Wanted: £220 budget; best brands to go for and ones to avoid?

I'll be using it near enough everyday to commute to school, thanks!

buy a bike 2ndhand from someone with a decent reputation on here

Thanks for the advice man, preferably needs to be small aswell. Would I be better off buying parts separately and building myself? Is it within my budget? I feel like if I made it myself it would be more like a child to me...

You'll get more value buying a complete bike.

buy a complete bike

as and when things break buy new bits

slowly the bike will evolve into your little creation/monster

Don't buy a create bike.

Create bikes are out of his budget too and rubbish

oh god...

I remember when the forum bought a Create for ~£70

Watch Wiggle, Evans etc. for sales. I picked up my Charge Plug Grinder for about £270, instead of around £500 just because it was last years colour, and they weren't carrying that colour forwards. Previous years models are your friend, and seem to come on the market around January/Febuary time. You might not be able to wait that long though :(

Haha, I would never go for a Create. Thank you so much for the advice, I think I'm just looking for a complete bike now, and I'll upgrade it as I get wiser! If anyone wants to be a complete saint and let me know on any complete bike bargains I would be so so grateful.

what size are you looking for?

about a 54cm frame but I'm not overly fussed due to my budget... When a Create bike is out of my reach, you know things aren't going well.

Search eBay, making sure to sort the listings by closest distance, put in the price box on the left 220, and when you search put in the frame size and tick the "Include description" box just incase the seller hasn't put the size in the title. For example, "Claud Butler 54" and tick the box. Should narrow down the results a bit.

i have a koga miyata that size.
shimano group.
would be around 275 though.pm me if interested.

have this, well within your budget: http://www.lfgss.com/thread74409.html

but maybe you'd better buy something with (mounting points for) fenders if you'll be using it everyday

Can recommend Sash ^^ . Sold a friend of mine an amazing Bike a while back. Always good bikes. Always fair prices. Pending you seeing pics that Koga Miyata sounds good to go for that price. If I were you I'd be in there!

Aren't they tubs tho', wouldn't want to get the lad hooked on tub glue... It's very moreish, I find...

don't buy anything new
for that budget get a 2nd hand bit of quality rather than 1st hand tat ... with the exception of the charge bargin above

i wouldn't get too tied up with brand names,i'm very cynical about brand names in all goods

each piece has it's own virtues, some brands really have a consistency, but loads just don't

ford made both the rs2000 and the (exploding) pinto

specialized uses different builders for different level stuff and apparently have no premises or manufacturing of their own (they are just a distribution/ marketing and design hub like nike )
loads of raliegh , mavic, miche mechs and so on were made by suntour (or should that be meidia / sunshine / sansin ?)

raleigh has changed hands many times ruining a once good name

shimano made both dura ace and positiron

i had some NOS hubs branded ''miche' and also the very same exact model branded 'campagnolo' , needless to say the very same hubs sold for more with the campy pantos in - but the smart people bought the same hub off me for less with the 'miche' branding.

agreed^ generally a complete 2nd hand bike is more value for money

Can recommend Sash ^^ . Sold a friend of mine an amazing Mercxx a while back. Always good bikes. Always fair prices. Pending you seeing pics that Koga Miyata sounds good to go for that price. If I were you I'd be in there!

thank you very much!

Sash - I have sent you a PM
(Sorry to hijack the thread)

Hi I'm also looking for a new bike after my charge Plug got stolen, have around £300 to spend. Not hugely knowledgable but would like something similar to my charge, I'm 5'3" so need a pretty small frame, are there any women's specific sellers here or ones that might have smaller frames in a lot?

Thanks!
Becca

Hi I'm also looking for a new bike after my charge Plug got stolen, have around £300 to spend. Not hugely knowledgable but would like something similar to my charge, I'm 5'3" so need a pretty small frame, are there any women's specific sellers here or ones that might have smaller frames in a lot?

Thanks!
Becca

Have some patience. I've seen some nice, small frames pop up on here. Do you know what sort of bike you have in mind (old, new, gears, no gears etc)...I'll keep an eye out?

if you can specify 'pretty small frame' in centimeters i can have a look in the shed...

but really starting your own 'wanted' thread instead of hijacking someone else's generally works best ;)