Which road bike? £700 budget

Nazca

Nazca

Nazca

Associate
Joined
14 Sep 2005
Posts
1,555
Location
All over.
I want to buy my first road bike for commuting and leisure bike riding. I've got a budget of £700.

There's so many bikes and retailers that it's a bit overwhelming! I've got my eye on a few bikes:

B'Twin Alur 700 (£600)
Specialized Allez Sport 2015 (£600)
Fuji Roubaix 1.5 Road Bike (£635)

An extra 100 quid for Planet X Pro Carbon SRAM Apex (worth the extra?)

Out of the above the Alur seems like fantastic value with the 105 groupset. But, I'm concerned with the overall quality. At that price, surely something would have been compromised? The wheels?

Same with the Planet X. Is it a full carbon bike? Why so cheap?

Any opinions?

Cheers
 
If you're planning on commuting have you given thought to mudguards? I'm fairly sure some of those you've listed don't have eyelets and no mudguards is really sucky when commuting (and not great the rest of the time imo).
 
b'twin is quite a good value! tbh, probably the best you can get right now :) it is the older 105 groupo not the 5800! but that should not put you off :) it is still a great groupset! I've had b'twin triban 3 and it was perfect bar the wheels! but this seems to have a better(still b'twin) set on it so should be fine for 3-4k miles! :) I for e.g. have a topeak rc11 on my bike and it does the job when it comes to keeping my back and backpack dry! feet will get wet if it's wet enough anyway so meh.

here's my main bike with rc11 mudguard(not a lot of people like it but it's light and functional so for winter it is on my bike 100% of the time)



on that note.. PX just added this -;

http://www.planetx.co.uk/i/q/CBPXKAFF2DBTIA/planet-x-kaffenback-2-shimano-tiagra-drop-bar-road-bike
 
Last edited:
Mudguards are kind of overrated, imo. They're annoying to fit without having them rub on the tyres and they get in the way whenever you need to do maintenance. Never really seen the benefit either, especially if you've got an ass saver.

The B'twin is a great buy, for your first road bike you could do a lot worse. Tbh if you get pretty much anything that gets good reviews you'll be happy. Might even be worth looking at some cheaper options so you can save for when you inevitably want to upgrade, when you know exactly what you're looking for.
 
PermaBanned said:
Mudguards are kind of overrated, imo. They're annoying to fit without having them rub on the tyres and they get in the way whenever you need to do maintenance. Never really seen the benefit either, especially if you've got an ass saver.
Click to expand...

U WOT M8 :p

An ass saver will just about keep your bum dry, but it'll do nothing for your feet and legs. Riding with soaking feet is miserable. It also won't keep your bike as clean as proper mudguards.
 
Sounds like a good choice. I disagree with perma regarding mudguards but you can certainly get by without them if you get an ass saver, mostly ride in fair weather a d don't mind performing regular cleaning. Unfortunately, you often so have to make compromises on spec she. You want things like mudguard mounts so don't feel you've made a bad choice - that bike is awesome for the money and you're going to enjoy riding it :)
 
Rain from the sky is at least fairly clean... After it hit the ground and thrown back up it tends to leave 'evidence' on your back that looks about as bad as an 'accident'.

(Hence no city/commuter 'standard' bike in the Netherlands is sold without full Mudguards. Only Sports (Race, MTB etc) bikes are sold without.)

I have a cheap old bike, and just about everything on it is getting 'very tired' but the original mudguards are still going strong... Not sure what experience PermaBanned has had in the past, but I'd say well fitted mudguards are a blessing.
 
You will also get plenty of days with no rain from the sky but really wet roads that's when the mudguards will shine! Try ribble cr1/audax/525. They also got rack mounting and i find panniers invaluable!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom