buying urban bike - advice wanted

seekaye said:

i'm wanting to buy a new bike for commuting/roads/cycle tracks.
i'm tempted by the carrera subways at halfords but am put off by
halford reputation and the fact that i bought a raleigh quicksand off
them and it fell to bits after 15 months.

any advice or suggested models similar to subway range in the £300-400
brackets?

We have a Subway 8 and it's fine. Buy from a *good* branch of Halfords,
not one with semi-trained monkeys behind the counter. They do exist.

seekaye said:

i'm wanting to buy a new bike for commuting/roads/cycle tracks.
i'm tempted by the carrera subways at halfords but am put off by
halford reputation and the fact that i bought a raleigh quicksand off
them and it fell to bits after 15 months.

any advice or suggested models similar to subway range in the £300-400
brackets?

cheers

chris

The Decathon Triban in this months C+ (£280) looks pretty cool, the
reviewers liked it too. I'd like one but not sure I can justify it, Mrs
MSeries likes and said 'you should get one' but thats so she feels OK about
spending my money !

seekaye said:

i'm wanting to buy a new bike for commuting/roads/cycle tracks.
i'm tempted by the carrera subways at halfords but am put off by
halford reputation and the fact that i bought a raleigh quicksand off
them and it fell to bits after 15 months.

any advice or suggested models similar to subway range in the £300-400
brackets?

As long as you buy with your eyes open, Halfords are OK. Your
experience sounds as much a gripe with Raleigh as with Halfords.

I've only ever bought one bike from them and, as they're local, a few
odds and sods such as inner tubes.

They usually have at least one person on duty who really *knows*
bikes. The rest are no better and no worse than Saturday staff in any
LBS.

If you like the Subway, I'd go for it. It certainly meets your
requirements for commuting etc. The bike itself is decent and it's
fitted to take mudguards and racks to make it a real utility bike.

I've been riding the Subway 8 for 93.5 miles (sad, aren't I) doing the
type of riding you describe - it's a great bike. With wet, gritty,
salty Winter roads approaching the 8 speed hub is proving to be a good
choice.

Not Responding said:

seekaye said:

i'm wanting to buy a new bike for commuting/roads/cycle tracks.
i'm tempted by the carrera subways at halfords

snip

Quoted message said:

I've been riding the Subway 8 for 93.5 miles (sad, aren't I) doing the
type of riding you describe - it's a great bike. With wet, gritty,
salty Winter roads approaching the 8 speed hub is proving to be a good
choice.

Having just been out to the garage[1] to fiddle with bikes I'll add a
very, very minor caveat to my high praise. The Allen bolts (is that
the correct term) appear to be normal steel rather than stainless;
they're going all rusty since my commute in a monsoon on Friday. Same
for the big thing that holds the pedals on, whatever that's called.
I'll have to raid my old bike for stainless bits.

Also, the bar grips are a bit slippery when wet. Nothing I can't live
with but I'll probably be replacing them.

As I say, minor, minor points - it's still a great bike.

[1] Maybe stable would be a better term. It's not garaged a car in a
long time but is home to nearly 10 bikes, a trailer and a bike
workshop.

On Sun, 19 Sep 2004 18:15:01 +0100, "[Not Responding]"
<[email hidden]> wrote in message
<[email hidden]>:

Quoted message said:

Same for the big thing that holds the pedals on, whatever that's called.

That'll be the crank, mate ;-)

Guy
--
May contain traces of irony. Contents liable to settle after posting.
http://www.chapmancentral.co.uk

88% of helmet statistics are made up, 65% of them at Washington University

in message <[email hidden]>, Just zis Guy,

you know? (') said:

On Sun, 19 Sep 2004 18:15:01 +0100, "[Not Responding]"
<[email hidden]> wrote in message
<[email hidden]>:

Quoted message said:

Same for the big thing that holds the pedals on, whatever that's
called.

That'll be the crank, mate ;-)

A small instrument for causing revolutions - M. Ghandi.

--
[email hidden] (Simon Brooke) http://www.jasmine.org.uk/~simon/

IMHO, there aren't enough committed Christians, but that's care
in the community for you. -- Ben Evans

Not Responding said:

Having just been out to the garage[1] to fiddle with bikes I'll add a
very, very minor caveat to my high praise. The Allen bolts (is that
the correct term) appear to be normal steel rather than stainless;
they're going all rusty since my commute in a monsoon on Friday. Same
for the big thing that holds the pedals on, whatever that's called.
I'll have to raid my old bike for stainless bits.

Well ours has at least one s/s bolt - I replaced the upper front brake
mounting bolt with a longer one so I could use it to hold the mudguard
stay. I have another 9 M6 s/s bolts from the same pack which are, of
course, completely useless.

Oh, and all the SKS mudguard fittings are s/s.

I did 47 miles on it yesterday in horrible weather, because the Nomad
was freshly cleaned. To make amends I washed the Subway too this morning.