Road bike users, help me with hand positioning

YORKSHIRELASS

Hi all

Well I bought the road bike. Found a womens Merida Ride bike I really liked and then found the 2015 version on the internet reduced to £460.

Have only been out on it twice so far but I can see that I am absolutely going to love it, the difference is amazing, you can zip along the road so quickly. Its going to take me a while to get used to the positioning and its niggling an old shoulder problem a bit but I am sure this can be sorted.

The hand positioning feels a bit odd and I do have to move my hands to reach the brakes but OH has been adjusting things slightly and if needs be I will go and get a proper bike fit.

From my experience if you are going to do any amount of cycling on open roads then get a road bike, no question about it!

armyknife

YORKSHIRELASS wrote: »

Hi all

Well I bought the road bike. Found a womens Merida Ride bike I really liked and then found the 2015 version on the internet reduced to £460.

Have only been out on it twice so far but I can see that I am absolutely going to love it, the difference is amazing, you can zip along the road so quickly. Its going to take me a while to get used to the positioning and its niggling an old shoulder problem a bit but I am sure this can be sorted.

The hand positioning feels a bit odd and I do have to move my hands to reach the brakes but OH has been adjusting things slightly and if needs be I will go and get a proper bike fit.

From my experience if you are going to do any amount of cycling on open roads then get a road bike, no question about it!

Excellent.

Good luck with you new bike.

Nasqueron

parking_question_chap wrote: »

Thanks, I might keep looking at the used market for an alu road machine. Dont want to get a used carbon in case its been crashed, and certainly dont want to spend £1,000 on a new one!

Any used bike that has been crashed is a risk, there is a big myth around carbon that even the slightest bump will ruin the frame, a crash that will crack carbon will crack an alloy frame. I was hit by a car pulling out of a junction and all I needed to do was put the wheel back in place and I have ridden the bike for 16 months since fine, I'd trust carbon over alloy any day

£1000 carbon bike gets you either ribble or planet x, both decent enough for the money (planet x at the very least you often get more value than you'd think as they work on bulk sales rather than big profits on fewer sales) but for a budget of £1000 I'd get an alloy frame with good gears, not really worth investing in carbon unless the bike is £1500+, maybe even £1800+ to make sure you get good quality carbon and good gears

Nasqueron

ab1982 wrote: »

Nah I'm no fan of carbon either, think it's too rigid for UK roads and no point unless racing. Steel and titanium are supposed to be good but never tried them. I bought a merlin cx bike recently, love ithe can go anywhere a mountain bike can and still go fair old clip on road.

Yes CX are a good option, probably better than hybrid.

Your comment on carbon, yeah personal preference, I like the smoothness of the ride vs alloy and tens of thousands agree with me

brat

Nasqueron wrote: »

Yes CX are a good option, probably better than hybrid.

Your comment on carbon, yeah personal preference, I like the smoothness of the ride vs alloy and tens of thousands agree with me

I recently purchased an Alu framed Canyon Road CX bike while my cracked carbon framed Cannondale is awaiting the finances to replace. It has a carbon fork, hydraulic discs and ultegra groupset. It's shod with 28mm Contis

It's about 8.7kg on the scales and I love it. It's smooth, quiet and responsive. It has more relaxed geometry than the Cannondale which is a full on racer.

It earned me 4 Strava KOMs in France earlier this month, so it's no slouch.

Looking forward to getting on a decent carbon frame soon though. For me they're hard to beat, and they are getting cleverer with good rigidity combined with flex for comfort. And at 6.5kgs they fly uphill!