My first Road Bike....is this a good start & price?

[Bods]

Hello, I am looking to purchase my first road bike for my commute to and from work. I don;t have a collosal budget to throw at it, but at the same want something which will last, is nice and light, smooth to ride, solid frame and looks good too. I have found a Claud Butler Roubaix Road Bike on special offer for £387. reduced from £600. It looks a great bike and the spec look decent too. Is this a good deal?

 

[Nearly there]

thats quite a saving,theres not many bikes with a carbon fork sub £400 assuming thats your budget?Im sure the decathlon will be recommended http://www.decathlon.co.uk/triban-3-id_8167038.html

 

[Nosaj]

That seems quite a good spec for the price. Carbon Forks and Sora. My experience of Kenda tyres however has been that they are useless and I would imagine that the wheels will be a budget version as well so as a minimum factor in a new set of tyres in a few months. In the price range that you are in you may snap up an older year Spesh Allez or Trek 1 if you really hunt around. You will also get a very well speccd bike if you go second hand you should get a pretty good bike for that money if you scour the classifieds.

 

[Sittingduck]

I'd be looking at this for a penny shy of 300 quid.

It's the wrong side of 10Kg but for that kind of money I think you will be hard pressed to find anything better.

 

[broomwagon]

Go for it Bods. There's some decent second hand bikes to be had though. Last year I was going to go down the "Cycle To Work Scheme" route but I looked on flea bay first and picked up a six month old Trek Pilot for £230 before taking the plunge. It's immaculate, I've just upgraded a few things like bars, calipers and stem and put some SPDLs on. I just fell lucky as the bidding ended at 3am! I left a bid and went to bed....

 

[jay clock]

That Claud Butler looks excellent, but if you are near a Decathlon they are great too

 

[Monkspeed]

I'd be looking at this for a penny shy of 300 quid.

It's the wrong side of 10Kg but for that kind of money I think you will be hard pressed to find anything better.

I actually weighed my one and it worked out at 9.something! I was quite surprised.
Of course the absolute accuracy of the weighing scales might be off a bit probably.
I posted the actual weight in someones thread around here somewhere.

EDIT: Found the thread: http://www.cyclechat.net/threads/bo...oday-and-weighed-the-bikes.91744/post-1647657

 

[lukesdad]

Quite a lot of bike for bucks in those examples.

 

[Kiwiavenger]

I was going to get the roubaix, Evans messed around so I got the allez instead. It looks lovely in the flesh and has a good spec.

 

[Banjo]

The CB Roubaix has a racing chainset (53/39) and an 11 to 26 cassette at the back. This gearing is ok if either you are a strong cyclist or you dont live in a hilly area. Most beginners would prefer a triple or compact bike that will give easier gears for getting up hills.