Should i buy my bike from Halfords?



complience wrote:

> Is this one any good?
>
> http://tinyurl.com/4dcnw


Dunno, the link is bust when I try it...

> is 16spd STI Shimano Tiagra gears with wide ratio cassette enough?


Probably. Eddie Merckxx would have had less when he won 5 Tour de Frances.

Pete.
--
Peter Clinch Medical Physics IT Officer
Tel 44 1382 660111 ext. 33637 Univ. of Dundee, Ninewells Hospital
Fax 44 1382 640177 Dundee DD1 9SY Scotland UK
net [email protected] http://www.dundee.ac.uk/~pjclinch/
 
On Thu, 09 Sep 2004 16:05:04 GMT, Simon Brooke <[email protected]>
wrote:

>in message <[email protected]>,
>complience ('[email protected]') wrote:
>
>>
>> I new to this and I want a road bike that i can train on.. with ideas
>> of getting into amature fun racing some time in the future.
>>
>> Is this one any good?
>>
>> http://tinyurl.com/4dcnw
>>
>> is 16spd STI Shimano Tiagra gears with wide ratio cassette enough?

>
>It isn't bad for the price.


Yep, I will second that !!

Not sure you will find any amateur 'fun' racing though, well it wasn't
'fun' when I raced :-|
 
complience <[email protected]> wrote:


: is 16spd STI Shimano Tiagra gears with wide ratio cassette enough?

Get the cassette swapped for a narrow range one with a 13 tooth top.

: My moutian bike has 21 gears.. i only use the top 7 tho.

Anywhere except a very flat area this probably means you need to
pedal faster.

Back to the original question though. It really depends on the
Halfords.

Bikes have to be assembled. If assembled by a yoof who is into
cars it will give you nothing but trouble. If your local Halfords
happens to have someone who is into cycling and knows their stuff
then it will be fine. Ask around and see if you can guarentee who
will be sorting out your bike.

Arthur



--
Arthur Clune http://www.clune.org
"Technolibertarians make a philosophy out of a personality defect"
- Paulina Borsook
 
When i say top 7.. im refering to the largest 7.

But even so the max down hill speed for such gears seems to be around 35mph. As for pedaling faster.. dont we all. :)

Cassette.. what the hell is that. I listen to CD's mainly.

What difference does having 13 teeth have? surely more teeth means more weight?






Arthur Clune said:
complience <[email protected]> wrote:


: is 16spd STI Shimano Tiagra gears with wide ratio cassette enough?

Get the cassette swapped for a narrow range one with a 13 tooth top.

: My moutian bike has 21 gears.. i only use the top 7 tho.

Anywhere except a very flat area this probably means you need to
pedal faster.

Back to the original question though. It really depends on the
Halfords.

Bikes have to be assembled. If assembled by a yoof who is into
cars it will give you nothing but trouble. If your local Halfords
happens to have someone who is into cycling and knows their stuff
then it will be fine. Ask around and see if you can guarentee who
will be sorting out your bike.

Arthur



--
Arthur Clune http://www.clune.org
"Technolibertarians make a philosophy out of a personality defect"
- Paulina Borsook
 
Are you thinking of buying it online?

Bad Idea.

Regardless of where you buy a bike, make sure the
salesperson/mechanic/whatever has measured you up and determined that the
bike is the right size for you. I continually come across people who have a
bike that is too big or too small for them and they bought it because "it
was a bargain" or "I liked the look of it" and the person selling it to them
didn't size them up properly.

Also, try it out first; see how it feels.

Ian
 
So if you guys had £300 - £500 pounds to spend on the fastest road bike you could get. You would go for one of these halfordian ones?

Or can you custom build for better value?
 
in message <[email protected]>,
complience ('[email protected]') wrote:

>
> So if you guys had £300 - £500 pounds to spend on the fastest road
> bike you could get. You would go for one of these halfordian ones?


Definitely not.

> Or can you custom build for better value?


No, probably not. You can't custom build a bike buying your parts at
full retail price for what you can get a fully built up bike for. But
for better value you might look at a Claud Butler Milano - reasonably
good parts on a reasonable frame for about £550 list; or a Cannondale
R400 - OK parts on a very good frame for about £650 list.

Remember that this is the end of the model 'year' - 2005 bikes are
coming into the shops now and you can get good discounts on 2004
models. So you should be able to find either of the bikes I've
mentioned at your budget, if you look around.

