Going ahead or not??

padyjoe

I'm in the process of getting a Defy 3 2014 on BTW but it'll be 2-3 weeks or more wait. Should I leave it and buy a Carrera TDF in Halfords? It's down to €312, would serve me nicely as a 1st bike. Any thoughts?

Idleater

padyjoe wrote: »

Any thoughts?

I wouldn't waste the btw on a €312 bike- if that was your plan. The bike is probably fine.

Squidgy Black

Yeah, keep your btw scheme for when you want to get a nicer bike. Buy the carrera for 312, and make sure it has the newer Shimano Claris shifters on it, aka no thumb buttons.

You can probably sell that in a year or two for 250 or somewhere in that region, and use your btw to get a decent bike in the region of a thousand or more and save yourself 500 quid.

padyjoe

No, I wouldn't have the halfords bike on BTW. I wonder the Defy 3 worth €530 difference?

CramCycle

_Tyrrell_ wrote: »

Yeah, keep your btw scheme for when you want to get a nicer bike. Buy the carrera for 312, and make sure it has the newer Shimano Claris shifters on it, aka no thumb buttons.

You can probably sell that in a year or two for 250 or somewhere in that region, and use your btw to get a decent bike in the region of a thousand or more and save yourself 500 quid.

+1 on this, if your confident you will use the bike alot either buy a decent one now, if not, spend alot less on a decent 2nd hand one and then use the B2W on something you know you want.

On a separate note, you won't get 250 back on the Halfords bike, lucky to get 150euro back, with the Giant Defy you should recoup a good chunk of your money if you change your mind after getting it.

Squidgy Black

CramCycle wrote: »

+1 on this, if your confident you will use the bike alot either buy a decent one now, if not, spend alot less on a decent 2nd hand one and then use the B2W on something you know you want.

On a separate note, you won't get 250 back on the Halfords bike, lucky to get 150euro back, with the Giant Defy you should recoup a good chunk of your money if you change your mind after getting it.

A couple of TDFs sold for 250 a few weeks ago before the big discount. I'd imagine once people forget the discount after the next batch, it would sell for more.

All depends on how long he holds on to it of course. Adverts seems to be heaven for people selling low end road bikes, people don't have a clue when it comes to specs and just see "racer"

red man walking

for what its worth I used the BTW to by a hybrid a couple of years back as I hadn't got a clue about what sort of cycling I would be into and about 5 months later I was kicking myself as I ended up buying a road bike as I caught the bug. I guess my point is that if you can afford to buy the Carrera and hold onto your BTW then do it.

Cee-Jay-Cee

red man walking wrote: »

for what its worth I used the BTW to by a hybrid a couple of years back as I hadn't got a clue about what sort of cycling I would be into and about 5 months later I was kicking myself as I ended up buying a road bike as I caught the bug. I guess my point is that if you can afford to buy the Carrera and hold onto your BTW then do it.

I spent nearly the full €1000 on a road bike on the BTW and less than a year later I was sorry i didnt research more and put money with it to get a better spec'd bike however I now have a 'good' carbon bike and the alum bike which is for winter/crappy weather.

Dont waste the BTW on the TDF, if you are on the higher rate of PRSI then spending the full €1000 will only cost you €480 in total. If you buy the carerra on the BTW then you cant buy another bike on the scheme for 5 years.

spoke2cun

Very good advice from everyone there padyjoe. I bought the Carrera TDF last year for €429! My idea was to see if I would stick to the cycling, and if I did I would sell it on and upgrade. That's exactly what I did. I can't fault the Carrera in any way as a good entry level bike. And for €312, you couldn't go wrong. Good luck with whatever you decide.

padyjoe

So after a long discussion I've got this. Mudguards fitted by myself in this morning, needed some fiddling around but all fine now. Soon to be tested on the road. What do you think?

Darkglasses

I think you made the right call getting the Defy Padyjoe, I think it'll last you a bit longer than the Carrera would. Very nice!