The GCN Tech Show is diving into the essential topic of beginner bikes, providing a comprehensive guide on what to look for when you’re just starting out in cycling, especially if you’re on a budget. Plus, we’ve got a bumper segment of Hot Tech, featuring an insanely over-engineered mechanical rear derailleur, a rare Shimano Dura-Ace carbon crankset, a new Colnago track bike optimized for high speed, and a lightweight Scott e-road bike. Don’t forget to stick around for Comments of the Week and the always-popular Bike Vault!
Chapters: ⏱️
0:00 – Welcome & What’s In The Show
0:30 – What Makes The Best Beginner Bike?
1:50 – Aluminum Frames, Carbon Forks & Components
3:19 – New vs. Secondhand Buying Advice
5:11 – Red Flags When Buying Used Bikes
7:49 – Summary of Best Beginner Bike Features
10:20 – Considering Gravel/All-Road for Beginners
11:06 – Hot & Spicy Tech
14:09 – Dura-Ace Carbon Cranks & Crank Length Options
23:55 – Comments of the Week
27:54 – Bike Vault
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Welcome to the GCN tech show. This week we are talking beginner bikes and what we think is best. Plus in hot tech we have a mechanical rear derailer which is amazing. We have some carbon fiber durase cranks. We have a crazy fast track bike. We have a new road bike. We have some new wheels and a water bottle trying to help reduce trash on the trails. Let’s do it. Right. Oh, we’ve got comments of the week in the bike vault as well. Oh yeah, don’t forget. Okay, a few weeks back, Alex and I built the most ridiculously expensive entry level bike. I had a lot of fun watching it, but I think today we’re bringing things a bit more closer to home and talking about what is potentially the the like the best beginner bike to aim for, the best kind of bike you can get on a budget if you’re just starting out in the sport. Well, this is super easy, Connor. It’s going to be a real quick show this week. The best beginner bike you can get is the one you like, the one you can afford. Job done. End of show. We can all go home, shall we? No. No. No. Come on. I know. I know. That’s like That’s true. That is true. But I think we need to kind of go into more specifics here for people because I think this is this is like a really important choice that you make if you’re thinking about getting into cycling. I do think if you get this one wrong, it can be a real kind of put off. Is that the word? It can it can like be a negative experience early on. I think that makes total sense. Yeah. And you know, I couldn’t resist talking about the details. So, um, firstly, I’ll get this thing out of the way to start with. I guess we should make a joke about having to race cranks on the entry- level bike, but no, we shouldn’t. No need for that at all. Thanks for laughing anyway. Um, it means a lot to me. Right. So, if I’m going to I’ve got like think if I’m starting out cycling, which is hard cuz I’ve obviously been doing cycling for a long time, but where would I start and what advice would I give to people doing like starting out? And for me, the first place I would start at would be hands down an aluminium frame. Don’t don’t consider getting anything carbon. Honestly, you don’t need it. Aluminium, cheapish, lightweight, pretty robust. It’s going to get the job done. What I would do, though, is try to see if I can get an aluminium frame with a carbon fork and carbon seat post cuz I genuinely think they help a little bit with comfort. Yeah, I wouldn’t really be too fussed about what group set to buy. I think as long as it’s like functional, it’s clean, tidy, it looks like it does the job, I think that’s what’s going to be fine. If you want to go talking about real basic stuff, I would just make sure you have dual control levers. Depends how far back and how old your bike is, but I’d avoid down tube shifters for beginners. That’s funny cuz I was going to say down tube shifters. You get down tube shifters. My first bike, I had down tube shifters. So, yeah. But okay, I appre Yeah, if that was your first bike, but would you advise that for someone starting out? Would you? I wouldn’t advise against it because I think it teaches you how and when to change gear a bit more cuz you have to it’s a really conscious choice to change gear and you have to know you’re getting into the right gear. It’s obviously a harder thing I admit to think of because you have to take hands off the bars a lot more and reach down. So in that respect actually, yeah, that it could be a little bit trickier. Yeah. But still, I think if I was listing like my kind of details for what the best part, where would you go? Very similar to what you said actually. Alloy frame for sure. Um, rim brakes, external cables. Yeah. Yeah, of course. Secondhand. I’d go secondhand. You see, I am 50/50 on the whole secondhand new conundrum because part of me wants to say, look, the simplest thing, if you get a bike new, you’ve got that peace of mind and security. it’s going to be basically fine within reason. Of course, things could still go wrong on it. But if you are buying new and you maybe buy from your local bike shop, you you really not only yes, it’s going to cost you a bit more, but not only you getting the bike, you’re also going to get all the knowledge, help, and support along the way with it. And I think that’s really really valuable, but secondhand, you’re going to get a lot more bike for your money. I see that too. I see that too. And I think if you’re totally new to sport, going secondhand can be quite overwhelming if you don’t have