What road bike for £500 ish

[peza]

Hi
Am new to the forum so be gentle with me.

For the last few years i have been riding a Scott roadster with straight bars. I'm now looking to get myself a new bike and am thinking of getting dropped bars, but am not sure what to go for.

The bike will be for road use and just for pleasure.

I have around £500 to spend, but can stretch a little.
I have been considering Scott speedster, Giant OCR, Specilalized Allez and just need a bit of advice to push me over the edge to buy one.
I have not sat on any of these bikes so that may also be a deciding factor.

I have just moved to the North East part of Northern Ireland, can anyone reccommend a good bike shop in this area.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated

 

[Young Un]

Giant scr 2 is a little over your budget at £550 but worth a look i reckon

 

[RedBike]

Scott speedster: Scotts makes some great bikes but they always seem rather expensive to me. I suppose you're paying a premium for the Scott name. I've never tried the Speedster but on paper it's typical Soctt, over-priced / poorly spec'd.

OCR:
Giant have stopped making the OCR and 'replaced' it with the SCR. The SCR is quite different though. It has a rather upright ride and is aimed more at comfort than speed. Giant still do the TCRs which have the same sort of geometry as the OCR used to; but you probably wont find one new for £500, perhaps £700.

Specilalized Allez:
I used to have a Specialized Tarmac for a bit. It was a very comfortable bike (and quick) Specialized claimed this was all down to something called Zert inserts they'd put in the forks. Apparently the Allez has these same inserts.

At £500 the over whelming majority of the bikes you'll look at will come with Sora shifters. I've never been a big fan of these levers; and would strongly recommend that you find a bike that comes with either Tiagra shifters or one of the Campag groupsets (xenon).

 

[Dayvo]

I personally like the look of this:

http://www.evanscycles.com/product.jsp?style=86588

Before long I hope to own one (need a permanent base - having three+ bikes is difficult to carry around with me).
Need to find out if a treble chainring is preferable to a double!

 

[Dayvo]

Welcome to the CC forum, by the way!

 

[peza]

Thanks for the replies. I will have a look at my optons and thanks very much for the advice.

 

[gbb]

The worlds your oyster Peza..
Just about every mainstream manufacturer has an entry level bike in that (well, maybe a bit more) price bracket.

I dont believe theres a bad one in that group, theyre all more or less the same, so it comes down to personal preferences.

I love Bianchi...just got the new C2C Via Nirone with Xenon 10 speed, everyone at work (non cyclists, although i'm working on it ) loves it. I'm genuinely surprised how they've reacted.

Shimano Sora or Campag Xenon ? Both are good, again its down to preference.
Ive got Sora 8 speed on a Raleigh thats done 4000 miles plus...faultless.
Xenon 9 speed on my older Bianchi...again faultless for maybe 2000 miles.
Xenon 10 speed on the new one...and one thing i notice, it's a tad smoother shifting than the 9 speed.

It may not come into it, but ive seen some bikes, actually above that price bracket, with Shimano R500 (Tiagra) wheelsets. Personally, i wouldnt buy a new bike with that wheelset. They're fine as a cheap commuting wheel, look quite good and run well....but they flex and its just a bit annoying. I've got cheaper more basic wheels on my Raleigh, but they dont flex. I wouldnt want them on whats going to be my pride and joy.

Look at them all. You'll know the one when you see it.
Even my missus knew when she saw my face . The guy in the LBS suggested a different colour...she said to him...no...thats the one, thats the one he'll take.

 

[gkilner]

Giant scr 2 is a little over your budget at £550 but worth a look i reckon

This is available from Cyclexpress for £490.50(Incl the 10% off promotion)

Not a bad price.

 

[Mortiroloboy]

This is available from Cyclexpress for £490.50(Incl the 10% off promotion)

Not a bad price.

That's a 'no brainer' get it ordered

 

[Mortiroloboy]

But it's got Shimano

Yes, it has and, there's nothing wrong with Shimano, it works perfectly well, I just prefer Campagnolo

And peza can always change to the better componentry in time:0)

 

[Bob_betty]

I purchased a Ridgeback Flight T3 for £500 in May and found it to be superb!
super light, easy to ride and once I replaced the saddle and original peddals(they wereto small so changed them to mountain bike style ones).

I'm 5ft 11" and gone from 20 miles to 30 the following week then 45miles a week later on this bike! and I aint no athlete either, at over 18stone!

Saying that at £500 what ever you choose aslong as its not from Halfords, you should be fine.

 

[peza]

Thanks or the advice guys, i think it's going to be the Giant i go for unless anyone comes up with another option.

 

[peza]

Hi again
Just as i was going to order myself a Giant scr 2.
I have since found out that i can get a bike on the cycle to work scheme.
So what bike would you suggest for £1000.

 

[The Jogger]

one that fits ;-)

 

[Ludwig]

You could get a superb lightweight steel classic bike for a lot less than £500 and the build quality will be far better than most modern bikes. See the excellent classicrendezvous site for the classic marques to look for.