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

Marvt74 said:
I got a little carried away on that one and ended up with the Elite Direto
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So you've got the Direto? Good choice if so, a sound & solid investment which you'll not need to replace for many years. New Tacx Flux owner here which I got for around £50 cheaper than you got your Direto, but also coming from 2 older & cheaper trainers over several years of use. If I'd have spotted that Direto deal, I'd have got one! :o

I'd go with the Pinnacle, it's within your (now lower) budget, is a sound investment as a well regarded and solid setup for the money. Has mounts and guards for possible future use as a commuter, which also increase it's future resell value and/or use as a winter hack.

Don't forget your primary aim is to get a bike you can easily put on the trainer to get riding, with the possibility of future outside riding. Cheapness and ease of use should be your main purchase considerations. Going for simple rim brakes as lets face it you don't need them on the turbo, meaning investment in discs are a waste if you never ride it away from the trainer. Same could be said for investment in a racier frame, or carbon, or nicer wheels, or wide tyre support. It's all superfluous if you get the bike and only use it on the trainer (which lets face it, is your primary aim).

Save your money for future investment, or other kit (shorts!). There's little point investing it now with a 'what if' mindset as when (if) you get to the stage of wanting to ride outside as your primary over the trainer, you'll be several months down the line, several kg's lighter with much more interest in riding. You'll relish buying an 'outside' race/faster bike and probably be far more willing to invest more money in it as you'll be enjoying cycling! :D
 
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.
 
Marvt74 said:
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.
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Me and Roady have a giant defy and I think he would agree, for a first bike they are brilliant.
 
Marvt74 said:
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.
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Be careful and read the small print in the Vitality offer. I did the same last year spent just over £2k on a road bike expecting to get a good chunk back from Vitality to be told that as I'd paid using vouchers (for which I'd received at a discount) the vitality offer wasn't valid......still not told the wife !

edit, should have read the whole post first.
 
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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!
 
Sounds like the indexing is ever so slightly off. It is probably a minor adjustment in cable tension to whichever derailleur is making the noise. if you add / remove tension then you should hear a change in the noise in one direction and the other direction will probably make it worse with the chain jumping etc.
 
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