Road Cycling Essentials

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Vonhelmet said:
Right, forward planning time...

I'm starting to look around at bikes. I'm planning to sign up for Cycle2work at the start of October (that's when our benefits come up for renewal at work) so that gives me a few months to do a bit of research. So, any particular guidance on what I should be looking for?

I'm planning to commute 3 days a week to begin with. It's a 13 mile journey each way, pretty flat, and I'd be doing it all on roads or cycle paths. I'll also be using the bike for leisure rides at the weekends, and the odd sportive event here and there. I doubt I'll get into any serious touring for a few years yet, but it will get used for a variety of things.

Budget wise, Cycle2work will stretch to up to £1,000, but I'd prefer to go for more like the £800 mark in terms of the deductions from my salary, and I'll need some of the cash for lights, lock, etc.

With the above in mind, I've been looking at road bikes costing in the region of £600-700. So far, 2 bikes that have caught my eye are the Boardman Road Race and the Giant Defy 2, although the 2012 Defy 2 looks to be right at the top end of my price bracket, so I guess I'd need to know if the 2011 model is worth going for instead?

Cycle2work is done through Halfords, so obviously that's going to push me towards Carerra, Boardman, etc, but they do say they can source pretty much anything, though the question then is how much they can reasonably get other bikes in for.

Any thoughts at this stage would be much appreciated!
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Halfords claim that they can source any bike but, from experience, they really can't. Or at least they can't source any 'big' brands that i know of. When i wanted a bike other than a boardman I asked for a Giant, Cannondale, Trek, Specialized and a couple of others, they came back with a no for all of them.

With that said my Boardman Road Team is excellent, but i had to spend a few hours setting it up myself as they totally cocked it up. Really basic things such as the brake calipers being misaligned so they were rubbing on one side, they were under-tensioned which meant (due to the very small brake clearance) that the bottom of the calliper rubbed on the tyre, one of the pads was so badly aligned it barely touched the rim. The stem and seatpost were under tightened, the gears weren't set up correctly and kept skipping, the outer limiter screw for the front mech wasn't opened up enough so the chain rubbed and the bottom bracket started creaking within the first 20 miles of riding it. Again though, after all of these issues had been resolved by myself it hasn't missed a beat. I'd advise buying it boxed and asking your local bike shop to build it tbh, only costs roughly £50 but is well worth it for the peace of mind.
 
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Oh dear :(

Just watching the news just now and there's an item on about a new helmet design that Team GB will be riding at the olympics (in the track events). Dont have any details yet because the info hasnt been shown but they gave the headline about it.

"Can this new helmet propel Team GB to a record haul of gold medals at London 2012"

:rolleyes: Why do they have to hype things up so much? I'm sure the details of the new helmet will be interesting enough without all the "OMG WE ARE GOING TO WIN EVERYTHING" hype. There is no way we will beat the medal numbers that we got in bejing (partly due to reduced team numbers and partly due to reduced number of events).
 
Cheers for the help folks.

Reading around a bit more it does seem that while it's OK getting the bike from Halfords, it's best getting someone else to set it up.

It seems I'll struggle to get Tiagra gear on a bike in my price bracket, though the Boardman Road Comp has a bunch of SRAM clobber on it if that's any good. The shifters sound a bit weird though, with the double tapping business.

I'll keep looking around... I gather there's likely to be sales in the Autumn, with it being end of season, so maybe something good will pop up at a good price.
 
Do you work for PwC Von? When I was looking at our bike scheme it only worked out a tiny bit cheaper given that you have to pay the company back some money at the end and a lot of companies get 10% off at halfords anyway. For me it was have it now or save 50 quid and have it in 4 months time. I chose now.
 
Heres my latest torture machine......

20120704_232503.jpg


Not been out on it as weather here in Aberdeen has been rather poor and am trying to psych myself up for the 7 mile commute to work and back and the hill climbs that are involved in that.

From the ride home from the shop on it, have to say I like it a lot. Very light (complared to my last bike which I am sure was the Ark Royal with some pedals on the side) and nippy too.

First 'proper' raod bike in absolutely ages (25 years maybe) and also first one with clip pedals. Bit weird using clips for the first time, but kind of got the hang of it. Just need to adjust the cleats a wee bit as am slighty too much toe in for my liking at the moment.
 
I'm quite a fan of pink bikes. A guy used to come along to some of our chaingangs on a pink planet-x. He used to get a fair bit of stick for it (in a friendly, joking way) but i always thought it was a good look.

The problem is that, as a guy, you need to be fast to pull it off. Getting dropped is bad enough, but getting dropped whilst riding a pink bike doesnt bear thinking about. But if you're strong enough, sitting at the front of the group giving everyone behind you a hard time whilst on a pink bike is a supercool look IMO

(guess you wont be having that problem tho ;))
 
Arsey said:
Do you work for PwC Von? When I was looking at our bike scheme it only worked out a tiny bit cheaper given that you have to pay the company back some money at the end and a lot of companies get 10% off at halfords anyway. For me it was have it now or save 50 quid and have it in 4 months time. I chose now.
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I do, yeah.

