What bike?

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vicp

New Member
Location
Glasgow
Hi there,

I'm wanting to get into cycling and I've been bamboozled as to what bike to get. My last bike was a Raleigh Max mountain bike which was bought about 15 years ago and was taken to the skip when I moved house a month ago as it was very rusty and hadn't been used for many years! I'm a little nervous about cycling on the roads as haven't done much at all but I am quite fit as I do other sports so I expect after a bit of practice I should be fine but I have never used drop handle bars.

I initially thought I wanted a tourer as I have an ambition of doing John O'Groats to Lands End (probably next summer) so want a bike that I can use everyday but would be up to a longer trip. Depending how I much I enjoy it, I may perhaps do a bit more touring but until I start cycling I wont know. I thought I would probably use the bike mostly on roads for commuting and weekend cycling which could involve some light offroading.

I went into a couple of bike shops last week and were given some suggestions:

Dawes KaraKum
Ridgeback Voyager
Genesis Vapour

The Vapour is a bit beyond my price bracket as would have to add rack and mud guards on top of the £849 price.

After reading other posts on here, I think a cyclocross would be the best option for it's versatility but would it be up to doing JOGLE? I don't want to buy a bike now and then have to get another one next year. I have been thinking about the Specialized Tricross which would be within my budget at £699. But have read that the brakes are a bit scary. Another option would be Giant TCX which my budget could just about stretch to.

Any thoughts, suggestions or advice would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

Vic
 

RyanW

The abominable Bikeman
Location
Ashford, Kent
The Kona Jake (09) is currently on offer at evans, the one you showed has 2300 set-up which is the very bottom end in terms of spec, if i were you doing such long distances i would want something a bit more robust / reliable such as the tiagra that come son the kona

http://www.evanscycles.com/products/kona/jake-2009-cyclo-cross-bike-ec017277

at £200 off its a steal (549.99)
 

g00se

Veteran
Location
Norwich
True cyclecross bikes are set up for very short fast races and may not be comfortable for long runs. Also, check to see if the place where you work runs a 'ride to work' scheme as you can save 40-50% on the price of a bike through it. And if they don't, see if they might.
 
Right then, you will probably get loads of replies from folk far more experienced than me, but you must (in my opinion) consider yourself a 'newbie'. All those 'other' sports may or may not be beneficial to a long-haul ride such as that that you are considering. It may well be next year but it is still only months away. Firstly I would strongly suggest that you get yourself properly fitted to a bike. You seem to have a limited budget but even so there are some nice bikes to be had up to £500.....think Claud Butler or Dawes....not top range bikes by any means but very, very good and probably more importantly, reliable. So, get fitted, buy a saddle that you are comfortable sitting on, buy some panniers and away you go. It's not rocket science. The TriCross is an excellent bike but maybe more than you need in this instance (it has a reputation for juddering brakes but I have found Spesh-fitted brakes to be sound after the odd adjustment)
 
OP
OP
V

vicp

New Member
Location
Glasgow
Thanks guys for your suggestions and advice. Yes I am most definately a 'newbie' as I don't think I can count cycling in the gym!

I've been to a couple of smaller bike shops so far that don't seem to have much selection. I've got a couple more shops that I'm going to go into and have a look at and hopefully give a few bikes a try. There's an Evans near me so will have a look at the Pinnacle, thanks Ryan. I'm desperate to get a bike asap as I don't have my car at the moment but don't want rush into it and end up with the wrong bike.
 
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