A Buyers Guide To Buying A Road Bike In Adelaide.

We have created this page to try and help you if you are a first time road bike buyer or even if it's not your first road bike. A little bit of a guide before you come in store or somewhere else even on what to look for and to try make things clearer and easier to understand. There is loads to consider and hopefully we can help make it easier for you!

Questions are important! When you come in to see us, you will find we will ask a lot of questions and listen to your answers! The reason for this is that it will help us to work out what bike will suit you best, put simply! The following are some things to think about:

• Who am i riding with? This is important, if your friends all ride road bikes suited toward riding on gravel roads and you intend to join them with a fancy new aero road bike that you have bought, things will be a little less than ideal!
• Where will i be riding? Hills, beach, country roads? You want to have some sort of ideas on where you might like to ride your bike. This will help massively as different bikes are suited for different conditions of course. Some bikes are geared up with wide range gears for hills use, gravel tyres for off road conditions or aerodynamic wheels for speed along the flat of the beach etc.
• How often do i want to ride? If you want to ride your bike every single day of the week, you need to buy something that is going to last and equipped to do so. At the same time if it is less frequent use you can perhaps afford to buy a bike not as highly equipped.
• What do i like? Buying something you like is important too! A bike is like a significant other! You're going to be spending a lot of time together so you want to like the bike you're getting! Aesthetics are important too! If you're not into the bike and excited by it, you might not want to ride it!
• Why am i riding? It's good to think about why you ride. What you enjoy, what you want to get out of your riding, all of these type of things. If racing and going fast is what you want to do, cool! Buy a race bike to suit you! If you're not racing and don't care for all out speed, there is no need to buy a race bike. If it's just general fitness and recreation, buy the recreational bike to suit your needs!

Like we say, questions are good! It's good to ask yourself some of these type of questions so you can truly work out what you both want as well as need to buy to suit you!

The bike industry love to give things labels, put them in categories and in theory it's all meant to help but more often than not, it even makes us confused! We like to break down road bikes in the following categories. Below is a listing of them and an explanation of terms in simple words:

• Recreational Road Bikes - As the title suggests, road bikes just simply aimed at general fun and recreational usage. We would tend to classify a bike like this as a bike that sells for no more than $2000.
• Endurance Road Bikes - This is a road bike which is still performance orientated yet it is made with comfort in mind, particularly over longer distances. It's a road bike which is made to handle up to a diverse range of conditions and provide comfort over rougher roads particularly. It has a slightly more relaxed feel, taller handlebar height and not so crunched over or as aggressive as a "racing" style of road bike can be.
• Aero Road Bikes - As the name lends itself to describing, this is a new and popular style of road bike that is aimed at being more aerodynamically shaped and orientated toward racing usage and the performance end of things.
• Road Racing Bikes - This is a road bike that is a more performance orientated bike but holds a more "traditional" appearance in the form of having more round shaped tubing and lending itself towards racing & performance in the hills.
• Triathlon/TT Bikes - A specialised bike that is for triathlon racing or time trialing purposes. It's a bike that is built for speed and relies heavily upon an aerodynamic shaped frame and often wheels as well.
• Gravel Bikes - This is a new style of road bike that is becoming popular where as the name suggests, the bike is ridden a lot on gravel or dirt roads. They tend to have provisions for wider tyres, they're made to be comfortable, have provisions for luggage and extra storage spots.
• Cyclocross Bikes - The first thing to remember, this is not a gravel bike! Cyclocross bikes look like a road bike but are made for riding and racing on technical terrain off road. They differ substantially from a gravel bike in that they have a steep head angle and short wheelbase, the opposite of a gravel bike. As a result they are quite twitchy and lively to ride. Great for technical and tight CX courses but not on a high speed fire road descent perhaps.
• Women's Road Bikes - A straightforward one as the name would suggest! Just simply all types of road bikes made simply for women. Women's road bikes use different geometry to men's ones to provide a better fit.

This is a tough question! The overwhelming piece of advice we can probably offer is to buy the bike you want and buy it once. Buy it right first time around and you will save money even if you spend a little more initially. As a guide perhaps to what we see people buying as a popular entry level or start up road bike, we see great popularity in bikes that sell for around the $3000 mark. This is a bike that will not disappoint and allows you to grow as a cyclist with the bike. For this type of money you will see yourself on something with a high quality frame set and a great selection of parts with light weight and reliable wheels that will provide a platform for many happy hours worth of riding. You don't need to spend a million dollars to have fun on a bike but it is fair to say you will see improvement in your equipment as your budget does increase!

Sizing of your bike is critically important! It's also something that you need not be concerned over as that is our job to help you with on getting it right! Brands vary with sizing and everyone has different wants and needs in terms of sizing and fitment to the bike. We will work closely with you to ensure you understand the options available to you, listen to you so we understand your requirements and then we can guide you to picking the right size bike just for you. The last thing we will do is see you leave on the wrong size bike, we have too many in the right size to sell you the wrong one!

If you're buying a new bike from scratch, you're going to need some extra things to get you on the road! We like to think of when you're looking at accessories and so forth, they fall into two categories. Needs and wants. For example, you will need a helmet. You might want a Garmin GPS computer but it's not essential or something that you need to be able to ride. Some of the things that we strongly suggest are needs and that you will need to buy to get going could include:

• Helmet
• Knicks & jersey
• A floor pump to have at home and keep pressure in your tyres
• A puncture repair set up, spare tube, pump/inflator to carry on the bike
• Pedals and shoes
• Water bottle cages

These are a few of the key items to consider. As perhaps a guide, if you set aside approximately $500 this will certainly see you covered to purchase a good selection of these essential items! Then you can consider other things that you might also like afterwards that aren't essential but certainly great to have to improve the riding experience!

 

 

When you buy a new bike from us we are a whole lot more than just a shop that sells you a bike and says goodbye as you leave the store! When you buy a bike from us you will get our support the whole way through. From when you first come in the store to make your purchase but then we offer a free first service on your bike which is due after around 10 hours worth of riding. If there is any hassle or problem with your bike though before the service or after, we are always here to help. Simply come in with your bike, call us or email us. We are always here to help and will sort things out for you! We have a big team of mechanical staff always working in our workshop and staff dedicated to sort out warranty issues and other related things! We are always here to help!

Hopefully we have made things clear and simple for you to understand! Buying a bike should be fun, hassle free and an enjoyable experience! That's how we like it to be! When you make your decision on where to buy, whether it's from us or not, think about the whole purchase. Buy a bike you like, from a shop you feel comfortable with and know is going to be able to support you the whole way through. We're sure you will find that we can provide all of that to you and a whole lot more! Come and visit us to get the ball rolling and let the fun begin!