[Closed] Planet X bikes- which one should a newbie go for?

Budget.?

Ribble are worth a look.

Budget is ideally 1k. I know its not 'enough' for a roadie but I don't want to go crackers really.

A grand should get you a good bike with 105 level kit. PlanetX and ribble are hard to beat on value, I think merlin do a well priced road bike as well.

[url= http://www.tredz.co.uk/road-bikes/pgn/9/xsrt/priceasc ]Tredz[/url]

Ah thank you- Ribble offer 0% and the Sportive Bianco comes in at £1100 with 105.

http://www.ribblecycles.co.uk/bbd/road-track-bike/ribble-sportive-bianco?part=BB13RIBSPORTVEBIANCO&sub=conf_BBRC&bike=1

Which wheels though?!!

Fulcrums seem to get a lot of good press and are very popular around these parts. Which level will depend on how far you can stretch the budget.

Stick some conti GP4000s's on the them as well. Very grippy, very puncture proof and hard wearing.

Have you sat on one to check that you will be on the right frame size-all important on a road bike? You don't tend to move around too much, so need to be in a comfy position. Shimano R80's? used to be the wheelset that was recommended on Bike Radar I think. Perhaps try a cheap carbon set from China?

Fulcrums seem to get a lot of good press and are very popular around these parts. Which level will depend on how far you can stretch the budge

The Fulcrum 3's are +149 on the options list and roadcc gives them 4/4 so look ok? I tried AndyHilton's bike of this parish and he had some fancy wheels on that felt quick/darty' (hard to describe) but I think they were +400 ontop!

You can get 0% interest at Planet X too,
http://www.planet-x-bikes.co.uk/news/planet-x-news/q/date/2013/01/31/interest-free-finance-now-available

hora - Member

Budget is ideally 1k. I know its not 'enough' for a roadie but I don't want to go crackers really.

Step daughter has the PX SL and loves it to bits.
It's a couple of years old, gets used every day and raced on at weekends.
It's been perfect.
She's only round the corner from you if you want a look.
Not your size though.

[i]I'm 6ft2 (GOSH)- which size? [/i]

Knowing you, XS 😉

Hora, the rt57 is a rocketship. I had a wee spin on one the other day. Impressive for the money.

mate at work had fulcrums and i found it a PITA to get bits for the hubs, but this may be different now, or i may have just been looking in the wrong places.

Fulcrum 5s on my road bike, Fulcrum 7s on Mrs Stimpy's. Hub bits available in loads of places, especially on t'internet. Top wheels.

Hey stiiimppeeee

Sorry- can you spot the difference between 5 and 7's?

Hora - where are you? I have a L P-X RT-57 down in E-Sussex. I think there is also a P_X stockist in Bristol and Derby, as well as the Rotherham showroom.

I'm 181cm, and would normally go for a M bike. I went for a L RT-57, with a shorter stem, making the bike slightly less racy, and more upright, as L has a longer Head Tube than M. The RT-57 on the P_X website is configurable, so things such as bar width, stem length, and cranks are changeable free of charge.

Mine is the SRAM rival option for £1k, which they seem to have discontinued, only doing the SRAM Force version for a little more.

I love it, BTW!!

There is a noticeable difference between the 5s and 7s although it's not huge. Given the currently (very) small price difference between the two I'd go 5s.

Got mine as a knock-down 2012 set (to make way for 2013 stock) from Merlin, although check bike-discount.de who often have cracking good deals on Fulcrum wheelsets. I run Schwalbe Duranos on mine all year-round. No problems at all.

RT58 coming end of next week. From £1499 with Force and sexy cranks, and lovely, and [url= http://www.shedfire.com/2012/08/11/my-new-bike/ ]I've been riding one since August. Though my wheels cost more than my car.[/url]

Dolan bikes are good value too, just bought one from them today. Interest free if thats what you want as well. Roll on Friday !!

http://www.paulscycles.co.uk/products.php?plid=m7b65s6p4332

Shimano R80's? used to be the wheelset that was recommended on Bike Radar I think. Perhaps try a cheap carbon set from China?

RS80's look like a good choice, my R-550's have lasted many thousand miles, just snapped their first spoke on Sunday which was a ball ache. I'd not get those carbons for every day. Wet braking on carbon is adequate at best, and lots of reports of the braking tracks bubbling up after 1500miles or so, good for a cheep race day set, but 1500 miles is only a summer of sunday club runs.

I'd look at some of the sensa(?) Bikes merlin cycles offer. Under £800 for 9kg bike with carbon fork and 105 groupset.
Planet x do great frames just not convinced about the kit attached to them.

The 'issue' is Merlin don't offer 0% though

The Cannondale that Pete linked to is a billy-bargain, 6 months interest free too. If I had any need at all for a road bike I'd be very tempted...

[img] [/img]

+1 here for both an Al cannondale and Paul's Cycles.