someone who can potentially advise you um on what might be best. But also at the same time, like look at for shops that sell secondhand bikes cuz there are shops out there. There’s a really good one here next GC HQ. It’s sadly closing down, but they have they have some great like really cheap entry- level bikes that they’ve refurbished like made up to be and it’s like a charity the way it works as well, which is good. Which actually that’s a good point cuz we’ve not only bought bikes from there in the past, we also then donated them back so then they can sell them again. Yeah. Julian Bike Workshop. Um, are there any other little details you would think of? I know you mentioned briefly rim brake, disc brake, but I think if you’re starting out and you don’t want to spend much money, you’re really probably going to be in the realms of rim brakes. I’d go rim brace. I think cuz all the details that I’m mentioning, they’re basically they’re easier to maintain, I think, and they’re easier for someone who’s learning how to like fix bits on their bikes, replace parts, it’s all like as simple as possible. And that’s what I think is really important for your first bike. Um because once you start going down the realms of like internal cabling and start Yeah, it does get more complicated. Okay, so help me out here. Right. Imagine that you’re going to look at your first bike and you’ve got the knowledge that you have now. You want to share this with everybody. What are the first sort of bits you would say to check and make sure you’re happy with? Okay. So, if it was me and I was buying this for a friend, um, family member, I’ I’d be first I’d be looking at the price and how much they’re like looking for the bike and then I’d be trying to weigh up if the bike was actually worth that price straight away. Yeah. And I’m looking at things like if it’s been crashed, if there’s like marks on it that show that it’s proper get down. You can kind of tell as well from the general condition of a bike. Like is it covered in scuffs and scratch is even clean to be honest. Well, that’s it. And that doesn’t like necessarily matter because you can clean a bike down. You can replace certain bits for not too much and get it in good order. But I think if you’re looking at a bike and it’s absolutely filthy and it looks like it’s had a good bit of use, it’s had a hard life and no and no one’s like quite maintained. It’s the point where it’s not been like displayed well for you when you’ve gone to see a second bike. That for me is a bit of a red red flag as to this bike hasn’t quite been taken care of in the same way as someone who’s like presented a really nice second bike. They’ve cleaned it down, it’s looking good. Um, but at the same time there’s a there’s a flip side to that where it works the other way where you also have to have that red flag of this bike is way too clean. It’s too Yeah. for the sort of abuse that it looks like it’s had. It is actually really tricky cuz as much as I don’t like talking about a thing about stolen bikes are a thing and if you’re buying secondhand, you do need to like watch out for this stuff. I think most people with decent common sense know if they’re buying a a stolen bike. I think it’s too I think it’s obvious there’s enough flat. I mean saying that I’m saying that from someone who knows bikes. Yeah. And if you’re you’re speaking to someone doesn’t match up. Yeah. It’s true because again it’s that security thing, isn’t it? If you go to a bike shop, you know what you’re getting. There’s a fixed place. It’s a business. They’ve got a reputation. You’re buying something and it’s it’s going to cost you more. But you can check the story out though. You can ask like why you got the bike, where have you ridden with it, like what did you think of it and you can get people talking and it’s quite I think you can kind of tell cuz normally someone wants to talk about their bike and oh yeah I got this I took it like once I went to the or whatever and it was like amazing. I did this trip. I did this ride. You do get people talking about their bikes and if someone isn’t talking about it and they’ve got no backstory whatsoever or reason why they’re selling the bike, it’s not necessarily like Yeah, it’s alarm bells. So, I think we’re we’re pretty much agreed the best beginner bike. Forget about brands because there’s lots of different options. They all kind of do similar things at some point in time. Aluminium frame. I think I’m going to say rim brakes for a beginner. Like super simple components that are low cost to replace if you have to, but also easy to work on and maintain. Yeah. What um what actually was your first road bike? So, my first road bike, I think it was like mine cuz I borrowed one for a bit. Yeah, that was an alloy frame that I had down tube shifters actually. Love that bike. Then my first road bike I properly used was a Trek 1,200 I think it was. Uh alloy frame steel, carbon fork. So um I grew out of that pretty quick. That was my problem. Grew out of all my bikes. I started getting into like road cycling in quite a big way around the age of 14, I’d say. Um, and from 14 to 18 I was like just growing. So I got through three alloy bikes all like bigger sizes and I went to the track. Then I ended up on a Cannondale um CAD. I’m not sure what model it was. It’s still in my dad’s garage. Um, but that was like a really big size. That’s why I had that size. Yeah. My um my first proper road bike was I I was a kid. I must have been 13, 12, 13 maybe. And I was just