600-800 bike for newbie - Triathlon

tony the tash

12/08/2012 at 20:25

Looking to make the transition into duathlons and then tri's. Don't yet owe a bike and currently looking to joking the work cycle scheme. Was looking at the giant defy 4, but was advised to get at least sora bits and carbon forks. Also looked at the boardman bikes from halfords, the more I look though the more I get lost!! Can anyone give me us advice? Don't mind going up to around 800, would just have to sacrifice pedals and shoes for now

tony the tash

12/08/2012 at 20:26

Oops joking should be joining!

Flat Foo..ted

13/08/2012 at 16:10

TTT...scroll back a few pages on the tri forums and you will find loads of similar threads...you can get a good bike for that amount of cash....shoes and pedals don't need to be really expensive but do help...and if you doing Ride to work reckon you can get the lot for £800 easy. Main thing is get a bike that fits you.

citizen 146 pirate

pirate

13/08/2012 at 18:56

buy cycle plus and look at their hundreds of bikes listed. And look at ribble.co.uk they do fantastic offers in bikes were you have limited choice but very high quality components. I have a ribble in Aluminium that is fantastic and I got the bigger gears (11-28) that I needed to crawl up the hills without getting off! Friend bought a giant defy 4 , you can do better , much better

Flat Foo..ted

13/08/2012 at 20:07

Buying an internet only bike like Ribble and Planet X (although PX do do bike fitting) is fine as long as you know what your buying and that it will fit, if it doesn't you might as well flush your cash down the bin.

tony the tash

13/08/2012 at 20:37

Cheers, I had a visit to local bike shop but they didn't have anything ready for me to ride although they told me to come back today. So I wont be going back there again.

Going to try another on Wednesday and also pop into Evans on Saturday. Now looking towards the defy 2 or the caad8 tiagra. Both are 800.

My idea is now to put more money into the bike and add the peripherals when I have the cash, so pedals and shoes can come later when I have more confidence on the bike.

Gastank

13/08/2012 at 22:23

Tony check out the other threads on the first page

Road Bike Advice
New and Advice needed

Might give you some food for thought....

White Pele

25/08/2012 at 20:56

Tony, I had the same budget, went for the defy 2, great bike.. well mine is anyway.

TheEngineer pirate

pirate

26/08/2012 at 15:46

There should really be a sticky on the front page for this...

tony the tash

28/08/2012 at 14:33

Opted for the Trek 1.5

Was 850, but I got some freebies! It's been over 20 years since I rode a bike so it's taking some getting used too!

Just enter the Helwith Bridge Duathlon

Intermanaut

28/08/2012 at 14:35

'er Indoors has te CAAD8. It's very nice, but the engine on hers is rubbish!

Dreaming Of Magic

28/08/2012 at 17:44

ttt.

I looked at the Trek 1.5 over the weekend. Very nice. In the end I went for a Felt F95 because of the deal I could get and the frame size (61cm) available. Just waiting for delivery now. Let us know how you get on with it. I did a one hour ride on the MTB this morning and upped the pace a bit, to give me a bench mark for speed vs the road bike once I get on it. 17.1 miles in 60mins, I will do the same with the road bike to see the difference. A friend who borrowed my MTB for the London to Brighton and then bought a road bike reckons 25% faster.

We'd love you to add a comment! Please login or take half a minute to register as a free member