BH Fitness Carbon Bike Generator

Advantages: Great price and beautiful ride
Disadvantages: Lots of small probelms and so many expensive upgrades to be done

...£750 but was reduced to £579 in Oct 2005. The trouble with road bikes is that you can spend horrendous amount of money on them, with full carbon bikes being sold (very light and rigid) for many £1000's. This was not for me, I train on a road bike but I will probably never race and if I do I will look into getting a better bike. At the moment it's definitely not my bike limiting my speed (unlike other people its also not my fitness). Another area in which money disappears into with bikes is wheels, they make a lot of difference to bike speed however they are pricey, with Mavic Ksyrium being a popular choice (which I use now) however they are £500 more than standard wheels. Along with wheels having a big effect on speed, tyres come into direct contact with the road surface so big advantages can be made there, with Michelin Pro-Race being my... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average very helpful

Advantages: Price, Components, Performance
Disadvantages: Lack of "street-cred"

...scared me off. So I was looking at the fitness and road racing models. There is significant choice in the market so I set my price bracket at £600 - £800, which narrowed it down quite considerably. I then set about looking for the bike that gave me the best balance of components and frame geometry against the price. The bike I finally settled on was the Spring 2006 Giant TCR Team Hybrid. It comes with a compact aluminium frame with carbon fibre forks and a carbon fibre rear triangle. The components are all provided by Shimano and specified to a reasonable level - Shimano's 105 series sits mid-way in the range of price/performance. I found a local bike shop that sold the bike and went for a test ride, at the same time comparing it to several other bikes from other brands in the same price bracket. The Giant was head and shoulders above... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful

Advantages: Gorgeous piece of kit
Disadvantages: Needs to be looked after to avoid rust

...It's over a year since I wrote this opinion, and I've had the bike since January 2002, so I think it's time for a bit of an update, which appears at the bottom: Steel is dead. Unless you buy a £100 bike from Argos you'd buy an aluminium bike, or even if you were feeling flush, titanium or carbon fibre, right? Steel is so outdated for mountain bikes. Wrong. The Orange P7 is a rare thing these days. A mass produced, fairly posh steel bike. In fact, I've just got rid of an aluminium bike in order to get hold of this one, and I love it dearly. I've never loved a bike the way that I love my P7. The company aren't one of the really big boys. Based in Halifax, they are largely unheard of in many countries. Many Orange bikes are made in the UK, but this tends to be their full suspension bikes, rigid bikes are welded together abroad... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful