£400 road bike. SCR3.0 or GT GT-R4? or any others.........

[M3_chaz]

I'm in the market for a road bike, to go along side my 2005 model Specialized Hard Rock Sport, am willing to spend £400 max. My main criteria are something that is easy to maintain and ride. The main purpose of the bike is to simply allow me to train outside and do say doing 20/30 mile rides.

looking around on line this afternoon I’ve got my eye on either the Giant SCR3.0 or the GT GT-R4. From what I can see the Giant has a degree of comfort built into the design witch is no bad thing as I’m 6.3” and 14.6 stone.

Any feedback or advice would be much appreciated as this is now territory for me.

[camgear]

Flatmate has a Sirrus Hybrid which seems pretty road oriented? Looks ok?

[anonymous-user]

Ribble have a pretty good training bike in an advert in cycling weekely at the moment, its £400 but looks like a good deal. in fact i found it on their website http://www.ribblecycles.co.uk/SpecialEditionBikes.... click on ribble and its the model at the top
its a functional bike and ideal for upgrades as time goes on..

[wildoliver]

Have you considered building one from scratch? £400 should see you quite a nice bike with middle of the road components.

A 30 sec search of "road frames" presented these, there are obviously more.

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/GIANT-CADEX-ALUMINIUM-ROAD-F...

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/MENS-NIGEL-DEAN-ROAD-FRAME-A...

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/CARBON-FIBER-ROAD-FRAME_W0QQ...

Wheels:

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Campagnolo-Khamsin-Wheelset_...

They can usually be had brand new for about £80, in black silver and gold. But sounds like these are almost new.

Factor in about £30 for a rear cassette, £10-50 for rear mech, £20 for front mech, £60-120 for ergo levers and cables, £15-40 for crankset, £20 for chain, £5-20 for stem, may as well buy used bars as you can't see them £5-15, bar tape £10, tyres and tubes £30ish for decent training tyres (I use vittoria Rubino). Pedals whatever you want really. Saddle £5-30. Brake calipers £20+

Adding it all roughly taking the mid point of prices (and if you hunt you can get some real bargains, I've just paid £15 for a brand new campag crankset) your looking at £400ish maybe slightly over depending on frame and wheel prices. For a 90% brand new (all the important bits new) bike built to your spec (colours/gear ratios/tyres) using campag gear. Using middle of the road shimano would probably work out a little cheaper.