Need a Road Bike (Needs to be from Evans Cycles)

Martynt74

Martynt74

Martynt74

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I touched on this a little in the Zwift thread.

I've bought a turbo trainer (Kickr Snap) and am now looking for a bike to use with it. At the moment my only intention is to use it with the trainer and i know i could just pick the cheapest as it would work the same.
However i'm trying to think of future proofing should i want to go out in the real world.

The reason for Evans is that i can get 50% off through my health insurance on a bike from there. I can also exchange Tesco clubcard vouchers for double rewards at Evans giving me around £50. Plus using topcashback and Zeek i've worked out that a £600 bike would actually only cost me around £170 when everything is taken into account. There's also an extra tenner off for collecting an online order.

I made the following table which works out roughly the net cost for me for each price point (i'd still have to pay pretty much the Evans price up front though and the Vitality is through a rebate scheme)

I've decided i don't really want to spend any more that £700 upfront and figure that should get me a decent bike.

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I went into a local store last night and the Pinnacle Dolomite 3 looked quite good and came recommended by the sale guy. I just wanted to get opinions from people on here as there's also quite a few bikes in the clearance section.

I'd guess i'm between a large/x large at 6"3, and if it matters i'm currently around 107kg although that needs to get back to around 90kg in the near future.

EDIT - Just re-checked and the 7% top cash back has ended, must've been a one off. It's now only 2% so the net cost will be slightly higher by around £10-£30 which is ok.
 
Yeah the Pinnacle seemed to be very highly rated by the guy in the shop.

I have found myself looking at a Bianchi for £899 but i think i need to reign myself in for the time being.

My other issue is that having made an effort to organise the shed to make room, it's in a terrible state and i'm not sure it's really suitable for anything other than storage at the moment. We're also in the process of moving house so i'm not sure i want to spend too much time/money sorting it all out.

This idea might need parking until i move.
 
Cheers, i had seen that along with the Ventura Comp (cheaper)

Would i get any extra benefit from something like an Adventure/Hybrid/Cyclocross (All these things look to be the same). Given roads are generally pretty crap in the UK and i'm not likely to be entering any races to need the best road bike pace.


Also if i was to change and swap my Kickr Snap for a direct drive trainer. Can i use the cassette that would come with the bike or would i need a separate one?

Thirdly - Given the shed is looking a no go for actual use. I was thinking of storing the bike in the shed and then just bringing it into the backroom when i use it. How long do the turbos take to set up and do they need calibrating every time?
 
I'm happy to do that if you can suggest any particular models?

I had been eyeing up the Cannondale Synapse at £849

I do have to pay the actual price upfront and then i get the 50% back quarterly but £900 is doable.


EDIT - Because of my level i only get 50% off up to £800 so anything above that would be capped at a rebate of £400.

A £900 bike would end up costing me £387 compared to an £800 bike costing me £290. Does that still make it worth going for a £900 model?
 
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I'm just thinking to save a bit of cash upfront whilst i'm only planning on indoor use. A cassette looks to be about £40 from what i can see? Before i go outdoors i think i'll need to spend around another £100ish anyway to buy stuff like a helmet, lights, bottle holders etc.
 
Balls, after actually checking my Vitality account i got mixed up with the levels. I'm only Silver so only get 50% up to £600 (so max rebate is £300)

As such i'm going to pull the budget back to around £600 which would cost me £195. Going up to £700 increases the cost to £295 which i could possibly go to if it was really worth it.

Ok, think this is my shortlist. If anyone could take a look through and let me know which they'd go for given the situation. One thing for me to consider would be re-sale value. As my membership level increases with activity i'll earn bigger discounts. If i decide i love cycling and want a better bike i could sell on and buy something better. Whilst given my discounts i can probably expect to sell it on at cost/profit. Ease of resale would be good.

Focus Cayo Al Sora 2017 - £175 - https://www.evanscycles.com/focus-cayo-al-sora-2017-road-bike-EV308650

Trek Domane - £220 - https://www.evanscycles.com/trek-domane-al-2-2018-road-bike-EV311989

Cube Attain - £242 - https://www.evanscycles.com/cube-attain-2018-road-bike-EV319175

Jamis Ventura Comp - £252 - https://www.evanscycles.com/jamis-ventura-comp-2018-road-bike-EV306033

Pinnacle Laterite 3 - £292 - https://www.evanscycles.com/pinnacle-laterite-3-2018-road-bike-EV299415

Cannondale Synapse - £316 - https://www.evanscycles.com/cannondale-synapse-alloy-tiagra-6-disc-2016-road-bike-EV239411
 
Also in typical stupid man style, i have convinced myself a direct drive trainer is a better option. Especially given it'll be used indoors (noise issues) and it won't be a permanent setup so setting up a direct drive should be faster with less need for re-calibration each time, compared to the wheel on Kickr Snap
 
My mind works in mysterious ways :)

On a serious note, if i could buy a static indoor trainer i could use with zwift etc i'd be all over it but i can't seem to see any that are less than £1500.

Given my revised lack of discounts (i can't even buy cheap gift cards as Vitality won't accept a receipt paid in gift cards). I'm now considering looking at used bikes, from looking i think £300-£400 looks to get me something much better than a brand new £600-£700 bike.
 
That’s a long and great post Roady.

I actually bought a Giant Defy last night on eBay. I’d been monitoring eBay for a while and because most are collection only it seems to hold the prices down.

My Evans discount only works once every 3 years so I thought id save that until I was willing to spend more.

Im in the Lakes at the moment so can’t collect for a while but looking forward to getting it all setup.
 
Haha yeah. I was very lucky in that I spotted a post on another forum which made me realise that.

Could’ve got nasty if I’d spent £800 expecting £400 back only to not get it!

My wife’s not happy I’ve spent about £700 already on all this!
 
As i posted in the Zwift thread but just to close this off a bit.

Picked the bike up on Saturday, the bike came with some clip on pedals and he gave me his trainers. They don't fit me so i'll be selling them on with the pedals (is there much of a market for them? They're Shimano pedals and Muddy Fox shoes)

The bike is only 8 speed (3x8) and all the direct drive trainers seem to suggest they need 9, 10 or 11 speed cassettes. I rang Evans who advised it should work ok but i might need to use a spacer. Went into the Preston store and the guy dug out a spacer for me and even removed the cassette saving me having to battle with that. He also took the pedals off for me. Because the bike had been sat for a long time everything was seized up so was glad they tackled it as i'd have probably been worried about using too much force and breaking something.

I bought some pedals which they fitted, more expensive than i'd have expected but was there and didn't want to delay things buying online, also bought some wet lube for the chain and a tool to re-tighten the cassette on the trainer (no idea of the name)

Got home and unboxed the trainer. Opened the instructions and was greeted by lots of confusion around "bike lingo". Managed to get things setup and i think it's all done properly. It seems fairly stable.

Got it all paired with Zwift and started cycling. I like the interaction. But i need to get a phone mount sorted as i was holding the phone in my hands whilst pedaling so couldn't really change gears!
I'd also been using a static bike last week in the gym and set on a hill program i didn't have to think about gears so that will be a learning curve. When i did change gears it all seemed very clunky. Last night i spent some time googling techniques for smooth gear changing and about avoiding cross chaining and things so will see if that helps. Otherwise would it be worth getting someone to service it?

I've also bought a slightly faulty 40" tv. It has some dead pixels in the bottom corner so was only £30. Have also ordered a cheap Apple TV. Will see if it actually turns up but otherwise im going to use my phone and airplay to a Firestick.

Also i was used to a nice soft seat in the gym. Will i ever get used to the narrow hard thing on this bike!
 
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