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Trying to get as many opinions as possible so I feel more reassured in what I eventually choose! 😀
Anyway I want a road bike to use in places where my current MTB feels overkill and slow, so that's all the country roads round here, and maybe some commuting if I feel like getting up an hour earlier than usual..
The area I'm in isn't that hilly or anything (east midlands) but when I ride the mtb on the road I tend to use the higher gears a fair bit to stop me from spinning out as the speed picks up, especially on slightly downhill bits. So from that perspective gears are probably a good idea. However I don't really use the easier gears, as all the hills here can be climbed in a hard gear, choosing to power up them rather than sit and spin.
My main desire to go SS is basically cost and simplicity. My budget is £350 maximum which doesn't seem like it'll get me much in the way of a decent build even second hand. I hate working on gears and when they skip or don't shift properly it's a pain in the arse.
Found a Specialized Langster for around £225 posted which is very tempting, I'm just wondering whether I'll regret not buying something with gears..
Get one with gears. The ratios on a road bike are much higher than an MTB so you are unlikely to spin out on the easier bits quite so much. Besides, with gears you'll find it easier to do longer rides.
Although some people on here hate the place Halfords do some cheap road bikes. Nothing flash but they'll do the job for what you are wanting to pay.
Second hand. There are a few bikes out there that may be reasonable in your price range. Have a look at Carrera or the edinburgh bike shop offerings.
My first road bike was a second hand trek 1000. Saw me through 3 years of riding and a couple of sportives for £350, it's now my winter bike.
Personally on the road I'd want gears. It's about going fast, and you need gears to do it properly. Anything with Sora or above is perfectly serviceable. Things work better and last longer on the road as there is much less stress on them.
If you are just going to ride as you suggest then maybe a cross bike is better, bit more option to explore rough paths.
What about a SS road bike that could later be made into an Alfine one? Then you could get the bike now cheaper, then save up for those Versa shifters and the new back wheel?
I disagree, road riding is not all about going fast. I really enjoy riding my SS road bike and it is never going to be the quickest machine out there. It helps me concentrate on spinning proper circles when on the flat and makes going uphill a bit of a challenge. On your budget I would be looking to go SS.
what are you using it for?
hopefully you wouldn't lose much on resale if you didn't like a ss, you might get frustrated on it though, impossible to say.
I have had a relatively cheap Trek road bike for 10 years now. I don't think I have needed to index the gears or replace the cables once, but I am a bit of a fair weather roadie. If your riding is like mine the argument about easier maintenance of single speeds is irrelevant (I also live in the Peak District and my knees and lungs would kill me for riding a SS on the roads).
A road bike wears its gears out far less than mountain bikes and rarely need faffing with. If you want to save cost, avoid STIs, but I'd still have gears if I was you. You will probably be changing speed far more on the road. Just my opinion and I really don't get SS at all.
my first road bike was a ss, loved it! got a geared one now mind
I disagree, road riding is not all about going fast. I really enjoy riding my SS road bike and it is never going to be the quickest machine out there. It helps me concentrate on spinning proper circles when on the flat and makes going uphill a bit of a challenge. On your budget I would be looking to go SS.
Yer i have one to, use it to do woking to central london - quickest so far inc all stops for red lights etc 1hr 27mins... bigger gears would help on the long flat bits, but as you say lets you get your pedalling right and also nothing to go wrong...
BUT a gear bike might be more flexible - also remember lots of SS bikes do not have the right spacing for an alfine, so you would limited to sturmey and sram 3 and 5 speeds.
Halfords do a bargain SS Hybrid for £250
For £350 you'll get a fair decent 2nd hand road bike with gears
what are you using it for?
The roads round Northamptonshire which are pretty flat with a few short sharp climbs and some long slight uphill bits. The surfaces are a bit rough round here but I never noticed it being terribly uncomfortable on my old alu HT with thick post..
Halfords seem to have [url= http://www.halfords.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/product_storeId_10001_catalogId_10151_productId_272635_langId_-1_categoryId_165710#dtab ]this[/url] Carrera Virtuoso at £350 at the minute, any good or would I be better off buying something used? There's a Trek 1.2 on ebay for the same price but Manchester's a bit far to travel to pick up 🙁
Id go 2nd hand, put a wanted ad in the classifieds and check on the bike radar forum for something.
What size do you need?
If you can up your budget a little, this looks pretty good to me;
[url] http://www.merlincycles.co.uk/Bike+Shop/Bikes/Road+Bikes/Felt+Bikes/Felt+F95+Road+Bike_FELT-F95.htm [/url]
Yep ads have been placed on Bike Radar and on here, nothing suitable has come up yet apart from the aforementioned Langster, which is at a very tempting price even though it might not be exactly what I want/need..
I need a 54cm frame I think. I'm 5'9" with 29" inside leg.
Is [url= http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=280541047922&ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT ]this[/url] any good if the price stays low - how much should one pay for such a bike?
Get a geared bike, and if you want to t**t about with single speed, just don't change gears. The beauty of this approach is that you'll have 20 different ratios to choose from should the first one be inappropriate. Which it will... 95% of the time.
With a geared singlespeed bike, you can change your singlespeed while you're actually riding, so you can choose a lower gear to climb hills, or vice versa, without having to swap sprockets or chainrings in the workshop. With a bit of practice, you'll be changing ratios several times a ride!
Seriously, riding a roadbike is more about pedalling rythm. Gears allow you to pedal at a comfortable cadence which makes you quicker, more efficient and you'll enjoy it more. And before any niche-knobs say "oooh, I'm leave professional cyclists to eat my dust on my luddite machine", have you ever seen a single speed used on Le Tour? No.
