- Location
- Somewhere wet & hilly in NW England.
...buying a bike.
A long time ago I had a pretty good career working in senior positions in the retail/sales & legal industries. I used to make quite big decisions on the hoof.
Then 10 years ago at the grand old age of 46 I retired from work, got bored quickly and started a part-time lifestyle business. Retirement is not all it's cracked up to be but that's another story.
18 months back my best mate in my avatar died and I was no longer getting my long 1.5 hour daily walk and eventually I decided to rekindle my intermittent love of cycling.
In my teens I had belonged to a cycling club (Gravesend Cycling Club in NW Kent) and had thoroughly enjoyed the experience. Academic studies, career and family life put an end to this for around 16 years and then a series of life changing things happened to me and suddenly I had enough time on my hands to get back into my cycling.
Cue my love affair with all things mountain bike. 10 years of MB bliss followed but then I had an accident (shoulder dislocation) on Ben Nevis (bit of an epic but that's also another story). and no longer could I ride my bike.
10 years went by and I now climb at a much lower level but still enjoy my numerous trips to the mountains each year.
As I was saying, I decided to get another bike but boy what a story that was. What has happened to me since I quit the rat race I do not know. From quick thinking decision maker to procrastinating fuddy-duddy in 10 years more or less sums it up!
My bike buying journey went like this...
I am an avid researcher (my wife would say obsessive over-researcher) and the www is a wonderful thing for a person like me.
I had decided I wanted a mountain bike. They are comfy, have wonderful brakes and you can go off road on them. They also look amazingly sexy in a way (to me) that no road bike does.
I researched and researched. I knew the spec's of umpteen models inside out. I knew the respective merits of different tyres, suspension forks and brakes as though I was an expert. I toddled of to Englands Biggest Bike Store just a few miles from my house.
Sadly I was underwhelmed on two fronts. 1) The staff I dealt with knew little about the bikes they were selling and showed absolutely no interest in my needs. 2) I took a few bikes out for a pootle (Cube & Trek) and oh dear.....they felt slow and they felt heavy. I did not remember them feeling like that before.
From starting to want a bike to this point had taken maybe 4 months but back to the drawing board it was and I started researching road bikes.
Wistfully inspired by the Carlton 10 and Raleigh Team (expensive at over £60 back in 1972-ish) I had a notion that I would soon be hurtling around the Lake District where I live at lightening speeds.
Forums, the Rose website, indeed all manufacturers websites became my happy haunt.
I have friends and family with nice bikes all of whom happily loaned me their bikes to try even though the sizing was not right on all of them. I tried 6 bikes ranging from a Defy to a carbon Synapse and a 'posh' Madone.
They were nice and light, felt quick but lordy they were uncomfortable. The skinny tyres with so little air in them did nothing for my old body.
Disillusioned and with a fair chunk of a year gone by I decided not to bother with buying a bike at all.
But then, someone came along and let me try their CAADX with fat tyres on it. Now, the CAADX is an insipid looking beast but it was a lovely bike to ride. So a CX, but not CAADX, it was for me.
After more research and forum-ing I decided on a Giant TCX1. The owner of my LBS owned and raced one. He let me out on his and bingo, this was the bike for me!
And some 14 months after my quest started I was the proud owner of my new bike.
Looking back I am not sure why it all took so long. I very definitely overdid the researching although the final outcome looks like the right one.
I do think I got caught up with certain things though that probably slowed things down. An example being groupsets. I agonised over the relative merits of Tiagra, 105 and Ultegra before I had even tried them. Total madness. Having now tried them all I can honestly say that they all feel the same to use plus the most expensive has the most pig-ugly chainset on the planet.
Stuff like this made the whole buying process too long. Well, that and the strange stop-start model year obsessed supply chain that all bikes have to transit through.
What I wished I had done was taken everyone's advice to find a good LBS and ride some bikes in an unprejudiced manner.
I am pretty sure that if I had done that in the first place I would have enjoyed an irreplaceable extra year of cycling.
My learning lessons for buying a bike are:
Don't overdo the research.
Don't get too sucked into nth degree forum discussions but do listen to the world of advice on offer there.
Don't fret the small stuff like marginal or even non-existent groupset differences.
Do keep an open mind to which bike and style of bike may be suitable for you - I had no idea that a CX bike would be spot-on for me at the outset of my quest.
Do get down to an LBS that local cyclists recommend - this is by far the best thing I eventually did.
***
And that folks is my bike purchasing story. A sorry tale of dithering but with a happy outcome.
