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Must be comfy i.e. carbon or good quality steel (infact I like the idea of steel).
Ideas? I'd probably wangle a cycle to work scheme on a 58cm and the best spec possible.
Of course PlanetX however I read a review that if your big/heavy the front has abit of flex.
You buying new Hora? If so, why not give the Wiggle 30 day test ride a go?
...and then when you realise road riding is not for you and too hard you can just give the bike back and not lose any cash 😉
Im going to stick at it. Not because I like it (its not exactly fun is it) but because it offers a ride/fitness out when mountain biking on the weekend isnt an option.
I have been keeping an eye on this too. My employers only deal with Halfords and it seems fortunate that Boardman do have a very good reputation on the roadie front. Hopefully the 2011 range will be out by April. Pro Carbon for me if I am allowed to 'top up' my allowance.
I already have a road bike but it time to upgrade components or bike.
Genesis Croix de Fer, you can combine on and off road rides
Scott CR1 with 105 on.
IMO cross bikes are the worst of both worlds, and not a patch on a proper road bike. YMMV.
There's some awesome looking frames on eBay, throw one of those together on the cheap.
specialized roubaix ... end of thread ;O)
your welcome
You can get other bikes apart from Boardman through Halfords C2W scheme.
Mark, Ribble, Spesh & Trek are all good on the C2W scheme.
You can indeed get other bikes on the Halfords scheme. Although I am not naturally drawn to them the Boardman does seem a good buy and well rated.
If you are serious about it, then FFS stop calling it "The Darkside".. 😐
Just buy a Trek Madone, Lance rides one so they must be the best... :p
If I was riding a road bike in the Peaks, Lakes or even Calderdale it'd be road riding....as I'd be mainly riding from my door it'll be called the dreaded-darkside
Just buy a Trek Madone
Have you seen the poverty-spec's attached to a brand name!
"Im going to stick at it. Not because I like it (its not exactly fun is it) but because it offers a ride/fitness out when mountain biking on the weekend isnt an option."
Havent you got a you child/children? A cheaper option is to buy a turbo trainer, some hate it, but with a 10 month old son I find it a good way of grabbing an hour here or there when he is asleep etc. Since I started using mine 2 months ago my finest has come on big time...from zero!
Not a chance. I am the type that needs to be outside roaming free/playing out 😆 I hate the gym for the same reason (with a passion).
Ideal for me would be a steel frame- Italian, well made yet subtle - Columbus etc and still reasonably light.
Something to look at and smile when its just sat there as well 🙂
there was a thread on here where a lot of heavier owners of Planet X SL's totally disagreed with the flexy description of the frame. This included me. Andre Greipel (the only large rider with the power to trouble the frame) must have been grumpy that day.
Also the new nanolight frames are dropping in price so may be an option
Ideal for me would be a steel frame- Italian, well made yet subtle - Columbus etc and still reasonably light.
You clearly need a Pegoretti, along with all the other wannabe Fausto Coppis - build it up with Campag Super Record, shave yer legs, get yourself a nice little roadie cap and some obscure Mediteranean riding duds and you're ready for full-on immersion in the Lato Oscuro. Give it six months and you can buy a cross bike as well along with some nice stilettos and a blonde wig 😉
Back in 2002 I remember a nice lass getting onto the train in Surrey with a Pegoretti. It was lovely, subtle..sublime. Still remember it today.
Get yourself down to a few shops and see if they can hook you up with something second hand which will fit you. There are usually a few people who have built up a new race bike and looking at flogging their old bike/winter bike/3rd spare bike. etc.
price range?
Probably upto £1200 so that rules out a Pegoretti 😆
I love my trek 5000, carbon loveliness 🙂 Road riding is fun when you get fit/into it.
Must be comfy i.e. carbon or good quality steel (infact I like the idea of steel).
Ideal for me would be a steel frame- Italian, well made yet subtle - Columbus etc and still reasonably light.
upto £1200
Get on ebay and start trawling through the flotsum, you won't get anything with a decent spec new for that money...
Not because I like it (its not exactly fun is it) but because it offers a ride/fitness out when mountain biking on the weekend isnt an option
Why wouldn't you like it? Granted, riding in a high-traffic area isn't much fun, but a 5hr ride along quiet country roads on a warm spring day is pretty much perfect, to my mind at least..
mogrim- agree, read my earlier addition..
Oops, bit of a post reading fail there!
