[Closed] Inspire me - show me your road bikes!

With a budget between 400-750 you should try to get a second hand bike.

Splash the cash - you'll get a better option for £1,000, and it won't even cost you that net of tax!

Focus Cayo -

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Kona Sutra -

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Any excuse to show off the Red Baron

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maybe not the best example of shiny new bike newish, but i like it, was build from various parts that were lying around, borrowed a mates Spesh Allez, twas a nice ride, but as they say "Steel is real"

'Dale R500
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Merlin loveliness, considering a Campagnolo Record groupset, oh then i'll need new wheels.....

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Old skool, spent a small fortune on this at the age of 17 back in '88, sadly now sold, but still love looking at the pictures of it:

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Excellent - keep em coming. As for budget, I'm trying to convince myself that I should be able to get something decent for £750, but the £1,000 limit is there to be used 😆 .

I'm not convinced about carbon though 🙁

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S-Works gorgeousness. Old now (2003) but still a good'un, had thousands of miles out of that. It's in bits at the moment in my kitchen, it'll be getting new tyres, chain, cables, bar tape and brake pads next week then it'll be all ready for spring.

Another bitsa here....

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Bought for £75 on the classifieds, then powdercoated the frame and nicked all the nice bits off the roadie I built for Mrs Rusty (she rode it once :roll:) but it would have scrubbed up nice with all the old bits on it.

Got a load of stick for turning to the darkside last week, but had a great time buzzing along on the road, you can cover twice the distance and it becomes quite hypnotic when you find your *ahem* rhythm 😉

if your uprading/chaging to campag i'd be interested in the SL groupset.

Late last year i was determined to do a 120mile out and back ot the south coast, in the end i ended up getting lost somewhere i the south downs and spent a very enjoyable 7 hours i the saddle with just myself for company. Heres the obligatory pic of the bike on the beach, on the river just south of chichester, light was getting low by this point so didt dare go much further as i didnt have the lights and was catching the train back.

Spec: Cannondale R500 2003?, almost standard spec apart from some much needed upgrades to the wheels (R550) with the spokes half a turn tighter than the factory for some extra stiffness, tires (conti GP4000, 23c) and bar tape (PRO). A very comfortable mile muncher for everything from 15 mile all out efforts on the 15 mile commute loop to all day 150+ mile efforts.

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if your not convinced by carbon go cannondale, theyr very steel like i their feel even if theyr not the lightest frames out there.

Spend £800-£900 and you'll get a good bike. Spend the rest on wheels as its the best place to upgrade. And don't bank on upgrading bits as the wear out, on a road bike theu just dont! You'll end up upgrading the drivetrain just because its missing a couple of shifts, on the mtb i'd give it another 6 months!

Kiron scandium for wiggle gets good reviews in mags, but my god is it ugly in the pics!

Geared silly money bike
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Fixed cheapo
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Much though I love steel, back the Cannondale recomendations, had a CAAD 2 for many years and it still going strong as Clwydrider jnrs roadbike.

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I'm considring one of these for when the scheme comes in at work

£1000

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[img] [/img]I've got one of these, out of your price range, but with interest free credit...............

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...and one of these, old but lovely........

is there a mass produced steel road bike?

i know theres the kaffenback, but is there anything at a more respectable weight (sub 3lb?) and with proper brake mounts not canti's?

spose i cold look at up-market fixie frames and get a builder to braze on a differet dropout.

ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh just found this 🙂

who's the importer for raleigh?

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LBS sell giants, the new defy rabge look spot on.

I'm considring one of these for when the scheme comes in at work

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Record apart from the Crank (really couldn't justify another £100 to save 40g!) and <15lbs, but rather over budget at £2k to build. Though of course now I want to upgrade to 11-speed 🙄

@crazy-legs Didn't that bike win the Le Tour?

I wanted that frame so badly! on offer from Evans and I lost out leaving it too late!

