dorlomin

Tore a muscle in my shoulder over the summer and barely been on the bike since. Been a downer, just able to do the 7 mile commute atm. But am hoping to start stretching it out further soon, the shoulder has been less agrivated this week.

Well I do comute every day. This weekend coming I have two 70 milers queued up but work comitments meant I could not get out last weekend.The weather down here in London has been pretty decent.

Sounds ace

Crarcked another century (100 miles) on Friday and topped out at 39.3 mph. With this weather is just happy happy days.

This video show how to remove a tyre. You can pick up new tyres for around £16,

They are both at sea level so the climb and drop is the same, all that is different is the steepness of the hills. Dont know if its been posted before but I use this for routeplanning. http://www.bikehike.co.uk/mapview.php It has a very handy 'show elevation' feature that is an utter godsend for cyclists.

I had a Halfords racer about 5 years ago. The thing was coming apart after 2-3000 miles. The way they welded the frame together meant is was not all that strong. Also the wheels they did not hold tyres too well, I had a number of punctures from the beading coming lose. Awful bike. £100 pound more would have bought a decent Giant or Trek with a decent frame. The top end of the Broadmans are an effort by Halfords to shake off their shoddy image, perhaps they have improved the quality of their cheapest bikes but you will more likely get something a whole order of magnitude better second hand. If your lucky or know what your doing you might even get a Tiagra or 105 groupset rather than a Sora.

The Secteur is designed as a roadie tourer, you have a more upright posture than many of the road bikes. If you are going for distances this is a good thing. Got myself a new bike with carbon forks this year and am loving it. The carbon takes a bit of the road vibrations out of the bike so you get less buzz in the wrists. Was out on my bike today and cracked off 110 miles and maxed out at 38.3mph. Aceness in this weather!

Avoid Halfords bikes like the plague. Have you looked on Gumtree, they usually have some decent bikes on there. Guess it will be difficult to get one local though.

I dont think you are going to get anything worth having for 300, 400 is where the bottom end road bikes start becoming acceptable. Sort of thing like one season old Trek 1.1s. You are realling going to have to look second hand for that kind of price. Halford do a road bike at that price but its the kind that starts coming appart after a year. Second hand is hit and miss but you should be able to get a decent bike for about 300. The problem is the parts are likely to be worn to some degree and you will eventually need to start sinking money into the bike, perhaps after only 1000 miles. But get a good frame that is the right size for your body and take care of it its should last for years with only the odd replacement parts.