I still remember day dreaming....drifting off whilst riding in my youth 😀
Ideal for me would be a steel frame- Italian, well made yet subtle - Columbus etc and still reasonably light.
Sound like you need to find something like this...
[url= http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1005/5184410469_15fc11ffcd.jp g" target="_blank">
[url= http://www.flickr.com/photos/32746168@N08/5184410469/ ]DSCF4083[/url] by [url= http://www.flickr.com/people/32746168@N08/ ]ten_sim[/url], on Flickr
Picked it up for £450 off these here classifieds, lovely lovely bike! 🙂 Very similar looking to a Cinelli Supercorsa actually:
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Very nice. I like that derosa 🙂
upto £1200Get on ebay and start trawling through the flotsum, you won't get anything with a decent spec new for that money...
Really? My Tarmac with 105 was about £1200 and it doesn't seem to get left behind at any races/sportives/group rides that I've done on it?
I guess it depends on how much of a kick you get out of reading the words on your rear mech...
got a 58cm 853 lemond sat in the garage doing nowt
[url= http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4133/5093933599_a971cf9d94_z.jp g" target="_blank">
[url= http://www.flickr.com/photos/rocketdog/5093933599/ ]Lemond Zurich 853 II[/url] by [url= http://www.flickr.com/people/rocketdog/ ]rOcKeTdOgUk[/url], on Flickr
ianpv, sorry but i don't class 105 as good spec, and hora has already mentioned in this thread that he doesn't want a big brand underspecced, what wheels did it / does it have? Is it a carbon frame? what year?
Mark. do not get anything with a quill stem or lugged construction.
YGM
do not get anything with a quill stem or lugged construction.
Why not? Polished chrome lugs are lovely 🙂
Really? My Tarmac with 105 was about £1200 and it doesn't seem to get left behind at any races/sportives/group rides that I've done on it?
Theyre more than that now, although there are probably deals around.
ianpv, sorry but i don't class 105 as good spec
That's just snobbery and makes you sound like a tool. It's not the best, but its not bad. I don't think anyone is going to be a sudden convert because they bought Ultegra, or is that too cheap and it's Di2 or nothing?!
the new 105 looks lush 😉
That's just snobbery and makes you sound like a tool. It's not the best, but its not bad. I don't think anyone is going to be a sudden convert because they bought Ultegra, or is that too cheap and it's Di2 or nothing?!
Thats strange, cause what do I ride on the road? a Specialized allez with, wait for it, shimano 105 (upgraded some bits to Ultegra SL)
Its the equivalent of LX really, isn't it, and the chainsets especially are very heavy, and at the end of the day I'm just going on what Hora wants!
New bike on the way though, Campag chorus equipped, Ill be keeping the specialized for winter duties.
That's fairly irrelevant, there's nothing wrong with 105, and it's a reasonable group to expect on a £1200 carbon bike. You wouldn't expect XT on a £1200 MTB.
On the SRAM groupsets- whats a decent one to plum for?
(thinking IF I went for a Planetx)
there's nothing wrong with 105
It's heavy, which on a road bike is not great.
I agree that it would be reasonable to expect it on a £1200 bike, but the other components will suffer as a result of speccing a 105 grouppo , leading to a very heavy bike. My point being much better to buy second hand.
hora, if you can go to 1199 i'd bite their hands off for this:
[url= http://www.planet-x-bikes.co.uk/i/q/CBPXSLPR/sl-pro-carbon-sram-red ]linky[/url]
Hora - Rival is fine. Planet X were doing a Sram Red full bike a while ago for something daft like £999 (my mate was tempted). On inspection if was just shifters and rear mech or something daft with low rent brakes etc.
Cycling Plus just did a review of Sram Apex (basically Rival with a long rear cage mech), Shim 105 and Campag Centaur and they came out in favour of Sram because you could stick a 32t rear cassette on it. 105 was 500g heavier but better quality they reckoned.
If you want cheaper with mudguard clearance Scott Speedster (S65 I think) looks canny. Alloy though.
Oh, and 14st 6'3" of me doesn't seem to find the PX carbon flexy....
Hora - Rival is fine. Planet X were doing a Sram Red full bike a while ago for something daft like £999 (my mate was tempted). On inspection if was just shifters and rear mech or something daft with low rent brakes etc.
Hmmm The above Red is Apex chainset and Planetx's own wheels.
105 5600 chainset: 836g
Ultegra SL chainset: 790g
Dunno what 5700 weighs, but I'll bet it's lighter. If you can tell 46g in the heaviest part of the group I doth my cap to you.
