Road Bike Suggestions - €1000 budget.

danielgalway

Hi all,

Looking to buy a new bike on the BTW scheme and there is a cap of €1000. I have conducted some research but would appreciate suggestions on what bikes to be looking at in this range.

Based in Galway, I would like to buy locally so I can actually give the bike a ride before buying.

Tried looking here for similar threads, but the majority appear to be from a couple of years ago.

Bit of background. Been cycling to work for a month now swapping between Dad's road bike and an old hybrid and really liking the road bike so looking mainly at those.

Appreciate the help.

magicbastarder

does your €1000 include spend on accessories? or are you sorted for those?

siochain

Planetx in Athlone are worth checking out usually pretty goods value

danielgalway

magicbastarder wrote: »

does your €1000 include spend on accessories? or are you sorted for those?

Yea i was thinking about that. I only have a couple of things but if possible I would put all of the money into the bike itself and get the remaining accessories as I need them

magicbastarder

i think the giant contend is considered a decent all rounder; though i suppose a big question would be what your LBSes stock?

route66

danielgalway wrote: »

Hi all,

Looking to buy a new bike on the BTW scheme and there is a cap of ?1000. I have conducted some research but would appreciate suggestions on what bikes to be looking at in this range.

Based in Galway, I would like to buy locally so I can actually give the bike a ride before buying.

Tried looking here for similar threads, but the majority appear to be from a couple of years ago.

Bit of background. Been cycling to work for a month now swapping between Dad's road bike and an old hybrid and really liking the road bike so looking mainly at those.

Appreciate the help.

Unless your company has introduced their own rule, the cap refers to the maximum amount you are allowed to offset against tax - not the maximum amount you can spend.

E.G. You buy a bike for ?1,200

• The company gives you a cheque for ?1,200, you buy the bike with their cheque.
• The company will take ?200 off your next paycheck - from your net amount
• The company will take the remaining ?1,000 off your gross pay - sometimes they may do this over a period of time, not to exceed 12 months.

Road bikes come in different flavours - broadly from the comfortable, commuter friendly to the sporty. In this price bracket, you could go from, say, a Giant Revolt gravel bike to a more sporty Trek 1.2 (or the Emonda alr4 if you could push the budget a little).

If you're happy a road bike is for you, then my advice would be to spend a bit extra and get a bike that you will be happy with for a few years. At ?1,000 you might find you have to make too many compromises and you will only be looking to upgrade after a few months.

Once you have spent far more than you had planned, you will then read about the "N+1" problem. This is where you will want to expand your bike into a fleet, where you will want single-purpose bikes like a mountain bike(s) (Full suss and hardtail), something aero, a fixie, a hybrid ...

fat bloke

Is there any LBS selling decent aluminium and 105 for 1000 euro, or is that day in the past?

RocketRaccoon

I am in the same boat as yourself and I think I have decided on the Giant Contend. I did start another post about my requirements and a few questions but there has been more responses in here which is helping me also.

danielgalway

route66 wrote: »

Unless your company has introduced their own rule, the cap refers to the maximum amount you are allowed to offset against tax - not the maximum amount you can spend.

E.G. You buy a bike for ?1,200

• The company gives you a cheque for ?1,200, you buy the bike with their cheque.
• The company will take ?200 off your next paycheck - from your net amount
• The company will take the remaining ?1,000 off your gross pay - sometimes they may do this over a period of time, not to exceed 12 months.

Road bikes come in different flavours - broadly from the comfortable, commuter friendly to the sporty. In this price bracket, you could go from, say, a Giant Revolt gravel bike to a more sporty Trek 1.2 (or the Emonda alr4 if you could push the budget a little).

If you're happy a road bike is for you, then my advice would be to spend a bit extra and get a bike that you will be happy with for a few years. At ?1,000 you might find you have to make too many compromises and you will only be looking to upgrade after a few months.

Once you have spent far more than you had planned, you will then read about the "N+1" problem. This is where you will want to expand your bike into a fleet, where you will want single-purpose bikes like a mountain bike(s) (Full suss and hardtail), something aero, a fixie, a hybrid ...

Appreciate the long response. I wasn't aware that was how it worked. I thought you could spend a max of 1000 on bike and accessories. Is there a sweetspot in the bike market where you get the best value for money?