Finally pulled the trigger after years (literally) of procrastinating over what bike to buy. And this beauty is on the way.

 

I know absolutely nothing about road biking but between my house and my work is a national cycle route and 

with all the tour success and watching La Vuelta on the TV it twisted my arm. Its got a carbon front forks and 

Shimano Tiagra gears and Tektro brakes. It looks like it doesn't come with pedals though and my cyclist friends

have said i need to get ones that clip into the shoes. Any recomendations (cheap) this cost under £400 so its

not expensive by bike standards but hopefully it will last me a bit.

 

 

If you want to-go down the clipless route & based on what you have said, I would recommend getting some MTB pedals & shoes.  The reason for this, if you are looking to commute, MTB shoes allow you to walk easier & the pedals are double sided which makes learning to clip in a little easier

 

Pedals, 

Shimano M520 or Shimano M424 or Shimano PD-T400

 

Both of these use the same locking mechanism which is adjustable for ease of unclipping. the m424 maybe a little more beneficial if you are nipping to the shops as you can ride these with normal shoes/trainers due to the plastic cage.

 

Shoes,

I'm afraid they are trial and error, you need to get yourself to a shop and try some on to see what is comfortable for you,
 

If you don't fancy clipless pedals, don't go down that route. You don't have to conform to any standards, so long as you are happy & comfortable that is all that matters 

 

Legal Bit...  Regardless of my recommendations, I have to advise/stand by the law  that states to ride a bicycle on a public highway you must by law have yellow reflectors to the front/rear of the pedals, you must also have a red rear reflector/white front reflector and double sided white or yellowreflectors in the wheels & a bell.  

Edited 13 September, 20169 yr by DarkPeakCycles

Nice mate, Marin always turn out a good ride no matter what the category. Enjoy

Once you get the bug, you always have the bug.

Enjoy your bike. Shimano pedals as per Darkpeakcycles post are ideal. Used them for years on my road bikes without a problem. You just need to set them up properly and then remember you are wearing them!!!!!

There's plenty of info on the web about bike set up and shoe set up.

All the best.

Oh bother! premature enthusiasm. Bike arrived set it up looked at it in admiration then cocked leg over bar to position seat and 

my balls are touching the frame on my tip toes so i think its a bit too big. I went for the 55.5cm frame I thought this would be

ideal because i tried the 54cm and 57cm BTWIN at Decathlon and felt i needed somewhere inbetween. On the frame it says

"to suit 5ft 10" - 6ft 2". Im about 5ft 9". Guess its going back just hope they have the next frame size down. The bike is 

awesome such a shame.

Oh bother! premature enthusiasm. Bike arrived set it up looked at it in admiration then cocked leg over bar to position seat and 

my balls are touching the frame on my tip toes so i think its a bit too big. I went for the 55.5cm frame I thought this would be

ideal because i tried the 54cm and 57cm BTWIN at Decathlon and felt i needed somewhere inbetween. On the frame it says

"to suit 5ft 10" - 6ft 2". Im about 5ft 9". Guess its going back just hope they have the next frame size down. The bike is 

awesome such a shame.

If you are between sizes, the advice is to go for the smaller bike. The reason is because you can adjust a small bike to make it fit, (seat post, handlebar stems) but you can't make a big bike smaller.

Good luck

Manufacturers do vary unfortunately, I had a medium Marin mtb years back and found that a little big, and I can usually get away with medium for xc now. I've now gone small but with a larger wheel. Anyway yes, if in doubt go smaller.

My first thoughts were you don't have to go down the 'clipless; route. As D.P says.

 but you can't make a big bike smaller.

Good luck

But it can make your balls bigger! (swollen, get it?).  .

Just getting ready to go for my first ride on a road bike ever and had a shock when i went to pump the tyres up. Special Valve which i don't have an appropriate pump connector and the tyre needs 110 psi   how naive am i? 

Easily overlooked, had to chuckle though, sorry.

