What Carbon Road Bike for Under a Grand?

Hi Guys,

Bike to work coming up again soon, what carbon road bike for a grand? Also it'll need to be from a shop that'll take cyclescheme.

looked at the boardman – looks o.k

If you could do it right now then the Planet X Dura ace effort looks very good. Not bad when it's the Ultegra spec either. Ribble do some well reviewed bikes as well.

Gotta be the Planet X with 2010 ultegra for £999

Oh my lordy lordy. Have a search of the forum – there have been a few of these posts in the past 2 weeks 🙄

FWIW, I've finally made a decision and am waiting for one of the Planet X Carbon SL, Ultegra 6700 (2010) offers described above – good reviews, good forum feedback, friendly replies to all emails re sizing, weight etc and the current offer is a bargain 🙂

I was considering the Ribble Sportive (lovely bike, long wait, questionable customer service), Focus/Boardman offerings (good value but racey & harsh ride), Dolan (just didn't quite do it for me), Orbea onix Vuelta (nice but few reviews, very limited release & low end groupset for the money) and a few others.

Best advice is try to test ride some – I hope you have more luck than I did in that department!

cheers guys – but they bump an extra £100 on for buying cyclescheme:-(

Oh it is ultegra, not dura ace. THought that was a good buy!! Still might not be around long enough for the cycle to work scheme to kick in. They seem to have offers periodically so just wait until one comes up. FWIW the Boardman is supposed to be a good bike.

I might go and have a wee shot on the boardman to see how it feels – cant do that with a planet x I suppose.

Yeah – I did notice that. Fortunately I'm sorting it directly with my boss so don't need to involve the cyclescheme.

I can see why they do it though as they only get £900 for each £1000 voucher (cyclescheme must be coining it in!) and they are apparently working on a minimal margin as it is.

Still a bargain though imho. The other options I listed do offer some good value too.

I might go and have a wee shot on the boardman to see how it feels – cant do that with a planet x I suppose.

If your local Halfords has any in stock go for it – unless things have changed a lot in the last month you'll be lucky though. I think you can call in on Planet X if you're anywhere near their office in Darlington. Otherwise GB cycles do have some in the South I think and PX do frequent a few big events (triathlon included) with demo bikes.

Planet X is in Carcroft, near Doncaster, not Darlington.

em, I'm glasgow ish – unfortunatly we're awash with halfords;-)

Planet X is in Carcroft, near Doncaster, not Darlington.

Oops – sorry. Yeah, I meant Doncaster 🙄

ChristGinger – you may be awash with Halfords but, checking the website, there's still the same availablity problems – the nearest store to you that "may" have stock is Ayr.

Good luck.

I got one of these a couple of weeks ago.

Can't praise it enough, just come back from a 40 miler with some lads from work, can't believe how good of a ride carbon is.

Got it from buy a bike near Preston, and Pete and John (owners) do C2W.

Christoginger, I'm in central Scotland, work in Glasgow. Would be happy to let you borrow my medium boardman carbon to try it out if you do struggle to get a go on one.

G

Elmy Cycles in Ipswich have a couple of Orbea full carbon jobbies for under a grand – Tiagra equipped with R500 wheels. Not bad!

Hi guys, thanks for the replies – might give you a shout big g, I work at george square so quite central. I may check out the jamis and the orbea too I think.

I've currently got a specialised allez on the bike to work – it ends in october and then the new scheme starts again – result!!

Drop me a pm if you do want a shot, if you can get past the bike snobbery it's a damn good bike. Do get the gears setup by someone who understands SRAM and get the wheels tensioned and it's sweet as a nut. Done lord knows how many miles on mine and I love it.

I can stick it on top the car any day I'm heading into town (which is as infrequently as I can get away with these days, bloody a80 roadworks)..

FWIW, I've finally made a decision and am waiting for one of the Planet X Carbon SL, Ultegra 6700 (2010) offers described above – good reviews, good forum feedback, friendly replies to all emails re sizing, weight etc and the current offer is a bargain

Just to let you know the Ultegra 6700 offer is back on for £999