Bike Recommendations

[Dallas]

Gordon Ramsey has a DA

still want one ...

[hyperD]

Hmm.. the one I'm looking at is a Specialised Roubaix (can't remember the exact spec) but it's on for £1200 & they'll let me have it for £900.

Of course, with my level of fitness (which isn't bad) whether or not spending the extra on this as opposed to getting something for about £500 actually shows any performance gains remains to be seen. Other posters seem to suggest not.

May just as well pop into Halfords

I'm no cycling aficionado, but I first did my daily 30 mile total commute using a cheap £300 mountain bike. After a month my knees were killing me and all I kept thinking about was titanium kneecaps.

Once I got the Secteur, all the pain went away. My posture on the bike was better, the bike was much, much lighter and my time went from 1hr 10 mins to 40 mins.

You could just pick up a cheap bike from eBay etc and try it out. If you need better/faster/easier then invest in a lighter road bike, although you need to make sure your prostate is in fine working order as sans suspension, it will take a hammering.

I tried one of those £3,500+ bikes and oh my, they are fantastic, but way out of my budget.

[DaveB]

I'm currently doing 30m / day in London on a £400 mtb. The biggest problem is the gearing is wrong for road riding. I can beat 90% of people in the 0-20 sprint from the lights, but after that the proper road bikes catchup again as I run out of gears.

If you are riding in London I *wouldn't* spend vast amounts on a bike for the commute. Too much risk of it getting trashed. Even with insurance you don't want to see your £1500 carbon frame reduced to splinters under a white van. That coupled with the stop start nature of riding in London means you won't get the best out of it.

Take a look at the guys going past you, what are they riding? There are a few flash carbon jobs out there but the majority will be on cheaper alu or steel frames. The single speed brigade in particular favour steel frames as they are much better at soaking up the bumps and vibration from riding on London roads.

Personally I keep my 'good' road bike for use at home and I'm in the process of building myself a Single Speed commuter from an old steel frame raleigh I picked up locally for £50. Striped down, cleaned and with a few new bits and bobs and it should be a nice little commuter bike for around £125 that will keep up with the rest quite nicely.

[doodab]

Not suggesting he gets a foldup, just implying the speed gains will be minimal with the same power output

Except of course that reduction in aerodynamic drag due to reduced frontal area when riding on the drops is very significant, compared to an upright commuter bike the speed gain could be ~20% or more.

[DaveB]

Except of course that reduction in aerodynamic drag due to reduced frontal area when riding on the drops is very significant, compared to an upright commuter bike the speed gain could be ~20% or more.

In London you will spend around 10% of your time on the drops, the rest on the hoods. You just can't get enough space to hammer it on the drops without it being extremely risky.

[doodab]

In London you will spend around 10% of your time on the drops, the rest on the hoods. You just can't get enough space to hammer it on the drops without it being extremely risky.

That depends where in london you are. In general you'll be safer moving at the speed of traffic or close to it, so while thats prob true in zone 1-3 if you're doing 15-20 miles in from the burbs that ratio will be a bit higher.

[BrilloPad]

Even with insurance you don't want to see your £1500 carbon frame reduced to splinters under a white van.

Don't. I have seen way too many accidents recently. Scary.

[BigTime]

An accountant told me of a director who'd put a new bike through the company books as part of the cycle to work scheme. Maybe I need a new bike too. Anyone else expensing their bike?

I got the impression there was no BIK but I could've been mistaken.

[downsouth]

Defo recommend going for a fitting at the local bike shop, maybe a few bike shops as they'll all have different makes, models etc and for £1500 you want the best bike for you not the salesman.

Different frames handle differently, being a larger lad i've a Cube with a straight top tube, reduces the seat post length so remains steady and doesn't flex like it would on the specialized with a sloping top bar.

Also bear in mind frame sizes are not uniform across different brands, you may be a 56cm in one, 58-60 in another.

Also for that price dont be tempted to go for carbon fibre, some bikes in that range are low grade carbon so you'd be better of with a good aluminum frame, carbon forks perhaps.

Unless you're doing loads of miles then groupset is not really an issue, other than the better groupset you want the more you'll pay.

HTH

[mudskipper]

I've got a Specialized Secteur Apex Elite with Fulcrum 7 racing wheels and ceramic cogs. Costs ~ £1,300 and I do 8,000 miles/year in rush-hour.

'Tis very good.

That's pretty good going. Just clocked up 15K miles on my bike, but that's over about 6 years and included a stupid 6 months when we trained for (and did) Lejog. Was thinking 15K might be a good excuse to buy a new bike, but not cycling so much these days, and my commute to work is fairly rough off road with bike laden with panniers and laptop so being a bit rough on the poor thing.