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What bike should I buy?

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  • 05-09-2006 11:21am
    #1
    junii
    Closed Accounts Posts: 600 ✭✭✭


    Fairly soon I want to get into road racing/touring.
    What bike should I start off on? Im 6'2".

    Thanks.


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    #2
    Civilian_Target
    Registered Users Posts: 5,618 ✭✭✭Civilian_Target


    A racing bike I guess, 21" frame probably...


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    #3
    Captain Trips
    Closed Accounts Posts: 944 ✭✭✭Captain Trips


    junii wrote:
    Fairly soon I want to get into road racing/touring.
    What bike should I start off on? Im 6'2".

    Thanks.

    Road racing is very different to touring and there are different bikes for both.

    I say get one of each.

    Road biking will allow you to cover far higher distances at good speed in a day, but you can't transport anything but yourself.

    Touring is slower, on heavier bikes, but with bags and wider tyres for muck and rain :)

    So basically decide what you want - a road bike is great at weekends for going on a blast all over the place, great for fitness, but a touring bike could allow you to say head down to killarney by train and go on the ring of kerry by bike with some camping gear.


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    #4
    cerebus
    Registered Users Posts: 447 ✭✭cerebus


    Maybe consider buying a cyclocross bike?

    Should allow you to do a bit of both - stick on road chainrings and skinny tires for some racing, and you should also have braze-ons and enough tire clearance for mudguards and racks if you want to tour.

    If the bug really bites you can stick on some knobbly tires and try some cross racing :)

    If you are interested you can google some of the following: Kona Jake the Snake, Lemond Poprad, Specialized Tricross. Should be enough to get you started.


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    #5
    blorg
    Registered Users Posts: 15,989 ✭✭✭✭blorg


    What's your background - e.g. are you new to cycling or experienced cyclist but coming from a MTB, etc. Tourers are quite different, heavier and with a more comfortable but slower riding position to a racer.

    You can however get light tourers while a tourer is always going to be slower than a racing bike it really is going to have more to do with yourself than the bike. I'd doubt that for the same rider average speed is going to be substantially higher on a racer and the tourer is likely going to be more comfortable for longer distances. Talking about it unloaded here of course.

    Audax or cyclocross as suggested would be a good compromise. I cycle a Specialized Sirrus with drop handlebars and a rack and am very happy with this both for commuting/leisure cycling around Dublin (300-500km/week) and the occasional tour. I had a Trek 1000 previously which was faster but my back just did not agree.

    th_78189_sirrus_Large_122_463lo.JPG

    This bike was heavily modified from stock but I think as very similar bike would be the Cannondale T2000; parked beside one of these recently in Dundrum and it seemed very nice.

    Thing is, you _can_ cycle around pleasurably for long distances on an unloaded light tourer but you just _cannot_ strap a tent and panniers onto a light racing bike. On the other hand, most of the time you are likely _not_ going to be touring and while the tourer would be good for event rides you are not going to be racing on it.


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    #6
    Trojan
    Registered Users Posts: 16,413 ✭✭✭✭Trojan


    I've been thinking about this a lot recently because I have a mountain bike which I've been using as a commuting and touring bike (3 tours on it so far). It's a great tourer due to frame and wheel strength, and slick tyre options are great for 26s now.

    The only thing is I'm quite competitive and want something that can go a bit faster now :) I'd be tempted to do a couple of triathlons too.

    So I've been thinking about a steel framed road bike, maybe a late-90s model with braze-ons for rack etc. Of course, maybe I should just stick with the MTB for commutes and tours, and get a road bike for the longer spins (I want to do a few Dublin to Mayo trips soon).

    Of course I know very little about road bikes, so this could be a really stupid idea :)

    There's another thread discussing entry level road bikes here.

    🎙️ The Recognized Authority Podcast



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    #7
    junii
    Closed Accounts Posts: 600 ✭✭✭junii


    Cheers for the advice but I think id rather get just the road bike. Perhaps get the touring bike in the future. I was thinking maybe an ocr4 or 3 or a trek 1000.

    Cheers for that link trojan, im just going to check it out now. Also, that cannondale looks quite nice blorg.


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    #8
    wahlrab
    Registered Users Posts: 174 ✭✭wahlrab


    i have a similiar problem,

    i'm in budapest for the year and i plan to buy a bike the roads are like dublin good some places bad other places.

    i want also to go cycling around the countryside at weekends so i was thinking an entry level racer like the allez, but this bike might get wrecked!

    most people over here cycle mountain bikes and most of the hybrids have suspension although there isn't a lot in the way of variety of hybrids, also there are a few brands like kellys or meridans

    any ideas?

    it tis a dilemma


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