Advice on cheap first Road Bike

[mr tommo]

Hi,

Last year I decided that I'd start riding to work. I absolutely loved it although the only restriction I had was that my bike was a Giant mountain bike. To make do through the summer I bought my self some Road bike tyres and fitted them to my mountain bike It did the trick as a temporary measure!

So this year ideally I'd like to buy a road bike but a the very bottom end of the price range. The gearing was a problem on my mountain bike (obviously) and this year I'm looking at doing a couple of bike rikes (Liverpool - Chester) aswell as starting to cycle for fun with a friend.

What's peoples opinion on the Halfords road bikes? Specifically this Carrera TDF road bike - http://www.halfords.com/webapp/wcs/..._productId_786811_langId_-1_categoryId_165710

With cashback and discount I can get that bike for £265.

Are they any good? is there any other budget road bikes for that kind of price that are worth looking at? I'm just a summer rider so can't really justify spending £400-500 on a bike for a few months.

 

[mr tommo]

If you're talking Halfrauds stuff, make sure you've some experience/knowledge of the staff who work there before you buy.

If they know their stuff, fine, great, buy it - If they're numpties, stay well clear.

I'm not buying any more Halfords/Carrera bikes, purely because of the incompetence of the staff at my local store.

*Edit. Oh, almost forgot - its a Road bike. So added obligatory "yack, ewww, tyres too skinny, no suspension etc"

To be honest I have no idea about bikes myself so unless they put the seat on the wrong way I wouldn't have a clue anything was wrong

For that cash it's bloody brilliant.

Obviously it's never going to set the world alight and it's going to be relatively heavy, but it will do the job and parts should be robust and, if anything goes wrong, cheap to replace.

As has been mentioned, Halfords' spannerers aren't know to be the best so it's usually a good idea to book it into another bikeshop for a safety check / service as soon as you pick it up.

I kid you not.

It's going to be quicker than my mountain bike though right?
Can't really find much info about it to be honest on the net. Everything I have found seems to state that its really good value for money.

The way I see it is if I want to get a bt more serious I can look to buy a better bike in a couple of years. If its just going to be summer stints and for a bit of leisure then even better.

Would there be any parts on it that were worth upgrading? I'm not clued up on bike but anything that would make the ride/bike better for realtively small money?

 

[mr tommo]

I tried a set of clipless once in a friends back garden, after 2 falls I gave up! Will look into that once I get a bike although I might be commuting somedays so I'm not sure on that idea yet as I don't fancy carrying work shoes around in a bag.

I think once I get to the point where I want to upgrade parts I'll probably look at getting a new bike anyway.

I just asked about bike rides in the Essentials thread would it be possible to have a look as you seem to know your stuff!

 

[mr tommo]

Re: drop bars, surely it's the best of both worlds in that there's an upright position equivalent to the straight bars, but also the lower dropped position?

I've been looking on the Ribble website and am in serious danger of spending lots of cash...when all I probably need to do is buy some slick tyres and corresponding inner tubes! (Sorry for OT, but pending OP's return....meh )

mr tommo - did you really only try twice before giving up? *Slap*

Yup! Wasn't my bike so didn't want to keep trying. Seems this bike can be had for £216 now, it gets better

 

[mr tommo]

Only just seen your post. Ended up getting the one in my OP. Carrera TDF for £236 thanks to Burned Alive's voucher codes

Just ordered it an hour a go and will be ready for pick up tomorrow afternoon. I'll then be taking it straight down to my dads friend for him to check it over after some of the horror stories Ive read about Halfords!