| FORUMS > The Sin Bin > Bike Advice |
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| Quote: Chaka "With your budget in mind, stay clear of Halfrauds. Their own brand, lower price range bikes are heavy and you will feel no benefit. Their customer service isrelatively poor as the shop assistants are just that assistants not specialists.
Find a good local independent bike store, tell them requirements/budget and they will point you in the right direction. Often a lot of these independent stores take part exchanges in from keen cyclists and services up the bikes and sell them on at reduced rate.
Check out
Do what Chaka says and stay well clear of Halfords.
I bought one from them a couple of years ago and had nothing but trouble with it. They couldn't even set it up properly. I ended up trading my bike in for another at the local bike shop.
Go to the local bike shop and they will sort you out.
EB Cycles in Pemberton are good.
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For what you want at that budget, get on gumtree and get a second hand one, bikes are a lot stronger than people give them credit for and finding a knackered one will be rare and probably easy to fix if it is. Go to a bike place first though and find the right size frame ie, the one that suits your size, there used to be a good bike shop your way (if you live in the wigan area) at Charnock Richard.
Iv you're not precious, you'll get a 2nd hand bike for £125 that brand new equivalent will be about 4-5 hundred.
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| Quote: Horatio Yed "Colour and size maybe not what you're looking for but something like this
The first issue to address is what is the bike going to be used for, and the problem with shopping from Gumtree or eBay is that you get what you're given, which might not be exactly what you want.
The bike in your link would be fine for riding off road (and I don't include canal side riding in "off road"icon_wink.gif but pretty much crap for a beginner who is taking it on road/path/canalside and who will then wonder why they can't get the same sort of speed up as everyone else and why it takes so much effort to go so slow.
Gears and tyres are going to affect your road/path experience far, far more than anything else that is fixed to the bike, forget the whole specification thing as you aren't going to have a choice at the budget selected, but just get the best tyres (not mountain bike tyres) and the biggest range of gears that you can find, then get sized properly by the shop - nothing else matters.
I agree with the other two that a specialist bike shop is always a great place to shop but again you come down to the budget, I love the Edinburgh Bike Co-ops but you won't find much in there for the price stated - thats why Halfords is still a good bet, many don't like them but you're not trying to pick their brains beyond the basics (and I've always found their assistants to have good experience of riding on all sorts of terrain, maybe I just got lucky).
The only places I wouldn't recommend are the ones that spring up on industrial estates everywhere, take a short term rent on an empty warehouse and then fill it full of cheap imported bikes which will probably last a season if you're lucky, someone I know bought a bike a couple of years ago from one of those near York, we took him and it on our coast to coast ride, he was totally mystified why his new bike was still such hard work (it was a hybrid but with very small mountain bike gearing), it was heavy, it wasn't set up right for him, and he and it were shagged after 160 miles.
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If he wants to just get fitter, why go for a bike that uses less effort?
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| Quote: Horatio Yed "If he wants to just get fitter, why go for a bike that uses less effort?'"
Because he'll enjoy it more and it won't be back on Gumtree the following week ? |
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No pain, no gain
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I'm in agreement with Jerry on this one. I bought a cheap mountain bike and used to dread going out on it, the tyres were so thick I felt like I was pedalling like mad and getting nowhere, it was also difficult choosing the right gear to be in when on the road.
I then got a Carerra Subway from Halfords under the cycle to work scheme, it's the best thing I've ever bought. I had good Customer Service, every question was answered fully and all the accessories I asked for (Stand, lights, and cycle rack) were all fitted properly. I even got a free 12 month service plan.
It rides like a dream and I can do 15-20 miles which is an achievement for someone like me who never used to take any exercise.
Above all I ENJOY going out on it.
OP If you can stretch your budget a little I would look at the Carerra, one thing I learnt from reading online reviews is to stay away from the Halfords budget range "Apollo"
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[url:33s610on]https://twitter.com/#!/Robbo_Wigan[/url:33s610on]: |
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thanks for all the advice, Not yet had chance to go into any shops but just come across this on the internet rlhttps://www.chainreactioncycles.com/Models.aspx?ModelID
looks like a decent deal?
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Someday everything is gonna be different, when I paint my masterpiece
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| Quote: Robbo "thanks for all the advice, Not yet had chance to go into any shops but just come across this on the internet rlhttps://www.chainreactioncycles.com/Models.aspx?ModelID
looks like a decent deal?'"
At those prices yes, get yourself measured for the frame size and get one 
The bike I have for main use is a Dawes Galaxy tourer, I've had it for fifteen years at least and its never needed any maintenance - only in the last year has it developed a wobble on the back wheel but thats just a spoke adjust when I can be d.
The Galaxy is now £1800 (I didn't pay anything like that and could never afford it now) but they have always specialised in road tourer bikes, always fit proper touring gear sets rather than use smaller off road sets, and always fit superb wheel hubs, in short they know what they are doing. |
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[url:33s610on]https://twitter.com/#!/Robbo_Wigan[/url:33s610on]: |
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| Think I might go for it then  , I'm 5 ft 8 so I'm thinking an 18 inch frame? |
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It's been fun.:d7dc4b20b2c2dd7b76ac6eac29d5604e_44480.jpg |
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Go off your inside leg rather than height, my step father is 3inch taller than me yet has a 2inch smaller inside leg measurement
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| Rank | Posts | Team |
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| Jul 2012 | 12 years | |
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67953_1341943970.jpg
Someday everything is gonna be different, when I paint my masterpiece
----------------------------------------------------------
[url=http://garykitchen.co.uk/:lnkxkae0]Online art gallery, selling original landscape artwork[/url:lnkxkae0]
----------------------------------------------------------
[url=http://jerrychicken.wordpress.com/:lnkxkae0]JerryChicken - The Blog[/url:lnkxkae0]
----------------------------------------------------------:d7dc4b20b2c2dd7b76ac6eac29d5604e_67953.jpg |
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| Quote: Robbo "Think I might go for it then
4.97802734375:5
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768 |
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29 |
731 |
344 |
387 |
44 |
| Warrington |
29 |
769 |
351 |
418 |
42 |
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580 |
442 |
138 |
33 |
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28 |
556 |
561 |
-5 |
32 |
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618 |
411 |
207 |
30 |
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27 |
475 |
427 |
48 |
30 |
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27 |
530 |
488 |
42 |
28 |
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27 |
468 |
658 |
-190 |
20 |
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27 |
425 |
735 |
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15 |
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27 |
328 |
894 |
-566 |
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27 |
317 |
916 |
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765 |
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420 |
303 |
36 |
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695 |
501 |
194 |
32 |
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27 |
561 |
502 |
59 |
29 |
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27 |
634 |
525 |
109 |
28 |
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26 |
626 |
526 |
100 |
28 |
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26 |
498 |
619 |
-121 |
25 |
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509 |
650 |
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22 |
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422 |
591 |
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22 |
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28 |
484 |
676 |
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20 |
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442 |
720 |
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19 |
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25 |
437 |
826 |
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18 |
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27 |
348 |
879 |
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1 |
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10 |
-4 |
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