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    Help me OTF peloton, (y.m.o.h.)

    Ok, so last year I bought my first commuter bike, previously I had a mountain bike that I'd had for 15 years.

    I bought a Ridgeback Speed, which was ok, sturdy, seemingly quick enough and it was cheap £220.

    No, I feel like I've "outgrown" it already. I want something lighter and faster, that is suitable primarily to get me from home to work and back again (just short of 5 miles each way), it's predominantly downhill there (with enough humps, bumps and potholes to make it a bouncy ride) and obviously uphill on the way home.

    It has been recommended to me that a Specialized Tricross Sport might be what I'm looking for. As well as being lighter and fast, with some nice bits (brakes on the straight part as well as the front of drop handles), it can take a pannier rack (as I prefer pannier bags to a rucksack).

    What do you reckon?

    For added info, my company have joined upto cycle scheme where your company pays for a voucher (which you apply for, based on your quote), reclaims the VAT then charges you the Net cost to your gross pay (so you save the PAYE & NI). You can get a voucher upto £1000. As a 40% taxpayer I would end up paying around £400 (spread over 6/12 months) for a £1000 bike.

    The Tricross sport is £700, this would cost me £352 (£59 pm over 6 months or £29 pm over 12 months). Which seems like a bargain to me.

    If price (within reason) was no object, with the above criteria, what would you recommend.

    Hobbes please not it doesn't apply to 2nd hand bikes.

    Tricross Sport

    #2
    Help me OTF peloton, (y.m.o.h.)

    Predictably, I really like the Cinelli ‘Bootleg Rats’ collection for city commuting.

    In particular the ‘Bootleg Racing Rats’ is a ‘Randoneur’ style bike that retails for about 780 quid. It looks cooler in the flesh than it does in the picture.



    Go here www.chickencycles.co.uk/index.php?cat=1&sub=2&ord=2#H4656 and page down a long way.

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      #3
      Help me OTF peloton, (y.m.o.h.)

      The spesh has an excellent reputation - I'm seeing them more and more recommended in place of "hybrids" for commuting. Rugged, fast, and light, excellent build quality. Thicker wheels than a road bike, but drops. Good range of gears.

      The Cinelli looks like a nice piece of kit, it's a classic manufacturer, and it'll keep all of us Italophiles happy. But the Specialized does appear to be an ideal fit to purpose.

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        #4
        Help me OTF peloton, (y.m.o.h.)

        I love these threads and I wouldn't be doing my job if I didn't nod approvingly at TPC's Cinelli.
        On the other hand you want something that is light and fast. Well this dreamboat is a bit above the price range you mentioned but bollocks to panniers (get a pen drive) Imagine how great you'd feel purring into work every morning on this honeypot.

        OK so your voucher won't cover it, but this ain't a voucher bike. Go on, live a bit.

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          #5
          Help me OTF peloton, (y.m.o.h.)

          What does Y.M.O.H. mean?

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            #6
            Help me OTF peloton, (y.m.o.h.)

            My brother Tim is on his way down to Brighton today to pick up his €10,750 (thats 8,500 of your british pounds) Cervelo even as I type.

            I don't know much about it, except he was telling me that it's too light to ride in the Tour de France. Bikes weighing less than 7.6kgs are not allowed in the TdF. Cervelo means 'Brain Bike' in Italian.

            He inherited 20K pounds from his wife's grandmother would you believe, some guys have all the luck.

            I'll post a picture as soon as he sends it.

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              #7
              Help me OTF peloton, (y.m.o.h.)

              I love the idea that you inherit that sort of money and you go out and buy a bike. How cool is that?
              I bet it is an an absolute dream to ride. I was looing at some of the Cervelo soloist bikes over Easter and they are pure bike bling.It was at a shop in Corbridge in Northumberland. It was tiny. The had Cervelo frames and a few Wilier bikes plus a row of Zipp wheels on the wall. The owner was telling me that he had been broken into a couple of weeks previous to that and the thieves had stolen a load of castelli jerseys, but left the frames and wheels. One of those wheels would cost more than a whole rack of jerseys. Amateurs.
              I'd be interested to see how your brother finds that bike. Will he actually ride it do you think or frame it above the mantlepiece?
              I'm off for a ride this morning, it's a beautiful day and I've got some head clearing thinking to be done.

