[Closed] Road bike for newbie

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A bike that is the wrong size is very annoying. That's all I know.

Also, disc or rim braked? There seems to be some suggestions that disc brakes on road bikes in hilly areas have problems with heat management if you go too weight weenie.

I used to run a lot and now rarely do. I've switched more to cycling. But not because of joint damage.

Taking the comment about running ruining your joints, I'm not sure I agree. Running is a higher impact activity and requires more strength in supporting muscle and ligament to run with correct form and protect joints. The number of beginner runners who just start with poor overall strength and fitness, run with poor form and end up injured seems to be high.

For road bikes. Don't get obsessed with weight, negligible benefit of a few hundred grams. High end aluminium isn't dead. Be realistic about use case, the really racy geometry bikes are great but can be uncomfortable, especially early days. Look for stuff badged endurance or sportive orientated for a more comfortable position. Get room for mudguards. I would go disc brake now. Consider a gravel bike.

At that price point most bikes are very good. Make sure you get the fit right. Consider tyre width. Personally I’d go for something more endurance than race, but figure out what suits you. Disc brake or not is a personal choice. I wouldn’t be without them.
Plus there will be a big element of what you can actually buy currently.

absolutely don't rule out aluminium, they have a reputation for stiffness that is IMHO unfair, depends entirely on the frame shaping and you can get some nice compliant ones.

I'd agree with the endurance vs racier geo as a first go, they're still far from sit up and beg positions and will be plenty of fun. Aim for something that'll take a decent tyre width too (poss guards if you want to ride through winter too) - 28's seem pretty standard nowadays, maybe even allow for more.

A gravel / adventure bike is not a bad shout (I have one as my winter bike for the extra clearance with mudguards) - you can still road ride on them and a tyre swap or second set of wheels and you can work out if you prefer road, gravel or a bit of both.

Ultimately all things being equal an aero race bike will be faster than an endurance than a gravel; IRL your speed will be more dictated by your legs, so unless you NEED to be the fastest you can be (ie racing) all will serve your purpose.

And get disc brakes. Just do.

I'd also consider putting 10% of your budget aside for clothing; IDK if you MTB as well, but a quality pair of bib shorts, a couple of jerseys (something summer weight for hot, and a Gabba-alike for not - I rate my Galibier at half the price of Castelli), arm and leg warmers and a gilet or packable rain top will cover most riding needs. And shoes, if you MTB you can use normal spds and upset the true purists or budget for a pair of road shoes. You could use flats but flats on a £2K plus bike and no-one will ever talk to you again 😉

- edit - I just went on to see if I had any recommendations and noted stock and lead times for some ideas.... ignore all that above and take up another sport / buy anything you can get hands on!

Isn't not being talked to by fashion obsessed roadies a plus point? Personally I enjoy wearing the least appropriate clothing possible on my flashy carbon road bike just to annoy them. MTB shoes, cheap Lidl gear with awful designs, baggy shorts, 40 year old hand me down Ron Hill tracksters. All good stuff.

Scott Addict 20 Disc.

Go see a good bike fitter before you buy, tell them what bike you want and they will measure you up on a jig and tell you what size to buy. Nothing worse than spending £2.5k on a bike and then finding out you needed a different size.

Just see what you can find in stock - if a 54cm frame would fit you there’s one Cannondale caad 13 disc here:

https://e-venturebikes.co.uk/product/2021-cannondale-700-m-caad13-disc-105-bpl-54/?utm_source=Google%20Shopping&utm_campaign=Shopping%20Feed%20&utm_medium=cpc&utm_term=38797&utm_term=&utm_campaign=Shopping+%3E+Catch+All&utm_source=adwords&utm_medium=ppc&hsa_acc=9221582892&hsa_cam=9429295342&hsa_grp=92479771661&hsa_ad=419630526211&hsa_src=g&hsa_tgt=pla-297359303002&hsa_kw=&hsa_mt=&hsa_net=adwords&hsa_ver=3&gclid=CjwKCAjw7J6EBhBDEiwA5UUM2jdCqnhSzXRuyOHU_Ay10TFmW9cz8-JGha_V7R2AAgm4Y-XSVPddhhoCT5gQAvD_BwE

My list to buy a road bike now would be:

Hydraulic Discs

Mudguard Mounts

Room for at least 28c tyres (I’m on large 25’s but not sure my current frame will go a lot bigger)

Not bothered about alloy or carbon - just go with what’s in stock / best value for money overall.

Boardman are normally worth a look - my last bike was a Boardman Team Carbon and that was pretty good. Was considering the newer disc brake / carbon version back in 2018 but then saw my caad 12 disc on offer for £150 cheaper and I’ve always had a thing for Cannondales.

