Spec me a road bike up to £1000

Ben Cole

Ben Cole

Ben Cole

Soldato
Joined
24 Feb 2003
Posts
3,084
Location
Porthcawl and Southampton
Buying a road bike on the cycle to work scheme. Went into Hargroves Winchester and the chap suggested a Canondale or a Cube.

Both looked nice but I don't know anything about road bikes. At the moment I use my brother's old Claud Butler which is around 15 years old so I'm sure anything would be a nice improvement in comfort. Don't do any more than about 35 miles on a regular basis but I suppose that might increase if the bike is comfortable enough.

Any suggestions?
 
In terms of what scheme it is, I don't really know what you mean. All I know is that it's salary sacrifice so I save a big chunk.

In terms of retailers I'd rather stick to Hargroves for convenience.

I will be using it for exercise basically, for longer distance than I'd use my hybrid for.

Vonhelmet said:
In any case, a grand will get you a carbon fibre frame and 105 kit, which is pretty solid.
Click to expand...

I seem to remember the two he showed me were aluminium frame with carbon forks.
 
Well, there's a lot of variation within road bikes. There's race bikes, which have you sitting quite far forward on the bike in an attempt to get the most aerodynamic position possible. This might not be the best choice if you're not already used to a road bike position as it can take a bit of flexibility and core strength to maintain for long periods of time. There's endurance/sportive bikes, which are more relaxed and designed to be comfortable when spending lots of hours in the saddle. There's some in between. There's cross/adventure/gravel bikes, which have the drop bars and riding position of a road bike, but the wide tyre clearance of a hybrid which makes it more comfortable, better at handling extra weight if you needed to carry stuff for commuting or touring and better able to handle off road tracks and such.

Most of these options might come with disc brakes, which have more stopping power and more consistent performance in the wet but they're harder to maintain by yourself. Groupset wise, I'd say for the money you should probably looking at Tiagra as a minimum. Others will probably say 105, but Tiagra was updated this year and it's now very similar in quality to 105, the main difference is that it's 10 speed vs 11 speed.

A few picks:

http://www.hargrovescycles.co.uk/bikes/road-bikes/cannondale-synapse-alloy-105-2016-road-bike.html - well regarded endurance frame, but it is a lot of money for honestly not the best disc brakes.

http://www.hargrovescycles.co.uk/bi...dale-synapse-alloy-tiagra-2016-road-bike.html - probably a better deal on a Synapse

http://www.hargrovescycles.co.uk/bi...ed-allez-elite-dsw-orange-2016-road-bike.html - kind of an "in between" geometry, highly engineered alu frame that's probably competitive with low end carbon. Also in grey.

http://www.hargrovescycles.co.uk/bikes/road-bikes/cannondale-caad-8-105-2016-road-bike.html - a bit more of a race bike, but quite a relaxed one, some people seem to find it more comfortable than the Synapse

http://www.hargrovescycles.co.uk/bikes/road-bikes/scott-speedster-20-2016-road-bike.html - fairly aggressive geometry, but fast and well proven frame

http://www.hargrovescycles.co.uk/bikes/road-bikes/ridley-x-bow-10-disc-2016-cyclocross-bike.html - good price for a cross bike from one of the biggest names in the industry, not the lightest but 105, TRP Spyre brakes which are probably the best mechanical discs around and good quality wheels, which likely make much more of a noticable difference
 
Wow. Thanks guys, really appreciate the effort to post.

Certainly don't want a race bike. Really I'm after a compromise between comfort and efficiency.

I think it was the synapse AL105 that was suggested at the shop and the description sounds about right.

Not sure about the whole cyclocross thing. I'm m thinking its suitability would be a bit too close to my present usage of my hybrid ?
 
Well I'd still expect it to be a lot faster on the road than a hybrid, and more comfortable over longer distances. Faster still if you swapped out the tyres for slick 28s or something. But yes, there's not really anything you can do on your hybrid that you couldn't do on a cross bike. Would make it a bit redundant, but if you wanted one bike to do it all it's worth considering.
 
The Synapse is a pretty good deal tbh, but within the budget of C2W, from Hargroves I'd get the GT Grade 105 - the TRP HY/RD brakes are massively better than the Promax on the Cannondale.

Both are great value for money though :)
 
Ultimately though, it'll be down to you to pick a few you actually want to try out in the shop. All the advice we give is just general guidelines, you might find something is more comfortable or fits better or performs better than we say it should, or just looks better. But then you can decide for yourself which best fits your needs.
 
Thanks again all.

I've got plenty to go on here. I'll get my application in and go from there. If approved I'll try them out and decide which one to go for. Hargroves said I can change my mind as long as the voucher value is the same, I did this last time around with them.
 
Another recommendation would be the CAADX ( although slightly biased :p ) , I picked one up last year and absolutely love it! It's actually a cyclocross bike but i only use it on the road. The quality of the frame is great for the money and i find it far more comfortable and inspiring than my road bike. It's safe to say its not just my opinion too, it gets 5/5 reviews pretty much everywhere!

PR1_5446.jpg
 
alexisonfire said:
Another recommendation would be the CAADX ( although slightly biased :p ) , I picked one up last year and absolutely love it! It's actually a cyclocross bike but i only use it on the road. The quality of the frame is great for the money and i find it far more comfortable and inspiring than my road bike. It's safe to say its not just my opinion too, it gets 5/5 reviews pretty much everywhere!

PR1_5446.jpg
Click to expand...

Very nice, what's the difference between Cyclocross and Road?

OP - Is that budget including other gear or purely the bike?
 
Squidger said:
Very nice, what's the difference between Cyclocross and Road?

OP - Is that budget including other gear or purely the bike?
Click to expand...

The main differences between most cyclocross and road bikes are a more comfortable geometry, disc brakes instead of rim brakes, more robust wheels with all terrain tyres and generally speaking 11-28/46-36 cassette/chain ring instead of the normal compact used in most road bikes.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom