Recommend me a Road Bike

CrimsonAvenger

CrimsonAvenger

CrimsonAvenger

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Joined
19 Oct 2002
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Highbridge
Fairly new to this and have been using a friends bike for the past couple of months. Now looking to get my own now.

I'm now signed up to a couple of sportives and a tri too. So the bike needs to cover both of these plus the usual weekend stuff. Won't be used for commute.

I've got up to 2k to spend but I'm not sure how much difference I as a mere newbie will see between a £1300 carbon based bike and a £2000 one.

Based in Bristol and would rather use a local retailer with setup experience to make sure I can get a demonstration and get it setup correctly for me. Don't really want to buy online...

I'm around 5'10, weighing around 71kg (just over 11st)

I've obviously been reading as much as I can and picking friends brains too, as well as looking at things such as Cycling Plus mag reviews.

Suggestions welcome...hopfully I've covered the info needed :)

Thanks in advance
 
For £2k the workd is your oyster.

However, rather than get reviews I'd find somewhere local to you that offers bike fitting and can give recommendations on the right geometry for you.

Fit is vital if you want to maximise your power, comfort and enjoyment. Fit depends on your proportions and flexibility. The best bike for you is the one that fits the best.

Bike Science in Bristol (a random googled example) offer a Retul fitting at a number of prices depending on whether you are going to buy a bike from them or not. The fitting should give you an idea of which frames will suit you.

Paying for a fitting may seem like a needless expense but it will serve you better than any number of equipment upgrades or expensive frames. There is no better bang for buck in cycling than a decent fitting.
 
Deffo get a fitting. It could cost a couple of hundred, depending on the service, but given your budget, you needn't worry about that, particularly as the difference between an £1.8k bike and a £2k is not going to be vast.

For £2k less fit costs you can get what you like, bikewise. You can go for a high end aluminium bike like the Cannondale CAAD10, or go for carbon and it'll still be very fancy.

Does the £2k have to cover some kit and accessories as well? Decent shorts can run to over £100, a decent jacket likewise, good jerseys can be £50 each, a Garmin is £200 or so... You could spend £500 on extra clobber without blinking.

If you're doing sportives, then you might prefer a more relaxed fit on the bike, rather than a serious business racer, so that puts you in the territory of things like the Bianchi C2C range, Specialised Secteur, Trek Domane... For the triathlon, unless you're really worried about going seriously fast, you can probably make do with just the bike as it comes, or you can get clip on tri bars if you want.
 
Got quite a lot of the kit already so the 2k is just for the bike really.

I can also pick up some of the other kit via my normal paypacket.

Like I said 2 sportives booked and the tri...not too worried about the tri bars as its classed as a sprint tri - only 25k on the bike.
 
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