Best 400-500ukp racing bike

[elyob]

Okay, I know you're all thinking - 2 seconds after Armstrong starts his
latest challenge, elyob wants a racing bike.

Well, yes, kind of. I've wanted one for ages, but just saw a Giant Bikes OCR
3 Bike - 05 for £425 and 0% interest .. Well, that's my sort of price level.
I currently run spd pedals on my mountain bike, do I have to also buy new
shoes if I go to racing bikes or will they run the same mechanism?

Any recommandations on whether to get cheap 2nd hand instead? And where
would you look?

Thanks

 

[Tony Raven]

elyob wrote:
>
> Well, yes, kind of. I've wanted one for ages, but just saw a Giant Bikes OCR
> 3 Bike - 05 for £425 and 0% interest .. Well, that's my sort of price level.
> I currently run spd pedals on my mountain bike, do I have to also buy new
> shoes if I go to racing bikes or will they run the same mechanism?
>

You can use your MTB pedals and shoes. The double sided MTB pedals are
far better than their single sided road equivalent.

--
Tony

"I did make a mistake once - I thought I'd made a mistake but I hadn't"
Anon

 

[Peter B]

"Tony Raven" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...

> You can use your MTB pedals and shoes. The double sided MTB pedals are
> far better than their single sided road equivalent.

Seconded.
I use to use double sided spds on my mtbs and Looks on my road bike. Due to
a knee problem I changed to double sided spuds on all then when buying a
new road bike put single sided on it to pimp it up...mistake... they may
look better (who cares?) but at the expense of easy engagement.

--
Pete
http://uk.geocities.com/[email protected]/P

 

[Simon Brooke]

in message <[email protected]>, elyob
('[email protected]') wrote:

> Okay, I know you're all thinking - 2 seconds after Armstrong starts
> his latest challenge, elyob wants a racing bike.
>
> Well, yes, kind of. I've wanted one for ages, but just saw a Giant
> Bikes OCR 3 Bike - 05 for £425 and 0% interest .. Well, that's my
> sort of price level. I currently run spd pedals on my mountain bike,
> do I have to also buy new shoes if I go to racing bikes or will they
> run the same mechanism?

SPuDs are perhaps not the best pedals on road bikes, but they do work,
and you can get one-sided SPuDs with a bit of a platform. I used them
for several years on road bikes before I migrated to Looks.

> Any recommandations on whether to get cheap 2nd hand instead? And
> where would you look?

I would, but not obsessively. Check your local paper and local
supermarket ad-boards for anything local (but only if you think you can
distinguish the good from the ****)
<URL:http://www.jasmine.org.uk/urcautofaq/jsp/Wiki?BuyingSecondhand>
Ask your local bike club. Check eBay for anything nice that's local to
you. But at the £4-500 price point I wouldn't have thought it was worth
travelling far for, or bidding speculatively on, a bike you haven't
seen.

There are plenty of nice bikes around the £500 price point from
reasonable makers. You won't get anything very special new (and you
might just possibly get something fairly special second hand for that
money) but if you buy new you should get a perfectly good bike on which
you'll have a lot of fun.

--
[email protected] (Simon Brooke) http://www.jasmine.org.uk/~simon/

;; lovely alternative to rice.

 

[Buck]

On 07/02/2005 18:03:02 "elyob" <[email protected]> wrote:

> Okay, I know you're all thinking - 2 seconds after Armstrong starts his
> latest challenge, elyob wants a racing bike.

> Well, yes, kind of. I've wanted one for ages, but just saw a Giant Bikes
> OCR 3 Bike - 05 for £425 and 0% interest .. Well, that's my sort of
> price level. I currently run spd pedals on my mountain bike, do I have to
> also buy new shoes if I go to racing bikes or will they run the same
> mechanism?

> Any recommandations on whether to get cheap 2nd hand instead? And where
> would you look?

> Thanks

You can do a`lot worse than the Giant, and you have a sensible budget so
should be able to get a good bike, second hand may well get you a beauty
for £500, just remember to buy with your head and not your heart.

