I bought my bike earlier this year when I decided it was about time to upgrade from the mountain bike I got one birthday when I was in primary school. I started off looking on ebay for a decent second hand road bike but I couldn't find any round the £200 mark. In the end I opted to buy new. The Claud Butler Criterium 2011 (my top tip: go for the previous years model it will be a lot cheaper than the current model) was about the only bike round my budget that wasn't absolutley slated in every review I read. I found a decent deal and for a little less than £250 online from Evans Cycles and they kindly threw in a few goodies (bottle,cage, lights, lock). For anyone that doesn't know, the difference between riding a road bike and a mountain bike is huge! It makes riding on the roads fast and fun. I absolutley love my bike and it makes the prospect of cycling to places something to look forward to.
So I love it but there are some downfalls. I'd read in reviews that the reflectors in the pedals would fall out easily. They did almost instantly. The handle bar tape looked really cool in white... for about a week till it got grubby and turned grey. I replaced the tape but luckily (barring punctured innertubes) this is the only thing I've had to replace. There have, however, been a few problems ranging from gearing to an odd white powder preventing me from being able to pump up my tyres. Luckily these are all problems my mechanic (my dad) have been able to fix. Now that it's been tweeked with it's great. It looks good with the new black tape, I find the saddle and ride quite comfy, the gears shift farely smoothly and it's lightweight. To say it cost half the price of many bikes described as "entry level" it's a decent little machine. The only final problem is that virtually every time I see a road bike I think to myself If only I could afford that. In the end, while I absolutley love my bike it's lost a few marks for the initial problems and because it's just not my dream bike.
So, the final verdict...
Rating: 3/5
Cost: £250
ETS: 10mins (600s)
Value: £0.42/s
(ETS stands for Estimated Time Saving)
Ok so maybe this was a bad example for my new system as I completley guessed the time saving as I've never done a triathlon without my bike but I went for how much longer I reckon it would of taken me to do my first triathlon on my old mountain bike. But there'll be another budget buy peice coming soon and hopefully that will make the system clearer.
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