A long time ago I had a pretty good career working in senior positions in the retail/sales & legal industries. I used to make quite big decisions on the hoof.
Then 10 years ago at the grand old age of 46 I retired from work, got bored quickly and started a part-time lifestyle business. Retirement is not all it's cracked up to be but that's another story.
18 months back my best mate in my avatar died and I was no longer getting my long 1.5 hour daily walk and eventually I decided to rekindle my intermittent love of cycling.
In my teens I had belonged to a cycling club (Gravesend Cycling Club in NW Kent) and had thoroughly enjoyed the experience. Academic studies, career and family life put an end to this for around 16 years and then a series of life changing things happened to me and suddenly I had enough time on my hands to get back into my cycling.
Cue my love affair with all things mountain bike. 10 years of MB bliss followed but then I had an accident (shoulder dislocation) on Ben Nevis (bit of an epic but that's also another story). and no longer could I ride my bike.
10 years went by and I now climb at a much lower level but still enjoy my numerous trips to the mountains each year.
As I was saying, I decided to get another bike but boy what a story that was. What has happened to me since I quit the rat race I do not know. From quick thinking decision maker to procrastinating fuddy-duddy in 10 years more or less sums it up!
My bike buying journey went like this...
I am an avid researcher (my wife would say obsessive over-researcher) and the www is a wonderful thing for a person like me.
I had decided I wanted a mountain bike. They are comfy, have wonderful brakes and you can go off road on them. They also look amazingly sexy in a way (to me) that no road bike does.
I researched and researched. I knew the spec's of umpteen models inside out. I knew the respective merits of different tyres, suspension forks and brakes as though I was an expert. I toddled of to Englands Biggest Bike Store just a few miles from my house.
Sadly I was underwhelmed on two fronts. 1) The staff I dealt with knew little about the bikes they were selling and showed absolutely no interest in my needs. 2) I took a few bikes out for a pootle (Cube & Trek) and oh dear.....they felt slow and they felt heavy. I did not remember them feeling like that before.
From starting to want a bike to this point had taken maybe 4 months but back to the drawing board it was and I started researching road bikes.
Wistfully inspired by the Carlton 10 and Raleigh Team (expensive at over £60 back in 1972-ish) I had a notion that I would soon be hurtling around the Lake District where I live at lightening speeds.
Forums, the Rose website, indeed all manufacturers websites became my happy haunt.
I have friends and family with nice bikes all of whom happily loaned me their bikes to try even though the sizing was not right on all of them. I tried 6 bikes ranging from a Defy to a carbon Synapse and a 'posh' Madone.
They were nice and light, felt quick but lordy they were uncomfortable. The skinny tyres with so little air in them did nothing for my old body.
Disillusioned and with a fair chunk of a year gone by I decided not to bother with buying a bike at all.
But then, someone came along and let me try their CAADX with fat tyres on it. Now, the CAADX is an insipid looking beast but it was a lovely bike to ride. So a CX, but not CAADX, it was for me.
After more research and forum-ing I decided on a Giant TCX1. The owner of my LBS owned and raced one. He let me out on his and bingo, this was the bike for me!
And some 14 months after my quest started I was the proud owner of my new bike.
Looking back I am not sure why it all took so long. I very definitely overdid the researching although the final outcome looks like the right one.
I do think I got caught up with certain things though that probably slowed things down. An example being groupsets. I agonised over the relative merits of Tiagra, 105 and Ultegra before I had even tried them. Total madness. Having now tried them all I can honestly say that they all feel the same to use plus the most expensive has the most pig-ugly chainset on the planet.
Stuff like this made the whole buying process too long. Well, that and the strange stop-start model year obsessed supply chain that all bikes have to transit through.
What I wished I had done was taken everyone's advice to find a good LBS and ride some bikes in an unprejudiced manner.
I am pretty sure that if I had done that in the first place I would have enjoyed an irreplaceable extra year of cycling.
My learning lessons for buying a bike are:
Don't overdo the research.
Don't get too sucked into nth degree forum discussions but do listen to the world of advice on offer there.
Don't fret the small stuff like marginal or even non-existent groupset differences.
Do keep an open mind to which bike and style of bike may be suitable for you - I had no idea that a CX bike would be spot-on for me at the outset of my quest.
Do get down to an LBS that local cyclists recommend - this is by far the best thing I eventually did.
***
And that folks is my bike purchasing story. A sorry tale of dithering but with a happy outcome.
