Road bike buying advice

<[email hidden]> wrote ...
I am a semi-keen mountain biker (once or twice a week in season, rides
around 15 miles off-road) who is looking to move into road cycling.
I'm a bit fed up with the choice of bridleways in my area and I feel
like a change.

I'm wondering if people here can provide me with some advice as to what
sort of bike I should buy. I'm looking around the £500 mark. My
preference is for short intense rides, rather than all-day cruises, so
I guess I should go for a racing bike, rather than a tourer? How fat
should my tires be? Are then any particular bits that I should look out
for?

I was considering buying a bike from eBay to save a bit of money -
since I'm not really much of an expert, do you think it would be worth
the extra money to buy from a shop and talk to a human being first?

Thanks in advance for any advice,

Peter

Short intense rides would probably be more fun on a racing bike.

Fatness of tires depends on fatness of rider (:^)), quality of roads, and
level of ride comfort desired. IME, anything narrower than 700x23 (23mm wide
tire) is for people weighing less than 150 lbs/68 kg who ride on glassy
smooth roads and pay careful attention to tire pressure in order to avoid
pinch flats. Wider than 700x23 gets you more comfort, less risk of pinch
flats if you forget to keep up the tire pressure, and a weight penalty that
you may or may not find significant. Many reasonably fit cyclists find
700x23 to offer a good balance of light weight, durability and comfort.

Definitely buy your first road bike from a shop, and definitely visit
several shops before spending your money. A good shop is one that pays
careful attention to fitting the bike to the rider, and one that will do
good repair and maintenance work after the sale.

uk.rec.cycling is a British cycling newsgroup with a large number of very
knowledgeable regular posters. They can probably offer you more specific
advice on shops and available brands in the UK than this newsgroups (but by
all means keep posting here).
HTH,
--
mark

Definitely find a shop you like, and ride a number of bikes, before
commiting yourself to anything. The fit, components, and setup of a
road bike will be quite different from what you're used to on a
mountain bike, and talking with someone more knowledgeable immediately
before and after test rides will be a big help.

If you can find a shop that sells well-maintained used road bikes, that
would probably be ideal -- the quality of "new" bike you get in your
price range may be disappointing, especially if you've become
accustomed to high-end MTB gear.

Plus, mid-winter is a great time to buy used road gear, as people are
upgrading, or finally giving up the expensive bike they bought a few
years ago and never rode. Pick up a cheap set of mudguards, and you can
have several months to try out road riding commuting, or on short
weekend rides. If it turns out that you just don't enjoy it, you can
usually sell a well-maintained used road bike for just as much as you
paid once the spring buying season starts.

Best of luck, regardless. I'm hoping to make a move in the opposite
direction -- I'm a full-time road bike commuter/recreational rider, but
have started keeping an eye out for a decent used hardtail in my area.

Lennon

rcoder,

Thanks for the advice, that's very helpful. The idea of buying in
winter makes perfect sense although I'm not sure I can do it right now
since I may not have space in my shed. I may just be looking at what I
would want to buy in advance to chase away a bit of winter blues...

Quoted message said:

Best of luck, regardless. I'm hoping to make a move in the opposite
direction -- I'm a full-time road bike commuter/recreational rider, but
have started keeping an eye out for a decent used hardtail in my area.

I bought a hardtail Carrera Zelos (mid-range Halfords effort from a few
years ago) with a few extras on eBay for 500 quid and have been very
pleased with it. It seemed to have only been ridden lightly on the road
and the bling add-ons (12 spoke wheels, some Shimano XTR) may not have
made much difference to the performance but added to the "shiny!"
factor.

There is nothing more exhilarating than a good off-road trail, but I've
become a bit frustrated with the small proportion of forest routes that
are permitted for bikers. I live in the Chilterns (Watford) which you'd
think would be good for that sort of thing, but my area is almost
entirely footpaths with angry farmers guarding them.

I figure that if I get a road bike nobody can tell me I'm not allowed
on the roads. I'll get my thrills from speed and covering a lot of nice
country lanes, rather than having mud flying in my face and clinging on
for dear life.

Peter

Quoted message said:

I'm wondering if people here can provide me with some advice as to what
sort of bike I should buy. I'm looking around the £500 mark. My
preference is for short intense rides, rather than all-day cruises, so
I guess I should go for a racing bike, rather than a tourer? How fat
should my tires be? Are then any particular bits that I should look out
for?

23mm tyres are the most popular (and usually best) choice for road bikes,
but some low-end bikes come with 25mm.

As for what to look for, since your £500 will buy decent quality, paying
more mostly makes the bike lighter. If you want to scream down hills you
need to get up them first, and that's where lightness helps :-)

Quoted message said:

I was considering buying a bike from eBay to save a bit of money -
since I'm not really much of an expert, do you think it would be worth
the extra money to buy from a shop and talk to a human being first?

Definitely buy from a shop, at least the first time, since you'll need to
test ride several bikes and be properly fitted to them.

--
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