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

;; all in all you're just another click in the call
;; -- Minke Bouyed
 
For the price, thats OK, could you do better, at that price I don't know. However, for upto £500, I'd say Claud Butler Milano. RRP is £500, my local(ish) bike shop did a price match for an online retailer and I got it for £410!! yipeeeeeeeeeee! Search for the Milano in google.co.uk and take a look at the spec! This would be a better buy than the Carrera IMO for the bit of extra ££.

As for Halfords, the larger stores have a cycle department, and from my recent visit in search for a saddle, the young collegey type lad was very patient, helpful and seemed very enthusiatic and reasonably knowledgeable about bikes in general. They had that model (the one the lad kept changing the saddles on for me lol), it seemed half decent in my opinion and I saw a Carrera being ridden on the Tour of Spain event (obviously it would be a different model with many modifications), so it should be decent for the money.

Other recommendations, as for barnds, rather than models, I'd say look at Giant and Dawes as well. Have a good look around, compare the bikes, specs etc before parting with your money, no point in spending £350+ odd and then finding out its not exactly what you were wanting.
 
complience wrote:
> So if you guys had £300 - £500 pounds to spend on the fastest road bike
> you could get. You would go for one of these halfordian ones?


No, I'd go to a shop with a reasonable degree of specialisation in
racing machinery. There are some exceptions, but Halfords cycle
departments are mainly box-shifters.

> Or can you custom build for better value?


"Better value" is a tricky term, but in general it only comes into play
with custom builds when you're spending Serious Money (and I'm afraid
£500 isn't). But you can probably get better value in an off-the-shelf
by spending your whole £500 at a different shop.

Pete.
--
Peter Clinch Medical Physics IT Officer
Tel 44 1382 660111 ext. 33637 Univ. of Dundee, Ninewells Hospital
Fax 44 1382 640177 Dundee DD1 9SY Scotland UK
net [email protected] http://www.dundee.ac.uk/~pjclinch/
 
complience wrote:
> When i say top 7.. im refering to the largest 7.


Yes, and so is Arthur. If you mash big gears rather than spin smaller
ones then you're reducing your endurance and bothering your knees for no
particular reason. Look at the rate Lance Armstrong turns his pedals,
and bear in mind he can have any gearing he wants, and you'll see using
smaller gears is probably a cunning plan. The biggest ones are just for
downhills, though on an MTB they'll be lower than a road bike.

> Cassette.. what the hell is that.


It's the gear block at the rear.

> What difference does having 13 teeth have? surely more teeth means more
> weight?


The idea with a road racer's gears is that the ratios are closely spaced
so you can always be in a "sweet spot" gear. This is more difficult
with wide ratios, you often want to be in something like "ninth and a
half", and that means you won't be able to go as fast as you'll have to
drop back to the sweet spot speed of the next lower gear. A 13 at the
top means you won't be able to go as fast before you spin out on a
/huge/ hill (but most racing isn't down /huge/ hills and where it is
your speed is often limited by practical considerations like how fast
you can go round blind bends and be reasonably assured of being alive
afterwards), but you'll have a sweet spot gear on more occasions on
gentler gradients. Which for the most part means more efficient and faster.

Pete.
--
Peter Clinch Medical Physics IT Officer
Tel 44 1382 660111 ext. 33637 Univ. of Dundee, Ninewells Hospital
Fax 44 1382 640177 Dundee DD1 9SY Scotland UK
net [email protected] http://www.dundee.ac.uk/~pjclinch/
 
>So if you guys had £300 - £500 pounds to spend on the fastest road bike
>you could get. You would go for one of these halfordian ones?
>
>Or can you custom build for better value?
>
>
>--
>complience
>


I would not willingly buy a bike ever again from H*lf*rds. I should really have
known better, from previous experience of H*lf*rds, but buy I bike t'other half
& I did from said emporium. A basic MTB for offspring to use for the school
run, as at the time, he was suffering a bit of verbal as he was using a road
bike and they aren't "cool", so we succumbed and got him the MTB. Indeed, if it
had been put together properly, it would have been good value, but... it had to
go back, got a replacement... stuff wrong with that... staff all very
enthusiastic and helpful but actual knowledge very, very poor for the most
part. My experience - the quality control at H*lf*rds is, quite frankly, total
****, and that, for me, takes away from the "good value" side of things
completely. You may get a good bike, but equally, you can get a "put together
on a Friday afternoon when they've come back from the pub" jobbie. They are
fine for stuff like h*lm*ts, basic lights and that's about it, but the amount
of stuff I've bought there that has had to go back as being faulty is beyond a
joke. I've never had any hassle taking stuff back, but I'd rather not have to
take it back in the first place, and as it has happened so often... Now,
H*lf*rds is used as shop of utter and complete last resort as far as anything
to do with bikes goes.