Thanks for all the advice, I think at the moment I may be going down the route of seeing what's available and going from there! I live near a Trek shop so will go and have a look and chat to see what they say and speak to RaceScene too to see what stock levels are like.

Isn’t not being talked to by fashion obsessed roadies a plus point? Personally I enjoy wearing the least appropriate clothing possible on my flashy carbon road bike just to annoy them. MTB shoes, cheap Lidl gear with awful designs, baggy shorts, 40 year old hand me down Ron Hill tracksters.

You can obviously wear what you want but to wear clothing that is not as good as road cycling clothing (not as comfortable, flaps in the wind, doesn't wick as well etc,.) just to annoy others is a very strange reason but I suppose it makes you happy.

If you have issues running I'd 100% suggest get a fit first - preferably with a physio as opposed to a bike mechanic who's done fitting course.

I was in a similar position to you years back, picked the bike then get fitted on it, it was in the shops interests to make it 'fit' to ensure the sale. Cue years of never feeling 100% right with niggling pains before I sold it and got a bike that properly worked for me.

Interestingly some more years on I've changed bike again as body less happy with bar drop than it once was. Gone from dropping a frame size to 'the right' size and now to running spacers under the stem! In reality an 'endurance' geo from someone like Condor / Giant would be closer but this works fine. Note that one manufacturer's endurance is another race geo - Ribble and Decathlon for example run low and and long frames even when labelling them endurance.

You can obviously wear what you want but to wear clothing that is not as good as road cycling clothing (not as comfortable, flaps in the wind, doesn’t wick as well etc,.) just to annoy others is a very strange reason but I suppose it makes you happy.

Well it wasn't an entirely serious comment. I rarely see anybody where I ride. I also wear the full uniform on a regular basis too, and the benefits aren't always that great. Clothing manufacturers would love you to think you need activity specific clothing for everything you do.

Have a look at Dolan. You can have a rim braked carbon frame with Shimano 105 for around £1200 or the new disc braked Tuono from just over £2000. The Mason Definition looks similar to the Bowman you mentioned. Very high quality aluminium frame, Hunt wheels.

Robolo, in road biking the benefits of correct clothing are huge. Not once in all my years of racing did I ever see one rider wearing baggies or mtb pyjamas. Must be all those thousands of guys just being so style obsessed. Absolutely wear what you want, but to say clothing benefits aren’t that great bizarre.
Back to the OP, the gravel bike suggestion is a good shout, Ribble CGR would be worth a look. But you will compromise the road riding side of things, but that may be compensated for in the different riding that the gravel bike brings. Gearing is where things get a bit more difficult when using 1 bike for all purposes. Others will disagree and say they easily keep up on 21mph rides with 10000ft of climbing, which while being possible is just not optimal, hence why there will always be compromises for using 1 bike....big jumps between gears to get to a 42 tooth sprocket.
I have a Trek Domane, takes 35mm tyres so can do smoother gravel. I’ve done the Ridgeway and SDW on it. SDW did feel beaten up tbh. The road bike as a gravel bike is compromised by the relatively skinny tyres and in my case a 50/34 chain set and 28 cassette becoming very tiring on the SDW.
A friend recently purchased the Bowman Weald, Bowman’s endurance bike. Looks amazing and he’s very happy with it. He also rides very high end carbon frames so knows what a good frame rides like, he says the Bowman is on a par with his Cervelo R5 and Trek Emonda SLR.
I’d recommend the Domane if you’re sure you’ll be on roads for the vast majority of rides. It’s a mile munching machine,super comfortable bike, but it is relatively heavy for a modern carbon bike (9kgs). Tyre size wise, as a minimum I’d want 32’s. My summer bike has 27’s, but the winter bike has 32’s on it for road riding.

I just spotted the new SLR 9.4 DISC CARBON 2021 £2700 with SRAM Rival eTap AXS Groupset.

in road biking the benefits of correct clothing are huge. Not once in all my years of racing did I ever see one rider wearing baggies or mtb pyjamas.

Are they really though? All of my outdoor equipment is slim fit as I don't really like excess fabric whatever I am doing. A good pair of padded bib shorts is great. Jerseys, yeah whatever, most decent base layers are perfectly fine.

Wind drag, well might be worth a couple of Kph, whether that is important to you largely depends on your style of riding. If not racing, chasing KoMs or keeping up with a chain gang, so what.

I just spotted the new SLR 9.4 DISC CARBON 2021 £2700 with SRAM Rival eTap AXS Groupset.

