Pretty decent road bike for < £400?

[nathanlloyd]

Hi all,

I'm just getting back into cycling on a hand-me-down hybrid bike I received when my dad bought a Scott road bike last year. It served me well for the London to Brighton BHF ride last weekend but unfortunately the handlebars dropped on the pivot point on Tuesday night and now it's pretty dangerous to ride.

I'm looking at getting a pretty ok / decent road bike for less than £400 ideally. There's a LBS near me that's selling a Claud Butler 2013 Trieste for just shy of £350 which is tempting but I don't want to buy the first thing I see.

Does anyone have any experience of these bikes? Are they any good?

 

[vickster]

Decathlon triban 500 definitely worth a look

 

[HLaB]

Triban/carrera or 2nd hand I believe are the stock answers. Claud Butler I believe was bought out a while back and the quality of their bikes went down.

 

[Rickshaw Phil]

Links to the Tribans mentioned above:
Triban 500SE which is the latest update of the very popular red Triban 3.

Triban 500 which is the better spec version that replaces the Triban 5

 

[nathanlloyd]

Cheers guys, I like the look of the Tribans. Hadn't considered them before.

Will there be much difference between Microshift shifters and Shimano SORA?

 

[vickster]

Sora is better as is the carbon fork. Find the extra £50 for the 500

 

[Kins]

Havent tried them myself but Microshift have been given pretty good reviews for the later models.

 

[Rickshaw Phil]

Just to emphasise, both have carbon forks. The difference is shifters and drivetrain.

 

[nathanlloyd]

The 500SE is described as having: Carbon B'TWIN SPORT forks with aluminium pivot (550 g)
The 500 says: Carbon blades, aluminium pivot, 1"1/8 aheadset; combines strength, low weight and precision.

Will there be a difference between one saying forks and one saying blades? Bear with me I'm new

 

[Rickshaw Phil]

The 500SE is described as having: Carbon B'TWIN SPORT forks with aluminium pivot (550 g)
The 500 says: Carbon blades, aluminium pivot, 1"1/8 aheadset; combines strength, low weight and precision.

Will there be a difference between one saying forks and one saying blades? Bear with me I'm new

No, they're just describing it differently. Probably something lost when the description was translated from French.

 

[vickster]

Just to emphasise, both have carbon forks. The difference is shifters and drivetrain.

Misread the 500se description, just saw aluminium for some reason!

 

[Stephen C]

To confuse things, have a look at Merlin, they have some good budget bikes, and I rate them highly for customer service.

 

[Rickshaw Phil]

Misread the 500se description, just saw aluminium for some reason!

So did I the first time I looked at them. It was only coz I'd previously seen an article about it being a special UK-only model with a better spec that I knew to look again.

 

[nathanlloyd]

So an extra £70 for the Shimano SORA. Worth it?

 

[tudor_77]

At that price point I don't think anything can beat the Tribans