Setting myself for first time in my life road bike

[marslo911]

Good afternoon everyone and warm welcome from Tamworth.

I never thought i will be turning my head around a Road bikes, grown and raised in rural area with post comunist country with little to no decent road to ride anything else than BMX type buldge tyres. Few years ago my choice went to second hand Trek Fuel EX5. Perfect for sunday ride with music. However our recent journey to Calella turn my eyes to Ironman Calella Barcelona - where as engineer i could indulge mysefl watching these roadbikes soaking up with carbon and recent areo features. I was inspired by speed and agility and littlebit curious about experience riding these bikes, so i started searching. My First choice was Halfords where one of the gentlemans put me on Boardman SLR 8.9 Carbon - which turned to be a perfect riding position for me (at least what he said) and the size S is the bike size i should go after.

My question would be, where to start:

1) I don't have a budget, as grown adult - we can spend on hobbys from as little as £100 up to £6000 if you are lucky, Wife won't ask the questions.
2) Is buying a used second hand bike on ebay, without trying it (long distance test drive ? ) Will make any sense ? I will underline that i don't know what is comfortable postion to me as i never rode one before
3) I want to have the best possible machine for future use (as my experience and full grow) - but without spending £6K on Canyon bike at the beginning. My budget is from £800 starting, and i am happy with second hand bikes in good condition of course.

Thank you for your time in advance and have a great afternoon.

 

[DCLane]

Welcome to the forum. Boardman bikes tend to be good value. They're not the latest spec but generally ride well, although the wheels usually benefit from being upgraded.

Second-hand gets you into a market where there's lots of choice, with some absolute bargains but also pretty bad buys as well. For those it helps to know the basic mechanics.

An £800 budget should get you enough to start with, where you find out whether you like road bikes or not. Enjoy the journey and you may end up with a stack of bikes like @biggs682 , myself and quite a few others on here.

 

[cyberknight]

Ay up from Swad
I have a couple of boardmans and they are cracking bikes, if you join british cycling you get a discount at halfords if you still are looking at a new boardman , there are always a few knocking about for sale on facefluff marketplace and ebay if you are prepared to shop around and get a good deal.

 

[FrankCrank]

Could try a perusal at Decathlon, the Triban gets good revues and is in your price range, may have autumn sale now as well.

 

[marslo911]

Good morning Guys, and thank you for repsponse! Boardman got my attention - im not gonna lie.
I have also seen some of the second hand Canyon Aeroad (earliest edition) for relatively good money. Would it be worth to explore some of these as second hand option ?
Is there anything specific too focus on when purchasing a second hand road bike (except the obvious one as general rule of purchasing any second hand bike).
Thanks again!

 

[biggs682]

Welcome @marslo911
Before you spend £800 why not buy a decent second hand road loads around the £100-200 mark to see how you get on would be my advice.

 

[Punkawallah]

Hi there! Logically, if you buy new and it works - great. If you buy new and it doesn’t work, the money you ‘lose’ on re- selling it is probably no more than you’d pay to find out the second hand one doesn’t work.

 

[DCLane]

+1 to @Punkawallah

And if you find you like riding a road bike it's well worth getting a toolkit. You may then find yourself getting a second-hand bike as a 'winter' bike to learn maintainance on, and to protect the 'best' bike from the worst of winter.

At that point your wife loses all hope ...

 

[roubaixtuesday]

If you're confident in your mechanical ability and assessment, then 2nd hand is a good place to go.

Otherwise, Boardman and Decathlon have a good reputation for value.

Modern road bikes are a money sink without impacting performance much (Di2, hydaulics and carbon are all very expensive, but none of them will make much of a difference to you).

£800 new will get you a decent machine without frills. A quick glance at the Boardman site shows the 8.6 at £650 which I'd be very happy to ride. Replacing the tyres would be the only upgrade I'd advise (cheaper bikes come with awful tyres normally)

Most branded bikes will be a little bit more than halfords or decathlon. There's basically nothing to choose between the many different brands at a given price point; choosing based on a shop you can trust to give you good advice and service rather than the specific model would be my advice if buying new.

Enjoy the ride!