Road bikes for £1000 and a 120k ex rugby player

The Pinnacle Arkose (Evans Cycles in house brand) will do the job for you. I had had dubious thoughts about the dodginess of the 'skinny bikes' but she has served me 3k in 12 months. just needed to upgrade the rear wheel as the Alexis wheel is less than expected. and its got capacity for mudguards and a pannier rack. best of luck and welcome to the skinny bikers!

I'm 120kg and 6 foot, ride regularly on crap roads here in the New Forest and have never had an issue with frame or wheel damage so I think you'll be fine. My daily hack is on a hand-me-down B'Twin Triban 3 and its certainly up to the abuse it gets. In summer I'm even on 23mm tyres at 120psi.

Good point on the triple chainset, you'll really appreciate it starting out although it may limit your bike choice a little as most use compacts now. One for discussion with your LBS. For some of the steep long hills round here I still end up on the granny ring. If its relatively flat and you've got good leg power then the bigger front ring you'll get on a compact will give you more outright speed.

Can't recall the name of the company but I've seen reviewed on here bikes specifically built for larger blokes - so many ex-rugby players heading for triathlon as next challenge. If you're looking for gear in your size Prendas Ciclismo goes up to 8x in jerseys (52-54" chest, 19" shirt collar size) and bibs

Trek have a maximum weight of 125kg, A Madone 2.1 is around £1000.

For Trek bikes at that price I would upgrade the breaks straight away (and maybe the saddle as well)

On the weight subject - a lot of wheels have a limit which might be as low as 90kg, beyond this they recommend regular checking of the axles. However, if you use a lightweight tourer/cross/endurance bike which can take mtb hubs then that's not a problem.
I'm at 100kg myself and use 32 triple crossed spokes as the front and 36 at the rear onto Deore XT hubs.

Hey,

Your height is not a problem. A local bike shop will be able to advise on the best size although an old rule of thumb was to take 10 inches (or 25cms) off your inside leg measurement to get a rough size.

As for your weight, the brand/style of bike won't matter too much, it's what you fit to the bike or how it's kitted out that will make a difference.

I think it would be advisable to go for 32 spoke wheels (although, fair enough, a lot of the 20 spoke wheels, etc, are plenty strong). Tyre wise I'd fit 28mms, anything less than 25mm might be asking for problems.

But apart from that you should be fine. They may look like spindly little things but road bikes are really rather strong.

As for functionality I'd opt for a triple chainring. Having a really small gear is really handy. With time and training you'll find that you use it less and less.

I'd visit a couple of local bike shops (LBS) and get their opinion to start. I can only think of one frame with a weight limit - Kinesis Aithein at 89 kg - but 120 kilos may be a different scenario. Your work will probably have a couple of shops if they have a cycle to work scheme. Trek have a lifetime guarantee on their frames, at least their MTBs, my brother in law is on his third frame somehow.