New Bike Day

I think it was a first for me buying a new road bike while on holiday. The trails have just been too sloppy to enjoy them so I’d begun thinking about a road bike rather than slapping road wheels on my gravel bike. As the weather had been so wet for months in the UK my road riding had increased so I decided to just press the button while I was away. You can never have enough bikes right?

I started to have a look and ended up with a good deal I think. However there is a caveat. I just need a comfy but dedicated road bike. I’m not racing and I’m not interested in anything too aero or too lightweight just a nice, simple carbon road bike I can ride all day long. A Shimano 105 groupset is fine and I have a pair of posh Scribe Inception 50m deep section wheels with Conti GP5000’s on to make it a bit faster. So what did I get?

Well after quite a lot of research around the secondhand market, I found a brand new Planet X Pro Carbon Road bike tucked away quietly on their website for £1499. Geometry that suited me and the latest 105 12spd groupset too. I couldn’t find any other bike within £500 for that spec. Then I found a 10% off code and ended up getting it for £1350 which sealed the deal.

I had three colour options, Green, Blue and Black. I went for neutral Black which is easy to accessorise with a bit of colour if I want.

It’s a well-known brand and a frameset that appears to have been around a few years so in my eyes tried and tested with no adverse reviews. I don’t care about open moulds etc, if it works and it’s the right price it will do exactly what I need.

The first mod will be chainrings. All my bikes have a 46 rather than a standard 50T outer or bigger. Regrettably nobody seems to make an oval 46 for 105 7100 12spd chainsets yet so I’ve had to go with round rings for now. So I should have a 46/32 setup bedding in shortly and I found some Exustar PR1 Keo-compatible pedals half price from Spa Cycles to pop on too. Quite nice and light. Better than standard Look Keo Classic’s I’d probably normally have.

It’s just arrived in the box. I’ll report back when I’ve got it how I want it.

Adios