Road bikes, which shops would you recommend? Glasgow and surrounding..

For some sizing advice and to have a decent browse. Probably “endurance” rather than race and £2-2.5k price bracket wise.

Looking at the Giant Defy (which Dales have) and Merida Scultura but open minded at the moment

Pedal power west Lothian are good

giant defy is a brilliant bike

You can get plenty of advice on a Giant Defy on here. I have two from both ends of the spectrum…£150 alloy frame and old 10 speed Ultegra, and a manual 11-speed Dura Ace 9000 Advanced SL with integrated seat post and SLR deep section carbon wheels. I am 179 cm and ride a medium with a 120 stem, could also ride a M/L too but the stack would be a bit too high (slammed stem on both of mine). They are excellent bikes and ride more race than sit up and beg. There is no difference in ride between the two as they are set up the same. I have raced my Defy Advanced SL. I also race a Giant Propel Advanced SL (also Medium and very slightly different geometry so a 110mm stem). The Propel is about 1mph faster for the same effort. The Defy is lighter. All of mine are rim brakes. Geometry has not really changed since they nailed it over 10 years ago.

Definitely go and get a proper sizing done.  I’ve just ordered my new road bike and spent a couple of hours at the shop (Sigma so not local to you) doing a dedicated sizing session.  I was keen to do this as bought my last bike (used frame, second proper road bike) with my heart, I used the manufacturers size guide (which I was bang in the middle of for my height) and never felt fully comfortable.

Turns out due to my body shape I was riding a size too big for both frame (mainly in reach), bars (width) and drop (stem was slammed with no room to move as steerer pre cut).  Had a few bikes that were under consideration my price range, managed to get set up on most of them, before getting down to two which fitted and then being able to make the emotional decision of which I liked best.

https://www.billybilslandcycles.co.uk/shop/bikes/sub/road/

👍

Dooleys in Paisley, do Merida but not Giant. Ian is top notch.

Both Dales and PedalPower sell Giant and they both do bike fits. I have historically had a bike fit in Dales and have bought 2 Defy’s from them. I bought a Revolt X from PedalPower a few months back, and they also supplied my Spesh Diverge last year.

If going to Dales try and get Jon Allan, he’s been there for decades and is very knowledgeable on all things road bike.

Billy Bilslands are also a great Glasgow shop, though don’t do Giant, I have bought a few Cannondales from them incl my current Synapse.

Great, that’s a decent start.

Re. bike fit, is the 2-3 hour offering going to give you enough data to shop off geometry charts etc if the shop doesn’t stock the brand your after etc? Does it give you ideal reach, TT, headtube length etc?

I see Dales also do a size assesment which in theory is less detailed and just a starting point @£50

The bike fit I had in Dales, with Jon, was probably 10 years ago, so things may have changed. I was keen on a Defy and was sure I needed an ML. He spent a couple of hours with me, various measuring devices, with bike on a turbo, and I ended up with a M, longer stem, some pedal shims, saddle a bit higher than I was used to, and a detailed note of lots of numbers that are still my basic guide on bike sizing.

Another one to consider, Sprockets in Kilmarnock have a very high tech bike fit lab, and get great reviews for it. I haven’t tried it, though Dave, who runs the place is a mate and has sold me quite a few MTBs over the years, incl. a lovely custom spec Cotic Soul, many years ago 👌

Re. bike fit, is the 2-3 hour offering going to give you enough data to shop off geometry charts etc if the shop doesn’t stock the brand your after etc? Does it give you ideal reach, TT, headtube length etc?

I would call what I had more of a consultation and sizing rather than a full bike fit described by iainc (however these usually cost a fair bit) so did not go into stem length, cleat position etc. I got a good sense of what reach / stack was right for me, the saddle to stem drop and bar width.  Sitting and pedalling the various bikes on a turbo helped this too. When I pick up my bike I know it will fit comfortably, have the right width bars, have the steerer cut to the right level (I’m not going too much off to start with) and have had the saddle swapped out for my preferred model. I could have easily taken the geo charts away and looked at other bikes with similar numbers but Sigma stocked the bikes I was interested in (they do most popular road brands) and did me a good deal, I’d have felt a proper arse walking out after all that and ordering online as well as being delivered a bike I’d have to set up myself (cutting a carbon steerer and re-routing internal hoses – no thanks).