Road Bike purchasing advice (C2W Scheme)

[sionhughes]

Hi all,

I'm fairly new to cycling, have only really started in the first week of January! Not knowing if I'd get on with cycling, I bought a cheap Carrera Crixus Cyclocross for £250 from Halfords to see how I get on with it. I started off slowly, had some bad weeks when redundancies was going on at the office but I'm now commuting to work 2 days a week (22 mile round trip) and tend to do a 40-45 mile ride on a weekend. I'm really enjoying my cycling and even upgraded to some nice D2D shorts/jersey instead of cheapy stuff I'd bought to get me going. Having notched about 1000 miles up on the Carrera, I'm starting to find it's little annoyances and also why it was only £250! It's squeaky, creaky, and I'm fairly sure the cheap cables used force me to reindex gears every few weeks. I'm happy it's got me to where I am, but no looking to upgrade to something a little nicer to ride.

My employer offers a C2W scheme which it's preferred supplies is Evans Cycles. I'm looking to move to a road bike instead of the cyclocross and for something a lot lighter than the Carrera. Can anyone recommend what I should be looking for and any recommendations of a nice bike someone may have picked up from Evans. I'm looking at a bike under £1000 ideally, and have some nice Fuji's and Specialized's which look nice. Any advice greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance.

 

[vickster]

Do you want a racy geometry or something that is more comfortable over long distances? Do you need to be able to fit mudguards and a rack as it's to be used for commuting? Do you have a preference on rim versus disc brakes? Are there brands you like more than others? Any you don't like?

The advantage of Evans is you can go in with photo ID and a bank card and have decent on road test rides, so you can try a few out that are within budget and float your . With Specialized, you get less good spec for your money versus say Fuji or the lesser known brands, but perhaps a better frame as long as it fits you)

At a grand, you'd be looking at 105 or Tiagra (even maybe Sora with Specialized), carbon fork

 

[Arrowfoot]

Before you try out the bikes, get an understanding of bike size and heights by going to Evans website. It will give you more confidence when dealing with sales assistants who may recommend bikes that are there but not the right size.

This seems to be a decent buy, discounted, carbon, decent tiagra groupset etc
http://www.evanscycles.com/products/fuji/gran-fondo-27-2015-road-bike-ec069063

 

[sionhughes]

Do you want a racy geometry or something that is more comfortable over long distances? Do you need to be able to fit mudguards and a rack as it's to be used for commuting? Do you have a preference on rim versus disc brakes? Are there brands you like more than others? Any you don't like?

The advantage of Evans is you can go in with photo ID and a bank card and have decent on road test rides, so you can try a few out that are within budget and float your . With Specialized, you get less good spec for your money versus say Fuji or the lesser known brands, but perhaps a better frame as long as it fits you)

At a grand, you'd be looking at 105 or Tiagra (even maybe Sora with Specialized), carbon fork

Thanks for your reply Vickster. You've raised a couple of good questions there for me to consider! Being quite new to the cycling game, I don't really have much in the way of preferences, but your points about mudguards is useful as I'd hope to be stepping my cycling up over the next few months and to sustain it into the winter months when a little wet.

Thanks for the food for thought!

 

[sionhughes]

Before you try out the bikes, get an understanding of bike size and heights by going to Evans website. It will give you more confidence when dealing with sales assistants who may recommend bikes that are there but not the right size.

This seems to be a decent buy, discounted, carbon, decent tiagra groupset etc
http://www.evanscycles.com/products/fuji/gran-fondo-27-2015-road-bike-ec069063

That was one for the Fuji's I'd seen. Can't seem to find many reviews on it though to see what the general view on it is.

 

[vickster]

You can rarely fit full mudguards to a carbon bike, the clearance isn't there, so you may need to consider other options such as crud road guards which work to some degree but they are flimsy and have a tendency to rub (and break). Or just use your current bike on the wet days, although given your location, the new bike may not get a look in!

I wouldn't place too much stall by reviews when it comes to bikes as the personal individual experience is so variable, it's not like buying a toaster. Decent testrides are the way to go and Evans are perfect for that

 

[sionhughes]

I've had a bit of a look around now and after sitting on a few at Evans, I like the more relaxed geometry. I've also decided to knock my target budget down from £1000 to £850 after thinking about it a bit more. I'm going for a test ride on a couple on Saturday hopefully, but I've whittled them down to the following:

• Cannondale Synapse Tiagra Disc http://www.evanscycles.com/products/cannondale/synapse-alloy-tiagra-disc-2015-road-bike-ec071022 [£150 more than the Sora version to the Tiagra which also adds disc brakes. Is tiagra that much better than Sora?]
  
• Pinncale Dolomite Six (not too sure on the colour but 105 at this price looks good!) http://www.evanscycles.com/products/pinnacle/dolomite-six-2015-road-bike-ec071301
• Norco Valence A1 http://www.evanscycles.com/products/norco/valence-a1-2015-road-bike-ec072594

Can anyone offer any advice on the above and the questions inline?

Thanks for your help up to now, and in advance.

 

[martint235]

I've had a bit of a look around now and after sitting on a few at Evans, I like the more relaxed geometry. I've also decided to knock my target budget down from £1000 to £850 after thinking about it a bit more. I'm going for a test ride on a couple on Saturday hopefully, but I've whittled them down to the following:

• Cannondale Synapse Tiagra Disc http://www.evanscycles.com/products/cannondale/synapse-alloy-tiagra-disc-2015-road-bike-ec071022 [£150 more than the Sora version to the Tiagra which also adds disc brakes. Is tiagra that much better than Sora?]
  
• Pinncale Dolomite Six (not too sure on the colour but 105 at this price looks good!) http://www.evanscycles.com/products/pinnacle/dolomite-six-2015-road-bike-ec071301
• Norco Valence A1 http://www.evanscycles.com/products/norco/valence-a1-2015-road-bike-ec072594

Can anyone offer any advice on the above and the questions inline?

Thanks for your help up to now, and in advance.

From experience for commuting I'd always go for the disc brake option. I think there is still quite a big difference between Sora and Tiagra but one of the benefits of Tiagra is that it's interchangeable with 105 so you can just upgrade as things wear out.

 

[Milkfloat]

I think there is still quite a big difference between Sora and Tiagra but one of the benefits of Tiagra is that it's interchangeable with 105 so you can just upgrade as things wear out.

Only if you can find older 105, 2015 105 is 11 speed.

 

[martint235]

Only if you can find older 105, 2015 105 is 11 speed.

Although it's gone 11 speed, the 10 speed stuff is hardly rare to be fair.

 

[sionhughes]

Thanks martint and milkfloat. Looks like Tiagra might be worth the extra.