Road bike? Are you sure?

I know, right?

First road bike so assume it’s a year round option?

Yes.

Well, I popped into the Ribble shop today for a nosey. Nice set-up up there, even with many bikes down at the London bikes show. Had a look at the aluminium CGR. Really nice bike. The 105 spec (inc hydros) with Aksium is £1400. Great clearance for wider tyres (comes with G-Ones as standard) and mudguards. Above my budget, but sure…

In short, test ride some bikes and see what feels nice.

I went more on the racey side of things even though I mostly commute on it as I like the feel vs something a bit heavier / non racey. It goads you into pushing harder more of the time.

Rim brakes are adequate is the comment above – they’re not adequate in the wet imo and if you have discs on an mtb you will be shocked. I only narrowly avoided a few big accidents where drivers turned across me etc and the margin was too fine. On discs I’ve had similar things and stopped way more comfortably.

On the big tyre thing I find 25’s on my Caad12 are fine – I’ve runnother bikes with 23’s and they are a lot more harsh / seemed prone to more pinch punctures. I considered 28’s but I’m the tyre I want the clearance would have been a bit borderline – but my gp4000’s in 25’s come up close to 28’s in size anywaynin reality.

On gears also try out something with Shimano vs something with Sram. I’d always had Shimano until my last bike which had sram rival with doubletap. Having gone back to Shimano on this bike (just because that’s what it came with) I definitely preferred sram rival. More snappy / I found the single lever for gearchanges better than the gear lever / brake lever combination for shifting on this one.

I’m in rivvy n can lend you a go of my pinicle on 37s…

I can still sit at 20mph pm it but also happily go towpaths and ive even done Phillips park on it

Currently have 2 road bikes and one must go. Not a stealth ad; may be of interest.
It’s a Radon Sage 6.0 from Bike Discount, the German company; 2014 model – hardly used and un-marked.
Alu frame, carbon fork, SRAM Force 22 groupset and Force rim brakes, Syntace finishing kit, Citec wheels on own brand hubs which have DT Swiss 240 internals and are super smooth, Conti 4000GP 25c tyres, clinchers – not tubeless.
8.2kg, size medium.
It’s white with some red highlights.
I’m not desperate to sell but it will be on eBay in the near future with reserve of about £700.
Will be less to STW member/subscriber – floor price £650.
Let me know if you want to talk about it or see it.
I work near Warrington but live outside of area.
Could put in car next week or week after if you want to see/test it.
Let me know.

Thanks again for all the replies and offers of rides and bikes. I’ll be after something large or beyond.

I have my mind leaning towards the Ribble at the moment, but will keep my options open. Watch this space.

So….road bike has arrived. Went for a Ribble Endurance AL disc. Ribble built it much earlier than they said so need to get some pedals before the maiden voyage. Ribble have been great to be fair, impressed by the set-up in Preston.

My rim brakes on alu rims stop me faster than anything! I have a Supersix with SRAM Rival.

You need to splash out on Swissstop pads – the blue ones. They are really night and day. At least twice as good as any other pads I’ve used. The compound is amazing, No black muck too.

I easily lock the rear wheel with light pull on the lever, and can stop the bike extremely quickly, prob quicker than the MTB.

But I only use the roadie in dry. If it’s wet I’ll MTB/Zwift. I commute on a CAADX with discs daily.

If you’re using the road bike just when it’s dry, for fun/pleasure, get rim. Lighter, and more bike for you money (older models heavily discounted). If you’re using it all weathers because you HAVE TO (ie. the commuters), then disc makes sense.

https://www.wiggle.co.uk/swissstop-flash-pro-bxp-alloy-rim-brake-pads/?lang=en&curr=GBP&dest=1&sku=5360661138&kpid=5360661138&utm_source=google&utm_term=&utm_campaign=Shopping+-+All+Products&utm_medium=base&utm_content=mckv|sig7ILTwm_dc|mcrid|295292317327|mkw||mmt||mrd|5360661138uk|mslid||&mkwid=sig7ILTwm_dc&pcrid=295292317327&prd=5360661138uk&pgrid=58852352866&ptaid=pla-522781330985&gclid=CjwKCAjw2cTmBRAVEiwA8YMgzew2ubb4xPj3F4fYOx0unLRPYaEQXTltMxELenVEc_wzE3WL0-KixxoCFKgQAvD_BwE

I must confess I too have been looking at ‘skinny’ bikes recently, in particular the Planet X Full Monty.

I feel so…dirty.