TOTAL novice ....

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G

greenmark

Guru
Location
Geneva
Whatever you do, don't buy a bike which you haven't ridden.

I take it that you're very much a beginner. The most important part about enjoying a bike ride is that the bicycle fits you. You could spend £1000 and it could ride worse than a £100 mail order jallopy if it doesn't fit properly.
 
OP
OP
Kovu

Kovu

Über Member
Okay thank you very much for that information everyone, it helps alot trust me!
 
jay clock

jay clock

Massive member
Location
Hampshire UK
jay clock said:
I agree about Ebay - unless you are very experienced it is easy get confused. I am bidding on a bike for my daughter to take to uni, and her assessment of what looks nice is, in almost every case, wrong.

I would go to Decathlon if you can and spend a couple of hundred on a hybrid (flat bars, but skinny tyres on road wheels) and get out and ride it for a few months. If you love it and use it a lot, then save up and spend about £500 on a nice road bike. Keep the hybrid as a back up, for errands etc.

Alternatively, not a road bike but I can strongly recommend a Carrera Subway - the Subway 1 is fine. About £170, great run around, could take slimmer tyres to speed up, but I have one, 3 years old now, it is done over 5000k and is superb. Admittedly I have upgraded lots of stuff, but it is a great bike for commuting, pottering etc, but has also handled a 100k road ride.
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Can I just say that was possibly my first ever post? And hopefully a record for resurrection of an oldie?
 
lesley_x

lesley_x

Über Member
Location
Glasgow
If you want a road bike for £250 you'll need to head to Decathlon or buy something second hand. Bike fitting for a road bike is a little more complex and I would recommend only buying something you can try out. Get the fit wrong and buy something that isn't right for you and it could put you off for life. For that reason the best solution would be to up your budget and go to a 'proper' bike shop where they will fit it for you, or get it on finance if that's not possible. But I appreciate you may not want to do either of those things.

Consider what you're going to use it for. I started off with a hybrid and certainly don't regret that, but I 'upgraded' very rapidly (probably within 6 months) to a road bike (for information I bought a Specialized Secteur Comp and it's still a great bike 3-4 years on)

That said, my road bike has limitations in that it's for the road! I live near a lot of good off road areas but found I wanted drop bars and the position of a road bike for long distance. The road bike wasn't the right bike to do that with so I bought a cyclocross and sold the hybrid. Haven't looked back since.

So consider exactly where you want to ride and if you need something for on and off road.
 
winjim

winjim

Smash the cistern
lesley_x said:
If you want a road bike for £250 you'll need to head to Decathlon or buy something second hand. Bike fitting for a road bike is a little more complex and I would recommend only buying something you can try out. Get the fit wrong and buy something that isn't right for you and it could put you off for life. For that reason the best solution would be to up your budget and go to a 'proper' bike shop where they will fit it for you, or get it on finance if that's not possible. But I appreciate you may not want to do either of those things.

Consider what you're going to use it for. I started off with a hybrid and certainly don't regret that, but I 'upgraded' very rapidly (probably within 6 months) to a road bike (for information I bought a Specialized Secteur Comp and it's still a great bike 3-4 years on)

That said, my road bike has limitations in that it's for the road! I live near a lot of good off road areas but found I wanted drop bars and the position of a road bike for long distance. The road bike wasn't the right bike to do that with so I bought a cyclocross and sold the hybrid. Haven't looked back since.

So consider exactly where you want to ride and if you need something for on and off road.
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I think if the OP hasn't made their mind up by now, then cycling's probably not for them :laugh:
 
Widge

Widge

Baldy Go
Oooops..........

Always pays to check the OP's post date! Hopefully they got themselves sorted one way or another........although the advice to get thyself hence to Decathlon is good in principle. Sadly...the heady days of picking up a red Triban 3 are now over.....but.............

fonts were smaller in 2007.
 
thefensman

thefensman

Active Member
Location
HARTLEPOOL. NORTHEAST ENGLAND
Hi kovu, a great deal of GOOD info already given but thought i,d offer my two bobs worth. In my opinion how much you spend is not an issue, as a newby my first bike was £40 saracen mtb that was built like a bomb shelter that did the job and got me started. Then bought a used Carrera Kraken which still not a light weight was a vast improvement, i still use it as my fowl weather bike and have spent a bit on up grades. Original cost of £120. So still cheap. First road bike is another Carrera ( see were i,m going here) which was £180 but i,ve upgraded everything but the frame, all over time and mostly using parts of internet as and when I had funds. I ride it regularly on 40/50 milers and I love it. My point is use all the info from other peoples posts regarding type of bike and riding you wish to do and try as many bikes out at lbs as possible and you,ll soon have a resonable idea of what size/ type etc is best going to suit you, and remember you dont NEED to spend a fortune to get the bike thats the best starter for you. Hope this helps.
 
winjim

winjim

Smash the cistern
thefensman said:
Hi kovu, a great deal of GOOD info already given but thought i,d offer my two bobs worth. In my opinion how much you spend is not an issue, as a newby my first bike was £40 saracen mtb that was built like a bomb shelter that did the job and got me started. Then bought a used Carrera Kraken which still not a light weight was a vast improvement, i still use it as my fowl weather bike and have spent a bit on up grades. Original cost of £120. So still cheap. First road bike is another Carrera ( see were i,m going here) which was £180 but i,ve upgraded everything but the frame, all over time and mostly using parts of internet as and when I had funds. I ride it regularly on 40/50 milers and I love it. My point is use all the info from other peoples posts regarding type of bike and riding you wish to do and try as many bikes out at lbs as possible and you,ll soon have a resonable idea of what size/ type etc is best going to suit you, and remember you dont NEED to spend a fortune to get the bike thats the best starter for you. Hope this helps.
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Speaking of using all the info from other people's posts... have you read the whole thread?
 
winjim

winjim

Smash the cistern
Elmer Fudd said:
PING !! Kovu,
Please Please PLEASE adjust your font size, my eyesight aint what it was ! ;)
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victor said:
Just hold down your left Ctrl key and move the mouse scroll wheel forwards :thumbsup:.
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Widge said:
Oooops..........

Always pays to check the OP's post date!

fonts were smaller in 2007.
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I've a feeling that by trying to point out the time-lapse in this thread, I'm merely bumping it, and thereby perpetuating said temporal confusion...
 
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