Decided to try out this road bike malarkey

[CassidyAce]

I decided to buy an entry level road bike. The rationale is that I have limited time for riding and I thought that a road bike would get me further, faster, and therefore open up more routes. I've been riding on a lot of country lanes on rigid MTBs recently and the roadies look much, much faster. In due course, when availability returns to normal levels, I probably will get a new drop bar bike of some description, with disc brakes (the only thing I really miss riding retro all the time) but, for now, I thought I'd get an entry level road bike to see what I like, what I don't like, and what to watch out for in the future.

The last time I rode a road bike was probably in 1999 and I think it was a Raleigh Clubman: 10 speed, down tube friction shifters, old school. This time, I was looking for modern(ish) and definitely entry level, on the assumption that the geometry might be more newbie-friendly. I'm not looking to race, or beat Strava times, or compete in any way⁠—just go further in limited time and enjoy more of the countryside. So, I set a budget of between £200-£400 and searched in the usual places; Trek, Giant, Specialized, Dawes seemed like suitable search terms for what I was after. A 2011 Specialized Allez Elite caught my eye and was a contender⁠—Specialized's bikes have been good to me⁠—but it was 90 miles away and, well, I wasn't that keen on the slightly garish red and white paint job. The reviews were good, though. If I buy a gravel bike, a Diverge would be the first line I'd look at.

Much closer to home, though, and in more tasteful paint, there was a Pinnacle Dolomite 4 from 2015. Not disc brakes, but tapered head tube, internal cable routing, carbon fork, Tiagra components. (Is that the road bike equivalent of Alivio?) But isn't Pinnacle just Evans' version of Carrera, I thought? A bit too budget. However, reviews indicated that at least some are a bit better than that. It cost £700 new and, apparently, weighs under 9kg, which sounded pretty good, coming from a MTB background. Perhaps roadies would find that heavy. Anyway, £210 BIN sounded reasonable, but I put in a bid and, as the only bidder, got it for £150⁠. Under budget⁠—bonus! I could scarcely go wrong at that price.


Anyway, as a road bike ignoramus, I was wondering: Has anyone got any experience, good or bad, of Pinnacle bikes? How do these newfangled shifters-next-to-brake-levers work? What are those weird little things, visible through the drops, that look like cable connectors of some sort? Are caliper brakes as strong as V-brakes? How do those tyres offer any grip in the wet?

Any opinions, answers gratefully received.

 

[KermitGKona88]

Never had a Pinnacle bike but it looks good for the price. Shifters are easy press the main lever inward to shift upward, press the small lever inward to downshift. The doohickeys on the cables are tension adjusters as there are none on the downtube, dual pivot brakes are better than older brakes, but not as powerful as V brakes. Grip slows you down why would you want that

 

[CassidyAce]

Ah! So the idea is to maintain a higher speed than on an XC mountain bike, but with little grip on the road and brakes that are worse than those that were obsolete on mountain bikes fifteen years ago or so, and do it all in moving traffic. And roadies wear Lycra, not body armour!

Thank you for the info. That helps.

 

[novocaine]

Worked on plenty of pinnicles. They are a good bike. Tiagra is more like deore lx than alivio. Good, dependable gear that lasts.


The point to going road? None. But it's still good fun. at least its 2 wheels.

Oh and,ever ridden a ton on xc bike? After that you'll be glad of the skinny (surprisingly grippy on tarmac) tyres that make roll resistance a deminshed concern.

 

[Woz]

A good deal, and a more than suitable starter bike IMHO. FSA cranks, generic seat-post, bars and stem, probably Tektro (or Promax)
brake calipers do the job fine.

Tiagra (your's would be ST-4600 10 speed I think) is very very capable with good compatibility; think of it like the STX-RC or later Deore
group; functional, hard wearing, unpretentious, with still a good finish. I look at Tiagra and think it is the work horse group for
the umpteen millions of work commuters around the world. Specifying Tiagra on a bike put's it mid-end I would say.

Tiagra parts are made in Japan, and often modeled around the upper Ultegra / 105 previous years' group sets. The lower groups like Sora
and Claris are manufactured in other parts of Asia and the quality of materials and manufacturing is not at all the same;
cheaper metal grades, plastic knuckles on rear mechs, poor seals, skinny pressed steel, etc. etc.

