Choosing A Cycling Road Bike

Written by Andrew Caxton


How To Choose Your Road Bike, Different Level Of Riders

How to choose your road bike? Wellrepparttar first question is how much do you want to spend and how much cycling will you do? The answer torepparttar 141155 first question is a difficult one, many people when they are younger they want to ride there bike all day and what to berepparttar 141156 next winner ofrepparttar 141157 Tour de France, but they can not afford to spend much on there bike. If they get fit and win some races and get in a good team they will be given a top class bike, but what usually happens is they have to give up and work, have a family etc. When they are older and have more money they can affordrepparttar 141158 bike of there dreams. As to how much cycling you do, that depends on whether you can justify havingrepparttar 141159 best bike around and only doing a short ride on Sunday morning. Remember you get what you pay for.

Basic Level Bikes.

If you go torepparttar 141160 larger sports stores or bike shops they will have complete bikes for sale, probably a alloy frame with Shimano Tiagra or Campagnolo Mirage or a mixture of cheaper components, this bike will be built to a price, will ride fairly well, wont be very light and is a good place to start. To get some thing better, start with a nice alloy frame and if you can afford it, carbon forks, then with what money you have left chose your group-set of either Shimano or Campagnolo and then you can pick your saddle, handlebars, wheel rims and tires, this is all fun, but if you are working to a budget, it can be tricky.

Mid Level, Touring and Possibly Racing.

In this range of bikes you can buy them as a complete cycle, inrepparttar 141161 cycle shop, sports store or even inrepparttar 141162 specialist magazines or onrepparttar 141163 web. It is more fun to chooserepparttar 141164 components for your frame and how much you want to spend. At this level you would probably be looking at Shimano 105 or Campagnolo Centaur road bike parts and you could possibly buy some built up wheels from Shimano, Campagnolo or Mavic, but first start withrepparttar 141165 frame, there are many frames out there to choose from, get onrepparttar 141166 net and look for what you want, it will probably be alloy again, with carbon forks. Alloy seat pin, handle bars and stem and a comfortable saddle.

Top Level Bike For Racing and Pleasure.

Now it gets more difficult, your components would be Campagnolo Chorus or Shimano Ultegra, unless you can affordrepparttar 141167 top components of both manufacturers. Wheels again would be possibly Mavic, Shimano or Campagnolo, deep carbon rims look Great and have a wonderful ride, but will probably be too expensive, best if you stick to alloy rims for high pressure tires as tubulars, even though they ride wonderfully, will be expensive and a lot of trouble. Handle bars, stem and seat pin could be alloy or carbon, if you haverepparttar 141168 money. The frame isrepparttar 141169 heart of your bike and you will want a good one, at this price range alloy is going to berepparttar 141170 first choice with carbon forks and possibly a carbon rear triangle. If you look around you might manage to find an all carbon frame at this price, Giant make a very well priced carbon frame in a compact, sloping design, there are others but you will have to spend a lot more money.

Choosing A Mountain Bike

Written by Andrew Caxton


How To Choose A Mountain Bike That More Fits With Your Needs

How to choose a mountain bike depends on what you are going to do with it, if all you want your new mountain bike for is going for a nice leisurely ride onrepparttar canal path or a ride inrepparttar 141154 woods withrepparttar 141155 dog, well you wont need a full suspension downhill machine with 4 inch travel onrepparttar 141156 forks and a fully articulated rear end with damping and rebound control.

Where to Start From.

If you do want to go for an easy ride inrepparttar 141157 park you don’t need to spend too much, if you think you will do any off-road riding then big tread tires maybe all you need, but if you think you might try some rough stuff then you will need suspension. Gears will probably be Shimano, brakes must be V-brakes, but could be made by a few different manufacturers, allrepparttar 141158 rest ofrepparttar 141159 MTB components will depend on how much you can spend. If you go to your local bike shop or big sports store and see what they’ve got to offer, then buy it or have look onrepparttar 141160 Internet and maybe you’ll findrepparttar 141161 same thing at a better price.

The Next Step Up.

So maybe you want to be a bit more adventurous, more off-road, more forest tracks and dry boulder river beds, then you’ll need something a little lighter, with suspension forks. All this will cost you more money, but will be worth it forrepparttar 141162 extra enjoyment and adventure. With a better mountain bike it will have a sportier handling and because it is lighter, it will be easier to struggle uprepparttar 141163 hills before you come flying downrepparttar 141164 other side. The components will again be Shimano andrepparttar 141165 quality will depend on how much money you can spend. V-brakes and Rapid-fire gear shifters, along with Shimano chain set, bottom bracket and headset. Handle bars, stem and seat pin should be alloy and along with a comfortable saddle you’ll be set to take torepparttar 141166 hills.

More Money, More Bike.

The next rung up onrepparttar 141167 mountain bike ladder would be good enough to race on. There are many to choose from, get onrepparttar 141168 net and surfrepparttar 141169 bike manufacturers sites and allrepparttar 141170 shop sites along withrepparttar 141171 magazines for juicy photos ofrepparttar 141172 bikes. The top manufacturers in this price range, I would say are: - Trek, Giant, Specialized and Cannondale, these companies makerepparttar 141173 nicest frames withrepparttar 141174 best mountain bike parts available atrepparttar 141175 price, gears will be either Shimano or SRAM, brakes could be V-brakes or cable disc brakes, both are very good and light, most ofrepparttar 141176 other MTB parts, of course will be Shimano and as usual getrepparttar 141177 best you can afford. There are many combinations of hubs and rims to make up your wheels; hubs from Shimano and rims form Mavic arerepparttar 141178 usual mix. Then you have to choose which suspension forks to put on you bike, you may not get a choice, depending on which bike you buy,repparttar 141179 main ones are Suntour, Marzocchi, Manitou, Fox, RockShox and RST, buy any of these and you wont go far wrong.

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