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Yeah but I got 17 bikes
Ner...
Ner...
For an extra £250, I think you get a lot more bike with the Planet X. (It's on sale at a reduced price at the moment.) I reckon it would feel more stable on descents, as well. The Triban: I suspect that one's a false economy. And if you're thinking about replacing the drive train with parts from your retro stash, why not just look at secondhand hybrids from the get go?I've been going round and round in circles with this - probably because it's all about compromise, but also because I don't want to end up regretting blowing a pile of cash on a bike I don't ride.
In a more road-biased change of direction I got excited about the idea of a Spa Aubisque. A steel framed, disc braked audax/light tourer, well specced (especially with a few custom options) and brilliant value (if over a grand), on paper it looks like a bike for life...
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Then I was looking at the Planet X London Road, almost half the price of the Spa, quite a bit lighter, it seems well liked (apparently works well for gravel/cyclocross) and looks great fun...not sure about 1x but would be fun to try it...but I generally started leaning towards the idea of an alloy/carbon bike - I do really like lightweight bikes and these days it's probably the best value way to get a decent, lightweight bike. I'm not totally anti the idea - after all I quite like my Trek 1200...
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Which brought me to this:
https://www.decathlon.co.uk/p/rc120-flat-bar-disc-road-bike-blue/_/R-p-311239?mc=8556195
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Which (with the right tyres) potentially ticks pretty much all the boxes apart from "steel" and is only £500. With pretty old-school gearing I could upgrade it with drivetrain bits out of my retro MTB parts bin, too.
That's a great way to put it, thanks!To put it in retro terms, the Decathlon bikes are Shimano 200gs/300lx standard, the cheaper London Road M550 LX, the hydro one DX with Magura's. All of them are like the Carrera Quattro or British Eagle Boss, a cheap way to get a decent groupset (works better for the Planet X bikes).
Hehe, yep. A Raleigh Montage would be a perfect do-it-all bike too (I'd really like one as my "token rigid steel retro") but compared to a dedicated road bike it's always going to be a bit of a heavy lump (and slow).This is certainly an interesting thread I'm keen to hear how it pans out, with gravel type bikes on the scene can one bike do it all? It must be 15 years ago I was given a Raleigh Montage and I tried to use it as a do it all bike. I quickly decided I needed two sets of tyres, one for off road and one for on road. That changed to needing two sets of wheels when it became apparent changing tyres was not quick. Then of course it changed to getting a dedicated road bike, quickly followed by n+1 bike for each day of the week