What bike?

Kinesis are great (of course they are.. BMMF made me own one). But I'm afraid I'm going to have to merge your thread into the sub-1k road bike thread. Now, if you had've asked about £5k+ road bikes that would've been new and quite fine.

is the mudguard clearance jsut down the brake type?, or is this also to do with the frame / form mix ?.

There will be a little extra clearance on the frame too. This lengthens the chainstays+ seatstays and the forks. If you have ever spent time trying to fit full mudguards on a bike with tight clearances, you would welcome it.

I'm old, so am bound to love mudguards and rear racks and the like. But if your using the bike in all weather, mudguards will help look after the bike, and reduce maintainance.

I've got the basic ribble alu frame with campag xenon and mavic aksium wheels.

personally I think they are great, really excellent value for money and you can spec them up exactly as you like so you end up with a bike with contact points you want rather than buying a bike from one of the big brands and getting rid of the saddle, maybe changing the stem and handlebar tape.

the frame is stiff but a bit on the heavy side, it's not overly comfortable as its a stiff alu frame and as rob says be carefull with the frame dimensions as they come up a bit funny.

Ribble alu frames are also ftw! Indestructabubbles.

ok all changed again completly different, my work have given the nod for a cycle to work scheme, trouble is they only offer halfords vouchers..

so went down there today and looked around and come up with a Cboardmen Team Carbon which is rrp at £999 but with cycle to work scheme comes down to around the £500ish mark total cost..

due to the lack of cheap 2nd hand bikes i think i'll go down this route, then think about upgrading parts along the way.. (i've also been told that there are a form of mudguards which will fit)..

so from a mtb background now i'm up for some road shoes and pedals n cleats.. any ideas on which ? i have been told "look" do a decent set and there replacement cleats are cheaper than shimano's couter part.. ??..