Nidecker Carbon 860

Advantages: Cheap and strong
Disadvantages: None now that the improvements have been made

...No problems today, no Wrigley things and no waffle (not much). With a rockhard name like the Fightback, this thing really is solid. The 14.5m of carbon (and the other stuff they put in with it) caught my eye a couple of years ago when I was fortunate enough (in un-student like fashion) to receive a little bit of FREE money :) Its now been updated a couple of times, but is still basically the same pole. They’ve just eliminated the problems I’m about to highlight. I can also tell you about the good point though, as they haven’t changed much from what I’ve seen. The Pole A pole by the way, is made up of a number of sections. Each one is very light and generally averages between 1 and 1.5 metres in length. These sections can be joined together to form... Read review

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Advantages: fast, light, high spec for cheap price
Disadvantages: None

...racing bikes and the 750/050 series was born. Trek became global in 1989 and the first overseas subsidiaries were formed in Great Britain and Germany. By 2005 Trek had the largest dealer base with the bikes being available in 90 different countries. At that time Trek had 10 subsidiaries and over 70 distributors. Arguably, it was the 'great' Lance Armstrong who raised the profile of the Trek brand within the road racing community. In 1997 Lance Armstrong was dropped from his European cycling team after being diagnosed with cancer. What a mistake that was…. Lance Armstrong joined forces with Trek and In 1999 became the first American on an American bike riding for the American team to win the Tour De France. Lance's popularity was so great that the bike developed for the American team, the OCLV carbon 5200, became the biggest... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average very helpful

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

...-trial beasts 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... Read review

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