telling you about this earlier. It was a brand called Paul Mills. I think it’s a British brand I think. And um it was blue, little yellow details, had little yellow outer cables as well. I thought I was so cool with it. Shimano Sora, I think it was. And I was telling the story earlier, I was genuinely devastated as a kid cuz I went and did a local bike race and all the other kids just assumed I was called Paul cuz that was what was on my bike. And I was like, it’s I was traumatized from it. It’s like no, I’m not called Paul. And everyone’s like, “Oh, there’s Paul.” And I’m like, can everyone stop calling me Paul? Um, I’ve had a few other bikes. It’s interesting. He used to say that that Trek was one of your first bikes because that was what my local bike shop sold when I was a kid. So, I would go in there and like you idolize those bikes when you look up on the shelves and stuff. So, yeah, that bike as a first. We should we should hear from everybody else though, shouldn’t we? Please do get involved in the comments section down below. Let us know what your first road bike was, but also what kind of road bike and sort of features you’d look for if you were trying to share your advice with other people. Yeah, 100%. I do think actually one point we’ve missed because when we were getting into cycling, gravel bikes just weren’t a thing. And I think that’s another thing to consider now is do you go for something that’s more well-rounded, can take on slightly different disciplines like a gravel bike. Are you going to sort of force me to mention the Canyon Endur race al all road again? I did it. I did it. Yeah, that’s another point because now there’s more like all road bikes clearance up to 40 mil tires. Yeah. Um which is another thing to consider too like going for something that can accommodate wire. Yeah. It makes the bike more versatile and perhaps might have a longer life of use for you and you can feel you can feel a bit more comfortable handling. I think it’s easier to get used to than like a 23 mil skinning. That’s a really good point. I like that. Good points to raise there. Thanks, mate. Yeah, get involved in the comment section down below and we’re looking forward to hearing from you all. Okay, right. It’s now time for hot and spicy tech. Hot and spicy. We need to kick things off with an apology. There was an error in last week’s tech show. Play the violin music. Play the violin music. So, it would appear that whilst talking about the new Villia Falante SLR last week, we might have shown pictures of the old bike. Sorry. Sorry. Very big sorry. But like most politicians, we’re going to dodge the blame and pass it to somebody else. It wasn’t our fault. It wasn’t us. Sid, it was you. Um Sid, you’ve let um the GCM community down. You’ve let us down. But most importantly of all, you have let yourself down. So for total clarity, here is a picture of the latest bike. That’s okay. I think Sid I mean he’s editing this so he’s got full um capacity to to do his dirty now if he wants to um any sort of bloopers or past past misdemeanor whilst filming can be shown to the general public. Turns out we don’t actually know anything about what we’re talking about. Yeah. But we figured it out now. Coming out. Yeah. Didn’t know that. Well, there’s only one way it’ll go in luckily. Yeah. Put I feel it’s makeup go say like a Belgian jurus. Yo Bmoose and Jen Burmoose, right? Sorry Sid. Sorry. The the new bike is there. Moving on. Anyway, so this insane rear derailer that I’ve seen, it’s from a company called Vivo and it’s called the Enduro 2. I’m just going to click on the link cuz I want to open it and look at the beauty of this thing. I absolutely love this. I just I love stuff that’s just looks a bit too overengineered, you know what I mean? But I just absolutely fall for that hook. It’s really really nice, isn’t it? So this is Well, it’s actually a mountain bike mechanical rear der. We don’t normally allow mounted by stuff on a channel, but when it looks like this, we can make exceptions. Um, so $370 gets you this beautifully machined um CNC machined aluminium construction. We’ve got sealed cartridge bearings on there. We’ve got like titanium uh link pins and stuff like that. It It’s just like exquisitely made is the only way I can describe it. I mean, when everyone sees a picture of it, they’ll understand. I have to get this up as well and have another look. It’s probably probably brilliant. What’s what I found particularly interesting is they’re made to order. Oh, really? Yeah. I mean, it’s a super niche product, so you don’t have want those sat on the shelves forever, are you? Yeah. It’s fully re rebuildable as well. That’s what I really like how you can kind of service it yourself and hopefully make it last for an absolute age. Well, it should last you forever, that thing. Yeah, that is beautiful. Um, okay. We both appreciate that. Moving on. Anyway, you you actually sent me the link to this a couple of days ago, didn’t you? We’re talking about it. Yeah, we spotted this um on eBay. I’ve seen it doing the rounds on social media as well. Yeah, a few other people have spotted it. It’s um a Jur carbon crank set and I saw it. I was like, “Right, this is straight up Alex’s tree.” In fact, I was like, “Maybe Alex is the is the seller. Maybe he’s selling it from his parts bin.” I can tell you right now with absolutely no doubt whatsoever that if I if I owned this, I would not be selling it. Like, there’s just no possible way I would sell it. In fact, I’m in my head I’m thinking, what