Road Bike (Cycle) Confusion

[silver911]

Lovely looking machine....the cassette should be easy swap.. however at £1500 is should be possible to get what you want/need rather than having to change it..
See if your local Evans will do a deal....

[neilbardsley]

The cassette looks ok from the picture. You should be ok with 53 / 39 ^ 12 / 23. I would run it with the cassette then change if you don't like. Much cheaper to buy online and I can change a cassette quicker than an inner tube

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[Mick Cliff]

Lovely looking machine....the cassette should be easy swap.. however at £1500 is should be possible to get what you want/need rather than having to change it..
See if your local Evans will do a deal....

I agree, nice looking bike.
But, if you really are a novice £1500 is a lot of dosh if you don't take to cycling! May I suggest you go the used route? There are lots of quality bikes currently on EBay and other places for much less money than £1500. I bought a Ridley last year for £300 (all Campagnolo) to use here in the Philippines and just missed a Wilier (again, all Campag) at £360 to use in the UK
Just a suggestion
HTH

[Sam]

A bottom gear of 39x23, if that's what it is, will actually be quite tough up some of the steep hills round your way Steven. I passed through that wayish, from London via Sevenoaks to Bexhill over Christmas and was grateful of my 34T front ring a few times towards the end. It's an easy swap though, an 11 speed rear cassette with a 29T is probably only £40 and 10 mins for a bike shop to fit, or a 34T small front cog would be cheaper still.

I'm with Neil, try it and see how you get on. You'll get stronger quicker riding a bigger gear.

I've not seen a Cooper in the metal but 853 is lovely, light steel tubing to ride and I do like the look of the bike. £1500 is lots to spend but if you want the vintage look and nice tubing it's a fair price.

As Mick says though. you could get something very, very, very special that's actually vintage for that money though and it wouldn't depreciate...

[left4dead]

Thanks for the responses - very much appreciated. I do like the idea of something properly vintage but after trawling through Ebay I'm bewildered to say the least. I think I need a 57 cm frame and certainly there appears to be lots of choice from Italy & France and the occasional Hungarian option but not too many close to home (although I did find a 531 tubed Dawes three miles up the road with Shimano bits none of which sound ideal but what do I know? It currently stands at £100 which is great though! Looks nice, to me). My biggest concern is buying something awful which would put me off for life.

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[Mick Cliff]

....I think I need a 57....

Time to cheat! Go to your local bike shop, or Halfords, to determine the frame size you need and how they are measured. Modern bikes seem to be all measured differently! If you are Mr Average then a 'medium' frame is about right - but 'medium' seems to vary depending on which website you look at! Or look at Ribble Cycles ("Sale Now On!" ) or Wiggle websites and get frame dimensions from there to suit your height and inside leg measurement. Get it wrong and you may be put off forever!
Then start trawling eBay and elsewhere
Remember that 'The Rules' say that the optimum number of bikes you should own is n+1, where n is the current number you own....
Another 'Rule' is that the number of bikes you should have is s-1, where s is the number that causes separation for your partner!

[stevenery]

Hey

That Cooper is a nice looking bike however having owned a similar spec vintage Colnago I can tell you it was never the best bike for getting out and actually riding - always felt a lot of flex in the frame especially up front with that quill stem.

By all means go and try one but at the same time check out some of the Genesis bikes which use Reynolds tubes. They're kitted out with Shimano opposed to Campagnolo - again compare both, a lot of people prefer brand one over the other.

I would say something like this would be a fair comparison : http://www.genesisbikes.co.uk/bikes/roa ... librium-20

Once you know your size ring round the local dealers for the best deal. 5-10% off the bike and a discount on accessories is fairly common - try avoid online only retailers as any warranty issues are likely to be a pain

[silver911]

A brazed steel framed bike with a quill stem is flexible and its ride is more comfortable (less harah) than a carbon frame or al framed machine.

So for touring it is perhaps a suitable basis. Even as a full on race machine a steel frame can offer more than sufficient performance for the majority.

Shimano or campy... both at good.. which one is best...mainly a matter of preference.

[left4dead]

The Dawes (didn't realise the late nineties qualifies for vintage):

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/VINTAGE-DAWES ... 58aa5bfd96

Good looking bike for little money but lord knows what it rides like.

[hot66]

I prefer SRAM

[fryardds]

....................

http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=TEhySzO14i ... EhySzO14ik

[Tosh]

Them's from the Rules

from the Velominati
http://www.velominati.com/the-rules/

[mrg3.6]

My colleagues and I had a great day participating in the 59km OCBC Super Challenge here in Singapore, last Sunday, unfortunately the entire event was marred by inadequate marshalling, congested routing and a series of (unnecessary) accidents, whilst today brought the particularly bad news that one of the participants has died:

https://sg.sports.yahoo.com/blogs/fit-t ... 48033.html

Commiserations to Mr Chia's family.

Martin