anyway.
Joe, I have a 56cm Derosa/ 51cm sloping Ribble/ 54cm CX bike you can try for size if you want??
-I'm just outside Manchester..
Oh, and i'm about the same height as you..
Cheers teeto that could be really useful and I may well take you up on it, perhaps I could have a ride out to you and check them out when you are free
No dramas at all Bru..
drop me an Email..
Addy in profile.
can obviously be completely random, but I bought my first roadie last year from an ad on gumtree - under 400 for a handmade german alu frame with carbon fork, full ultegra and mavic kryrium equipe wheels. had no idea at the time what a bargain it was!
advice - as above. Plus, using the term 'darkside' makes you sound like a small child, or Hora. 😉
Gonna have a medium Planet X Superlight Alu frame and Deda carbon forks available for sale soon if you fancy building something up yourself?
Maybe a touch too small for you though - http://www.planet-x-warehouse.co.uk/?page_id=1052
Thanks for the offer grumm but yeah I think it would be a touch small, plus I know only too well that if I built one myself my budget would rapidly spiral out of control!
AndyP - I'm not yet up on all the acceptable terminology so please excuse!
anyone got a view on a 2006 Trek 1000 sl? The seller is looking for £250
Its not bad... It has an 8 speed block and fairly basic components IIRC, but you won't lose any sleep if you spend £250 and don't like it...
Too small! I need to learn to be less impulsive!
Should get something very decent s/h for a budget of £400. With that sort of money s/h is definitely the way to go if you have half a clue. Road bikes don't tend to get worn out in the same way mountain bikes do, so you shouldn't even need to be replacing lots of bits. As recommended above, look in [url= http://www.magazineclassifieds.co.uk/search/cyclingweekly/ ]CW classifieds[/url] - don't jump on the first thing you're offered on here, as there is plenty of choice at that sort of price. Number one rule: buy something which fits.
joe, keep your eyes peeled, you will be sure to find something that fits your bill. You could set up a favourite search on ebay and restict it to 25 miles - that way you know every ad is something you can consider going to look at.
There's also [url= http://www.bikeradar.com/road/forum/viewforum.php?f=40026 ]bikeradar's classifieds[/url] to peruse. You'll definitely save quite a bit of money secondhand, new prices have gone up noticeably since 12 months ago. I'd suggest a sound frame and smooth running wheels are the most important bits to start with. Every brand has different sizing so a 56cm Trek won't be the same on a Giant (the latter has sloping aka 'compact' frame geometry). Trek 1000, Giant SCR 3 and Allez will be similarly specced bikes for the money - double or triple Sora 8-speed STIs. Double chainset is OK unless you ride steep hills. Tiagra is 9-speed and may cost a little more.