could I possibly do to see if I could buy this? But I cannot in any way justify spending that money. Yeah, I mean, bidding is getting a little bit out of £142184 right now. Um, so what’s that in US dollars? You do the you do our currency conversions. I’ll tell everyone a little bit about the cranks. So, $1,800. That’s mad. Um, it’s actually the FC 7800C durace crank and it fits in that super niche strange little time where it it seems that Shimano made carbon fiber cranks and I didn’t even know this was a thing. Um, 5239 172.5 mil crank arms and includes the installation tool cuz it has a slightly different end cap on it. Okay. Um, it says it’s got the box, all the certification, and it’s been used for approximately 500 kilometers and then stored. I honestly this is mad. All the official documentation, too. So, it’s like apart from those 500k, it’s pretty box fresh. Oh, I really there’s something I just wish I could have. How much left is there on the bidding? I think there still I think this is going to go higher, people. Uh, what is left on it? I can’t see the details where it ends. Oh, no. He’s going to buy it now. Let’s buy it now. Let’s buy it now. I thought it was bidding to start with cuz it’s it had gone up. Look, you can change it a little bit. Oh, okay. So, for 8300 free postage though. Okay. Um, talking of cranks, actually, um, Canyon have just added the option to their My Canyon platform where you can now select your crank length. Now, previously this wasn’t available, whereas now it is. And you can choose between 160 and 175 mm crank arms for Shimano and Stram cranks. Just adds another level of customization to that platform. Yeah, good shout that. Um, and on the topic of canyon, we feel a little bit naughty saying this, but a new canyon has potentially been spotted in the wild. Yeah. So Matthew Vanderpal has been seen riding well a canyon just we have no idea what bike it is. Absolutely no idea but it’s there in plain sight. It’s been there’s wheelies there. He’s dropping W bombs in the gutter on it. Uh there’s you can kind of tell a little bit if you zoom in there’s some there’s some details there. There’s some little different area features. The like junctions of the stays and stuff look a bit different. No idea what it is, but you can only like you can only presume this is one of those like on purpose accidental leaks. Yeah, I don’t know. We’re speculating. We are fully speculating. Fully speculate. But here’s nice. I I love these little spy shots that get leaked. Yeah, speculate on them. But that was called courtesy of Freddyette on his Instagram. Yeah. Um new track bike to talk about from Kongo actually. So, this is the T1 RS and it’s basically combining two sort of different bikes in the ethos of them. You’ve got the TT1 time trial bike and the Y1 RS Aero road bike and they say this track bike has been developed and pushed to the extreme. Have you seen pictures of it? I have. Yes. It looks mad, doesn’t it? I tell you what, I love the Y1 RS and I love this one as well. I just I just like the fact that it’s out there. It’s bold. It’s slightly brash. Captain Gubbins likes the crazy track bike that’s designed for like 60k an hour with no capacity to carry any spares. There’s nothing wrong with liking Gubbins and also liking crazy arrow bikes. Okay, so you’ve got a couple of different options for this bike. You can get it in a sort of like bunch or endurance setups. You can put drop bars on it or the pursuit time trial setup with arrow bars. Not that people are going to be trying to put big chunky tires on it. Clearance for 28s and you can fit a 72 to chain ring on it. Um, what I did find interesting, two points that um, I want to talk about. We saw gradually we’ve seen different brands try and have like a textured or ribbed surface on the outer edge of the frames for aerodynamics. But Konago say what they’ve done is used a textured and ribbed surface on the inside of the frame as like added um structural reinforcement to deal with like the crazy power that track sprints put through the frame. Wow. And unlike some of the um the other track frames that we’ve seen which have been priced at like £100,000 million, this one seems relatively affordable. £6,280 on the Konago website. cheapest chips presumably because there’s rumors of the UCI implementing a a price cap on some of the bikes although no one actually knows what is yet. I don’t think so. What I found really interesting about this bike is that it’s been optimized as you said for high speeds. So I read on their details that they say it’s optimized for higher speeds and it’s faster at 70 km an hour than it is at 50 km an hour. That’s what they reckon. I’m trying to get Well, if you go 70k an hour, you’re going faster than 50. So at 70k an hour, there’s less like it’s designed so it disturbs the air less or something like that. Okay, I agree. The aerodynamic drag of the bike at 70k an hour is less than at 50k an hour. Yeah. Not it goes faster at 70 than 50. Well, it does go faster, but the drag’s less. Yeah. Yeah. Which is kind of mad. That is mad. It’s cool back in in track bikes cuz they have some huge history and heritage there, too. So, um, taking things back down in terms of pricing here, I want to talk about this dual fuel bottle. So, this surprise I think we spoke about on the tech show, uh, quite a while ago. It’s actually a friend of mine invented this water bottle. It’s not specifically about this because what’s what we’re talking about is that the dual fuel bottle have teamed up with