Fit, active biking newbie, which bike?

I've loved my Defy Advanced, it's certainly very comfortable and has seen me through many long rides

assuming you are intending to be cycling 2 or 3 times a weeks, and given that you are already fit, your rate of improvement on a bike will be very rapid in the first 6 to 12 months. I'd recommend deciding what bike/ spec you think you want now, make at least two logical upgrade steps, and buy that now instead. Minimum 105, and given the cheap/light/stiff trade off, whack on £500 to what you think you want to pay now to get a lighter/ stiffer frame. What you recover selling a slightly- =less- good- than- you- want bike second hand is pitiful.

Hmm...if you aren't sure, why go mad on the budget? Almost without doubt, whatever you spend, within a month you will want to upgrade or get a new bike. Generally, buying something and then upgrading parts will cost more than just buying a better bike to start with. Have a look at ebay and what 500-700 will get you, work with that for a year or so, and then buy something more expensive when you have a better idea of what really floats your boat

Ach...the man maketh the bike. Once you've got plenty of miles in the differences won't matter too much.

A bike for £800 (give or take a hundred) will buy you plenty. Shimano 105 or Tiagra is fine for what you're thinking of. What I would say is that the large well known brands tend to be a bit pricey, especially when you consider they all use the same components. Ribble and Dolan have quite good 'bike builder' pages and their bikes are usually much cheaper. You could also look about for a 2014 model on the cheap.

Get the advanced if I were you - that looks like pretty much all the bike you could ever need to me - good groupset and you won't be wanting to upgrade to carbon or discs in a few years. As long as you can afford it and have a bit of spare money for some shoes, pedals, a jersey and some shorts on top then you're sorted.

That said I ride an aluminium bike with rim brakes - don't notice any difference in ride comfort between that and my steel bike, and the ultegra brakes are pretty bloody good, although I've not ridden in the wet much - so the 0 will probably fulfill all your needs.

As a recent newcomer too (and also with a bit of a running background), I'd say go for the best kit you can afford - unless you enjoy buying new shiny bits and tinkering.

I bought a Tiagra and FSA equipped Felt for under £600 just over a year ago and now pretty much everything except the frame and forks has been upgraded.

I wasn't sure if I would get the bug but the bugger bit deep

Have fun!

I'd go for the Defy 0 if I were you. It's a great bike for the money, and whereas you may think you are fit and active, riding a bicycle over long distances, is going to use muscles you never knew you had. It will take a little while for your system to adjust.

£1k buys you an awful lot of bike. I went for the Defy 0 and I love it. Easy enough to upgrade the wheels if you want to, and then instead of buying a new bike next time you can swap over the Ultegra bits to a new frame (as I intend to).

I know some people go on about carbon being the be all and end all of comfort... and maybe it is, I haven't owned a carbon bike. But the Defy has got me round 100 mile rides, hilly sportives, fast groups, chain gangs and time trials this year without me ever feeling like I was missing out on comfort, handling or pace.

There are loads of these new bike threads so I guess sometimes people wont reply but I always try to if I can.

I am not an expert on multiple bike brands but spend as much as you can afford as otherwise you will only want to upgrade in a year. Then just enjoy riding it, first proper road bikes are a great experience no matter how much you spend!