Choosing A Cycling Road BikeWritten by Andrew Caxton
How To Choose Your Road Bike, Different Level Of Riders How to choose your road bike? Well first question is how much do you want to spend and how much cycling will you do? The answer to first question is a difficult one, many people when they are younger they want to ride there bike all day and what to be next winner of 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 afford bike of there dreams. As to how much cycling you do, that depends on whether you can justify having 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 to 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, in cycle shop, sports store or even in specialist magazines or on web. It is more fun to choose 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 with frame, there are many frames out there to choose from, get on 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 afford 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 have money. The frame is heart of your bike and you will want a good one, at this price range alloy is going to be 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 BikeWritten by Andrew Caxton
How To Choose A Mountain Bike That More Fits With Your NeedsHow 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 on canal path or a ride in woods with dog, well you wont need a full suspension downhill machine with 4 inch travel on 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 in 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, all rest of 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 on Internet and maybe you’ll find 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 for 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 up hills before you come flying down other side. The components will again be Shimano and 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 to hills. More Money, More Bike. The next rung up on mountain bike ladder would be good enough to race on. There are many to choose from, get on net and surf bike manufacturers sites and all shop sites along with magazines for juicy photos of bikes. The top manufacturers in this price range, I would say are: - Trek, Giant, Specialized and Cannondale, these companies make nicest frames with best mountain bike parts available at price, gears will be either Shimano or SRAM, brakes could be V-brakes or cable disc brakes, both are very good and light, most of other MTB parts, of course will be Shimano and as usual get best you can afford. There are many combinations of hubs and rims to make up your wheels; hubs from Shimano and rims form Mavic are 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, main ones are Suntour, Marzocchi, Manitou, Fox, RockShox and RST, buy any of these and you wont go far wrong.
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