hbdope wrote:I bought the triban 500 last week after shopping around various places from my lbs, halfords, recycle bicycles in elephant and castle and gumtree.
The staff at my lbs were very rude and treated me as if I was retarded and the decent road bikes all started at £500. I went to Halfords in Ealing broadway and they were all extremely helpful but I didn't like any of their Carerra models they had. Recycle had very friendly and knowledgeable staff but the bikes they had were rubbish. Finally, I went to Decathlon and was sold on the triban 500 and was given a free water bottle cage, a front light and a back light.
Unfortunately, the closest Decathlon store is 12 mi away from me so when I need something for my bike I get it online or at halfords (staff is wonderful). One staff member at Halfords went as far as to help me correctly put on a new front tyre on my triban 500 when I only asked him if I could use their pump after I changed the tyre.
If you do end up getting the triban 500 you need to immediately change the tyres. I rode my new btwin out of the store and 2 miles into riding, my front tyre went flat. Luckily, I had the staff at Decathlon take off the tyres off of my old bike so I had extra tyres and inner tubes with me. Then the other day, I found a cut on my rear tyre.
OTOH the stock tyres on mine did several thousand miles. I've just upgraded the wheels to Mavic Aksium - £150, also at Decathlon, £50 more anywhere else.