Should I upgrade?

ipodrocker

Hi guys I have a Dawes 301 Discovery wondering should I get an upgrade of bike or is it a perfectly good bike for road cycling. At the moment I use the bike for commuting and hope h go for spins at the weekends do people here have two bikes? Like one for commuting and one for longer cycles ???


Any suggestions would be cool thanks.

petethedrummer

ipodrocker wrote: »

do people here have two bikes?

ahhh welcome to the cycling forum. Come in, sit down and make yourself comfortable.

DirkVoodoo

ipodrocker wrote: »

...do people here have two bikes? Like one for commuting and one for longer cycles ???

ipodrocker, welcome! If you can afford and store two bikes, then yes!

Prepare to meet Blorg, he has 10 bikes and will no doubt recommend the Planet X, it's an excellent bike.

blorg

It is a decent hybrid, I would stick with it until you feel limited by it.

If you do feel limited consider why and (maybe) consider a road bike if you are cycling exclusively on road.

ipodrocker

yeah i was thinking its a good hybrid and stick with it for a while in case. If i was to get into more road cycling.

what brands of bike would you recommend?

Ive seen Cube, Giant road bikes online.

My budget would be around 1000 as i would use the bike to work scheme to help with the cost!

short circuit

A road bike will definitely be more efficient for cycling purely on roads.

But before you make your purchase, a couple of points :-
1. You will invariably lose the ability to fit fat tyres
2. Go high end and you will be unable to fit racks
3. You will be afraid to leave the bike outside or at commute without a hired security guard
4. You will be using a pretender in the name of a full mudguard

I thought I could get away with 1 bike for way too long ... you need 2 specifically if you put more miles on bikes than in cars. 1 for the sunny weekend ride .. and the 2nd for the other 360 days of the year.

I have recently discovered the joys of fat tyres, full mud guards ... and ability to buldoze through all pot holes.

The only thing I would say against a hybrid for a pure commute is the lack of drop bars. Not an issue at most time, but as the last few days have been windy, I find myself down in the drops more than I have been earlier

ipodrocker

short circuit wrote: »

I thought I could get away with 1 bike for way too long ... you need 2 specifically

so do you have a road bike now?

just looking out there on the market for now seeing whats around.

short circuit

ipodrocker wrote: »

so do you have a road bike now?

just looking out there on the market for now seeing whats around.

I have 1.5 bikes ...

I have an Orbea Onix frame & fork ... which would be a pure road bike ... the bike has donated nearly all its parts to

A Surly cross check ... its supposedly a cross bike, but has bosses for bottle cages, racks, mud guards and fat tires. This is what I am using for my commute. This is also a drop bar build and not flat bar.

The Orbea shall be rebuilt for weekend and summer spins. Treating the Orbea as a commuter was a bad idea ... you lose all the reasons for buying it in the first place ... with heavy puncture resistant tires ... a mud guard etc etc.

Ryaner

You can get away with only one bike if you are willing to make some sacrifices. I did for the last year with my road bike which doubled as my commuter and has a pannier rack and full mud guards. Its a little bit heavier than a normal road bike which you do feel in the hills.

However as others have suggested, if you are going to do large distances outside of commuting, 2+ bikes are a very very good idea. 4 is the ideal number for a non-racer I think. 1 commuting bike, 1 winter training, 1 cross bike for those snowy/icy days, 1 super bike for the summer day that we have.

ipodrocker

classic the one summer day we have!

poochiem

what do you 4+ bike types spend on a machine, as say a percentage of your salary? without disclosing too much after paying rent and bills my disposable monthly income would be less than the cost some of you quote for a decent bike, I don't know how I'd budget for a road bike.

Lumen

poochiem wrote: »

after paying rent and bills my disposable monthly income would be less than the cost some of you quote for a decent bike, I don't know how I'd budget for a road bike.

In this case I'd advise limiting your expenditure to one new bike every other month.

DirkVoodoo

poochiem wrote: »

I don't know how I'd budget for a road bike.

Do addicts budget for crack? No, you go out and buy the bike then worry about the consequences later after you come down from the high.

poochiem

Lumen wrote: »

In this case I'd advise limiting your expenditure to one new bike every other month.

haha! and eat snow is it? well i'm not addicted into penury yet

blorg

Ryaner wrote: »

4 is the ideal number for a non-racer I think.

:eek:

poochiem wrote: »

what do you 4+ bike types spend on a machine, as say a percentage of your salary? without disclosing too much after paying rent and bills my disposable monthly income would be less than the cost some of you quote for a decent bike, I don't know how I'd budget for a road bike.

All of it, what else would you be spending your money on? Still kicking myself I didn't buy a new pair of MTB wheels that Raam dissuaded me from buying, remember "you have to spend money to save money."

Lumen

poochiem wrote: »

haha! and eat snow is it? well i'm not addicted into penury yet

You said "disposable income". Bikes are excellent way to dispose of income.

It helps if you disregard the purchase price and focus on depreciation. It also helps if you don't open the credit card bills.

ipodrocker

in terms of road bikes for about grand what brands should i look at?

Lumen

ipodrocker wrote: »

in terms of road bikes for about grand what brands should i look at?

Loads of choice. Planet-X, Focus, Cube, Lapierre, Giant...

Really depends on your priorities (performace, prettiness, local shop support etc).

Ryaner

poochiem wrote: »

what do you 4+ bike types spend on a machine, as say a percentage of your salary? without disclosing too much after paying rent and bills my disposable monthly income would be less than the cost some of you quote for a decent bike, I don't know how I'd budget for a road bike.

It depends on why you are buying. I just spent an obscene amount of money on my new road bike. Multiple months salary. But it was a reward for hitting goals/targets for the year and had been planning it for almost a year.

ipodrocker

Ryaner wrote: »

It depends on why you are buying. I just spent an obscene amount of money on my new road bike. Multiple months salary. But it was a reward for hitting goals/targets for the year and had been planning it for almost a year.

fairplay that is a decent reason for buying a new bike! I am getting into road cycling what would you think is a good amount to spend on a first road bike? Obvious I do have reasonable budget but nothing OTT.

blorg

ipodrocker wrote: »

fairplay that is a decent reason for buying a new bike! I am getting into road cycling what would you think is a good amount to spend on a first road bike? Obvious I do have reasonable budget but nothing OTT.

€1,202.48

lescol

@blorg

Enough, enough, I once had a little exclusivity with my PX which you single handedly are eroding, I give in...Sally Gap is the highest Pass:D

Coronal

If it makes it any easier, I'm just after clicking "checkout" on my first fixie, and will be doing the same for the above linked PX within a few weeks :rolleyes: They'll both be my first road bikes, though I have been planning and saving for some time, and waiting to get a paying postgrad to make it a little less painful.