Road bike virgin, clueless and in need of help…

I think i’ve come to the conclusion that I want a road bike. I see it as an easier way to get out more in the winter, and want to use it to keep my fitness up.

I haven’t a clue about whats good, whats bad, what size, what gears, what’s worth what second hand. I really am clueless compared with my MTB knowledge which I take for granted.

In short, can anyone recommend me a good second hand road bike that would suit a 5’11 beginner of average proportions, and give me an idea of what size i need and what I should be paying for such a thing? I should point out that at this stage my love is MTB, and I have no plans to compete or anything on the road, so just a good quality beginner friendly bike is what I’m after.

Thanks!!

I should point out that at this stage my love is MTB, and I have no plans to compete or anything on the road, so just a good quality beginner friendly bike is what I’m after.

This will last for about one month, then you will be hooked on road bikes, want to get a very nice italian plastic bike with the best parts campag have to offer.

Just face this as an inevitability and head straight to a LBS, get a proper fitting and expect to part way with about two grand.

😯

I’ve just parted with more than that on my newest MTB…

Oh no….!

Whats yer budget? I think you could get something nice for about five or six hundred pounds.

Alternatively, spend £100 on a crappy second hand Carrera, change the stem then spend nothing on it for the next couple of years. I’m going on the principal that no matter how shit it is, it’s still the best road bike I’ve ever had. I do a fair few miles on it, but I do go through phases.

I’d buy something nicer if it broke, but it just refuses to. It could probably do with a new BB. That’s it.

I spent £630, I think, on a Cannondale CAAD8 with Sora, I’m about your height and reasonably averagely sized (except around the guts area 🙁 ), fantastic bit of kit as far as I’m concerned. 🙂

How about just buying a pair of slicks and a road block for your XC bike.

at 5’11 youll probably need a 56 or 58 cm frame

try something like this: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Cannondale-Caad8-Claris-Road-Bike-/121234716262?pt=UK_Bikes_GL&hash=item1c3a26f666

(and no I am not the seller)
for around £500 you could get something pretty good secondhand

I can only recommend what i have, which also seems to always get good review, which is a Giant defy. Available as an alloy frame or two qualities of carbon frame, plus lots of them about 2nd hand.

Mine was a good beginners bike, quite a comfortable position and forgiving frame.

Entry level Boardman road bikes (from £500) are pretty decent (I’ve got a Boardman Hybrid) however the sales staff in Halfords are pretty hit and miss, so don’t rely on them for any advice…

Oo, size, yes – think mine is a 56 but I’ll have a look in the garage tonight.

I bought a secondhand Allez. It cost £250 I stuck another 130 quid of Shimano RS30 wheels on it and it’s been great. It’s a Mondeo I’ll grant you but really who cares, it’s a road bike. I do like road riding but I’ll get a 2k bike as soon as I’ve got 2k legs. I’m 5.11 and it’s a large.

an idea of what size i need

top tube of 540-570mm probably.

Go and get sized/ a ride on a few bikes though as everyone is different. Some people i know are very happy, and look right on bikes that ‘should’ be too big/small.

This will last for about one month, then you will be hooked on road bikes, want to get a very nice italian plastic bike with the best parts campag have to offer

Meh, didn’t happen for me. Bought a £1.1k carbon Ribble on C2W, it was a nice ride but roadying has always felt like more of a means to an end (getting to work) than anything else. I’ve been out for afew longer rides and it’s always ‘pleasant’ but that’s about as good as it gets for me. Whereas a mountain bike ride can be much better (or much worse!) than a road bike ride.

Bought a more practical bike (boardman cx) for the winter and then sold the Ribble as I couldn’t see the point in keeping both.

If someone gave me a blingy road bike then I’d be happy but if it was a choice between a £500 road bike and a £5,000 MTB or a £5,000 road bike and a £500 MTB I’d pick the first combo every single time.

An alu Giant, Cannondale, Boardman, BTwin or Ribble winter trainer will do fine. Pick your budget, pick one you like the look of that has the shifter brand you want, then put decent tyres on it and get lycra’d up.

I ride a “too small” Cannondale Synapse which fits me perfectly. As thomthumb says, go sit on/ride a few/get sized. Don’t ignore the fact you’ll find a slammed stem on race geo road bikes a bit uncomfortable at first (or forever) so don’t just focus on how many of the Velominati rules are correct.