If I had £300 - £500 to spend, I'd be looking at second-hand high-spec, or last
year's model and a couple of year's ago's model... before I'd consider buying a
bike from H*lf*rds ever again.

Cheers, helen s



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Doesnt gearing really depend on the rider.. doesnt that Jan Ullrich favour more power over finesse.


Im still confused over what the casette is.. is it the gears connected to the back tire?
 
DSK <[email protected]> wrote:
: my opinion and I saw a Carrera being ridden on the Tour of Spain event
: (obviously it would be a different model with many modifications), so
: it should be decent for the money.

It's not even the same brand. Confusing I know, but the Carrera you
get in Halfords (which is Halford's own brand) is completely unrelated
to the other Carrera.

Arthur

--
Arthur Clune http://www.clune.org
"Technolibertarians make a philosophy out of a personality defect"
- Paulina Borsook
 
complience wrote:
> Doesnt gearing really depend on the rider.. doesnt that Jan Ullrich
> favour more power over finesse.


Up to a point, but the vast majority of riders do better with higher
cadences and also it seems that many of them only found that out when it
was pointed out to them they were terrible mashers who weren't doing
themselves any favours (raises own hand sheepishly at this point). And
I suspect that Jan Ullrich still runs at a higher cadence than you do!

90 revs per minute is reckoned to be a reasonable sort of cadence if
you're trying to get about quickly. It may be worth budgeting for a
cycle computer with a cadence function. Ramping up the cadence makes a
big difference to most riders, typically more than spending an extra
couple of hundred on the bike, so give it a good go.

> Im still confused over what the casette is.. is it the gears connected
> to the back tire?


It's the big block of gear sprockets mounted on the back wheel. They're
not built into the wheel and can be changed for alternatives. A close
ratio cassette is generally better for racing, wider ratios for touring
and off-road.

Pete.
--
Peter Clinch Medical Physics IT Officer
Tel 44 1382 660111 ext. 33637 Univ. of Dundee, Ninewells Hospital
Fax 44 1382 640177 Dundee DD1 9SY Scotland UK
net [email protected] http://www.dundee.ac.uk/~pjclinch/
 
Simon Brooke <[email protected]> wrote in message news:<[email protected]>...
>
> Remember that this is the end of the model 'year' - 2005 bikes are
> coming into the shops now and you can get good discounts on 2004
> models. So you should be able to find either of the bikes I've
> mentioned at your budget, if you look around.


Excellent idea. Or for bigger savings, check out places which may
still have clearance offers on remaining stocks of 2003 bikes. To be
honest, in a good few cases there won't be a fat lot different in the
spec. or quality of a 2003 or 2004 model compared to its 2005 cousin,
it'll just have a different paint job, or some other small detail.

David E. Belcher
 
Are these cassettes particarly expensive or hard to fit?

It is possible to have a couple and change them around depending on the conditions im riding.. so a close one for the flat.. and wide one if ive got lot of downhilling?
 
On 10/9/04 11:19 am, in article
[email protected], "complience"
<[email protected]> wrote:

> Are these cassettes particarly expensive or hard to fit?
>
> It is possible to have a couple and change them around depending on the
> conditions im riding.. so a close one for the flat.. and wide one if ive
> got lot of downhilling?


That's what I do on the road bike (but a touch more sophisticated than
that).

It is very easy to swap a cassette. Take off the wheel. Undo the retaining
ring (special tool, a large spanner and probably a chain whip required) and
slide off. Slide on the new one and tighten up the lock ring. Replace wheel.

My road bike is old and has the original Uniglide cassettes with a screw on
smallest cog. I can build a cassette with the precise sprockets I want. It
is currently 13-26 (13,14,15,17,20,23,26) for hilly meandering but I can set
that to 12-18 (12,13,14,15,16.17,18) for time trials (though with my current
form I'd be better doing 13-19 or 13-20) as I have 12 and 13 tooth threaded
sprockets. I must find a 50 tooth big ring (and possibly a 36 small ring as
well - then I won't need a triple.)

It takes 5 mins max once you get the hang of it and makes life that bit more
pleasant.

...d
 

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