I've done the maths, and it works out at around 70-80% of the price for me. Maybe the way PwC handle the final payment bit helps. Rather than having to buy it from them, they deduct £50 and give it to you, and you pay the tax on the value of the gift. That cuts things down a fair bit.

For me, the main advantage is getting the bike now and paying later. I currently get a season ticket loan, so it works out at a similar cost, but I'll pay less and get a bike out of it.

I'll have to look at whether I get money off at Halfords just by virtue of working there. I've already found that if I become a member of British Cycling for £24 I can get 10% off at Halfords, so that seems a no-brainer.
 
Shelster said:
Heres my latest torture machine......
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That looks perfect for a work colleague of mine who picked her bike up on Saturday.
We're both on the Cycle to Work scheme and she smirked when I said I'd been to 3 Pro shops to be sized up and get proper advice and of course using this forum for advice.
I didn't say much except that I thought for her 7 mile commute she needed a road bike or hybrid and not a heavy MTB with tractor tyres.
Her husband dropped her off to work on Monday morning and she rode home on Monday evening.
I asked her on Tuesday how she went on and she had managed to go 4 miles before ringing her husband up and she now realises she made the wrong choice.
 
It is actually red......colour seems to have been a bit washed out in the picture. That will teach me to use my tab to take pics and not a proper camera. A decent picture can be found here.

That said, it does look ok in pink......:eek::D;)
 
Such a good ride last night! (ooer). 32 miles at 18.6mph, with a few hills.

I'm loving my new clipless pedals, although I did fall off on my first trip using them! Clipped in my right foot, moved forwards to see if it was clear, tried to put my right foot down and went straight down, luckily I had the presence of mind to hold the bike up in the air and take the impact myself...
 
Dimple said:
That looks perfect for a work colleague of mine who picked her bike up on Saturday.
We're both on the Cycle to Work scheme and she smirked when I said I'd been to 3 Pro shops to be sized up and get proper advice and of course using this forum for advice.
I didn't say much except that I thought for her 7 mile commute she needed a road bike or hybrid and not a heavy MTB with tractor tyres.
Her husband dropped her off to work on Monday morning and she rode home on Monday evening.
I asked her on Tuesday how she went on and she had managed to go 4 miles before ringing her husband up and she now realises she made the wrong choice.
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Is it salvageable with smaller tyres on it? Or is it going to languish in the shed from now on?

In other news, if the bike doesn't get used for commuting, she doesn't qualify for the tax breaks, though I can't imagine anyone ever gets found out for that.
 
Vonhelmet said:
It seems I'll struggle to get Tiagra gear on a bike in my price bracket, though the Boardman Road Comp has a bunch of SRAM clobber on it if that's any good. The shifters sound a bit weird though, with the double tapping business.
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That's what I have, albeit SRAM Rival rather than Apex. I don't have much comparison but I found the DoubleTap very easy to both get used to and use on a daily basis. I don't even think about it now and genuinely had to think about what DoubleTap was when you mentioned it.

I'm sure you've done your research but there's more info here: http://www.sram.com/sram/road/technologies/doubletap_r

Oh and I posted it earlier but TDF452 will get you 10% off any road bike from Halfords, plus you can get 3% off via Quidco.
 
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I've got Sram on my bikes; Force shifters on both with a Force groupset on the weekender and Apex on the commuter. I much prefer them to my previous Shimano 105 and Ultegra.

Doubletap is fine, it's just an alternative may of shifting like Shimano with it's seperate levers and Campag with it's thumb shifting. You get used to any of them very quickly.
 
sram here too, apex all round with rival rear derailur
I've never used shimano or campag but find it fine!

odd, the front derailur isn't a sram on that bike!
 
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Vonhelmet said:
I do, yeah.

I've done the maths, and it works out at around 70-80% of the price for me. Maybe the way PwC handle the final payment bit helps. Rather than having to buy it from them, they deduct £50 and give it to you, and you pay the tax on the value of the gift. That cuts things down a fair bit.

For me, the main advantage is getting the bike now and paying later. I currently get a season ticket loan, so it works out at a similar cost, but I'll pay less and get a bike out of it.

I'll have to look at whether I get money off at Halfords just by virtue of working there. I've already found that if I become a member of British Cycling for £24 I can get 10% off at Halfords, so that seems a no-brainer.
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It's 10% off vouchers via Xexec :)

You could then use the code Russinating posted above to get a further 10% off, meaning the only real benefit of cycle to work is the interest free loan.
 
Arsey said:
It's 10% off vouchers via Xexec :)

You could then use the code Russinating posted above to get a further 10% off, meaning the only real benefit of cycle to work is the interest free loan.
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Which if you can be bothered can be bettered by a 0% interest free credit card with cashback.
 
Hmmm... Lots of options then...

10% work discount on the vouchers
10% code above
10% if I join British Cycling for £24
3% Quidco cashback
Credit card cashback

Versus:

No tax/NIC
Interest free loan
10% free accessories

I'm going to need a spreadsheet.
 
What bike are you looking at again (Halfords linky)?

Got my 2011 HTC kit today from Prendas but the jersey is too big and the bibs are too small. Argh! How can I possibly be an XL in bib shorts when I'm 5ft 7" and weigh 11st?
 
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