Post by Deleted on Jul 19, 2016 21:20:42 GMT
Hi Tribe
I have arrived here after my brain melted and I bought a road bike.
A Triban 540 drop handle bar model to be more precise. Shimano 105, Mavic wheels and carbon forks at £450 in the sale seemed pretty impressive to me compared to that spec on a Boardman or Cannondale. Hopefully I have done OK?
So,
Here's the story of this new member (who will appear briefly from time to time as I have learned the hard way, forums can rule your life).
I'm 50 years old and as a kid I love push bikes.
I'd always tinker swapping drops for cow horns and ape hangers etc...all in the same day.
I'd wheelie, skip and bunny hop without ever tiring from the thrill.
None of my bikes were ever very special, they just had to be about the right size and I'd ride them in sunshine or snow, day n day out like I was glued to it.
Somewhere along the way when I started work, I stepped off path and found myself without a bike at all.
Then some years later the mountain bike properly appeared for £99 in halfords...can't go wrong!!! Only it did go wrong, immediately. This was not a mountain bike this was hardly a bike at all. It was a BSO as I have heard them called these days.
I got rid of that pretty quickly and found an old touring bike with drop handle bars in the free ads going back to about 1996. That was already fairly old and it cost me £30. Way superior to the BSO from halfords. I still have it and use it about once a month on average when I can't run for what ever reason!!
But in about 2008 I had another impulse buy (a recurring theme with bikes it would seem) and bought a Gary Fisher Wahoo disc mountain bike. I had a few outing on it and it performs better than me I can't say I really enjoy mountain biking as much as I enjoy the thought of it. So that sits around a lot too!
Which brings me to the week end just gone. There I was nursing a calf injury from running and found i could still cycle. But I didn't feel the inspiration. Neither bike inspired me to get at it. So I went to halfords
My thinking was that I would junk both bikes with any capital I could get from them and get a good entry level Hybrid. The whole world then told me I'd regret getting a hybrid and all of a sudden I wasn't sure about sticking by my own decision. This was family, work friends and sales staff. I broadened my options to include cycle cross style and came pretty close to the 'Boardman Team CX' The end of range model for £480 with chipped paint on the frame under the seat stem. The last one they had and hence the price. While thinking about it, I nipped into Decathlon and saw the 540 road bike reduced to £450. As this layman can tell, from my quick learning curve, The spec on the 540 is better than the Boardman cyclocross, undamaged and cheaper. That was that!!!
I also now get to keep my Gary Fisher mountain bike as I was expecting to have to shell out around £600 and hope to get £100-150 back on a very nice condition Wahoo.
So hopefully this will inspire me and I have made no compromises on my possessions prior to the week end.
Thanks for having me and I'll be looking out for tips of every nature along the way.
I have arrived here after my brain melted and I bought a road bike.
A Triban 540 drop handle bar model to be more precise. Shimano 105, Mavic wheels and carbon forks at £450 in the sale seemed pretty impressive to me compared to that spec on a Boardman or Cannondale. Hopefully I have done OK?
So,
Here's the story of this new member (who will appear briefly from time to time as I have learned the hard way, forums can rule your life).
I'm 50 years old and as a kid I love push bikes.
I'd always tinker swapping drops for cow horns and ape hangers etc...all in the same day.
I'd wheelie, skip and bunny hop without ever tiring from the thrill.
None of my bikes were ever very special, they just had to be about the right size and I'd ride them in sunshine or snow, day n day out like I was glued to it.
Somewhere along the way when I started work, I stepped off path and found myself without a bike at all.
Then some years later the mountain bike properly appeared for £99 in halfords...can't go wrong!!! Only it did go wrong, immediately. This was not a mountain bike this was hardly a bike at all. It was a BSO as I have heard them called these days.
I got rid of that pretty quickly and found an old touring bike with drop handle bars in the free ads going back to about 1996. That was already fairly old and it cost me £30. Way superior to the BSO from halfords. I still have it and use it about once a month on average when I can't run for what ever reason!!
But in about 2008 I had another impulse buy (a recurring theme with bikes it would seem) and bought a Gary Fisher Wahoo disc mountain bike. I had a few outing on it and it performs better than me I can't say I really enjoy mountain biking as much as I enjoy the thought of it. So that sits around a lot too!
Which brings me to the week end just gone. There I was nursing a calf injury from running and found i could still cycle. But I didn't feel the inspiration. Neither bike inspired me to get at it. So I went to halfords
My thinking was that I would junk both bikes with any capital I could get from them and get a good entry level Hybrid. The whole world then told me I'd regret getting a hybrid and all of a sudden I wasn't sure about sticking by my own decision. This was family, work friends and sales staff. I broadened my options to include cycle cross style and came pretty close to the 'Boardman Team CX' The end of range model for £480 with chipped paint on the frame under the seat stem. The last one they had and hence the price. While thinking about it, I nipped into Decathlon and saw the 540 road bike reduced to £450. As this layman can tell, from my quick learning curve, The spec on the 540 is better than the Boardman cyclocross, undamaged and cheaper. That was that!!!
I also now get to keep my Gary Fisher mountain bike as I was expecting to have to shell out around £600 and hope to get £100-150 back on a very nice condition Wahoo.
So hopefully this will inspire me and I have made no compromises on my possessions prior to the week end.
Thanks for having me and I'll be looking out for tips of every nature along the way.