Trashfree Trails to try and help combat rubbish on trails and out on the bikes. And 25% of the sales from some of these bottles is going to help fund that charity program. Oh, that’s cool. Now, if you’ve not heard of the dual fuel bottle, it’s got like a a little internal pouch where you can put a gel inside, then you can fill up your water bottle with your normal liquid, and it’s got a little lever on the top, so you can choose whether you get gel or water when you have a drink. Yeah, it’s great that I think it’s a great I I my difficulty with gels when I’m riding now is just the wrappers when you’re getting them back in your pocket. That’s why sometimes I wouldn’t use them cuz when you’re filming you have so much filming gubbins in your pocket, so I don’t want to get them all sticky. Too much rubbish gubbins. Yes. Well, this is that’s the whole point of this thing is trying to combat that. Yeah. Um I’ll put you down as a couple of orders, shall I? Yeah. No thanks. New wheels to talk about. Now, these are from Industry 9, a brand that I’m familiar with for their like mountain bike products, but they’ve got their Solex road hubs and they’ve launched three different wheel sets. Um different carbon fiber rim depths essentially difference here. Hubs are the same. You’ve got a 35 mil version, a 50 mil version, and a 65 mil. Shall I tell you the weights of the wheel sets? Yeah, let’s hear them. Okay, so going lightest to heaviest, which is going shallowest to deepest rim. 1310 g,410 g, and450 g. All the rims 22 mil internal hooked. Um, nice. Loads of different colors to choose from actually, which is bling cool. Yeah, absolutely. And then finally in hot tech, we have this new road bike, but it’s actually an e-road bike. Yeah, this this is cool. It’s called the Scott Fast Lane. Yeah. Um so just just out. Um it’s like a lightweight road bike. Lightweight e road bike where kind of like everything is designed to look as if it’s not an electric bike. It blows my mind at first glance. I didn’t even think it was. You would not notice it. So the motor’s like down right in the bottom bracket area. There’s no display um on the bars. So that’s kind of you can see some sort of like information is on the bar end. It’s like an LED sort of display for battery battery level and stuff. It’s got ANT plus connectivity so you can connect to your head unit and get details there um if you want them. That makes a lot of sense. Right. So um I’ve got a little bit of the marketing blur to say here cuz I wanted to read this out. So the Scott, what do we say this is called? The fast lane. It says it’s built to take you further and turn mountain passes into gentle hills. I’m all for that. And what I did think was interesting though is like you say, this is using the lightweight ebike motor system. It’s from TQ. It’s the uh HPR40. And this is the system which lots of different brands are really starting to utilize to make these lightweight e-road bikes. And it feels like at the moment this is basically the lightest battery motor system around. And the battle and competition between everyone is to build the lightest road bike around this system. Yeah, it’s quite cuz the frames the frame for this bike 865 g which is mad light. Obviously without the motor and battery. Yeah, but still the light. Yeah, with the battery in there, it’s not going to be too heavy. UDH. Yeah. Uh clearance for 34 mil tires. That’s cool. Um, yeah, it’s I’m all for it. Um, can I just say my favorite color out of all the options, I think it’s like a chrome silver. It looks absolutely boss. Um, right. Uh, more hot next week, shall we? Yeah. Comments of the week. Oh, that was a nice little jingle. Do you want to do that again for us? Comments of the week. Sid’s probably going to play that 100 times now. Yeah, sorry, Sid. Once more. Comments. Comments. Comments. Comments. Comments of the week, [Music] comments of the week. Um, right from the show last week. Um, do you want to read the first one out? Yeah, this was sent in. Thank you for the comment by Abawa one. Team switch components, sponsorship dollars, plain and simple. Do you know what? I disagree. It’s not just as plain and simple as that. I I picked this out cuz I feel strongly about this really. We’re at the stage now where some teams in cycling, not all, have enough money and resource to choose the components that they want to just choose because they can just buy it. Like it’s not pure purely down to sponsorship and like brands paying for it. Like the big teams can buy whatever they want and some of them are buying it cuz they just want to use whatever. Um, so yeah. Okay. Um, Ken Horn 31878 says, “So, Alex’s Jur spare parts box was overflowing and Sai took the time and effort to make him another box.” Way to go, Sai. Yes. Yes, he did. Blue said, “What can really improve safety are airbags. They do exist. Check the motorcycle ones. They’re light and they have sensors, so no cables attached to the bike.” Of course, in case of a group crash, the result would be hilarious. Imagine a massive crash in the Pelaton. Not in in the way to cause any harm, but like 30 people crashing just airbags going everywhere. Yeah, that’d be a bit nice. I don’t think an airbag on a bike would really do much. I think you just bounce off it and still hit the floor. Yeah, I I think on a motorbike you’re kind of attaching you’re like I think you’re more held onto the bike, but you never tried one of those airbag bags that have it all built into it. I haven’t tried that. I think that’s what I was