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

Build one up yourself. OTPs suck unless you want to spend a lot of money or very little money. At £700 there's too much compromise. A steamroller would be a good start.

There is nothing wrong with the steamroller as an otp, and I also like the Gary Fisher Triton, only you'll want to change the saddle on it at some point and they are better for people who want a slightly longer reach as the are road brakes instead if cross top levers.

Look in classifiedsy on here. Buy decent f&f for 200-250. Buy sexy chainset. Buy sexy wheels. Buy sexy finishing bits. Gonna have so much more than a 700 pound otp. As long as you don't have really bad taste.

I'm guessing you don't live the hilly part of cornwall ,)

Just get a fuji track and save the money for upgrading the wheels.

RE building your own... I've built all my bikes bar the first hybrid... got to say its not always worth the money, but if you're going to be spending £700 then I think it prolly is.

Also I think you'd be better off spending £650 on a bike and £50 on a train to go to a decent sized bike shop to work out what size you want. Esp if you're used to mtb's.

There is nothing wrong with the steamroller as an otp, and I also like the Gary Fisher Triton, only you'll want to change the saddle on it at some point and they are better for people who want a slightly longer reach as the are road brakes instead if cross top levers.

Speaking of the Gary Fisher.

There's one selling for £350 in Action Bike, Wimbledon, so if anyone need a cheap decent bike, go there before they sell their last stock.

Just get a fuji track and save the money for upgrading the wheels.

we agree.

Well I have bit the bullet after hours of comparing etc and gone for the Fuji Feather, £410 from Ebarg in baby blue (58cm) so I have a good few quid to throw on it, thinking a decent wheelset & sorting the gearing to what I want...!Nhattattack! I had a Steamroller a couple of years back & I loved it but I fancied something a bit different, plus im on a bike all day everyday at the moment at work hence wanting an OTP.(I always normally build from scratch...just no time at the minute, bloody summer holidays! ( I work in the holiday Industry))

What wheels would you recommend for around £250? Bit hesitant of the whole Velocity Deep Vee been style over substance, do look pretty though. Any good online wheel builders I should check out? Or anyone with a nice pair they wanna sell!?

what is so wrong with the stock wheels?
Are they particularly heavy (heavier than deep Vs)?
What are you aiming for by changing them immediately?

Oh and the answer will probably be Open Pros or equivalent weight wise on whatever hub you like!

scopewulf, I'll start by being honest with you.....I'm just a bit unsure of you. There, I've said it. You've only posted a few times,
but the gap between your earlier posts, and your now more recent posts, is 2 years(?!) and one month. Thats unusual.

Also, in your request for help in choosing a bike, you initially choose 3 bikes that are actually very dissimilar to each other,
then you ask for advice. I didn't get that, so I stayed away and let others help instead. Wouldn't it have been more straightforward
to narrow down types of bikes, then choose from those? The only things the bikes had in common really were that they were fgss.

Here were your 3 first choices: (and my classifications for type)
Specialized Globe Roll 2 (modern "lifestyle" cro-mo runabout)
Cannondale Capo (fast, light and strong alu bike)
Fuji Feather (traditionally styled steel bike)

So you had 2 modern bikes, the Capo and the Globe Roll 2, but one is alu and one steel. The Capo will be the faster. Easily, and not
just by its weight, also by its stiffness. But it would have a harsher ride. Then you had the Feather, which belongs in a different
grouping, just based on its styling alone.

These are the close contemporaries within your price range, and also the style and performance, of each:

*Specialized Globe Roll 2 *
Felt Brougham
Genesis Day One
Schwinn Madison 2009
*
Cannondale Capo *
Dolan FXE
Boardman Comp SC
Dolan Pre Cursa (add brakes and freewheel)

Fuji Feather
Creme Vinyl Uno
Specialized Langster Steel
Bianchi Pista via Condotti (more expensive, but not really "better")

As for the other recommendations given, I'd add the (over-priced IMO) On-One Il Pompino to the Surly Steamroller. Both are good
bikes, and offer to take much larger tyres, which are handy in winter. And as allround bikes go, the Genesis Day One Cross is a
good bet too. Cheaper than the On-One, and just as capable.