Seeing your bike makes me smile-aluminum but stiff and light

This is my commuter Trek 1200 double ring:

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Trek 1400 winter trainer:
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I should have said - both of mine were bought on the "Bike to Work" scheme.

not particularly inspiring, but I did buy it to go to work on:
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and yes, I do know the grass & hedge needed cutting. That was last year, you know, the one where summer never arrived. When it didn't go more than 2 days without raining. Hence the grass being overgrown...

Here's what's convinced me to give up mountain biking for this year at least (and the need to sell my bike so I could "furnish" it!)

Ignore seat height, the post was just "popped" into the frame to see what it looked like. It's now complete with bar tape etc (Fizik dual - Mmmm) and the brake calipers have been changed over to some lovely Zero Gravity jobbies. Some "finished" pics when I've stopped drooling over it 😳

So here it is, a Parlee Z3, full Campag Record (10 speed) groupset, Schmolke bars, Reynolds Ouzo Pro forks, Syntace post, Tune stem, Zero Gravity calipers, Toupe seat, Look Keo carbon pedals, Planet X pro carbon 50's (saving for some Lightweights 8))

Mmmmmmmm 8) 8) 8)

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This is my all year round workhorse

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And my summer toy

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Lardlover that is lovely, very weight weenie.

Campag Record (10 speed)

Oooooh .... that Parlee is ****ing gorgeous ... Z3 is reasonably priced as well is it not ... in the sense that £2k for a frame could ever be considered reasonably priced!

Oooooh .... that Parlee is ****ing gorgeous

Why on earth not 11 given the rest of the kit on that bike?

Price! 😳

Thanks for the compliments, I absolutely love this bike. I've only been out the once on it (work etc), and trying to fettle the Zero G's. I'm on nights at the moment, but I'm off for 2 weeks as of Monday 😯 😉

Oh, the frame was an Ebay buy, so I didn't pay anywhere near £2K for it.

I had originally, when I got pissed off with mountain biking, planned to buy a Planet X frame and wheels and transfer all the stuff off my Bianchi road bike. But, "someone" pointed me in the direction of the Parlee on Ebay. I've only ever seen one in the flesh before (that was a Z1 though 8)). That's when I sold my mountain bike, and what initially was supposed to be a £1K spend on frame and wheels has turned into a £2.5K spend. Most of the stuff is off Ebay (frame/forks/headset/Ergo shifter and rear mech), new stuff is wheels/chainset and front mech/ bar tape and cables. Bars and stem were 2nd hand, chain and tyres off old road bike.

A trek 1.2 is a good budget bike - nice wheels, though it does have sora shifters, which frankly aren;t all that bad really.

around the £550 mark I believe.

Price!

Ok then, I ran out of money.

Dunno if you can get Azzurris in the UK, but this was a bargain in oz and fast as ****.

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im afraid to say but im quite liking the look of thease road things 🙄

Got mine just before Christmas. Love it and use it for commuting every day. Need to get out more at the weekend on it. Like the fact that it's steel and has minimal graphics. Didn't like the look of most I saw due to the crazy colours and enormous logos.

My DeRosa..

Due for a few upgrades this summer..

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Not particulary inspiring, but with a few purchases from the classifieds, put it together for around £600-700. Got me through several sportives over here, and la lapebie and one in the dolomites, so keeps me happy.

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Just stripped this down to put the bits on a Kaffenback. Nice bike though - very light and fast, just too racy for my commute really.
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Wilier Izoard. Like all my bikes this was built up using parts bought from Ebay and the classifieds, including the frame.

Was full Dura Ace, but switched to a compact crank for European sportives last year and haven't got round to switching back to a 39/53 set-up yet.

Done two Tour of Flanders and two Liege-Bastogne-Liege sportives in Belgium, plus a few sportive rides here in Norn Irn. The bike is way faster than I am!

Here's a couple of Cervelo's - mine is the soloist on the left.

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Those Wilier bikes are lovely.