going to say. Something on your like body or your helmet. Like that’s I think where it mean it’s not there yet, but I think where it could go if that was way. But all the big crashes I’ve had on my bike haven’t ended up on my bike. I’ve like bikes gone one way and I’ve gone the other way. Yeah. I tried one of those inflatable backpack ones and when it goes off it’s mad in your ears. So yeah. Um so underneath Oie’s um video at the weekend all about bearings and how to look after them the best. So um man with no name 6580. Okay, brilliant. Says, “Please explain to simpletons like me what preload is.” Okay, I’ll do it now uh in the simplest possible way. Preload is a force which you put on the outside of the bearings opposite to the way that they’re rotating to remove any little bit of free play in the system. So, the easiest example is the cranks in the bottom bracket. With no preload, the crank will just slide left and right within the bottom bracket. preload, take out the slack, and just apply a tiny little bit of load onto the sides. And you back it off, don’t you? Yeah. It’s just like take all the slack out of the system. There you go. Peter Perfect said, “Bottom bracket cartridges are not designed to be dissembled, nor is there any cost advantage in doing so since all the parts will need to be replaced anyway. If they are worn, replace the entire cartridge. Note, thread is fine. You can cross thread easily. Don’t force it.” I look, I disagree. I think some of these things you can look after components. Yes, it’s not the easiest thing to just take it apart and clean it all, but if you want to make stuff last a long time, you can. Not everything has to be like throw away. And also, I picked out Jimmy Hibs one comment. They said drinking game with the word balls because they said it a lot in that video. Don’t laugh. Why are you laughing? So, what word was it? Balls. Good. Right. Can we get an edit of the balls? On to the bike vault. Now, uh the bike vault is my favorite part of the show. This is where you upload pictures of your bikes using the link in the description down below. And then we will judge them to be nice or super nice. If they’re super nice, the bell gets rung. You know it, right? Starting off with this one from Robert Tell. This is a winter commuter. My trusty commuter for 15 years. Fair one. Yes, that is a disc fork on a rim brake bike. Love that. Disc. Yeah, I’m just seeing that now. I love that. I love it. That is a super nice from me. 15 years. It is perfectly designed for purpose. It’s got like nice customization with the disc for rear pa. It’s got a flap on the mud guards. Like that. Yeah. Straight in there. Yeah. Okay. Don’t want to argue on that. Max Buckley 24 with a Genesis quadifur. This is nice as well. Or if you’re not familiar with the name quadifer, it’s criggs defer. GRX 12speed one by Dwiss wheel set. It has got a Brooks saddle which is a nice and comfy one. Full length mud guards as well. We are in mud guard season and we’re rocking it. That this is super nice from me. Beautiful little spot there in the woods as well. You know what I mean? I do really like this bike. The little bits I’m liking the most are the tiny little uh pinky purpley accents on the logo and the valves. Got a lot of time for that. Yeah. Nice. Super nice. Yeah. Super one. This is from White Rider. So, a recently acquired and built 1986 Tomachini Super Prestige built up with Nspeed Hampton and yellow chorus group set upgraded from Mirage Mavic Action Wheel Set with Cream Wall Continental GP5000s. Aella Italia. It’s a team edition saddle. Um, this is in original. This is nice. Yeah. Belters of bikes this week. Steel is real. Uh, one thing I would like to pick up here. Yeah, very fussy I think, but the Campolo levers look like they need to be pulled in and have the little button pushed across the side because they’re poking out a bit far. You know, it’s used so you can normally then release the brake open a bit further. Yeah, I think that needs to be done. But that is picking hairs. That is picking hairs. Okay, what are you thinking then? I think we give this a super. I like the um the town like the modern day Tamwall tires on on the retro. Oh yeah, super. Thanks very much. Maxwell uh Max Buchanan. Yeah, there you go. Thanks. They say Scott addict RC UCI legal 6 kg customuilt enmy wheels, carbon cranks, carbon tie chain rings, aluminium bar and stem and AliExpress carbon saddle. I like the look of this. Oh, that is nice. Yeah, that’s good. that this AliExpress saddle we saw so much of as Japs. Everyone had this AliExpress saddle. So, everyone’s seen this saddle somehow and it’s just like it’s populated everywhere. That’s crazy. I like that. I’m all for it. That is a nice build, isn’t it? I like the cranks on it. Yeah. Yeah. Really nice cranks. 