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                #8
                Help me OTF peloton, (y.m.o.h.)

                Tim will ride the bike alright, he's booked to do L'Etappe again this summer. There's some delay with the bike so he wasn't able to pick it up this weekend.

                The guy in the Brighton bikeshop concerned was saying that they get a lot of guys in there who work in The City and are looking to spend their million pound bonuses. Typically, the guys come in and say "What's the most expensive bike you sell? I'll take two of those." Then they wheel out their brand new 10,000 pound bike (plus one for their wife/lover) without even bothering to be measured up, and nobody sees anything of them again. They don't even come back for their free services.

                The guy reckons that all over south-east England there are Cervelos and Trek Madonne SSLx's gathering dust and cobwebs in garages that have been ridden like twice.

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                  #9
                  Help me OTF peloton, (y.m.o.h.)

                  Did you just hear my heart break in two?

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                    #10
                    Help me OTF peloton, (y.m.o.h.)

                    I was standing in my LBS and watched this guy put down an order for a Time VXRS (around 5-6k if I recall correctly) I think I was camoflaged quite nicely by the bianchi jerseys by the end of the transaction!

                    There are a lot of bikes under the 7.6kg now (basically anything carbon over £3k). They drop chains down the seat tube to make the weight up in the pro peleton. Bit daft when the rule is there to ensure structural integrity.

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                      #11
                      Help me OTF peloton, (y.m.o.h.)

                      "There are a lot of bikes under the 7.6kg now (basically anything carbon over £3k)."

                      Oh bollocks, obviously I screwed up.

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                        #12
                        Help me OTF peloton, (y.m.o.h.)

                        Sorry didn't mean it as a correction more as info. I've always thought it strange that the rule is there for safety reasons and they get round it in such a simple way. I think it was originally there to stop teams drilling holes in aluminium!

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                          #13
                          Help me OTF peloton, (y.m.o.h.)

                          One quite neat trick they use, especially in mountain time trials, is to put ice down the seat tube.

                          This means the bike is legal when weighed, but minutes later, in the sun, the extra weight has melted and run out. Genius!

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                            #14
                            Help me OTF peloton, (y.m.o.h.)

                            JtS, that bike looks like just what you need. Cyclo-cross style double-brake setups are a great idea for town, as you can hit the brakes from a more upright position. Tektro brakes themselves are not great, but you can always upgrade them later if you find you need more stopping power. The fatter-than-roadbike tyres mean greater comfort on potholed roads and those tyres, along with the larger frame clearance, means you can use the bike off-road as well. The front cog is big enough that your legs won't be flailing uselessly on the downhill run to work, and it's a triple, so you can climb home easily, too. All in all, it looks like a really good all-rounder for commuting and fun.

                            By the way, Shimano do some double-sided pedals that would go well with it - they're flat on one side, so you can wear walking boots, or whatever, in the winter, and have SPD clips on the other side for cycling shoes in the summer, or for when you go out for a thrash.

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                              #15
                              Help me OTF peloton, (y.m.o.h.)

                              What does y.m.o.h. mean?

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                                #16
                                Help me OTF peloton, (y.m.o.h.)

                                You're my only hope.

                                It's Star Wars, innit.

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                                  #17
                                  Help me OTF peloton, (y.m.o.h.)

                                  ah

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                                    #18
                                    Help me OTF peloton, (y.m.o.h.)

                                    I worked out what it meant, but thought he was doing a PG Wodehouse.

                                    If you're looking at other all-rounders, cyclo-cross bikes are a good idea. More and more of the big brands are making them, because the bikes can do it all. Kona bikes are a pleasure to ride, and their cross bikes (Jake / Jake the Snake) might be worth a look.

