Road Riders
Ross in the break in the Girvan 3 day
Road riding can encompass a wide range of options and we can help you arrive at the best choice for the type of riding you wish to do. Typical uses can include leisure rides with friends, charity rides or sportifs, preparing for a tour or getting involved with a local club or competitive riding (road racing, time trials or triathlon). Don’t worry if you feel that at over 40 you may be ‘over the hill’ there is a very active group to cater for you in the League of Veteran Racing Cyclists (LVRC). If you live locally then you will have access to miles and miles of quiet country lanes, interesting villages and inviting country pubs and cafes, so a road bike is a popular option. You will get there and back much quicker than if you were on a mountain bike or even most hybrids.
You may wish to join a local cycling club such as the Solihull C.C. who have regular group rides on Saturday, Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday. There are groups of all abilities and riding with more experienced cyclists is a good way of improving both fitness and technique.
We stock bikes from Cervelo, Kinesis, Specialized, Trek and Wilier. There are models that range from the robust cyclo-cross type that can be good for commuting/touring through standard sports models for general use to full blown, pro standard race machines.
Sportive/Day Ride bikes
Popular bikes for leisurely day rides or sportifs include the Trek Pilot and Specialized Secteur/Roubaix models. Generally these machines will have lower gears and a more upright riding position for non-racers doing long distance rides. Custom built options are also available based on frames such as the Cervelo RS.
Road Race Bikes
For those who want to get more into racing or speciality bikes for time trials and triathlons then we have bikes like the Trek Madone 6.9, as used by Contador and Armstrong to get on the podium of the Tour de France in 2009. For those who prefer Italian styling and Campagnolo gearing then there is the Wilier Izoard or models from Pinarello such as the FP3 or top of the range Dogma. Team Sky are currently riding on Dogma framesets with the new Shimano Di2 groupset. Time triallists and triathletes can consider the Cervelo P2 or P3, Trek Equinox TTX or Specialized Transition range.
Female riders
Women are well catered for now too with Specialized, Trek and Wilier all providing a wide range of models from entry level aluminium to top of the range carbon. The aluminium models tend to have a triple chainset to give the widest possible range of gears whilst the higher spec carbon ones come with a compact double. This is more efficient and fine for general riding or even racing.
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