Cheap road bike!
Discussion
Sorry for the slight hijack, but I have been following this thread with interest as I have a similar-ish dilemma.
I'm out on my MTB a fair amount, and fancy giving a skinny bike a go. I find myself solo riding a lot these days which doesn't really lend itself to off-road, so I am mostly hacking about on country lanes.
I'm in the fortunate position of having a bigger budget to play with if I want, but I'm not sure I do want to spend more in case I don't like it.
There is a fairly good selection of second hand bikes available for me to buy locally, or I could invest a bit more in something new for the more recent shiny bits. If I get the lycra bug then I will probably upgrade to something a fair bit more expensive in a year or so.
So I have my eye on a Specialized Allez 2012 for about £300 (Sora groupset) which seems to be about the going rate, but wonder if spending £650 on a Triban 540 with the shiny 105 stuff is really going to make that much of a difference to me. I've read the reviews and this seems to be a really good bike for the money.
Bear in mind that either bike will save me about 3KG in weight from my trusty and adored old rockhopper, not to mention the change in rolling resistance from fat knobbly tyres. So, I think the biggest step up for me will be going to road bike from MTB and the better kit somewhat wasted on me. Am I wrong?
I'm out on my MTB a fair amount, and fancy giving a skinny bike a go. I find myself solo riding a lot these days which doesn't really lend itself to off-road, so I am mostly hacking about on country lanes.
I'm in the fortunate position of having a bigger budget to play with if I want, but I'm not sure I do want to spend more in case I don't like it.
There is a fairly good selection of second hand bikes available for me to buy locally, or I could invest a bit more in something new for the more recent shiny bits. If I get the lycra bug then I will probably upgrade to something a fair bit more expensive in a year or so.
So I have my eye on a Specialized Allez 2012 for about £300 (Sora groupset) which seems to be about the going rate, but wonder if spending £650 on a Triban 540 with the shiny 105 stuff is really going to make that much of a difference to me. I've read the reviews and this seems to be a really good bike for the money.
Bear in mind that either bike will save me about 3KG in weight from my trusty and adored old rockhopper, not to mention the change in rolling resistance from fat knobbly tyres. So, I think the biggest step up for me will be going to road bike from MTB and the better kit somewhat wasted on me. Am I wrong?
I thought about that, but if I am doing the rough paths and XC stuff I'd take my MTB which loves all that sort of thing. There are real roads round and about my usual haunts that I would use with the road bike.
Having said that, the cyclocross bikes do look really cool to me, but I like mountain bikes so that's no surprise.
I just wonder if they fall into the bracket of jack of all trades?
Having said that, the cyclocross bikes do look really cool to me, but I like mountain bikes so that's no surprise.
I just wonder if they fall into the bracket of jack of all trades?
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