entry level road bike Options

[Ranman5]

I've been thinking about starting for a few years now,what's a good entry level bike?Should I go new or used?My two LBS' carry Trek(which I really don't care for)fisher,specialized(love my hardrock comp!)and felt.Next town over carries pretty much everything you could think of.I will probably never race but I really would like to try to do a century at some point.I would mostly use it for pretty short afternoon rides to get into better shape.

[Ranman5]

Really? Not a single suggestion?

[truckdaddy]

Trek, Felt, Specialized, Giant, and even the store brands are pretty much all the same at "entry level".
You are no doubt going to replace the saddle and pedals, to suit your prefference.
However, I, tend to start with frame materiel, Usually aluminum, but you can find steel at that point that are not to heavy.
Ride a bunch of bikes and decide what you like best.
Then, get out and ride!! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/good2.gif)

[billn]

Go new, and buy from a shop that knows how to fit the bike. Fit is CRUCIAL on a road bike and will greatly affect your comfort and performance.

I'd HEARTILY recommend a Giant Defy 3 as a first road bike. It's NOT a race bike, but a performance oriented road bike with an eye toward comfort. You could easily do a century on this bike. There are 3 bikes in the Defy series and they all share the same aluminum frame and carbon fork. Here's a link to the bike on Giant's website:

LINK TO DEFY 3

This post has been edited by billn: Jul 4 2010, 07:13 PM

[jlthree]

For the money I think Jamis bikes are hard to beat.

[TonyHoffman]

Making a frame suggestion or taking a frame suggestion from someone else is probably not the best idea in road biking. In BMX we weld tubes together paint them put stickers on them and ride em. In road, they spend time and money on researching methods of making a bike the way that company intends on the frame feeling while you ride it. Speaking of high end frames for example. A Scott addict is one of the most stiff, rigid and responsive frames on the market. For myself though, I don't like feeling like someone is slamming me in the butt from the seat the whole time i'm in the saddle. On the other hand, Cannondale aims to have a bike as light as possible while retaining frame stiffness through the bottom bracket and chainstays area but also have some road compliance for comfort. This is why i chose a cannondale frame, because the minute i rode one i could tell the difference in ride quality and that is something that suited me personally. That doesn't make the Scott any less and right now there are many people that prefer a Scott over cannondale.

As mentioned above, first things first. Get in for a bike fit. Find out what size your going to need and once you do that start riding as many bikes as possible. Some shops will let you take them out for an hour or whatever to test ride them, Keeping in mind, tire pressure, saddle type and bar position may change the feel of the actual bike so try to decipher what is modifiable through compentry and what is the ride of the frame itself. 2nd. How much are you going to use this bike? Entry level bikes are usually stocked with lower end sram or shimano 105 groups. I will speak from personal experience if you plan on riding this bike at least 3 times a week the 105 stuff is bound for failure. It's a great once in a while or weekend warrior group but if you plan on putting miles in or even racing, try to stray from 105. I would try and find yourself a nice aluminum frame with ultegra group or sram force. Those are heavier versions of their top group sets so in terms of functionality should be just as sharp with shifting. Good luck with everything! be patient and try and find out as much information as you can. You might want to head over to weightweenies and start learning about how things work on the road bike (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif)

Tony

This post has been edited by TonyHoffman: Jul 8 2010, 01:02 AM