Road bike recommendations

This, then spend the difference on a saddle and pedals to personal preference.

thanks for the advice. is it not worth spending the money getting a better groupset though?

For £500 I think I'd be looking at this. Not the best wheels or groupset, but I suspect it'll ride very nicely for someone new to road bikes.

http://www.rutlandcycling.com/280933/products/giant-defy-3-2014-road-bike.aspx

Super Record EPS would be perfect ;)

A second hand audux bike is definitely the sensible option, I'm not going to be looking to buy anything for a couple of months at least so i'll keep my eyes on eBay and the classified here to see what's around!

It's the same groupset, just £200 less.

Maybe keep an eye on the CTC forum too.

A second hand B'twin Triban 3 can be had for £100 easily, providing the owner brought it and hung it up in the garage when he realised it's too big for him.

Okay.

Just so you are aware: Triban is an anagram of Bin Rat.

#scoblebinscobled

HPlus come from a Chinese factory. Alex have their own factory in taiwan. All of the surly rims are alex made, a fair few others too

I've been looking more into a do everything road/touring bike. Does anyone have any views on the all city space horse?http://allcitycycles.com/bikes/space_horse
I like the idea of fat tyres, racks and mudguards. The thing that puts me off is canti brakes because I have no idea what I'm doing with them. How would it compare to the slightly more expensive Croix De Fer?

If it ain't got discs it ain't worth buying.

I'm also interested in this question. Other options are somewhat cross-y - eg Brother Cycles Kepler or Surly Cross Check. Might be best asking in the functional thread though?

That's the main advantage of the CdF definitely.

Straggler if you want discs?

If you want to carry the kitchen sink, get a more touring bike in steel with rack mounts.

If you maninly want a cool multi-purpose bike that can tour on, but light touring. Get a carbon disc bike, or a alu disc bike and just go bike packing.

Looking at that too, I still don't really know what the differences between all these frames would be in reality because I've never had a geared road bike before. My plan at the moment is to keep an eye on eBay but nothing that ticks all the boxes has come up yet.

You could always run mini V brakes instead of Cantis.

Having never used discs or cantis or mini v brakes, would I notice the difference between the 3 and what are the pros and cons of each? If there's a more relevant thread for this discussion can someone point me at it please!

Yes you would.

Discs (hydraulic and correctly set up): power and modulation.
Mini V's: power, not so much modulation.
Canti's: less power, more modulation.

Canti's: less power, more modulation.

Must says that the Shimano CX-50/70 is amazing for modulation and power.

Rest of it is on point.

Reccos for a flat bar road bike under £500? Asking for a friend - really!

Any cheap hybrid will do, Ridgeback Motion?

I ended up buying a Dawes Ultra Galaxy frame from private patterson on here. At £90 posted I thought it was a good place to start and work out what I want/need from a geared bike. If it turns out to be 853 tubing as the seller thought it might be, I'll be over the moon because I love my 853 Donohue track frame. Can anyone reccomend some forks to be looking for? The only requirements are 1 1/8", able to run at least 32c tyres and mudguards and be either decent steel or carbon.

You should avoid a steel fork if at all possible. So heavy.

The best option will be a cross fork made for cantis