Oh I like that! Carbon frame, 28mm tyres, hidden mudguard mounts, hydraulic discs, Electronic shifting. Tick tick tick tick tick 😎

Best bet is go to a good shop, get fitted up and tell them what you want.

Clothing manufacturers would love you to think you need activity specific clothing for everything you do.

For me the Gabba (or as above a version of it eg: Galibier) is the game changer for road riding. They rate it for 5-15 deg or so, which is pretty much 3.5 seasons for me..... the bit it doesn't do is high summer (even then my sunday rides start at 0730 and it's later on that it gets a bit warm - where a summer top and then a gilet to start is my choice) but it's perfect for the rest. And when it is chilly, the windproofing when you're buzzing along or downhill and windchill is a factor is brilliant.

I don't use it for MTB'ing, where windchill is less of a factor, speeds are slower, and you tend (in this area at least) to be much more up and down so are never that far from warming up again.....

Some Sheffield shops to consider would be Langsett Cycles (they sell Scott, which was
mentioned above) and JE James (plus their Giant concept store).

I associate RaceScene with exotic Italian bikes, but I’ve never been in.

For a bike fit, consider Fit4-Physio.

in road biking the benefits of correct clothing are huge. Not once in all my years of racing did I ever see one rider wearing baggies or mtb pyjamas.

in road racing there are clearly benefits to tight fitting clothing. but for road riding, if getting somewhere as quickly as you possibly can isn't a priority, then the benefits quickly reduce. I always where baggy shorts over a padded liner and a loose fitting top. I would probably be quicker in something skin tight, but I'd also be quicker if my bike wasn't steel, didn't have a rack and guards and I actually tried to go fast.

It is not about being quicker. Baggy shorts over padded shorts or liner are superfluous, they are adding nothing and just making everything a bit less comfortable. Same as a loose top, given the choice between a loose and tighter fitting why would you ever choose loose when it is functionally not as good. Oh yes, to annoy those roadies. They must be livid.
When riding for hours/hundreds of miles comfort of clothing is a priority.

Anyway, I am sure the OP didn't want a discussion about clothing choices...

I am a sceptic when it comes to bike fits. Go to 5 different fitters and I bet you'll get 5 different fittings.A good honest bike shop should be able to advise.
I think hardly any road cyclist hasn't experimented with stem length,bar width,seat position,etc.

Some decent information to think about, thanks.

I think I want to build up a Bowman frame, however they're not answering the phone or emails at the moment, I've also been looking at parts and they seem few and far between. Who thought it would be this hard to spend money on bikes 🙂

I really like the look of the Bowman Place 3 in that funky tangerine colour they do, I've got a super aero carbon full on race bike now and it's awesome, but I'm continually drawn to the Palace framesets.

Best bet it pick a brand you can actually go and sit on, they all vary in sizing a little and consider what you want; be it a race bike with race type geo or a more relaxed endurance type bike, either way now-a-days they all tend to come with decent tyre clearance, even more so with disc equipped bikes. My current bike takes 28mm tyres easily and I recon a 30 would fit in there if you wanted to totally balls up the aerodynamics.

Definitely go for 2x and I'd personally say a 52/36 front and 11-30 out back will suffice for pretty much everything you're ever going to come across on the road in the UK and probably most of Europe given that you sound like you have a decent level of fitness derived from the running.

If you are fairly normal height and fairly normal proportions a bike fit might be overkill, you just need some good advise on sizing and being able to sit on bike. You need to think do you want a road race bike or an endurance/softer ride like a Giant Defy or similar. Disc brakes are good but make sure hydro, cable are a pain in the arse, compact chainset 50:34. My road bike has a 53:39 not sure I'd get up the hills in the Peak

Just on the above point 36/52 chainsets are semi compact. With an 11/28 cassette or even an 11/30 cassette that a beast up steep hills.

My bike came with 11/28 and 36/52 which is fine in flat areas, but out around Bath there are some big hills so I swapped my chainrings for 34/50 compact ones and an 11/32 cassette. That’s gets me up everything round here just about - the worst hills so far is called Lansdown Lane and goes from Weston on the edge of Bath to the top of Lansdown Hill. I’m not sure I’d get up it with a 36 front / 28 or 30 rear.

At the heaviest I've been since having my Cube Attain GTC and quite possibly the least fit, I'm appreciating more than ever having the compact 34/50 chainset and the 11-34 cassette for inclines.

In the tradition of 'recommend what you've got' I'd say this is worth a look:
https://www.spacycles.co.uk/m11b0s143p3141/SABBATH-September-AR-1-Disc-Frameset

If you're happy to build it up yourself using, say, 2019 components you could get lovely riding bike for about your budget. Wouldn't be super-lightweight, but it's a great frame, good for all dayers (whilst still having a bit of zip) and, hey, titanium.