I got few bikes but since I'm getting old and suffer from chronic rheumatoid arthritis and my right hip is crumbling away.

So I ride theses two

Well done a couple of rides last week all of which were terrifying. Much more respect to people who bike on the roads.

Braking with your left hand down hill in the wet while indicating with your right hand is a skill i need to learn. nearly swapped

ends on me a few times as i folded the front especially on man hole covers had to catch / save or bail. My heart was beating

very fast. The bike performed excellent no saddle sore or anything Covered approx 30 mile in 5 - 7 mile stints. Very good bike.

i might leave the stb pedals until im used to road conditions adding another layer of complexity at this stage might have me

off the bike i think although i will be fitting some once im confident on the road. My peek speed was 30mph and i averaged

11.9mph but its quite hilly round me so i was out the saddle quite a bit.

Edited 27 September, 20169 yr by Scribbler

Slowing down with rim brakes in the wet is certainly challenging, you have to be careful not to pull the brakes on too hard even when not much seems to be happening as the brake pads won't work properly straight away until they've dried the rims after a couple of rotations then you'll get a lot more braking which can catch people out particularly as you don't have much traction on the tyres.  

 

I agree with the posts above and wouldn't worry about going clipless if you're happy with your current setup, while there are benefits to clipless pedals I feel they are currently often hugely overstated to the degree many now seem to believe that it's not possible to go fast or far unless you're wearing clipless pedals.  When I was building up miles I was heavily pressured into changing to clipless pedals by a local road group even though I was doing fine as is and gave in fitting firstly the Shimano SPD system which I didn't get on with and then forking out for the CrankBrothers system which I didn't get on with either.  Even then I was still told how much better it was going to be and just to stick with them however I had enough, cut my losses and switched back to flats and very glad I did.  I'm still told regularly I should switch to clipless pedals and that I'll appreciate them when I start doing long rides, when I point out I've done century rides, 24 hour racing and 14 hour days on flat pedals people are genuinely surprised.  I was also amused at people's reactions when I got a decent result on a local CX race taking part on my 15kg tank of a bike vs 8KG lightweight CX machines (didn't just beat some of them, actually lapped them as well) as people couldn't believe that was possible on flat pedals.

 

I'm absolutely not saying that there's no benefit to clipless pedals as I do know people who like the feel of them and in turn ride better because of that however don't feel you have to ride with clipless pedals to achieve certain distances.

 

John

Years ago I had a pair of the old style ones with straps around the front / top of the shoe.

 

I cut the top part off just above the mid part where both sides join, and did away with the straps, so just toe clips.

 

I only saw recently that they sell them like this now. Wish I had patented it when I cut mine off. I guess they have been around for ages now, but I'm talking 20 years ago or possibly more. :'( .

 

I swap my cleats for these in winter and use boots, although you can buy boots with cleats if you like.

My first thoughts were you don't have to go down the 'clipless; route. As D.P says.

I found that clipless pedals stopped me getting pain in my knees, once I had them setup right. I think they hold my feet straight and stop me twisting my legs as I pedal.

It was the other way round for me, they caused me quite a bit of knee pain even on short 30-40 mile cycles.  I spent a lot of time adjusting the cleats, pedals and even changed clipless system entirely to one with more float but no better.  Certainly not normal for clipless but never got to the bottom of it and as I wasn't getting any benefit from the pedals. I gave up - I suspect I have an odd pedalling style particularly as I've no issues riding wide q-factor bikes.

 

John

If you ride like John Wayne walked, Not good.

 

Keep knees tucked in.

If you ride like John Wayne walked, Not good.

 

Keep knees tucked in.

 

My natural pedaling style is knees in, to the point where I catch the top tube with the inside of my knee on the left. Last few rides I've been focusing hard on keeping my left knee away from the tube and inline with my hip/foot... knee feels much better! My right is a bit less wayward and I don't suffer on that side at all.

I don't ride with my knees out and don't have any knee issues with flat pedals even after very long rides.

 

John