Are Halford's road bikes any good? I'm thinking of buying a Carrera Virtuoso (2007 model).?

I'm getting last year's model of this bike: http://www.halfords.com/webapp/wcs/store...
I have a road bike but it's falling to bits and is no longer road worthy. I no longer want to service it or fix things because as soon as one thing is fixed another thing breaks.
The bike I'm thinking of getting (due to my bargaining techniques) is now reduced to 拢215. It hasn't been on display - brand new. It's just discontinued. The specs (as far as I can remember) are damned similar to the 2008 model.
Do you think this would be a good bike to have.
I cycle regularly and am happy to have a decent, entry-level road bike that's road worthy.

I checked out the link you provided. The bike is a little bit entry level. This is fine if it is all you are looking for. If you want to do a bit of racing or time trials I'd suggest a local bike shop. I bought an entry level bike a few years ago. Fortunately the frame was good so I have been able to upgrade the equipment on it - something to bear in mind in making your choice.

The Carrera Virtuoso is generally a good road bike but buying from Halfords can sometimes be a mistake as their customer service isn t fantastic.

As long as you dont mind that the bike can only be serviced at Halfords as it is one of their own premium brand bikes and no other cycle store stock their parts or repair them.

Hope this helps

Jake

I did exactly the same thing... I bought an APOLLO 2000 Mountain Bike from Halfords at a very reduced price because it had a "noticeable"scratch on it... I bought a nice flashy sticker and put it over the scratch...

I resold the bike through the local paper and made a profit of 拢110...I less than 2 Weeks

Thanks Halfords

And if I spot another good deal from them I will do the same...

The one thing you need to take care with Halfords is sometimes swap the manufactures components with cheaper generic components to keep prices low. So you may just be buying a Carrera frame.

Carrera are not bad for the money my son has a Carrera mtb and he gives it hell and it;s still going strong.

for that price you cant say no,i have seen these and think they are good value.

i recommend them.

I reckon that bike would be decent enough, with a pair of clipless pedals.

They don't mention the make/model of the important components of the chainset, although I'm probably more than certain they'll be cheap things, which will probably do the job anyway.

The thing I like about Halfords is that you can take your bike in without much trouble if anything does go wrong with it. For example they replaced my RD, Freehub and cassette when that all broke on my old Apollo MTB.

On the other hand, I hate Halfords - I think I must have been in there 3 times in the past fortnight already because of refunds etc. Now I have to go back in to return an inner tube after some idiot customer shoved the wrong size tube back in the box. grrr