Long-ish distance commuting...

[garrilla]

What recession?

There isn't a recession on in the LBS world. A Combination of CTW, Britain's reigning glory at all things cycle and various scares terror/plague/etc is selling bikes faster than the distributers can supply.

Especially at this time of year when its in between Models.

 

[b0redom]

What time of year are the next batch of models released? Are they like cars? All released at the same time?

 

[Sittingduck]

400 quid on extras?! Yowser

 

[Tony B]

If your looking for a LBS in the Walton/Staines area, I bought my hybrid from Surrey Cycles in Addlestone near the Tescos, very friendly but not a big shop.

 

[b0redom]

400 quid on extras?! Yowser

Well to be fair, that did include:

A decent lock
basic clip in shoes and pedals
decent rechargable lights
a decent helmet
mudguards
panier rack and bag

but you'd have thought that they'd knock a little bit off...

 

[b0redom]

If your looking for a LBS in the Walton/Staines area, I bought my hybrid from Surrey Cycles in Addlestone near the Tescos, very friendly but not a big shop.

Cool beans - I'll give them a shot. I've tried East Street Cycles in Walton and they didn't really seem interested in.... well anything at all really....

 

[Breedon]

I can vouch the Ribble *winter* bike, had mine for 3 weeks fantasic bike, it comes with mudguards and i have a rack on it as well.

 

[Tynan]

why is a road bike any less comfortable in winter than any other bike?

drops make it a lot more bearable when it's windy and cold

ditto full guards and a rack/pannier

and caning along and getting on with it is better than plodding along

 

[Wigsie]

why is a road bike any less comfortable in winter than any other bike?

drops make it a lot more bearable when it's windy and cold

ditto full guards and a rack/pannier

and caning along and getting on with it is better than plodding along

+1

Although I dont have guards and racks etc on mine, just get soaked and have change of clothes etc at work.

Cant quite ride fast enough to 'dodge' the water as some genius' have said in the past though!

 

[RedBike]

why is a road bike any less comfortable in winter than any other bike?

There's no reason for a road bike to be any less comfortable than a 'winter' bike. Typically a winter bike just means there's room for full length mud-guards.

Fitting mud-guards and a rack does slow the bike down; but you'll never notice even over 25miles unless you're treating the ride like a time trial and timing yourself to the second. Bikes like the Ribble are perfectly capable of caning along. My Ribbble did several road races last year, (although obviously I removed the rack and mud-guards first.)