I’m after some advice. It’s about time I got myself a bicycle. I need to get out of the city more and would like to explore the mountains surrounding Taipei by bike. By road bike, to be precise.
Can anyone give me some advice on my options? I don’t really want to spend any more than $25 000. I’ve seen new Giants for about $22 000: has anyone had any experience with these? Any issues with them?
My only previous road bike was an older model KHS flite 1000, which I was thoroughly impressed with. I’d settle for a hybrid and I’d consider buying second-hand. I do want a fairly low lowest gear, as I plan to do a fair bit of climbing. And I’m 183cm tall, which may be an issue in finding a larger frame.
looking for a road bike, large frame (thinking 58cm-ish but maybe can go down to 56). Budget is ~35,000. About the only non-Giant option here in town that I like is the 2010 Fuji Roubaix: http://2010.fujibikes.com/Road/Performance/Roubaix-1-0.aspx.
LBS will discount that down to 32k, but there aren’t many other choices.
If anyone knows of any good deals around, new/2nd hand…
[quote=“Nuit”]looking for a road bike, large frame (thinking 58cm-ish but maybe can go down to 56). Budget is ~35,000. About the only non-Giant option here in town that I like is the 2010 Fuji Roubaix: http://2010.fujibikes.com/Road/Performance/Roubaix-1-0.aspx.
LBS will discount that down to 32k, but there aren’t many other choices.
If anyone knows of any good deals around, new/2nd hand…[/quote]
You might - I will do that. He’s involved with a Taichung shop, dui bu dui?
Also today I saw a Bianchi shop in town, had no idea it was there! My first tourer (now stolen) was a Bianchi Volpe, loved it. Will call in there this week and get wowwed at how expensive the machines are.
You could consider a carbon framed bike for a similar amount of money, I just picked up an Aster A380 with Shimano 105 groupset for around the budget you have which would be quite a bit lighter than the Fuji.
Aster have a shop in NeiHu next to the Merida flagship store.
Sorry, just noticed your post. Yes, that is correct. maunaloa had a good post on his blog a while back about finding a bike for a friend, and I know he likes to avoid Giant if possible (I’m sure he won’t mind me saying that). I was trying to find it for you, but I can’t right now. Maybe he can post the link.
[quote=“eldrich”]You could consider a carbon framed bike for a similar amount of money, I just picked up an Aster A380 with Shimano 105 groupset for around the budget you have which would be quite a bit lighter than the Fuji.
Aster have a shop in Neihu next to the Merida flagship store.[/quote]
I’m quite curious about those Aster bikes. Can you give some more info/feedback on the one you got?
This Aster A380 is my first proper road bike so I can’t really compare it to anything else, it rides well enough for me, no problems going up and down YangMingShan and Five-finger mountain so far. I’m very happy with it, I ride out with some guys who are on 100K + Giants and they looked it over and seemed to think it was a good bike for the price, I can’t determine any flex at all in the frame, total weight was 7.6Kg according to the sticker. Coming down hills it is stable and fast and easy to control.
It seems fairly well finished and painted, most of the groupset is Shimoano 105 so no real problem there, the wheels and hubs are Aster’s own racing set. I’ve had it a month and can’t fault anything so far.
The rumour I was told was that Aster make frames for other companies and only recently started selling frames under their own brand name.
The OEM maker of KHS has a brand called G2C whose outlet is in Taichung. They can easily get you set up with a hill eating monster for $20K, leaving you 5K for accessorizing your bike…
Here’s Google with directions. If you want to come down tomorrow (friday) in the afternoon I can easily pick you up at the train station in Fengyuan or Taichung and take you over. tinyurl.com/3tdckb6
thanks for help, we were due to hit Taichung today but the in-laws decided they would come East instead. So they came and we stayed put. Won’t be over there b4 I go home for the summer… putting this on hold…
I bought a Velicite Magnus a few months ago and it has been great. Very stiff, fast and Light. I’m 85K so the stiffness has been impressive. I have also had several Giant TCRs and they were also a great ride. velocite-bikes.com/magnus-frameset.html
My god! I just went to the Giant site to look at the TCR and they said that the average price is around $13,000 US. giant-bicycles.com/en-us/bik … 294/44030/ I bought my TCR 0 frame only a in 2004 for 15,000nt (about $500 US). How things change! Go for the Velocite!
Road bike (physique to go up mountains… yet ), recreation mostly and try to get into the sport. Previous experience has always been recreation. I even bought a fancy (in my standards) bike before but only rode it occasionally with family on weekends.
I want to get into the sport but it is so overwhelming every time I go to a reputable bike store
Because I want to restart I would want something basic price, say less than 20k, is it even possible?
Also I am having back pains and I really dislike the low handlebars (guidon) I see around. Is there anyway to have something I don’t need to be bent to ride or is it too amateur?
Age you are asking too much but this I can say, I remember the 90’s very well.
The bike would be to get me started, if I can stick to it than I would invest in a better piece
Big wheels. I had one mid size before, foldable. Costed me over 50k. To me it was too small and took me more effort to ride it from one place to the other. It was convenient but I would prefer something easier.
I went on a scouting trip to a couple of Giant stores the other day. I noticed they all had sizing bikes. You’d do really well to go get sized for a bike and the Giant Anyroad would probably not be to far off what your needing.
), recreation mostly and try to get into the sport. Previous experience has always been recreation. I even bought a fancy (in my standards) bike before but only rode it occasionally with family on weekends.
but this I can say, I remember the 90’s very well.