Don't assume a cheap carbon frame will be better than a top notch Al frame for the same £

http://www.paulscycles.co.uk/products.php?plid=m7b65s6p4321

+1 for the cannondale CAAD10, my CAAD4 is (IMO) great, so 6 generations of tewaking should make it pretty special. Not only will the frame be lighter than most comparably priced carbon bikes (1150g is lighter than a lot of £1100 frames!), the parts bolted onto it will be a better as there's money spare in the budget.

And knowing you a CAAD10 will be a lot more re-saleable than a re-branded open mould cabon frame.

As for sizing, there's no substitute for sitting on one, but I'm 6ft and ride a 56, so you'd be between a 56 and 58.

Edit -mainly aimed at the earlier posted 'Dale)

I'm a total newbie on this. So please excuse my ignorance and questions- I see where you are coming from but thats assuming that the carbon frame(s) nowadays (as opposed to the early early ones?) are of a certain accepted quality and the 'cheap'/budget ones have had an evolution interms of flex (front triangle etc) ironed out?

Although its mtb..I was a cheap carbon sceptic and the bikeradar review of the c456 put me off a bit for being 'harsh' but I've found the frame very very compliant and easy to ride. Maybe its where you ride them on mountain bikes?!

Anyway- the Cannondale 'seems' (to a newbie like me) to be choice-bits put onto an otherwise average build? The wheels are basic straight-to upgrade and the brakes are nowt special.

More than happy to be proven wrong but for almost 1k its a fancy winter bike?

Again ?? as I'm approaching this from a newbie-perspective 🙂

Have a look on the weight weenies "introduce yourself" forum, there's probably more CAAD10's than anything else, they're very popular for good reason.

Cannondale have a reputation for building bikes arround good frames, they don't do 'cheep' frames on cheep bike. Theres the CAAD8 (Ok, this is now 'cheep' but it is the old top of the range frame from a few years ago, not a purpose designed cheep frame) and CAAD10, SuperSix (same weight as a CAAD10) and SuperSix Evo (675g frame), and now the nano (but even the pro taem doesn't use that) so compared to most their components are a bit on the low-rent side, but you get the top (or bottom I suppose if your a glass half empty)of the range frame. But I put about 5000miles on the comparable standard build of my CAAD4 (secondhand) and the only things I replaced were the BB (after about 2 weeks), headset (towards the end), and eventualy the wheels (they are heavy, but they're reliable). Upgraded kit is nice, but the standard stuff won't stop you riding.

Or do what I did, £300 second hand for a whole bike, then anther £900 over 8 years to turing it into something a fair bit nicer 🙂
[img] [/img]

Got it/see where you are coming from. The sceptic in me says what if the new owners are trading on old/hard-won well made frame(s) and the one offered is made in a different factory/cheaper with the name stuck on?

Gawd I'm grumpy this morning.

if that is your intended use of a road bike why not go for the btwin triban 3 at £299 ???

Because you can feel the difference in pickup/speed/lightness etc etc. I want something that urges me to ride/want to ride more.

If I rode a Carrera off road I'd enjoy my ride alot less than on a SC TRc 😉

Because you can feel the difference in pickup/speed/lightness etc etc. I want something that urges me to ride/want to ride more.

In that case get whatever you like the look of. You're unlikley to get a complete dog. I'd scour ebay for a s/h CAAD10 arround £700-£800, then spend £200 on some shimano RS61 wheels or some handbuilts.

You're over-thinking it all.

[i]Just a good balance so that when I ride it I'll want to ride it more[/i]

If you've never ridden a 'proper' road bike, then you'll probably be gobsmacked at the ease of speed you'll get with any £500+ road bike and the fact that they just make you want to pedal harder. However, if you're not going to 'get' road riding, spunking more money will not help.

You're not going to race, so why spend the money on something capable of it. If you spend over a grand you're wasting money... To be honest, for what you want, I wouldn't spend much over eight hundred quid.

I'd echo the recommendations for a Cannondale. Im loving mine, which I bought for pretty much the same reasons as you hora. Road biking is much more time efficient than mountain biking for me.

Crap photo but a great bike. Currently saving for a nice blingy archetype wheelset.

[url= http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7112/7782359832_22d3e3d765_b.jp g" target="_blank">http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7112/7782359832_22d3e3d765_b.jp g"/> [/img][/url]
[url= http://www.flickr.com/photos/bikesnthat/7782359832/ ]Untitled[/url] by [url= http://www.flickr.com/people/bikesnthat/ ]redmancunian69[/url], on Flickr

It's a 56 and as you're local and pretty much the same height as me, let me know if you won't to try it for size.

Road biking is much more time efficient than mountain biking for me.

Bang-on for me. If I could get out for even just an hour every other evening it'd really help me destress and help with pre-summer fitness. Although my gym is great (Sport City) I just feel like a prisoner trapped in a box in the gym so changing that hour to on the bike instead would be a boon/more fun. Even if it was just a ride to the Airport/round and back!

I had two hours free on Saturday morning while the kids were out with the Mrs. No way could I get an mtb ride in. I rode out to the Anderton boat lift and back (37 mile round trip) and I'm not ashamed to say that I actually enjoyed it.

