Hi from a noob

[mikewhyton]

Hi guys.

my names Mike and I live in the Midlands. Been riding MTB for a few years now but am yearning for the road. Just need some advice really, having not owned a roadie since my 70's Peugeot.
I don't really want to break the bank for a bike and am considering the Btwin Triban 3 as a starter bike, at £299 it is cheap and has good reviews, I have used their MTB's and they are good value for money compared to other 'name' bikes.
What I need to know is things like sizing, I'm 6'2" so what frame size (cm) should I be looking at? what is the most common number of gears on a roadie? types of shifters? groupsets? I understand MTB but know next to nothing about roadies, any advice would be really appreciated.

Mike.

 

[smokeysmoo]

I don't really want to break the bank for a bike and am considering the Btwin Triban 3 as a starter bike, at £299 it is cheap and has good reviews. I'm 6'2" so what frame size (cm) should I be looking at? what is the most common number of gears on a roadie? types of shifters? groupsets?

You could do far worse then the T3 as your first road bike, their achilles heel is the wheels, basically they're made of cheese, so either budget for a new wheel set or buy one second hand that's had the wheels changed. You can nurse the wheels along but it will involve regular stripping and greasing of the bearings, not my idea of fun TBH.

As for size, you could well be between sizes TBH, your best bet would be to get to a store and sit on a few, depending on you upper body you might need to size up or size down a bit accordingly.

Most road bike come with a double chainset, and the standard these days is referred to as a compact, (34/50), as opposed to a standard double, (39/52). This makes for easier gearing on hills but can leave you a bit wanting on the downhills and flats. The cassette would normally be something like a 11-25 or a 12-28, but they're cheap enough to swap around to adjust gearing with to a degree, just make sure the rear mech can take it if you wanted to go to a 32.

Shifters these days are all the combined STI type, (sometimes called brifters), in other words combined brake and shifter levers. They're very easy to use TBH so don't worry about those. If you see a new bike but it had levers on the downtube, or even worse on the stem then leave it where it is, only very low end new bikes these days use that type.

Hope that helps, have fun choosing

 

[mikewhyton]

Cheers that's great :-)

 

[cyberknight]

Hi guys.

my names Mike and I live in the Midlands. Been riding MTB for a few years now but am yearning for the road. Just need some advice really, having not owned a roadie since my 70's Peugeot.
I don't really want to break the bank for a bike and am considering the Btwin Triban 3 as a starter bike, at £299 it is cheap and has good reviews, I have used their MTB's and they are good value for money compared to other 'name' bikes.
What I need to know is things like sizing, I'm 6'2" so what frame size (cm) should I be looking at? what is the most common number of gears on a roadie? types of shifters? groupsets? I understand MTB but know next to nothing about roadies, any advice would be really appreciated.

Mike.

The number of gears on a roadie varies depending on what shifter you buy, whether you have a double or triple at the front etc .
The most common lower end bikes have a double with 8 at the back so 16 right up to a double ( or triple if you need ) with 11 at the back .
At the end of the day as long as you have a high enough and low enough gear your liable to be ok , more sprockets means smaller jumps in gear ratios but generally you will be fine unless your racing and need to stay in a certain leg rpm band like an engine revs the most efficiently at a certain speed.