I couldn't think where to put this so I put it here.
Having been advised by the doc to do some cycling to rebalance my muscles I am now seeing this as an opportunity to go and spend some cash! (don't tell the wife).
Currently I bike with a mountain bike and also have an indoor machine, but would like to try some fast road biking.
Can anyone advise any good reading, web-sites etc that can give me a bit of background as I am completely out of touch with road biking? I need to get a bike capable of climbing big hills (my mountain biking is often in first gear). How much cash would I have to look at spending? Who are the reliable names in road biking nowadays? How can I justify spending a large sum of money to my wife (excuses to include - "How it isn't a large sum of money relative to other expenditure items" and "why the purchase is really to her benefit and not for me at all" and poissibly "some vague but long term promise of foreign holidays"
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Comments
If you have a good bike shop locally, they may have a small ads board where customers can sell their old bikes as they trade up for a newer better model. You can pick up a pretty good one that way. I got a £450 Giant racer for £125 and it had only done 100 miles (guy had bought it for his son, who then decided he didn't like cycling).
You get a lot more road bike for your money than mountain bike, so unless you are aiming for the Tour de France, £300 would get you something perfectly useful for cross training.
Gareth
Buying a bike is quite a personal thing. Some of my friends have been quite happy racing on bikes that were falling to bits, whereas others must have the latest equipment.
If you do intend doing some duathlons then I would suggest you buy a good quality bike. At this stage the frame is probably the most important consideration as the rest of the bits can be upgraded at a future date, if required.
I recently bought a Giant OCR 2, which has a nice stiff compact frame and a nice turn of speed for an affordable £525. This bike also got good write-ups in the press (220 magazine & cycling plus).
All in all I find it very usable for both training and triathlon racing.
Will