{"id":7704,"date":"2019-05-03T12:00:14","date_gmt":"2019-05-03T11:00:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/?p=7704"},"modified":"2019-06-14T16:26:54","modified_gmt":"2019-06-14T15:26:54","slug":"shop-local-when-buying-a-new-bike","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/2019\/05\/shop-local-when-buying-a-new-bike.htm","title":{"rendered":"Shop local when buying a new bike"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Back in 2013, I bought myself a road bike<\/a>. It\u2019s a Bianchi Via Nirone 7 C2C and it was the first road bike I\u2019d had since my teenage years when I had a 21-speed \u201cracer\u201d (complete with shifters on the down tube).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My Bianchi has served me well but, after nearly 12000km I\u2019m starting to notice some hairline cracks in the paint, a bit of corrosion on the chainstay – and I recently had to cut out one of the upgrades I\u2019d made as the carbon fibre seat post had bonded itself to the inside of the aluminium alloy seat tube<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019d been saving up for a new bike for a while (promising myself that I could have a new bike when I lost some weight\u2026) but I decided to retire the Bianchi (or at least just use it for Zwifting<\/a>) and get something new (maybe I can lose some weight by riding more now I have the new bike). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

For a long while, I was tempted by a Canyon Endurace CF SL Disc 8.0 Di2<\/a>. Canyon make some lovely bikes but they are mail-order only (unless you can visit them in Germany). Not having distributors reduces the price, but it also increases the risk of buying the wrong size, etc.<\/a> added to which, recent experience (buying a frame from Planet X for my son) showed me that sometimes you get what you pay for.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Status update: frame was shipped on time and arrived quickly. @planetxbikes<\/a> were responsive on Twitter and helpful (if slow) on email. They really need to provide a method to check information quickly as website is not the best but we got there in the end… (cheap for a reason) https:\/\/t.co\/spwcRoQStc<\/a><\/p>— Mark Wilson ???? (@markwilsonit) April 23, 2019<\/a><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

I also feel guilty every time I shop at Wiggle<\/a> – we’ll miss our local bike shops (LBS) when they are gone and I’ve relied on a few for parts at short notice recently (including Corley Cycles<\/a> and Chaineys<\/a> in Milton Keynes). But, just like buying from Amazon instead of a high street store, sometimes the economics mean it just makes sense. Even so, with a new bike purchase, I wasn’t entirely comfortable buying online.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I looked at some of the other mainstream brands too (how about a Trek Domane?). But what about the price difference?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well, there were a few things to take into account there:<\/p>\n\n\n\n