OK, so I bought a cheapo bike off Argos - only £75. I've had a multitude of problems - slow puncture, gears not working/slipping (the chain locked at high speed so did my pedals which could have been nasty). Finally, the front brake pads came away from the front wheel, which seemed warped. In my efforts to solve this problem, the end came of the brake cable, which subsequently frayed and....well.....I cycled it back to Argos this morning. Lesson learned.

So I want something where the gears are not, preferably on the gripper, more like a switch/tag. Something that is comfortable my for sensitive derriere but mainly something I have 110% confidence in when I'm on the road. Also, I am not that practically minded, so I want an expert to assemble the bike for me if possible.

I just want it for a few journeys a week. To the shops and back but I do cycle on the grass/dirt tracks when I'm in the mood. Occasionally I will put in an hours stint.

Looking at these as possibilities :-

http://www.halfords.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/product_storeId_10001_catalogId_10151_productId_811611_langId_-1_categoryId_165499

http://www.halfords.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/product_storeId_10001_catalogId_10151_productId_762067_langId_-1_categoryId_165499

Any cycling experts out there point me in the right direction ? Cheers in advance.

It may not be reliable but at least you'll look the part

Ahhh, those were the days. On some choppers they had the gear level right in the middle of the frame - it couldn't 'alf do some damage to your nether regions if you had to break suddenly

Tomahawks, Strikers, Grifters. When bikes were bikes

PS Why have 18 bleedin' gears ???

Spitty wine post Gazzer!

To be honest, I'm looking for the same.

Cycling with the young Stedster's at the moment using an old Claude Butler made out of Lead. (brought from a man in the pub for a tenner).

Fancy cycling to work, (and a little bit of trails)

C'mon you lycra clad b'strds. Give us a clue.

are halford bikes not shite?

http://www.wiggle.co.uk/raleigh-urban-1-2010/

Edited out because it was an even lamer "gag" than I thought first time round

And apologies for having nothing useful to offer.

If it's just for commuting Ian i'd steer clear of FS bikes, can be a real pain when on the road or pavements;

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/DIAMONDBACK-O ... 124wt_1195

Not a bad price from a decent, if not great, brand in the mountain bike range.

Cheers Baz - someone else had warned me too. However, someone at work had recommended



That looks the biz. Trouble is I would have to assemble it. Surely FS - I assume you mean full suspension - is a good thing ? Like a car with a sporty car with a solid suspension, you would feel all the bumps so the softer the suspension the better ? Apologies if this a dumb question

With a cheap FS (full suspension) bike you won't be able to adjust the range of motion much, meaning you'll be up and down like a spring when powering through the pedals making it twice as hard to get from A to B (hence why there's no suspension on road bikes).

It's really not that hard to assemble a bike, you'll get full instructions meaning it's just like putting together flat pack furniture. It also helps you find your way around your bike for any future problems you may encounter. The hardest part will be the adjustment of the disc brakes to prevent them rubbing, but there's plenty of 'novice' clips on YouTube to assist you in solving this that are very simple to follow.

I think you'd find the assembly easier than you'd expect.It usually arrives with the allen keys,spanner etc.Here's a youtube clip though you shouldn't need it.

Don't touch those Apollo bikes - utter pieces of crap. The only good thing about halfords is they will (usually) source a particular bike for you, or at least they did.

If you're mostly on tarmac no real need for suspension, Nothing wrong with Bazzas link for a cheap runabout.

Its about the time of year in the next month that 2012 bikes come out and theres some reductions on this years models, so just keep scouting about. Helps if you're either short or tall.

For that price I would go fot a used bike. Plenty knocking round for a decent price as wannabe fat Ba**ards realise they can't hack it.

I doubt you will get a quality bike for £150 but you will get a really good used for that price. Try ebay as well.

OK. First up, Argos, supermarkets etc don't really sell bikes. They're what's known as BSO's - Bike Shaped Objects. Anything new for less than £200 will be heavy, unreliable and basically crap. That's not just me being a bike snob - you just can't get anything decent and safe for that price. The brakes will be flimsy and unreliable and the gears won't index properly. My wife's got a £200 Halfords jobbie and I spend more time adjusting the brakes and gears on that than on all of my other bikes put together. Every time she rides it something goes wrong. Luckily she's a runner so doesn't use it much.

If you go to a proper bike shop - small local or maybe Evans, the starting point for something rideable is probably about £250, although personally I'd say more like £350. A hybrid should suit you fine. No MTB at that sort of price would stand any sort of punishment anyway, but a hybrid would be fine on both the road and the occasional trail.

Steer clear of suspension at that price. A half decent suspension fork is minimum £100 on its own and a shock for a rear suss at least the same. Full suss bikes <£1000 are rubbish. Don't fall for the Halfords half price specials. Cheap suspension doesn't dampen any of the shock out really. They're just springs, which are mainly undamped (esp on the back). They just bob up and down and the main effect is to absorb half the effort you're putting into the pedals meaning that you go slower. They're also incredibly heavy. You don't need suspension, you just need your sit bones to get used to riding, which only takes a few rides.

If you buy a cheap crap bike it'll end up unused in the garage in no time. Just too much time and trouble to ride them.

You can get decent cheap second hand bikes, but they're not easy to come by. I got a Kinesis 7005 Alu frame, internal cable routed with full Ultegra gears (which are the second best Shimano gears) for £50 to use as a winter bike. Scuffed up and needed a new back wheel but runs and shifts like a dream, despite being 10 years old. I know what I'm looking for though and can tell the difference between cosmetic flaws and serious issues / worn parts.

