Cycle Scheme Approaved ! Woo Hoo

[iendicott]

Been pushing to get the CycleScheme approved in our NHS trust and it's finally been given the go ahead. Now this leads me to an important question.

If you had £1000 to spend on a Road Bike which one would you buy and why ?

I would love a Carbon Fibre but unless I go for a cheap model then this is not in my price range so a very good Aluminium is on the cards.

My work colleague has already spoken to a cycle shop near by and they without hesitation have already said they could do a deal on a bike worth £1100 to drop it down to £1000. I am sure others will follow as there are a number of people in our department alone who want to cycle to work.

Thanks

 

[Scoosh]

Well Done and Congrats on getting the approval through

Ah ... the 'which bike' question

All depends on what you what to do with your new steed :
- heavy touring
- 'credit-card' touring/ long day rides/ audax
- sportives
- racing

You want carbon ? Planet X do some nice carbon machines for <£1,000 ... and I'm sure there are others. With the 2010 stock due in in the next couple of months, there could be some good deals coming up.

Ah ... decisions, decisions ...... in some way, I am quite glad I don't have to make the decision

 

[iendicott]

Scoosh cheers,

I would like to take part in the odd ride out with the local Clarions after doing some serious miles on my own or with my mate at work, I think they cover around 75 miles + in a day so something lightweight.

I would love to run the odd Time Trial but what I have seen you have to have a special bike for this, do they do amateur time trials with standard road bikes ?

 

[Garz]

I would love to run the odd Time Trial but what I have seen you have to have a special bike for this, do they do amateur time trials with standard road bikes ?

You could TT on a standard roady but tbh if you want to do it properly and make every saving count you would be better off on one. Unless your doing it regularly though I would get a normal type as I know I would use it far more often and not be frightened to use it. You could just add some tri-bars if you just fancy giving a TT a go at any time!

 

[Scoosh]

Cycling + did a review of £800 bikes in their September issue, which might be worth a read - or else go to Bikeradar website and trawl through their bike tests. The £800 mark is aimed at the Cycle-to-Work schemes, as it leaves a wee bit over for all the 'extras' (clothing, shoes, pedals etc).

If you have a friendly LBS who can do you a good deal, they might be able to stretch your budget to just over the £1000 mark but I'm not sure of the legality of that.

You can get a lot of race/TT-capable bike for that sort of dosh - and, once you have bought your first C2W scheme bike and paid it off, there doesn't seem to be anything stoppping you from getting another ... and another .... as long as there is only one 'on the go' at any time.

 

[mike e]

Nice and easy:-

Buy a fixed

You can get a really nice bike for that money, naf all to go wrong, easy maintenance, and round Peterborough is nice and flat so no nasty hills to cause you problems...

 

[iendicott]

Cheers for all the advice lads, I can max the bike price out of the only real thing I have to buy are the clets etc and I have the spare cash for that so not a problem. I will however take a look at Bikeradar.

Cheers Ivan