F**king CycleScheme - What bike now??

[37Flipper]

Hi all, sorry for yet another what bike question. (search isn't working again)

I signed up with the intention of getting a Boardman Comp, received my voucher (£900) this morning and turned up to Halfords, only to find they don't honour the cycle scheme voucher, only Cycle2work. Grrrr!

So, having resigned myself to finding another bike what options do I have? I am now looking at either a Giant Defy 2, Cube Peloton Pro and possibly a Specialized Allez Elite. What do you think of these choices? Has anyone got any experience of any of these bikes? Am I missing out on any?

I will be using the bike for the daily commute (16 miles in total), plus weekend rides as I want to get fit and I've signed up to do the 3 peaks challenge in May.

All help and suggestions will be much appreciated.

Flipper

Edited by 37Flipper on Thursday 23 February 21:10

[h4muf]

http://www.planet-x-bikes.co.uk/i/q/FBPXPRORIV12/p...

[anonymous-user]

to be honest at that price they are all much the same, none of the bikes you list are bad bikes and they will all feature an alu frame, carbon forks, tiagra (with 105 bits if you're lucky) and a branded entry level wheelset (shimano r5000 etc).

you will have to find a cyclescheme shop to use the voucher but to be honest thats not hard. sadly it makes getting the most for your money harder as that all depends if you want to sit on it first or if you are comfortable doing the leg work and finding a bike with the right measurements by looking at the geometry online and then measuring up comparable stuff in shops before ordering something not usually held in stock.

If it was me I would probably go for the Orbea Aqua TTG
http://www.futurecycles.co.uk/brands/orbea-bikes/o...

[MadDad]

Mate has the Allez and loves it, well spec'd bike, rides well - he gives it a good hammering and it takes everything he throws at it!

[pobs]

I can definitely recommend the Allez. They really nice handling bikes and pretty decent spec for the money straight out of the box (plus lifetime frame warranty). If you can get hold of a Specialized Tarmac fork to swap the standard one for they're even sharper.

[mcelliott]

Bought a Campag equipped Planet X Carbon Pro. So utterly gobsmacked by its performance - give away price too.

[anonymous-user]

I had a spez and found the riding position not suited to me. The frame just didn't feel right, like it was
uncomfortable to ride over long distances. Probably a personnel thing but other bikes i have rided suited me betterm but see if you can get an extended test on all.

[37Flipper]

I love the look of the more expensive bikes (I am very easily led!!) But I'm really trying to keep my spend to a maximum of £900.

Mind you, the Giant Defy 1 gets good reviews too....... No no no, must stick to £900, must stick to £900, must stick to £900

[thecopster]

I have just placed a deposit on a 2012 Cube Peleton Race. Slightly over your 1k budget but has great spec at this price point inc: carbon fork, Easton wheel set and a mixture of 105 and Ultegra drivetrain.

Might be worth a look :-)

[37Flipper]

swerni said:

I know where you can get the boardman with your voucher.

I'm not posting on here but feel free to mail me.

Hmmmm this is interesting, a pm has been sent.

Cheers

Flipper

[anonymous-user]

The Boardman Comp is not as good now as it was, and is considerably more expensive. Eg in Dec 2010 I paid £550 for a Shimano 105 equipped Comp (In Halfords 20% off sale). Its not worth the £799 sale price IMHO.
Loads of great road biles on the Evans Cycles website. They take cyclescheme.co.uk now & you can buy their sale bikes with the voucher. May as well spent the whole £900, bearing in mind it will probably cost you under £500 in real money. Eg:-

http://www.evanscycles.com/products/bianchi/via-ni...

[Raoul Duke]

Dolan / Planet X and Ribble will give you the best value for money at that price. You should be able to get a reasonable frame ( alu or carbon ) kitted out with SRAM Rival - comfortably the best value for money groupset IMHO. Run a Dolan Preffisio with Rival myself as a winter trainer, it really is faultless for the money and perfect for what i want it for. Also if its to be your only road bike, come summer simply take off the mudguards and its a fairly fast and racey frame.

[Gizmo!]

Jimboka said:

The Boardman Comp is not as good now as it was, and is considerably more expensive. Eg in Dec 2010 I paid £550 for a Shimano 105 equipped Comp (In Halfords 20% off sale). Its not worth the £799 sale price IMHO.
Loads of great road biles on the Evans Cycles website. They take cyclescheme.co.uk now & you can buy their sale bikes with the voucher. May as well spent the whole £900, bearing in mind it will probably cost you under £500 in real money. Eg:-

http://www.evanscycles.com/products/bianchi/via-ni...

That is a stunning bike. I could sit and look at that for ages...

[kiethton]

Jimboka said:

The Boardman Comp is not as good now as it was, and is considerably more expensive. Eg in Dec 2010 I paid £550 for a Shimano 105 equipped Comp (In Halfords 20% off sale). Its not worth the £799 sale price IMHO.
Loads of great road biles on the Evans Cycles website. They take cyclescheme.co.uk now & you can buy their sale bikes with the voucher. May as well spent the whole £900, bearing in mind it will probably cost you under £500 in real money. Eg:-

http://www.evanscycles.com/products/bianchi/via-ni...

I love the look of this boke!

i got the last gen model that evans have on offer atm for £650, rode 34 miles this afternoon and plan to use it for a 30 mile per day commute from a week monday...very good looking bike and i don't hurt too much even though this was my first ever time of riding a road bike/cycling any distance over 8 miles, ever.

[dougc]

FWIW I'm on the 2011 Allez Elite and I love it. It takes a beating around town and sucks it up. 80k out to Herts and back yesterday and it felt lovely...

[37Flipper]

Hi all

Thanks for taking the time to post your suggestions and recommendations and special thanks to Swerni for some good information about Boardman bikes. I tried sticking to my budget, but when I cast my net wider I realised there were lots of great bikes out there. After a few test rides and hearing the opinions of quite a few LBS I have now got one of these sitting proudly in my garage..



Having never owned a road bike I can genuinely say it's far better than me. My first ride on it was just over 40 miles and it just ate the miles up. One of the reasons for buying it is so I can start riding the 8 miles work to get fit for the Three Peaks Challange at the end of May, my first journey on Friday was done in 26 mins. I'm more than happy with that.

Cheers

Flipper

[biker]

Cube peloton 2013 is my choice !!!
with shimano 105. 8,8 kg of weigh compared to previously i had trek 1.5 tiagra .2010 >>> 1kg hevier !!!! .
what i can say . i loved trek and i had it for nearly 3 years , but after trying cube peloton will give trek 1,5 only 7 points out of 10 .
yes cube blown my mind !!with speed responsiveness , its just so much better on hills , acceleration etc . looks awesome too far more beautifull then specialized allez, trek .
lets talk about the price now its £1070 for 105 groupset 200 more then my trek or allez

if your budget lower go for peloton with tiagra . about £900

spcialized allez is on the par with trek 1,5 the way i see it but trek looks nicer . can not comment on giant its not my cup of tea in tearms of design .

[gazza285]

Back from the dead.

I'm not sure the OP's budget is a worry now as he bought a bike 15 months ago.