--

Buck

I would rather be out on my Catrike

http://www.catrike.co.uk

 

[vernon]

> Well, yes, kind of. I've wanted one for ages, but just saw a Giant Bikes
OCR
> 3 Bike - 05 for £425 and 0% interest .. Well, that's my sort of price
level.
> I currently run spd pedals on my mountain bike, do I have to also buy new
> shoes if I go to racing bikes or will they run the same mechanism?
>
> Any recommandations on whether to get cheap 2nd hand instead? And where
> would you look?

The Specialised Allez got a good write up in April's Cycling Plus. You
might also consider looking in the small ads of Cycling Plus and Cycling
Weekly.

I have bought three bikes from www.adtrader.co.uk , actually one was 'free
to a
good home' and the other two were bargains - a nearly mint Ridgeback hybrid
and a decent Dawes Galaxy. There currently a free Carlton womand racer in
the
Peterborough area advertised on the site. Have a look you might find
something that
takes your fancy.

Vernon

 

[Simon Brooke]

[following up to myself - bad form]

in message <[email protected]>, Simon
Brooke ('[email protected]') wrote:

> in message <[email protected]>, elyob
> ('[email protected]') wrote:
>
>> Okay, I know you're all thinking - 2 seconds after Armstrong starts
>> his latest challenge, elyob wants a racing bike.
>>
>> Well, yes, kind of. I've wanted one for ages, but just saw a Giant
>> Bikes OCR 3 Bike - 05 for £425 and 0% interest ..
>
> There are plenty of nice bikes around the £500 price point from
> reasonable makers. You won't get anything very special new (and you
> might just possibly get something fairly special second hand for that
> money) but if you buy new you should get a perfectly good bike on
> which you'll have a lot of fun.

It occurs to me that someone else posted that question recently and one
of their options was a Lemond which was very nicely specified for £500
- carbon forks and reasonable components. Worth a look. Also the Claud
Butlers are not at all bad. But Giant are OK too.

--
[email protected] (Simon Brooke) http://www.jasmine.org.uk/~simon/
,/| _.--''^``-...___.._.,;
/, \'. _-' ,--,,,--'''
{ \ `_-'' ' /
`;;' ; ; ;
._..--'' ._,,, _..' .;.'
(,_....----''' (,..--''

 

[Jon Senior]

elyob wrote:
> Well, yes, kind of. I've wanted one for ages, but just saw a Giant Bikes OCR
> 3 Bike - 05 for £425 and 0% interest .. Well, that's my sort of price level.
> I currently run spd pedals on my mountain bike, do I have to also buy new
> shoes if I go to racing bikes or will they run the same mechanism?

I bought an OCR 1T in 2003 and I still love it. I'm currently trying to
sort a replacement headset, but the original is still working, just not
as smooth as I'd like. The bike accelerates like sh*t off a stick and
corners on rails.

If they're still shipping new OCRs with Hutchinson Carbon Comp tyres
expect fantastic performance for a month until the ultra sticky rubber
has all vanished and they start puncturing.

Obviously... don't take my word for it, ride it first.

Jon

 

[mb]

In article <[email protected]>, [email protected]
says...
>
> Okay, I know you're all thinking - 2 seconds after Armstrong starts his
> latest challenge, elyob wants a racing bike.
>
> Well, yes, kind of. I've wanted one for ages, but just saw a Giant Bikes OCR
> 3 Bike - 05 for £425 and 0% interest .. Well, that's my sort of price level.
> I currently run spd pedals on my mountain bike, do I have to also buy new
> shoes if I go to racing bikes or will they run the same mechanism?
>
> Any recommandations on whether to get cheap 2nd hand instead? And where
> would you look?
>

A friend of mine bought a second hand bike from a small shop which
builds bikes for the racing fraternity.
http://www.huissoonsport.nl/index.html. Sorry, it's Dutch.
He paid 550 *Euros* for a nice bike with a Campy Chorus groupset.
--
Mike