Originally Posted by
wiscobadger
Hi All! First time poster here. I'm 27 years old, 5'10" and about 170 lbs and am looking to buy my first road bike. Back in high school I biked a lot, mostly on trails, but as life got busier I got out of it. I recently moved to Madison, WI and am getting the itch to bike again, but this time a road bike seems to make the most sense. At this point I'm wanting to get back into it mostly because I want to spend more time outside as well as I need to get exercise as I have a desk job and getting into a gym routine has never worked for me. I've always owned Trek bikes, but am open to other brands. With a budget of $1,200 max, what would you recommend?
I see Trek has the Domane AL 2 and AL 3 for under my price range. I also called a bike shop in northern WI where I'd buy my bikes and they have a new 1.2 for $499 as it's a few model years old.
I see you already bought a bike but for new users thinking about getting an entry level bike I have some advice.
if you have 1200 budget get a bike for around 1000.
the rest of the money you can spend on saddle/handlebar/stem aka whats needed to fit the bike to you really good. Especially saddles and stem length is very very important for correct fit. btw there is no correct fit, its only they thing that works for you, thats the correct fit.
You will most likely also need good tires. I like the gp4k and now gp5k for road all round use. good grip and durability and puncture protection. well worth the money.
Regarding components. you will get "good enough" stuff from maybe 7-800 or so. tiagra/sora and similar. these works very well when adjusted. and the 8-9-10sp cassettes and chains are cheaper. especially 8sp. its 50% cheaper than 9sp and 9sp is much cheaper than 10sp.
Other than that I would simply go over everything, such as bearings (in shimnao hubs for example) and nuts and bolts and lube them all (you need to remove them).
If you do initial lubing/greasing of everything that wears and rusts. Then the stuff will last for at least 5 years or so with you doing anything at all. Maybe even 10 years for some stuff.