Looking for a road bike - makes etc?

Soldato
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I'm looking for a decent road bike that will be used basically every day (for around 1 1/2 hrs). I've got between £500 and 600 to spend probably, though around this price, the cheaper the better, really.

I've seen a lot of people on here say that you don't get the best value for money from buying well-known makes of bike. So what makes will give the most bike for my money?

At the moment, I'm quite impressed by the Cube Aerial in terms of specs and looks ... here ... for £550. What about bikes of similar prices from Specialised, Trek, GT and Cannondale, Scott, Bianche etc? Anything I should be avoiding?

I have built bikes in the past, including the MTB I'm on at the moment, but I'd probably prefer not to unless there was going to be a massive price difference if I did it myself. Is there much point looking into this seriously?

Thanks for your help :)
 
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One quick tip: As you expect to use it so frequently, I would avoid bikes with Sora (aim for Tiagra) componentry as it wont last long. Alternatively, you could buy a Sora equiped bike now and replace the parts that fail, as they fail with I would recommend Tiagra or 105 at the least.
 
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Thanks. Yeah, I've heard from others that the sora components are to be avoided if possible but on the Cube it's only the brakes that aren't tiagra. In comparison to other bikes in that price range, there's lots less sora stuff - especially compared to the specialized, scott and bianche bikes. It's well within my abilities to replace them immediately or at some point in the future with some better stuff if I need to.

Does anyone have any experience with cube bikes? Good / bad?
 
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No opinions on Cube as a make then? I'm looking to buy relatively soon (so I can get going over summer, if there ever is one :() and though I'll obviously go and try one in a shop, I was just after some opinions.
 
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Never heard of Cube bikes either, but I'd second that should skip Sora but it's only for the brakes, at least shifters and deraillers are Tiagra.

You could also try a Campagnolo equipped bike. As for brand names I find Cannondale Scott and Bianchi to be expensive for the spec (if you don't care about the badge)

Buy previous years model, will save upto 25% sometimes even 33% oh don't buy mail order, go and sit on it.
 
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Soldato
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No I couldn't really care less what make it was, I'm just interested in getting the best bike for my money really. I know Cube make some great MTBs and one of my mates has one but they're a German brand and very new to the UK market, so there isn't much of a user base to draw on.

For the money, it certainly looks pretty good and if you really dig about, the Cube road bikes get some fairly good reviews on forums (in amongst the 'never heard of them' posts :p).

There's a Cube retailer in Darlington, Iron Horse Cyclery, which I'll get down to tomorrow to see if they have it in so I can have a look.

How about the Giant SCR2 … I got one from this shop … www.chrisbikes.co.uk It comes with near full Tiagra and it’s onlt £475!
Thanks, I'll bear that one in mind :)
 
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Wiggle have Focus bikes, pretty highly rated and seem excellent prices. £1000 for a full carbon bike, and this was a few years ago.
 
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i'm with badbob, cheers badbob fer the reply to my squeezebox thread by the way it has helped, focus from wiggle seem to an excellent spec fer the money also surprisingly the Boardman range at Halfords seem excellent value. Boardman is now technical supremo fer the british cycling team which is seen as probably the strongest in the world at the mo so i reckon he'd not want to be associated with any rubbish & from what i've seen they look excellent
 
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Wouldn't trust halfords to build it up. I'd ditch the stock pedals/toe clips and get clipless. Use them on my roadie and tourer (single sided SPD and dual sided platform/SPD respectively)
 
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Wouldn't trust halfords to build it up. I'd ditch the stock pedals/toe clips and get clipless. Use them on my roadie and tourer (single sided SPD and dual sided platform/SPD respectively)

there is an interesting thread on bikeradar about boardman bikes and halfrauds.
Seems you may end up lucky and find the staff at bikehut pretty good and know what they are doing.
The Boardman bikes do look good, but would go with badbobs suggestion of ditching the pedals for some clipless.
 
Soldato
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Went to go and see the Cube yesterday. They had lots of the Cube road bikes and the Aerial in my size. It wasn't quite finished (bars had no tape, gears and brakes needed sorting) but it was amazing.

Slept on it overnight and phoned up this morning to put a deposit down. Collecting it on Friday. Will put some pics up when I get it.

Thanks for your opinions :)
 
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