                                    Oh, one crossover type bike (that's over your £1000 price limit) is the Orbea Diem Drop. A bit of a thief-magnet, I think, so you'd need to keep it inside at work - but it looks rather nice and has disc brakes.

                                    Also, there are a couple of road bikes with carbon frames in your price range. The Sunn Falcon Evo won the Editor's Choice award for cycle touring bikes in Le Cycle, so you can presumably put panniers on it. I think it comes in at slightly over £1000 with the exchange rates, but is a great price for a carbon framed bike.

                                    Another all-carbon bike in the same price range is the Nakamura Pro Race, but it's more of a pure racer. L'Acheteur Cycliste said it blew their minds that anyone could do a bike of this quality at this price (they described it as a mini Pinarello Prince, which might be stretching things a bit), and that to better it you'd have to go into the 5000-7000 euros range. You can only get Nakamura bikes in Intersport, though, which might be a pain in the arse.

                                    Defying once more the Italianisti, if buying online doesn't scare you, I've yet to see a group test with a Canyon in it that the Canyon hasn't won. They make amazing bikes, with far better components than their rivals at each price point, because it's an online-only operation. Since the bike is shipped from Germany, you need to be able to set the bike up safely yourself, or take it to a good mechanic. You also need to be sure of your size (they have a sizing calculator on the site). They're pure race machines, though, so may be too stiff for your needs. They've also had problems meeting demand lately (all those fantastic reviews have taken their toll) so it helps if you need a size that they already have in stock.

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                                      #19
                                      Help me OTF peloton, (y.m.o.h.)

                                      From the Orbea review...

                                      I have a friend in London whose nine-mile all-weather commute takes in 26 sets of traffic lights

                                      Christ on a bike, my ride is just short of 5 miles and I have round about 35 traffic lights.

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                                        #20
                                        Help me OTF peloton, (y.m.o.h.)

                                        Around 30 sets on my ride of about 7 miles, but that's where I have made my ride longer to miss a load of them. If I went the straightest, shortest route it would be 35 to 40.

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                                          #21
                                          Help me OTF peloton, (y.m.o.h.)

                                          I knew there were some stattos around!...I have never counted the no. of lights on my route.

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                                            #22
                                            Help me OTF peloton, (y.m.o.h.)

                                            What a nightmare. I have one set of lights on my 5 mile commute.

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                                              #23
                                              Help me OTF peloton, (y.m.o.h.)

                                              That's a very noticeable thing about riding in London, actually. On the other hand, it means superb training for your explosive strength. It'd be great training for a track sprinter, for instance, simply to ride around London for a few hours.

                                              I've never counted lights on any of my routes as such, but I know the number on a few of them, from counting the number of times I have to overtake the same person, as they dawdle blithely along at a steady five miles an hour, regardless of whether the lights are with them or no.

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                                                #24
                                                Help me OTF peloton, (y.m.o.h.)

                                                I once (okay sometimes keep) kept score of red v green traffic lights. It can add 20% to my journey time.

                                                I should be picking up my new Tricross this afternoon, although I don't think I'll get to use it (apart from the cycle home from the bike shop) until next Monday!

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                                                  #25
                                                  Help me OTF peloton, (y.m.o.h.)

                                                  I had a dream the other night that I had that cervelo bike on the other page.
                                                  That is quite sad isn't it?

                                                  I'm doing the tour of Pembroke on June 8th. That's just over a week away and I'm finding it hard to squeeze in the training. I'm going out this afternoon to try and do 30 odd miles. Then tomorrow I'll do the same and then I hope to cycle to Hay on Wye on Sunday. I'll have an easy spinning week next week and then hope to churn out the ride on the 8th. There were 4 of us doing it, but now we're down to 2. If my other mate drops out, I'll plod it out on my own.
                                                  Hoping to do a London to Brighton ride on July 13th and Col de Croix de Fry in August. I'm hoping that one of those days will be sunny.

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