6 kilos of that is doing well as well. I like the fact that they’ve gone like for a total mashup of brands and like where they’re from. We’ve got like Scott frame, Envy wheels, AliExpress saddle. Like it’s full mashup. I like the uh the like I tell you what I really like is the like the crank color matching up with the frame color at the front. I just I have something about like a a silver chrome or like polished crank set. What about if you did them colored to match the color of the frame? Would you still feel the same? I don’t know. No, I think I like that kind of machined silver. Yeah, that is nice. Yeah. Tell you what, all those five dev cranks used for that crank length video, they blooming look cool. They they looked cool, didn’t they? Yeah. Another size super nice that you want to super uh Thomas Roland with a look cup steel in South France. I want to show you one of my beautiful bicycles my father finds for cheap change and then brings them back to glory. This is look wind deal XT. It’s finally climbing after many years in a dusty garage. Hope you’ll appreciate the carbon handlebars, 1.9 in tires on 17 mil rims. I like this. Beautiful. Oh, I like they’ve timed it with the cable car in the middle of the back. Yeah, I’m trying to work out where that is with the cable car in the south of France. No, I was I was about to say it looks like Nice and I thought the cable car and it’s not. It’s not nice. Um, but yeah, I’ll do a bit of digging after this uh this show’s over. Okay. Well, like I think that a bit shaded. We got a bit of shade on the bike. I think mountain bike. We could have made that part. Is it the wrong gear? It also is a mountain bike. Slightly in the wrong gear. Um, but still I think it’s a brilliant finding these bikes. I tell you what as well, I love finding these finds that super cheap, but I’d love to do it in another country and see what you find. Yeah, cuz there you always find it’s different brands. It does change a bit. Um, but I think we’re on such a roll. I think we can superize this. Oh, go on. Yeah, El Chris with a titanium gravel bike. See nice off the deck. Straight through. There’s lots wrong with this though. I mean, the cranks are pointed up to the sky. Um, for one, I don’t like the fork, to be honest. Sorry about that. Do you know? No, I like the fork. Yeah, I like that. Yeah, I think it it looks like it looks robust. It screams robustness to me. I do like I do like the bike in general. Um, you can we can we can’t not superize it. I know. Absolutely nice. It’s an absolute dream bike. I love the curve on the seat post as well. Seat tube. Yeah, I was just looking at that. Some tires in there. So, 2.4.4s. Yeah. Wicked wheels. It’s got red 13 Explore on it. Um, it’s a bear claw. Um, they say Sai is welcome to come and try it. Maybe it’ll be converted by this bike. Do you want to invite us? Yeah, I’d like to ride it, too. Yeah, we love to. I don’t like adventure grabber bikes. No. Never ride one. Never. Not interested. Yeah. Not interested at all. Pig downs are super nice. Yeah, super nice. Yeah, that was the last one for this week. Right. There you go. Thanks so much for sending in your bikes. It’s always great to see what what you’re all riding. There’s some cracking ones there today. And um yeah, hope you enjoy the show. Yeah. Right. See you later. The fight.
35 Comments
What was your very first road bike, and what features do you think are most essential for a great beginner bike? Let us know below! 👇
triban rc 120 540€
After being thrown under the bus it was great to see Sid get his revenge on Paul and Conor!
?sid/syd is killing the game! what a hero
32:41 According to search, that is the Toulon Cable Car at Mt Faron. Pic probably taken near Fort Faron.
I can't even remember my first bike, I think it was a Raleigh 3 speed in parts that I had to assemble, Then a Carlton 10 speed with a twisted frame. My first good bike was a Frejus bought brand new from Conrads in NY. A Proteus crit frame, then a series of bikes. Frejus track, Cinelli road bought new in Milan, a custom aero frame from Mike Fraysse, a Gios that was stolen out of my garage before I even built it up, and a custom Spectrum titanium by Tom Kellogg. There is an assortment of frames I bought from a shop going out of business, including a nice green full touring bike from Cannondale.
My first bike was a Raleigh 20, but my first road bike was a Healing "10 speed" in about 1981. Yes, 10 speed was the model name. I think it was a 2×5 drivetrain and it was uncomfortable as hell because I didn't even know bikes had sizes back then and my dad got it second hand, that was the bike that turned me off cycling. I stopped riding as soon as I got my drivers license and didn't ride another bike until after I turned 50.
Sid's been allowed to have some fun and freedom with the edits, love it! Banging DJ skillz!
can you guys review promax pr50, its a budget bike for only 200usd or lesser
I’m a true “old fart”, my first bike was a red Schwinn Continental ….
My first proper roadie was a Viking built in Derry Northern Ireland – 531 frame, lowish-end Campag. I think I was about 14 when my folks bought it for me 🎉
So.. people have always mispronounced Alans name…
Used schwin 10 speed steel , a oversized, flexy steel disater -> Cannondale crit 2.0 downshifters . good bike. If I was just starting out my first bike would be the fit bike :-(. fit->weight->frame material->gears for fitness level->changeable stem.
I think that if I were to buy a used rim brake bike today, I would look for a used cyclocross bike just for the ability to use wider tires and maybe friendlier gearing
Sid is now my favorite!
Buying used? Measure the chain stretch. If new and works well, the drivetrain is good. If new and rides rough = new chain on old worn drive train. If old and stretched, may need to replace everything.
Bought a Trek Domane SL6 as my first road bike… way too much bike for a beginner, but absolutely loved it. Overall, the best thing about that purchase was the service I got from the Trek store. They helped teach me about basic maintenance, fitting, and handling skills over the two years I had the bike. I still go there for service on all my bikes now. That, more than the bike itself, was the value I got from buying there.
