Road Bike Experts

[letmetalktomark]

Hi folks,

I rode the London to Cambridge charity ride yesterday (58 miles – 3hrs 30) on a mountain bike with slicks.

The problem was I was riding with a friend on a road bike to continued to annihilate me on the climbs (nothing to do with fitness!!)

I’ve completed a couple of these rides recently and with a recent move to Suffolk (very flat) have been contemplating the purchase of a road bike.

Ideally I would like a nice steel frame but I understand the newer materials can be far superior in terms of rigidity etc but I would like to retain at least the essence of retro!

So recommendations…………













Cheers folks,

M

 

[hamster]

How much do you want to spend???

 

[letmetalktomark]

How much do you want to spend???

Probabley a maximum of £500.00 :?

 

[Max P]

For well under £500 you can put together a lovely classic steel framed bike with Campag equipment throughout. Obviously this is second hand via ebay and bike jumbles/ads etc but there is tons of barely used and NOS 80's road gear around. £500 is more than enough for a beautiful set-up.

 

[letmetalktomark]

Cheers Max.

Not having a lot of experience of road bikes – how has the geometry etc varied over the years?

I know how mtb frames have gotten “better” over the years is this the case for road too?

I would love to build up an 80’s or early 90’s bike – but is this really practical for regular riding?

I plan to ride the Oxford to Cambridge ride on the 28/09/2008 which is 90miles so time isn’t limited but you know!

Ed has two lovely frames for sale at the moment which I’m deliberating over


M

 

[missmyfat]

Have a look on planetX website.

 

[Max P]

Cheers Max.

Not having a lot of experience of road bikes – how has the geometry etc varied over the years?

I know how mtb frames have gotten “better” over the years is this the case for road too?

I would love to build up an 80’s or early 90’s bike – but is this really practical for regular riding?

I plan to ride the Oxford to Cambridge ride on the 28/09/2008 which is 90miles so time isn’t limited but you know!

Ed has two lovely frames for sale at the moment which I’m deliberating over


M

Totally practical and far more comfortable than a cheaper alu framed modern bike or second hand carbon frame. For the price of a 'new' complete Taiwan bike you could have a classic and timeless beautifully built lugged frame with near top range Campag components (made the old fashioned way) that will hold it's value and be a thing of pleasure to own, ride (and look at).
To put it another way with £500 you can get close to a bike that for many years would not have been out of place being ridden in the TDF - to do that with a modern carbon bike would cost thousands and thousands.

Road frame design (bar the actual material) is incredibly conservative compared to MTBs. 99.9% are of course exactly the same diamond framed rigid design with mostly unchanged geometry. Bikes earlier than 80's are perhaps a bit different though.

 

[sastusbulbas]

Quite simply at £500 not much is better value and as ridable as the Specialized Allez and Giant SCR range.

Forget retro if you want efficiency with confident handling and good resale value with minimum effort.

 

[Lysander]

I concur mit der above..............get a decent off't peg to get the feel of what ye want, then start pouring money down the retro road drain as well as retro mtb......

Or just see what LG Fromage has scored down the tip this week!!

 

[paddy01]

I can't talk about retro but just last week I picked up a new Trek 1.2 as my first road bike.

It's bang on your price point and although I've no basis for comparison it seems a lot of bike for the money.

Ally frame with a carbon fork (the carbon fork does take some of the harshness out of the ride / road surface and is what swung it for me).

Did somewhere around 30 miles today just pootling about getting used to the new riding position and fettling the setup.

The componetry is a basic Shimano / Botranger mix but it all seems to work pretty well and the bike overall seems well put together and I think the frame / fork would justify some upgrading in componetry over time.

Overall I'd say I'm very happy with the purchase.

Cheers

Paddy