Consider a cheap peakless helmet if you’re planning on spending any time in the drops though, was a real cause of neck ache for me.

Spend what you can afford to, but it’s definitely worth getting measured / sized properly. How flexible you are can have a pretty big impact on the type of bike you end up with. Sportive geometry will give a more upright position for example. I wouldn’t suggest that you need a particular size based purely on how tall you are.

It’s worth remembering that you can get a better alu framed bike that will often ride better than a similarly priced entry level carbon frame. A couple of good examples here would be Cannondale or Canyon.

Westbrook have some really good deals at the moment.

I’m 5’11” and with next to no info I bought a road bike early last year.

I bought a 56cm Cannondale CAAD8 Sora Compact for £500 and am very pleased with it. At first it felt far too long, but it’s just a different position to be riding in. The CAAD8 is also Cannondale’s sportier frame, they also do the Synapse which is their more comfortable frame (not much difference between them, I think the Synapse is more sit-up rather than the CAAD8 being more stretched out), I assume most brands do this.

I knew nothing about road groupsets, it seems Tiagra is roughly equivalent to Deore, 105 to SLX, Ultegra to XT and Dura-Ace to XTR. Mine has the basic Sora groupset (below Tiagra) which I’ve no complaints with, but then I’ve never had anything better so don’t know what I might be missing…

The wheels kept losing spokes so I stuck a pair of Shimano RS20s on and the Lugano tyres would puncture as soon as you looked at them so bought some Michelin Pro4s for it. Both have improved it noticably.

A quick look at Endo shows 2/3rds of my riding this year has been on the roady… I’m suitably ashamed of myself…

As much as I like my ‘dale, I can’t help having my head turned by fancier bikes now. I don’t need anything better, but… You know 🙂

Looks like prices have gone up in the last 18months…
CAAD8 Sora
Synapse Sora
CAAD8 2300 (groupset below Sora)

aluminium frame, carbon forks, 2013 sora groupset.

all you will ever need. sora might not be 10speed, but it’s really very very good.

make sure it fits (try a 56cm as a starting point?)

make sure you like the way it looks – you’ll want to ride it more.

make sure it will accept mudguards – more or less essential in winter.

do hold back £70ish, so after a few rides you can treat yourself to some nice tyres and soft-compound brake blocks, the only upgrades you’ll ever really notice.

(which is why you should wait a few rides before fitting new tyres/blocks, an upgrade you can actually notice is a rare thing)

Looks like prices have gone up in the last 18months…

Yer blummin right…. 🙁 I went for an upgrade to Sora because I’m led to believe that 2300, whilst perfectly functional, has a button thumbshift that gets honked about a bit – chap at work has an Allez with 2300, and it’s put holes in the thumbs of his gloves.

I was going to get an Allez myself to start with, but they don’t come with a carbon fork for 2013, and I kinda wanted one of them (partly just because, but I thought it would help as I get numb hands occasionally – fair play, the bloke in the bike shop said he does too, and it’s just something you have to learn to live with. Decided I’d still run with the carbon fork plan anyhow 🙂 ).

Oo – had to get pedals too, so just got some cheapo MTB SPDs so I idn’t have to worry about different shoes or something.

They’re fine to get going with, after that it’s how you feel. Eggbeaters and Spec shoes gave me hotspots on long road rides so I switched to road shoes and pedals and was a lot better

Do it!

I bought a Spesh Allez with 2×9 Sora on the back of the 2012 cycling fever that engulfed the nation.
I didn’t think I’d stick with it but I ride it more than the MTB.

I’ve just treated myself to a Ribble put together with their ‘bike builder’ page on the website.
It means it is specced how I want and I haven’t had to accept cheap wheels or a crap saddle as you often get with a complete build from the major brands.
It is far racier geometry than the Allez but it suits me…remember that road bikes have no suspension so can be harsh at the back end… Sportive geometry sat me too much on my arse and was uncomfortable but a racing position of ‘head down, bum up’ has spread my weight more evenly between the bars, saddle and pedals…perfect, it looks extreme but feels natural.

Road bikes are beautiful and you will become obsessed with the weight of each component!… enjoy.

numb hands? fair play, the bloke in the bike shop said he does too, and it’s just something you have to learn to live with.

Rubbish! That’s a fit issue, poor bar set up, poor hand position!

Certainly not something to live with!

Hmm. Any tips? 🙂

I’d go into Decathlon, buy a triban, buy it nice tyres, go.