I think fit is far more important than spec when it comes to enjoyment on a road bike. That said, if you’re just starting out I suspect you’ll get more value from buying a bike that fits well enough and then looking to tweak things once you’ve had a chance to settle into it a bit.

And don’t waste a moment of your finite time alive worrying about what other people think of what you choose to wear.

Just remember it won't be the last road bike you buy.

I'm going to completely go against the "get an endurance/sportive model" with a more general explanation: If you have lungs and fitness and you're going to ride for 1-2 hours fast, a long low position cantilevers your upper body mass to counteract the forces your legs deliver in the power stroke on the pedals - it is comfy.

If you're going to ride for longer and not often go fullgas, an endurance/sportive fit is appropriate. You'll be putting out lower average power and lower average force on the pedals so you need less cantilevering of your upper body to counteract pedalling forces.

I'd say get a cheap one in approximately the right size or else err slightly on the smaller side - preferably second-hand or else from, say, decathlon

Unless you're very flexible it'll feel like shit - too stretched etc and some people never learn to love it. If it feels great immediately I'd bet that you'll find too small in a few months. Make that mistake cheaply, get most of your money back on resale and then look at a fancy bike

Ok, so I went to RaceScene in Barnsley today who couldn’t have been more helpful and friendly if they tried! I spent almost two hours there starting off with some basic measurements then being talked through some frames and being asked many questions about what I want the bike for, where I love, fitness levels etc.

Well my budget has increased somewhat, not because of any pressure from the shop whatsoever but because I love the look of two frames! I’ve narrowed it down to the Kuota K-Uno and the Colnago V3 (not the RS), I’ve now come home to have a think and look at some reviews but there’s not a whole lot in either! So apart from spend a lot less money, go cheaper, get 2nd hand etc which would you choose and why?

which would you choose and why?

The red one, it'll be faster.

Or the Colnago, because it's a Colnago

^^^
What he said (apart from the red but, I don’t like red bikes).

Cafe culture is important with roadies and everyone loves a Colnago.

which would you choose and why?

I would choose the one I prefer the look of. They will both perform very well.
Can't help with the decision as neither of them are the sort of thing I like the look of although the Colnago looks a bit less bulky.

If I could afford a Colnago, I’d buy a Colnago.

Colnago 👌

Another vote for the Colnago. It’s Italian, like a Ferrari or an Alfa.

Enjoy!

BTW though, that Boardman is incredible value £2,700 for full carbon, discs and eTap.

Well your price range appears to have expanded quite a bit. If you're looking at the V3 check out the latest Specialized Roubaix and Aethos (both with SRAM Rival Etap at around £4500). Different geometries to suit your use/body.

I've got a Palace:R. I go back about 30 years or so on road bikes. Highlights/lowlights include:

Steel (loads, but a Cinelli Supercorsa was particularly nice).
Crap noodly 80s aluminium (A thin-tubed Alan that I could swear was swaying sideways at the BB).
Crap overbuilt dead 90s aluminium (Shogun - anyone remember them? I think Linda Mccartney rode them).
Paper-thin aluminium that breaks when you look at it (Bianchi EV2 and its scandium precursor).
Decent-geometry aluminium (Giant TCR. Still cracked though).
Titanium (Airborne).
Carbon (the original Orbea Orca. Looked f***ing amazing at the time. Rode like a Rolls-Royce comfort-wise but still sharp. A bit flexy at the headtube, but hey).

I think the Palace is ace. Sharp as a tack, and a proper race bike with geo to match. Shortly after I bought it I was going round a really fast, downhill bend and spotted a pothole at the very last second. I was properly braced for impact but the way the bike was happy to change direction with no drama was a real eye-opener and the thing seems to shift around as soon as you've started thinking about it. I wouldn't call it twitchy though, just prompt.

It's easily light enough built with 11-speed Chorus and a pair of Zondas. It proper loves a bit of climbing, and is nothing like early aluminium in terms of comfort. It doesn't have the magic carpet feel of good carbon over rough surfaces but I think you might be able to get 28s into the new one? Mine has rim brakes but it only goes out in the summer and I don't need discs for that. Decent rim brakes are sharp enough.

I've got a decent-enough aluminium winter bike (Kinesis 4S) which has more comfortable geometry for me and on balance I'd prefer to strip the mudguards off that for steady 100-milers but getting on the Palace for the first ride of the year feels like fitting a jet engine. For a few hours' blast it is great. I've just swapped my 2004 10-speed Chorus for 11-speed Chorus and it's lush. I find it hard to believe that a carbon frame of similar cost would be anywhere near as fun to ride.

HTH.