First bike purchase in a long time

birchy87

I've been looking for semi ok bike to ride in to work 5 days a week. I stupidly bought a Magna Charger from JJB sports and as soon as I got it out of the shop it had problems with bearings and gears. Trying to tell a so called bike tech there about what was wrong with it when he said there was nothing wrong with it was like talking to a brick wall.

I managed to get a refund from them after taking the bike up to halfords to take a look at it to confirm what was wrong with it. I am now currently looking at spending between 200-300 euro on a bike just to get me into dublin nothing fancy. I was looking at the bikes in halfords while they have a few good brands not looking to get anything fancy yet.

It's been nearly ten years since I've bought a new bike things used to be alot simpler when buying a new bike. I asked the guy in halfords about one of these trax bikes but got told they just fall apart, I was recomended to buy an apollo bike instead but this doesn't seem much better.

There is a Raleigh Venture for 200e but I dunno people say Raleigh bikes ain't what they used to be so I'm just not sure. Is there any brand I should stay away from?

Thanks

abcdggs

For starters, you wont get much bike for the kind of money new. Taking that into account and the chances of shoddy workmanship in halfords would lead me to tell you to avoid that kind of purchase if at all possible.

I would suggest looking into getting a second hand bike to maximise the bang for your buck

Joff

I would def go secondhand, you're unlikely to be happy with any new bike in your price range. On Adverts at the moment is a Giant Defy, looks very clean, worth a look would think.

Lumen

This

Nate--IRL--

I can recommend the Carrera Subway 1 from halfords.

Not much to assemble, so you can do it yourself if you feel that halfords aren't up to it.

Nate

Edit:- Halfords and shoddy workmanship seems to be a default reply, while this may or may not ring true, their Carrera Range are highly regarded.

Edit2 :- One of these days I will read ALL posts in a thread before replying

SerialComplaint

Does your employer offer the cycle-to-work scheme? This woud allow you to make a big tax saving, so you could afford a better bike.