[url= http://m.bikeradar.com/road/gear/category/bikes/road/product/review-sensa-romagna-special-12-46600 ]would be difficult for me to see past this at the price[/url]

Are you the one that changes frames every five minutes?

Get the Cannondale to ease your future resale.

Depends if I 'luck in'. The only frames I've kept longterm tend to have had 'Santa Cruz' on the downtube so a manufacturer of sorted frames wouldn't go amiss..

Depends if I 'luck in'. The only frames I've kept longterm tend to have had 'Santa Cruz' on the downtube so a manufacturer of sorted frames wouldn't go amiss..

n+1 applies more to road bikes than MTB's, You'll need a race bike, a sunday club run bike, a winter bike, a training bike, a bike for the turbo, a TT bike, a Sportive bike. And idealy each bike should also be replicated in each of aluminium/carbon/steel/Ti. The problem is none are actualy 'better', so you can't just sell the old one.

I don't have the money sadly for all that (or the space)- My old track bike lived outside all year round lent against the wall at the side of my house (no lock).

Get the Cannondale to ease your future resale.

[i]but for a first road bike anything will feel like a rocketship when you push the pedals compared to an MTB.[/i]

Again, this

[i]anyway, i know i'm wasting my time[/i]

You and me both fella 😉

I hear both of you. I'm not going to muck about with road bikes. If I had to start again on a mountain bike- it'd be waaay too much. Same for a road bike. It'll be a compromise of sorts. Plus I wont be doing club rides etc. Just me getting out and having a blast/spin to chew up my anger buildup/levels.

So it'd be one bike. Thats it. I want to focus on the wheels and comfort of the frame as the biggie's.

I bought a £500 CAAD 8 from Paul's last year and have been exceedingly chuffed with it.

I've used it for sportives, in a Tri, at Crit races, local TTs and Sunday spins with my mates. It's not the flashest bit of kit spec-wise but it holds its own and as bits wear out (and funds allow) I'll upgrade it from Sora to 105/Ultegra. I was a dyed in the wool MTBer so didn't want to spend shed-loads in case it sat gathering dust, but I've really got into it and don't feel that a "cheaper" bike is holding me back at all.

Having had it about 10month I've just replaced the wheels as I kept getting broken spokes in the old rear. I didn't go flash, just Shimano RS20s, but I'll probably get some flash ones next summer and these will become winter wheels (and it'll still probably be under a grand in total 😉 )

I'm on a 90's peageot steel road bike, down tube shifters, original biospace crank and that feels like rocket at times so a modern one with "clicky" must be fantastic, though i do like being able to trim the front mech.
I'd put some money aside for decent pedals. Long rode rides give me numb feet in the mtb shoes.

Don't buy a road bike until you have sat on a few - as hinted above getting the size right is much more important than on MTBs. Each also has its own unique geometry some of which will suit you, and some won't, and a 56cm frame will differ in size between manufacturers. Don't get hooked by carbon, many aluminium or steel bikes give as good or better rides. The general principle is to get the best frame, and then upgrade wheels, transmission etc as and when.

I'm on a 90's peageot steel road bike, down tube shifters, original biospace crank and that feels like rocket at times so a modern one with "clicky" must be fantastic, though i do like being able to trim the front mech.

Ooh which one? I have an old Pug Triathlon 531 in pink and brown! Still feels pretty quick when out on the roads but spends most of the time attached to the turbo trainer.

Get Di2, the front mech trims itself, which makes me grin a lot 🙂

Edit: ... and on the subject of newbie bikes, my sis got a Boardman and brother in law got an PX RT-57. Both very happy with their purchases. Echo most of the advice above though, fit is all important as you'll spend a lot of time in the same position. That Cannondale looks pretty tidy.

I wont be doing club rides etc.

Don't rule them out, what's wrong with getting up early on a Sunday, riding 25 miles to a coffee shop with friends, eating cake, riding home, sprinting for the town sign then getting home in time for lunch?

Club rides are the best bit of road bikes! You get to tap into a long history of previous club runs, to find every single good cake shop within a 30mile radius.

+1 for club runs and cake! Though having new blobby jr does make getting out for a few hours on a Sunday morning more than a little tricky, been ages since I've been on one.

Bregante if you don't mind I'd love to take you up on your offer. Just a spin to the big roundabout and back etc. I am sceptical over the alu but this may help.

Because you can feel the difference in pickup/speed/lightness etc etc. I want something that urges me to ride/want to ride more.

If I rode a Carrera off road I'd enjoy my ride alot less than on a SC TRc

how amusing, esp if you not ridden a road bike before... i understand the wanting the bling thing and feeling proud of how it looks.

just get the bike you like the look of and the brand you feel you want to 'wear' / be seen on.

Depends if I 'luck in'. The only frames I've kept longterm tend to have had 'Santa Cruz' on the downtube so a manufacturer of sorted frames wouldn't go amiss..

I've got a Santa Cruz Stigmata frame you can have for song.....