If I were buying again as a beginner, I'd still buy from a shop that offered that level of service. But, I'd buy an alloy frame, aim for Tiagra as my groupset (parts are cheap and hydraulic disc brakes are something I'll never go back from), and swap out the tyres for a good set as soon as I'd torn up the ones that came with the bike. If I were buying here in Korea, I'd get 105, but that's simply because the difference in price is usually about the equivalent of 100 pounds, which is absolutely worth it in the long run.
My first proper road bike was a Trek Domane AL2, and I loved it to bits. It was pricey as an entry-level bike, but that was exactly what I needed to get into this.
And there's something to be said for going into a bike shop and getting the guidance I needed on frame sizes, getting all my measures taken, etc. The result was that the bike fit like a glove, and it was a joy to ride. I can only recommend one.
Listening to you young guys talk about your first bikes is funny.
I own 6 bikes and the newest is from 2000. So it is the only one with shifting on the bars and all of the others are downtube shifters.
In fact they are all friction shifters so I can swap wheel sets (6sp, 7sp).
As a young teen I was drooling over a Raleigh Professional Mk IV (I think).
I ended up with a Japanese bike equipped with Sun Tour Cyclone.
I wish that I had those components now.
My first bike (2 years ago) was a Canyon Endurace CF 7. The bottom of the carbon Endurace options and I love it
Syd is a hero
24:13 Sid the video editor: not the hero we deserve, but the hero we need.
The one challenge I have to rim brakes is it greatly limits tire width clearance and riding on 23s is so harsh compared to 32+. Wider tires are faster and easier to ride on
My first bike: Steel frame, no name, I think Tange steel. Quill pedals, toe clips, leather straps. Down tube lever shifters (the only type available then). Shimano 600EX components – hot stuff at that time. Early 1970s. Lightweight steel rims, tubular tyres. I flew on that bike!
Nice one Sid!
My first road bike. Felt F5C. Wish I never would had sold it.
Airbags on motorbikes tend to kind of like a waistcoat, they're not attached to the bike at all. There's inertia meters that then puff up the bag when it senses that you've fallen off. Collarbone injuries are much less likely on a bike when you're wearing one. I'm not sure I'd want to be wearing one on a hot day climbing a hill or something though, they're not massive but they're not small either.
Steel bikes for beginners!! They’re cheap(er), durable, and esthetically timeless.
For a first road bike, I recommend an endurance style gravel bike. They will fit more comfortable for most riders and the gravel frame will likely have some extra compliance for bumps (even on the road). A gravel bike can always have smaller tyres fitted. But a race bike is less likely to fit a new rider, and will be unable to fit wider tyres.
My first roadbike was a Trek 1000
I'm split on the rim brakes.
My first road bike has been a Specialized Allez Sport from 2015 (startet two years ago).
realy good bike, fast, agile, light and good shifting with standard sora groupset.
Yet, the one thing i missed the most were hydraulig brakes. It always felt a bit unsafe, specialy when going fast or down hill and therefore limited me in riding more and faster.
So if you can afford hydraulic brakes, do it, if not: get you a nice used road bike with good rimbrakes (or upgrade somepart of the brakes to make them more safe)
I bought my first Road bike 5 months ago, a very limited Stöckli PR 44.5 rim brake for 500. It’s Full visible Carbon, no paint with carbon bars, Ritchey Carbon seat post, Campagnolo chorus 10sp with carbon, FSA Carbon crank arms, and more. I learned to do everything my self because I always modified my cars so it’s serviced weekly and I swapped my 11-25 campy cassette for a Miche 11-30, Favero duo pedals, added Mavic/Plannet X 50mm Alu/carbon wheels with Craft Cadence TPU tubes because Tubolito ones kept going flat, Vittoria Corsa Pro tires in 26 up from 23, 3d printed 140g carbon seat and changed the 110 stem and 440 bars for a 380/ 400 one piece integrated Carbon aero bar with a 120 stem with turned in hoods. I ride 90 percent of the time in the aero position so next year thinking of getting a proper Aero bike. I’ve done about 1,500 km on this bike so far. So what do you think of these 3 bikes as my next? Cervelo S5, Scott Foil RC Pro and a BMC Teammachine R01?
First bike, I think I used my brother's 10 speed. My first new bike was a 12 speed Miele. Bought in Canada at my bike shop. Loved that bike. Rode it for years. I still know where it is.
Wow, is there a whole groupset planned based on that stunning rear derailleur? 😍 13:10
30:02 Splitting hairs, but I am just picking hairs at this point 😜
New to cycling, first bike. GCN has covered this topic about buying a bike, that is fit. Get the right size bike for you. I’m glad you mentioned second hand/used bike shops. They are a great resource for a community that often gets over looked. One other bit of advice I give, is to buy a good quality pair of cycling shorts. Continue delivering great content.