Shimano and SRAM don't make crap gears. OK - the cheap ones aren't as good as the top sets, but they're all ok. Tektro are OK for brakes if not Shimano. Try to avoid twist grip shifters. Cheap mechanical disc brakes are also pretty rubbish. They do work OK, but are hard to adjust properly and will rub unless you can get them perfect. Cantilever or caliper brakes are fine.

Some bike shops will sell used bikes (or demonstrators) and the sales are on at the moment for 2011 bikes. London's the best place to pick one up, although that's not much use to you I guess. Bike hire shops will sometimes sell off old stock and you know it's been serviced. E-bay's OK, subject to the usual caveats. fairly hard to find a bargain if I'm honest - needs a bit of work and patience.

Good luck, and if you see one that you fancy feel free to ask for advice.

ps - don't buy a bike from a Car Parts shop. Obv I have broken that rule, as I have a Boardman MTB, but they are the exception, and only then if you can adjust them yourself (when I got mine the gears weren't indexed properly, the headset was loose and there was no grease on the pedal threads, amongst other problems - only took me half an hour to sort, but still - shouldn't happen on a £700 bike which was supposed to have been 'professionally built').

Pretty much agree with unc there. You are not going to get anything decent under £300 at least


Try

http://www.evanscycles.com/

Or

http://www.chainreactioncycles.com/

Look for 2010 bikes if there are any left

If your company is in the cycle to work scheme you could get a £300 bike for about £150 to £180, depending on tax status.

Can get a Specialised Sirrus or Trek 7.1 for around that price. Decent bikes that won't break the bank.

If I were to get a bike at that price point it would be the Sirrus (Think Kenners got one on my recommendation a couple of years back, and loved it - until it got nicked anyway)

http://www.jejamescycles.co.uk/speciali ... 62187.html

Unc.Si

What's so bad about an Apollo bike? Good enough for the basic cyclist I assume?

I bought a Halfords bike a couple of years back with the intention of cycling more (not masses - but a bit to help fitness as I'm 40 now) - I never really found it enjoyable as it seemed real hard work and simply not a fun experience.

this thread shows it was the bike (thankfully stolen!) so I am tempted to try again with decent kit...

Simple tip: Try and lift the bike with 2 fingers of your right hand placed underneath the crossbar.

(Compare it with other bikes a little bit more expensive and you'll see why it is cheap....)

Bottom price, bottom quality. Just not enjoyable to ride and will keep breaking / going wrong.

Good enough in the same way that a pair of slippers might be good enough to go running in.

You've got one - haven't you

No, I have a "Carrera Subway One"

For some strange reason I thought it was an Apollo and even wrote a reply to your post saying it was one lol.

Had to go outside and check.

Carrera Subway Ones any good?

If so, may I recommend it to Bluenosey

think carrera are a step up from apollo, but not sure. Carerra fury's are known as being about the only halfords half decent MTB outside the Boardman brand.

Just had a quick look at the Subway spec. To be fair, they look OK, although the newer ones have mechanical disc brakes, which I don't like. The new ones are £300, and you can get a Spesh sirrus for that...

The only drawback I have found with mine is that the right pedal makes a clicking sound each time it goes round.

Not the end of the world though.... a bit of WD40 should sort that out!

Looks good and I'm sure it's an excellent bike - but it's a bit basic isn't it? It hasn't even got a mudguard at the back and that seat looks a bit uncomfortable to me. Do people who buy these bikes find they have to buy other stuff to go with it as well, or what? And how much does that add to the cost if it's possible to generalise?

Also what are they like off-road? If I got one I would use it go fishing among other things, but nothing major - a couple of bumpy fields, that sort of thing. Mostly it would be on the road.

WD40 will flush out the grease, which is bad. It does also contain some light oil in the solvent so the click might go in the short term, but not for long and it'll be worse when it comes back.

Clicks and creaks notoriously difficult to sort out. You think it's the pedal, but can be anything from the bottom bracket, loose quick release, creaking saddle rail or even just a cable clipping the crank every revolution.

WD40's rarely the answer. Good for unfixing stuck bolts and cleaning things before washing and re-greasing, not good to get anywhere near any bearings.

So what would you do about the clicking? I am 95% sure it's the pedal but not fully.

Don't usually get mudguards I don't think, but they're not expensive for a clip on seatpost one. Need lights as well, but that's about it.

Don't really know that much about cheap bikes - the one's I would buy don't even come with pedals so I wouldn't say that spesh looks basic. Seat looks pretty padded to me. Thing is though, it's a bit like suspension. It looks like it might be better to have a big padded saddle, but the reality is that a good narrow racing saddle is usually more comfortable as it doesn't rub as much. You just need a few weeks to get used to it.

Offroad it'll be bumpy, but the suspension on a cheap MTB won't make it much less bumpy, it'll just bounce you around a bit when you hit a bump, but you'll have less control and any slight benefit will be outweighed by the extra weight.

Best advice to anyone is to talk to a local bike shop (the smaller the better) and see what they advise. There will be lots of v expensive bikes, but they know that their bread and butter is the cheaper end of the scale and will help you decide what's best for you.

edit: if you're going to be riding over fields, you might be better off with a more 'mountain bikey' bike, perhaps with front suspension, but I'd still run a mile from cheap full suss bikes.

Very helpful, thanks. I don't mind getting bounced around a bit, it was more that I was wondering if a bike like this is genuinely up to the job - eg, if you want to go an a fairly easy off-road route now and again, plus the odd fields and towpaths. I wouldn't want to damage it then you take it back to the shop and the guy goes well you shouldn't have been using it for that anyway. So I take your point about getting advice from a proper shop, there's one near me that looks quite good.

If you buy a car sometimes you might want to get GAP insurance or an extended warranty - there a lot of rip-off products out there like payment protection, etc, but those two can be quite useful. Are there any equivalents when buying a bike that you should consider?