Hi guys. I’m about to lose my drivers licence so will be needing to commute to the train station/work (joondalup to CBD, about 40km each way?) on a daily basis.
At the moment I only have a bmx and a fixie which are not really suitable… I’m looking at getting a roady but really have no idea what to get. Ive done a lot of searching already but have not managed to narrow anything down.
Will 100% need fender mounts, thats really the only thing. Price wise I’m hoping for 1k or less, although this seems in the realm of shit bikes as I keep coming up with on the net…
Although I did see a “reid” cycles bike with full 105 for like 750…Alloy frame with carbon fork. Will have to go into reid cycles and have a look, but not too confident.
Anyway please offer any suggestions, willing to stretch the budget a little bit more if I have to, at this point probably leaning towards something second hand.
Cheers for replies guys, just that the Defy 3 is full sora , where as I can get a reid cycles with full 105 for less. Am I correct in assuming 105 is above Sora?
Also not sure if either of them have fender mounts? (could not find in the specs or on net anywhere)
That Defy definitely has eyelets for the fenders, it’s just hard to see on a black bike.
My single Reid experience, aside from seeing the bloody things everywhere, was when helping a ladyfriend buy a step-through. She test rode Reid’s offering and then an XDS from BSC on Elizabeth St. Reid was significantly rougher finish, lower-grade Shimano bits with worse braking performance, and heavier. She went with the XDS despite the price premium.
General rule is a fender that’s ~10mm wider than the tyre, i.e. a 40mm fender for a 30mm tyre, to allow for debris and stop snags.
PDW don’t give a width, but they’re designed for bikes that already have tight clearances and as such, “23mm tyres”.
If there’s a ton of room in the frame, like brake pads slammed to the bottom, or medium reach brakes, then you could obviously run them higher over a 25/28mm tyre, but the tyre will be approaching the width of the guard, and there will be some water spill at the sides.
They might be exaclty what I’m looking for. I’ve been using the Crud guards for a cvouple of years and they work well but I’m looknig for something a little more solid.
I called the PDW distributor this morning to check if they brought them into the country. They do. RRP was ~$130. So any store that stocks PDW stuff should be able to order them in for you.
105 is a fair bit nicer than Sora. Tiagra sits in between both.
I would happily ride Tiagra on a commuter but have my doubts about Sora.
The Reid bikes are cheap as chips and have full shimano groupsets on them, no cheap shortcuts on brake calipers/cranks. I would buy one, rattlecan spray it black and take it to a good bikeshop for a full service ASAP. To make money on those bikes they need to cut costs somewhere and i would expect Australian labour/assembly costs to be cost cutting item numero uno
