The definitive OTP ( Off-The-Peg ) List (<£500 and <£1,000 sections)

Urgh. My eyes.

On second look the saddle and cranks are ok. The seatpost is also pretty inoffensive.

Out of the 3 mentioned the charge is the only one you should consider, the other two are an absolute rip off and both ugly as fuck too.

Will, this bike will make you want to ride more > http://www.lfgss.com/thread110199.html < bargain (i have no connection to the sale)

Y u recommend road bike?

Thanks guys.

The Pinarello in its black version (the one I tried out) is not bad looking I think, but nothing to go crazy about either. I've no idea what went through their mind to end up with these colours on the green version...
As for the drop bars, I'm not sure I'm that fond of them, they keep you very low and when cycling in London you need to keep your hands on the brakes which means you'll always be really leaning forward. But then it may just be a matter of getting used to it...

Which brings us to the road bike. Tempting, but I'm not sure they're that good to commute (which will be the main purpose of the bike) and the Single Speed has this special thing that makes it much more personal than a road bike.

It's pretty hard to decide... Especially with the bike suggested by 'rive gauche', which has really good reviews!

What do you think about this Pearson by the way?
http://www.pearsoncycles.co.uk/store/product/42167/Pearson-10-Goal/

These two FUJIs don't look bad either...
http://www.evanscycles.com/products/fuji/track-classic-2013-track-bike-ec041914
http://www.evanscycles.com/products/fuji/feather-2013-single-speed-road-bike-ec041916#select

Which brings us to the road bike. Tempting, but I'm not sure they're that good to commute (which will be the main purpose of the bike) and the Single Speed has this special thing that makes it much more personal than a road bike.

What's going on here?

Will, the word you're looking for is Zen.

Single speeds are more zen.

My last 2p on this;

I think we've got very different tastes.

But i do think you're underestimating and misunderstanding drop bars. Sheldon has a good section on this, but you don't have to have deep drops and they don't need to be positioned low. You ride on the hoods so you have you're hands on the brakes. You can add crosstops so that you've also got brakes when you're on the flats.

The Fuji has a good rep, but I would just try out different bikes and see what feels best. Other than getting to a track I think drops with just cross tops are silly. I've done it but in the long term it's just not that practical. In any event bar set up is personal and easy to change.

Things like that curvy person IMO are just novelty items which are more about supposed looks than function.

What's going on here?

I don't know what's going on. My comment might be silly and I'd love to hear why and to learn more about bikes, but sarcastic comments on their own won't help, will they?...

My last 2p on this;

I think we've got very different tastes.

But i do think you're underestimating and misunderstanding drop bars. Sheldon has a good section on this, but you don't have to have deep drops and they don't need to be positioned low. You ride on the hoods so you have you're hands on the brakes. You can add crosstops so that you've also got brakes when you're on the flats.

The Fuji has a good rep, but I would just try out different bikes and see what feels best. Other than getting to a track I think drops with just cross tops are silly. I've done it but in the long term it's just not that practical. In any event bar set up is personal and easy to change.

Things like that curvy person IMO are just novelty items which are more about supposed looks than function.

What is this Sheldon section you're talking about? I'd like to read about dropbars, I might be missing the point. But I've always ridden Dutch bikes - where you sit pretty straight - and always loved it, because it's comfortable, you have a good visibility etc.

Anyway, thanks for the answers, I appreciate.

I don't know what's going on. My comment might be silly and I'd love to hear why and to learn more about bikes, but sarcastic comments on their own won't help, will they?...

For me sarcastic comments have this special thing that make them much more personal than a patronising comment.

For me sarcastic comments have this special thing that make them much more personal than a patronising comment.

Right...

Sooooooo......

What is this Sheldon section you're talking about?

http://sheldonbrown.com/ (PBUH)

If you're doing longer rides at the weekend I would suggest drop bars with drop levers/hoods. Anything else just isn't that practical in the long term imo.

To be fair, while drop bar/brakes hood is great, flat bar never stopped people from doing long ride in weekend.

http://sheldonbrown.com/ (PBUH)

Pretty cool website, thx!

New Charge Plug which now cost £400 RRP and have double butted tubing instead of plain gauge, thus on sales would be £350-370, only disadvantage is quill stem.

Genuinely curious, why is a quill stem a disadvantage?

Aesthetically, I prefer them, but I don't know enough about the mechanics of them...

Also, is there an OTP steel track bike, in a price range of the Dolan Pre-Cursa?... (With similar quality components).

Have a look here: https://www.lfgss.com/thread9085.html

Re quills:

The advantage of a quill stem is that you can raise it up and down without needing to adjust the headset.

The disadvantages (on the whole) are:

• heavier
  
• less stiff
  
• less secure compared to say a 4 bolt system (but probably more secure from a security POV)
  
• lack of front loading ability (usually) so swapping bars is harder
  
• usually 1" and therefore limit modern fork choices and upgrades, as well as being less stiff
  
• no oversized (31.8mm) option therefore limiting any bar choices - pretty much all style of bars come in a OS variant.
  
  

... I think that's most of them.

Oh yeah and cost. Nice quality quill stems are generally IME expensive whereas you seem to be able to get decent last season type aheads at a discount. Equally you can get cheap ones that seem to function better than cheap quills. I'm sure someone will disagree with this though.

The major disadvantage is simply that the frame/fork is restricted to 1" instead of the standard 1 1/8.

I retract my comment that the £400 Plug have double butted tubing - it doesn't, only the Prestige model have.

Hello, just after some general advice about which bike to buy. I have UTFS thinking there might just be one big thread with all the general "what bikes are good/bad comments" but could only find the odd one or two specific posts.

If there is a merged thread with everything in it that someone could point me to that would be good.

Or if anyone can recommend a good fixed gear bike for around £7/800 pounds that would be good too.

I already have two old road conversions so looking for something new this time around

Thanks

Thanks whoever moved this

what size are you? I have a small nearly new cinelli gazzetta to sell.

(with the superior forks)