For wheels, look up Wheelsets List. Maybe we'll see you again in another 2 years, or maybe tomorrow, in another guise. I think
you're less than genuine, but the answer was given because it might be useful to noobs.

hippy, please consider merging this to the main OTP thread.

Well that's interesting! Sorry GA2G, but I think your comments are a bit harsh, why the f**k would I be not genuine? What would I achieve!? I had a fixed steamroller 2 years ago and that's why I used the forum for advice, eventually got rid of it, so didn't use the forum until now when I was looking at getting another fixie. I didn't know there were secret rules or something, just wanted some advice, thanks to everyone for there advice, GA2G you must be smoking a lot or something your paranoid mate.

I had a Steamroller a couple of years back & I loved it but I fancied something a bit different, plus im on a bike all day everyday at the moment at work hence wanting an OTP.

You can buy an OTP steamroller also I'm sure you'd know that the Steamroller is very comfortable, a lots more so than the Globe Roll 2 for an everyday bike you'll be riding all day.

Fuji Feather, £410 from Ebarg in baby blue (58cm)

Baby blue, eh?

GA2G you must be smoking a lot or something your paranoid mate.

Its "you're" [you are] not "your" [belonging to you]. *me in Platini mode*

A person that is paranoid cares about something, albeit misguidely. I can assure that I absolutely, positively do NOT care about your likes and dislikes.

What you failed to do, was to take the positives (the comparative examples of other bikes within each category), and to leave the negative (my view on mysterious alias personas on this forum). To each their own. But if you think in the time that you have been "away", this forum has turned into the type of place where people become popular by asking the same question that has been answered 1000 times already, then you may be in for a surprise.

I helped you. Now unbunch your knickers, and go buy that bike you wish for. And as kerley said, there's not much wrong with the wheels that come with the Fuji Feather.

Now unbunch your knickers

you should try this sometime as well.

I don't wear any. Wanna check?

Well then, unbunch your penis instead!

Okay Ed, I'll take it from you. I was being a bit unsympathetic to poor old scopewulf.

I should feel bad(ly). ;)

Anyway, for scopewulf's benefit, here is one of my bikes. Look familiar?

I don't wear any. Wanna check?

reported.

Anyway, for scopewulf's benefit, here is one of my bikes. Look familiar?

Looks very nice and would have been my choice from scopewulf's list

Not sure it fits with your comment made a few days back about not being able to afford nice bikes though :-)

I didn't buy this one. I bought the red Capo 5 from the previous year, brand new at £500. Due to a frame issue,
Cannondale replaced the frame with this latest one. A "free" upgrade.

Prices is the UK and Europe are quite shocking. Have a look at the prices in the USA. Even the SE Ripper PK, which is £700-£900 here, is is only half the price in America. Other reasonable bikes are only about £200 and some change. Incredible. Rip Off Britain has never looked so bad.

http://www.bikesdirect.com/products/trackbikes.htm

1 Attachment

Why the Face Palm? What's wrong with it?

As a city runabout, and a cheap one, it seems to tick the boxes.

In fact, I'd be tempted to get one as my snow+ice bike. As long as the inept setting up was corrected, it should be okay. Not good-looking or beautiful, but just okay for the job.

+1

For £240 your not going to get a better city runarund. The MTB style geometry sould make easier to throw around, and those ugly clearances are blatently going to be filled with full mudguards.

If there's space you could whip off the mudguards fit some fatter tyres, and throw it around some light trails at the weekend too.

The Fuji Feather came today, really happy with it, wheels & seat are terrible though. Had to true the wheels up before I could ride it, the seams are welded waaaay out of line, but for £400 quid for the whole bike im happy! I've spent way more than that on just the wheels for my MTB so cant complain! Managed to pick up a sweet pair of rims & hubs of eBay so gonna build them up & it will be sorted. All in all a decent 'classic style' OTP.