Search for winter race bike goes on

[John Scott]

Since my previous post I have narrowed it down to:

1) Dawes Giro 300 (Sora/double) + mudguards advertised in Cycling Plus £314
2) St John St Cycles giro 3000 Sora/triple + mudguards advertised as £328 in Cplus

OR

should I go for a higher specced 2nd hand bike and possibly add the new salmon mudguards which go
over the brakes ? There doesn't seem to be many 2nd hand bikes for sale around the £300 mark.unless
you know better.

I would hopefully use any bike I purchased for training in the summer as well. Does anyone have any
experience in these matters, all thoughts gladly received.

Cheers, John

 

[Stephen Pridgeo]

"John Scott" <[email protected]> wrote in message news:<[email protected]>...
> Since my previous post I have narrowed it down to:
>
> 1) Dawes Giro 300 (Sora/double) + mudguards advertised in Cycling Plus £314
> 2) St John St Cycles giro 3000 Sora/triple + mudguards advertised as £328 in Cplus
>
> OR
>
> should I go for a higher specced 2nd hand bike and possibly add the new salmon mudguards which go
> over the brakes ? There doesn't seem to be many 2nd hand bikes for sale around the £300
> mark.unless you know better.
>
> I would hopefully use any bike I purchased for training in the summer as well. Does anyone have
> any experience in these matters, all thoughts gladly received.
>
> Cheers, John

Personally I'd go the 2nd hand route - check out ebay.co.uk or local papers, or local cycling clubs.
My suspicion is that both the two bikes above are the same one, but I could be wrong. The nice thing
about buying s/h is that you can get a decent old frame with mudguard clearance. Given that people
regularly broke the hour for a 25mile TT on such bikes (and indeed still do) that extra 20mm on the
wheelbase can't make that much difference.

What will make a difference is getting the setup to be as similar to your "best" bike as possible -
especially the reach and height between bars and saddle. If you are serious about training for
racing then this is the first priority.

Or check out some of the bigger bike shop sales. Or Cycling weekly. Better hurry up tthough - Winter
is almost over.

Good luck Steve