First Road Bike, is Triban 3 the way to go?

[Rhargan]

Allo folks, first post on here, hopefully in the right place!

As the title suggests I'm trying to pick my first road bike, I've seen quite a few posts on here singing the praises of the Triban 3 from Decathlon but wondering if anyone has experience of it dealing with regular use for commuting? I ask due to a bad experience with a cheapo hybrid bought from Decathlon which was just a disaster-zone on wheels

Another option I've been looking at is this http://www.halfords.com/webapp/wcs/..._productId_810601_langId_-1_categoryId_165710 Carrera Virtuoso from the shop y'all seem to love to hate

I'm going to be using the bike for a 6 mile commute, mainly flat with a couple of steady climbs. Any advice/pointers/ideas would be gratefully received!

 

[BrianEvesham]

Go with the T3 Red + mudguards.

 

[AndyRM]

The issue with Halfords isn't necessarily the bikes (apart from the Apollo range), rather the staff who assemble them/attempt to provide advice. If you're lucky enough to get someone who knows what they're talking about, you should be fine. If you get someone who doesn't have a clue, then you won't.

I've ridden a couple of Carrera bikes (the TdF and one I can't remember), nothing wrong with either of them.

 

[danjanoob]

I cycle most days on my t3. 15miles from romford to London Bridge. Cant fault it or decathlon. Great bike and service.

 

[biggs682]

go 2nd hand and a nice bit of retro steel much more fun

 

[Rhargan]

Thanks for the input folks. Ended up going for the Carrerra due mainly to the distance to my "local" decathlon and thinking that a compact chainset would be easier to maintain than a triple.

True to form the brakes, gears and purchased mudguards all had to be tweaked when I got the bike home but hopefully she'll do the job

 

[subaqua]

I cycle most days on my t3. 15miles from romford to London Bridge. Cant fault it or decathlon. Great bike and service.

am commuting on my sport 1 which was the forerunner of the T3 and its a lovely bike. only thing i wish it had was the carbon fork to help with the road buzz

 

[Norry1]

I bought a Carrerra Virtuoso a while back which I use as my wet bike / winter hack. It's not a bad bike actually - but I did put new wheels on it which made quite a difference. The originals went out of true a few times

 

[Alex11]

"First Road Bike, is Triban 3 the way to go?"

Yes