Course, road riding properly is entirely about being a ****, and expensive bikes give you another way in which to be a ****, so you might want to get a carbon fibre ego chariot so as not to be out****ed. And don’t forget the Sky replica kit, the winter bike, the pub bike…

I’d go into Decathlon, buy a triban, buy it nice tyres, go.

Was very, very tempted. But the Triban 3 had pretty much sold out, and the next batch didn’t have the carbon fork – figured if I was going to have to raise the budget for the fork, I might as well get a bike I wanted, rather than something that did the job. 🙂

High-five for the Cannondale CAAD8 riders 🙂

Fantastic bike!

I commuted and toured for many years on disc brake / flat-bar hybrids, before getting my first drop bar road bike (Trek 1.1) in 2010. I quickly upgraded to a custom build at £1,400 and stuck with it for another 18 months.

But – I was never truly comfortable on the bike and missed disc brakes the most. Really, you need to try riding a very fast machine in wet conditions with truly rubbish braking…before you commit to a road bike with calliper brakes!

I swapped over to a cyclocross bike (Cotic X) 2 years ago and have found this to be the ideal compromise. I see that the general road market is belatedly getting into disc brakes, so I’d be happy on a more road focused machine again in future.

I bought a road bike ( Triban 3 ) back in August and have had a few good rides further out than I’ve ever been on the MTB.

I don’t know if its where I live which is just busy with idiot drivers, but it’s now made me more fond of the MTB.

I’m not dismissing the road bike, but I just feel more comfortable on the MTB and I worry about bombing it in the dark on the road bike and hitting a pothole that the MTB would just shrug off.

I bought a Triban 5 this year as I was doing 100 road miles a week training on my MTB. I was posting some pretty handy average speeds and was expecting the road bike to add 10-20% to that.
It didn’t.
I’m a little bit slower in a few places, generally the same speed most places and faster downhill. If I’m honest, I’d have been better off swapping my f/s for a h/t and using it for everything and accept a bit more wear and tear.
I hate selling stuff though so I’m going to keep on training on the Triban and racing on my MTB.

I was in the same boat as the OP and have recently bought a Felt z95 Sora from Wiggle. It’s spot on for the cash, although as it’s my first road bike it wouldn’t know any differently. Is nice to rid straight from the door rather than driving to the trails.

To follow the recommend what you have rule, get one of these Giant TCR
Aluminium frame, carbon forks, shimano 105, and a bargain to boot
Either that or a Defy

As a non roadie I just bought this, nowt to compare it with but like riding it, though it was a good wee bargain for wee winter spin here and there, reduced to £339.00 at the minute

http://www.rutlandcycling.com/159261/products/genesis-volant-00-2013-road-bike.aspx

I’m a little bit slower in a few places, generally the same speed most places and faster downhill.

Really? That does surprise me – as a rough guide, on the road my hybrid’s about 2mph quicker than my ht, and the racer about 2mph quicker than the hybrid.

Thanks for all the replies. Some really good info. In answer to the budget question I guess about 4-500?

For £400-£500 buy a medium alloy Giant TCR. I bought a last generation Ultegra-equipped alloy TCR for racing off ebay for £450# and it rides almost as well as my 10x more expensive top of the range Giant Defy.

#of course it now sports Ritchey monocoque carbon forks, carbon stem and bars plus Ksyrium Elite wheels (all bought second hand for a sum of £520), but as stock it was an excellent bike.

Due to it being in a sale right now this own brand merlin sneaks into your budget :
http://www.merlincycles.com/bike-shop/bikes/road-bikes/merlin-road-bikes/merlin-malt-r-road-bike-2013.html
Double butted aluminium frame/carbon fork with full tiagra 2 x 10 gearing all for £499

What’s your location? I’m based I am the North West and have a Boardman that I’m looking to sell, if nothing else you could have a test ride to see whether you like the feel of the Boardman as opposed to a ride round the car park at Halfords?

Sorry don’t want it to sound like an advert.

(Red) Tri-Ban3 here, with the nicer (Italian) frame & carbon fork.. Put together with SH Tiagra kit, RS30 wheels & just cheap this & that finishing kit.
It’s…ok. 😕
I think you need to get in to road riding. I’ve done a few rides but at this point I’m still not feeling the love for it. Whilst I’m out on it I can’t help thinking that I’d rather be on the mtb. Sorry.
I’ll keep it, just as something different, but I can’t see me ever being more than an occasional roadie.