New Bike in 30 Sleeps..

[Boon 51]

The Focus here looks a good un for you...not sure how tall the seller is, 56cm should be ok if you are 5'11 IIRC http://www.cyclechat.net/threads/broken-shoulder-bike-sale.109655/#post-2007957

My stats are .. 5ft 10inch in height and an inside leg of 31 inch.. so I will have a look.

 

[vickster]

Might be a smidge big - ask the seller his stats

 

[Boon 51]

I'm going to have a look at some bikes in Granada tomorrow so I will take the bike measurements with me, that would give me a rough idea..

 

[Boon 51]

Right .. another day gone by but something has just cropped up and now I'm having second thoughts on the Hybrid and the reason is a windy day on the bike, should I now be thinking of a drop bar road bike?
Dont know what to think really, I have to say it wouldn't bother me... mmmmm

 

[vickster]

What has the wind got to do with it?

 

[Boon 51]

I thought if you are lower to the bike as with drop bars you would be out of the wind a little better.. or dont it work like that?

 

[vickster]

To some extent but I doubt you'll spend much time in the drops unless shooting down hills - the regular road cyclists on here also bitch about headwinds - a bu**er for anyone on a bike! You'll spend much of the time on the hoods, although you'll be lower than on a hybrid, not that much - best wind protection is meant to be a peloton in front of you!

 

[Boon 51]

To some extent but I doubt you'll spend much time in the drops unless shooting down hills - the regular road cyclists on here also bitch about headwinds - a bu**er for anyone on a bike! You'll spend much of the time on the hoods, although you'll be lower than on a hybrid, not that much - best wind protection is meant to be a peloton in front of you!

Morning Vickster..

I think a little inprovement will come when I get some good bike gear as all I use at the moment is a pair of football shorts a baggy T shirt and a baseball cap.. Not really the right gear at all but it will have to do till I'm in the UK, then I will buy some bike gear ..

 

[vickster]

Good stuff. From what everyone says, improvement comes with riding

 

[Boon 51]

I do lack muscle's on my legs, I'm sure in a month or two's time the muscles will feel and look better and my staminer will improve also hopefully..
Plus I feel fitter in general, which is good.

 

[Boon 51]

We went to the bike shop yesterday and it was a very interesting day ~ and funny.
I wanted to try a drop bar bike in the bike shop in Granada called Dr Bikes, when we were there my mate asked if they had a demo bike for me to try? The salesman came from the back of the shop with this bike and even thought might be a tad too big but it would give me an idea on drop bars, he said it wasn't a demo bike but belonged to the mechanic and was worth about 6,000 euros.. GULP... he said to go down the road turn right down to the next corner turn right then up to the next corner turn right and you will be back at the shop and do this a couple of times. So off I went on the very expensive bike!
Blimey what a difference a good bike makes, it was unbelieveable! The problem was somewhere I missed one of the right turns and ending up getting lost completely.
I stood on this corner asking people in my best'ish Spanish where the Dr bike shop was and all they kept on saying was there is no Doctor round here called Dr Bike! What seemed like hours went by, in the end I flagged a cop car down and asked him where Dr Bike was he they didn't know either so my Spanish a'int that good!!. In the end the cop radioed through to his controller who must have translated/ guessed what I was on about and the cop started laughing as he now understood what I meant. He indicated I should follow him and he led me back to the bike shop..
All this turned out to a laugh at my expense but ended well (phew!)l.
Anyway, in the shop they had a few bikes that would suit me a Def 4 or Def 3 but the star of the show for me was a Giant TCR 1 which I thought looked stunning, with discount they want 950 euros which is just over 780 pounds, when I got home I checked the prices and it seems they are about £1200 to £1300 on one site and £1400 on another so if you split the difference it's still £500 pounds off the UK price. What a cracking bike!
That's yesterday for you!

 

[Cyclist33]

I think the price here would depend if you got an alloy TCR1 or a carbon composite one.

The alloy is selling for about £850 on Wiggle at the mo.

Sounds good tho.

Stu

 

[Cyclist33]

One big issue though is, since you only rode on someone else's posh bike you've still got no idea what size/if at all of Defy or TCR will suit you best. Didn't you test ride one?

Stu

 

[Boon 51]

One big issue though is, since you only rode on someone else's posh bike you've still got no idea what size/if at all of Defy or TCR will suit you best. Didn't you test ride one?

Stu

No...Because the bike shop was a bit hectic at the time, but the saleman did come and stand by me, then said 'we are the same size' and pointed too 3 or 4 bikes that would fit me.. but then said if I was keen to buy he could arrange a test ride..

I'll have a look on his web site and check if its a alloy or a carbon model.

One thing I have thought of is..
When we get to the UK we will have to travel from Dover to London and a few other places around the M 25 checking out the bikes at Evans and Cyclesurgery etc but buying Spanish would save me £40 on petrol which I would take off the price of the bike over here. Plus of course the warranty even though valid in the UK is worthless to me over here.
Not that it would stop me buying in the UK of course..

 

[Boon 51]

Just an update...
Going to Dr Bike on Monday to have a sit on and measure up of the TCR 1 and we will see what happens from there..