I would pull off the reflectors etc., give it a good mechanical clean, and upgrade the pedals to SPD. Matched Tiagra brake
calipers (you must check the product codes!) would be a cost reasonable upgrade too.

 

[Fatal Swan]

I did much the same about 5 years ago, dipped my toe in the water with my first road bike 2nd hand - having never really had any interest in them - and never looked back. I like a lot of things about the road bike although it may depend on your immediate environment/how long it takes you to get from where you live to roads that you enjoy riding. The main thing for me is the range a road bike gives you, in a 2 hour ride I can comfortably cover 35+ miles.

I'd say take your time to get used to everything, keep riding and adjusting. Personally it took me a good 2-3 years of tinkering and riding to find just the right saddle position (let alone the right saddle), stem length/height, what kind of gear ratios I need for the kind of roads I want to ride and my level of fitness. I'm still getting used to using the drops confidently and shifting and braking from there. As the bike feels more natural each time you ride it both through the setup and your experience with it, it makes a difference to your comfort and enjoyment.

Then the bike itself... What you've got so far will do nicely to figure out whether road bikes are for you or not, especially for the money you paid and in the current context of bike prices! Shimano lever and rim brake setups all work more or less as well as each other regardless of what you spend (the hierarchy is Sora, Tiagra, Ultegra, Dura Ace) so you should have no problems with the brakes, they stop perfectly well. If they're not Shimano calipers on the bike already then consider replacing them, they're cheap second hand. Hydraulic disc brakes are definitely a step up and even more so in the wet, but unlike MTB brakes nowadays even the cheapest sets are massively more expensive than rim brakes and there's really not the same need for them, so disc vs rim brakes is not yet the same no-brainer decision as it is for MTBs. Personally I wouldn't bother with cable discs on the road bike, the performance gain is marginal at best.

If you like it, I would treat it as an ongoing project and keep a casual eye on upgrading parts as you go, wherever you get the chance to pick up something at a good price on eBay that's better than what you already have. And eventually you might want to include the frame in that, when you have a good sense of what size/geometry you need. Most people say the wheels make the biggest difference to the ride and ultimately to your enjoyment so that would be my first priority. A set of wheels around the 1500-1600g mark will make you accelerate quicker, get up the hills with less effort, get you further quicker and let you stay out longer. The advent of disc brakes has made road bikes generally heavier in recent years so 9kg overall is not that bad. However for a rim brake road bike a carbon frameset and a decent wheelset can get you to 7kg quite comfortably, and at that point you really notice the difference on the road.

 

[CassidyAce]

Thank you for the replies.

@novocaine I've never done a ton on an XC bike, not in one day, anyway. One day, maybe . . .

@Woz You are spot on: Tektro brakes, generic seat-post, etc. I'm more than happy with STX-RC/Deore-equivalent for this. In fact, it sounds a bit better than I thought when I bought it.

I took the bike for a spin this evening: 18 miles and . . . it was a frustrating experience: finding the right gears, getting comfortable on the hoods, shifting up when I wanted to go down, and vice versa. Ugh! @Fatal Swan Getting used to everything is the key—either that or it's not for me. Today, I was slower than I would be on any of my MTBs! I think the first thing I need to master is the trimming of the front mech: small ring + largest five sprockets were fine; big ring + smallest five sprockets were fine; but that left a mid-range gap that needed filling: from big+6 to small+5, and vice-versa, was a leap but not one I could bridge without the chain rubbing on the front mech. I've found the Shimano instructions for the shifters, though, and I can see that trimming is possible; I just need to master it.

The range, in limited time, is exactly my motivation for dipping my toe in this water too and I'm very fortunate in having miles and miles of great country lanes close by.

 

[KermitGKona88]

You could try flipping the stem which will give you a very slight positive rise and tilting the bars back slightly, worse comes to worse you could go flat bar and get some 10 speed thumbies and use cantilever levers......

 

[dyna-ti]

Before long you'll be washing your pristine white Lycra and smothering your nuts with vegetable oil, that is the roadie way.

It's a slippery slope. Made worse by the vegetable oil.

 

[Peachy!]

You need to immerse yourself fully…. Get some mid 20th century steel…. they go faster down hill but take four times as long to stop…