So to summarise, stop being an attention seeker, grow up and buy a bike with gears.
;o)
😆 Fair enough!
I've also been looking at hybrid bikes like the [url= http://www.halfords.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/product_storeId_10001_catalogId_10151_productId_273345_langId_-1_categoryId_165534#dtab ]Carrera Gryphon[/url] but I dunno if I want one. May provide a more comfortable position though..
Don't be daft!
Any gear that gets you up the hills will be far too low for the flats, I reckon.
I got an SS as my first road bike and found it pretty good never got stuck getting up a hill. However my new geared road bike arrived today.
If interested a medium SS Charge plug racer with nearly new 105 brakes and carbon bars will be up for sale soon
Pics on this thread
http://www.singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/wtd-fixie-pompino-charge-etc
at your height I'd look at 52-54's, I'm 6ft with a long torso and ride a 56, best bet is to sit on a few and research bike fit a bit, its not rocket science. Things like the distance from your elbow to your knee when on the drops, and you should have the front hub obscured by the top of the bars, stuff like that is good for 95% of the time.
I bought a cannondale r500 for £300 years ago, they still sell for £300-£350 on ebay, so you cant really lose money.
Just budget for lighter wheels and tyres, even on crap roads I rarely have problems with lightweight wheels, conti gp4000 tyres and 50g conti supersonic innertubes. Have you seen the 1 day classics on the pave in northern france? They do those on road bikes, and there's no road in this country that bad!
Look at the low end stuff fromt he big names:
Trek 1000/1200 (reputedly harsh)
Cannondale R500/R600 (one of the best frames ever according to cycling weekly)
Specialized Alez (no idea, but see a lot of them)
Go for soemthing 2004 (oversized tubing became common arround then) or newer, as you'll get 9 speed and apart from gears nothings really changed since then.
Singlespeed roadies are a challange on the ups and mind numbingly boring on the flats (never tried a fixie though).
Riding a fixed gear on the road is entertaining enough, but as others have said, drive-train wear and gear adjustment just aren't a big thing, even on a fairly vigorously used road bike. Sounds like trying to get something reasonable for the budget with gears is the way to go unless you actually want a singlespeed for its singlespeediness. 🙂
Alright sounds good.. geared it is then I suppose! Any thoughts on the Spesh Allez I posted above? Looks to be about a 2006 or 7 model, how much should the max bid be?
This is took from my Garmin, 41 mile road ride.
[img] http://www.fetcheveryone.com/routes-chart-elevation.php?id=258098 [/img]
Northamptonshire has lots of little sharp ups and downs, not exactly great altitude 180 meters down to about 60 meters but still this ride had 1273 meters of climbing in it. But i'm not very fit 🙁
The thing with hills and SS on the road is not so much getting up them but rather going down them, either coasting or spinning at 200 rpm- both annoying. So I'd say go for gears.
GPS climbing/decening id wildly inaccurate, try mapmyride.com for a more accurate figure, its probably about 1/3 of that! The GPs is probably accurate +/-20m and it probably alternates by a couple of meters every reading, thus its adding together thousands of innacurate readings, you could sit perfectly sill and the GPS would still think you climbed everest given a couple of days.
Any thoughts on [url= http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=110568803847&ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT ]this[/url]? Looks like it might go for quite cheap and has the Sora gears someone mentioned above. I really don't want to spend loads of money on a road bike in case I hate the position, since I never like feeling stretched out on mountain bikes.
at your height I'd look at 52-54's, I'm 6ft with a long torso and ride a 56
It's definitely best to try a few sizes as I'm 5'9" and the last time I bought a road bike I ended up getting a 56 as the 54 felt a tad too short.
_tom_ - MemberAny thoughts on this?
Looks fine for a first bike, except the description lists Shimano running gear and the bike in the photo looks to be running Campagnolo. I might be wrong though. It also says Campagnolo on the top tube, so I don't know.
Says it would suit a rider up to 5'7" and you say you're 5'9".
I'd leave it.
Looks. Too small but otherwise decent starter if at the right price.
hmm, can the length not be fine tuned with a slightly longer stem then? As I said though I don't like a super stretched out feel - my mtb is 16" frame with a 22" top tube and 50mm stem and feels nice for anything but steep climbs. Loads of seatpost showing though.
Road bikes are more sensitive for sizing, as you've not experience on any you should try one for size before buying IMO.
Riding a road bike is v different as you are not moving around the bike like you do on a MTB, and you are pedalling more, therefore fit is more critical.
It's pretty important to get the right size of road bike as you're in the same sort of position for longer than on an MTB- there's less body english so it's a bit more crucial to get the right fit. I'm 5'10" and ride a 57cm because that's what fits me best. Also, one company's 54 is another's 52. Sit on anything before you buy it.
For £350 second hand you should be looking for a carbon fork, sora/tiagra gears and an alloy frame. Things like Trek 1000s/1.2s, Spesh Allez or Giant OCR/Defys.
New, for that money Carrera will be your best bet.
This is actually a better buy than the Virtuoso-
Or if you can stretch to £425 this has 20% off the price shown-
Problem is I can't afford new prices especially in the local shops and would feel a bit of a knob going in to have a test ride then buying a used one off ebay.
Will probably give the raleigh a miss then and keep looking. Still kind of tempted by that Langster, haha
Most people selling 2nd hand bikes should be willing for you to have a sit and spin on it before you decide.