The PX deal is good, but IMO SRAMs a bit love/hate, I much prefer Shimano. You could flog the Red and buy sommat else at that price mind!
Hmmm The above Red is Apex chainset and Planetx's own wheels.
And no name brakes, but the expensive things are the shifters. upgrade as you see fit. Planet X wheels are on the whole fairly good.
That Planet X weights only 7.5kg... Is there any weight limits for the rider on any bits? Never ridden a carbon road bike but I did have couple of aluminium ones before my steel one. Newer steel is comfortable but still the bike is light and feels fast.
I love my steel Lemond and it does make longer rides much more comfortable and in my opinion it feels stiffer when sprinting than the aluminium Trek 1200 it replaced. Reasonable weight at 9.2kg as well with potential to go under 9kg by using lighter tyres/tubes.
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There was a same frame as mine on eBay in 58cm or so not so long ago.
105 5600 chainset: 836g
Ultegra SL chainset: 790g
did I say I'd upgraded the chainset?
SRAM Apex 775g
so, in the context of hora buying a bike the apex on the PX is the better choice
leading to a very heavy bike
sounds like 105 is made of cast iron which of course it isn't
What about a cross bike rather than a road bike??
Best of both worlds then. Then when your board/scared of riding on the road you can nip off on to some decent stuff. + enter the 3 peaks.
Hmm - the whole groupset (excluding wheels etc) on the 6700 is approx 2301g and the 5700 is a whole 500g heavier @ 2800 - that just over 1 lb - not a biggy really in the grand scheme of things!
There must be an online realworld comparator for the three groupset levels? (i.e. where they REALLY sit against each other to enable us to check/compare/understand)
Sram
Campag
Shimano
mieszko - what model is your lemond?
sounds like 105 is made of cast iron which of course it isn't
read what I said, if manufacturers (especially the big ones) spec 105 on a cheap bike other parts will have to be cheaper so their costs are kept down, stems, bars, wheels, seatposts etc all suffer adding weight to a bike.
that just over 1 lb - not a biggy really in the grand scheme of things!
go on weight weenies and tell them that 🙂
There must be an online realworld comparator for the three groupset levels? (i.e. where they REALLY sit against each other to enable us to check/compare/understand)
You could price the whole groupset and see what other ones match it - that's about the best you could do. Ribble or Parkers should do them all.
Don't compare just, say, the Brake levers/shifters. Shimano ones are madly expensive compared to Campag, but the rear mech etc. are opposite way around.
Manufaturers mix and match as well with an FSA chainset in the mix, or a dodgy set of no-brand brakes.
Think Apex/Rival, 105 and Centaur are about the same.
Only problem with Centaur is it's 10 speed, if you 'upgrade' the better gruppos are 11 speed so you need to change a lot of things in one go. Sram/Shim at least are all 10 speed so you can just get the DuraAce/Red rear mech and it'll drop straight in.
unless you are already running campag I would stick to shimano/ SRAM
cheaper and more kit on the classifieds for upgrades
and I run Campag
There must be an online realworld comparator for the three groupset levels? (i.e. where they REALLY sit against each other to enable us to check/compare/understand)
Just not that clear cut though.
Think of the SLX/XT/XTR vs X.7/X.9/X.0/XX argument.
What about a cross bike rather than a road bike??Best of both worlds then.
That got mentioned previously, IMO they're the worst of both worlds, certainly not as nice to ride on the road.
there's nothing wrong with 105It's heavy, which on a road bike is not great.
I agree that it would be reasonable to expect it on a £1200 bike, but the other components will suffer as a result of speccing a 105 grouppo , leading to a very heavy bike. My point being much better to buy second hand.
My point was simply that performance, at the level of most of us on here ride at (and certainly Hora, haha) won't suffer as a result of having a 105 rear mech or chainset. Performance will suffer as a result of having an over weight kit obsessed rider on top who spends 6-7 hours a week on a bike tops.
Nothing wrong with having nice kit, but don't kid yourself you're doing it for performance unless you're competing, and at a pretty high level at that.
...and my tarmac, with 105 and those cheap planet X wheels, was just under 18lbs on the shop scales. Nearly 3lbs above the UCI weight limit! How do I survive on my bike which is probably technically superior to any tour winning bike pre-2002 or so? Life with rubbish components is so hard 🙁
inapv, you would roll up outside the twee cafe on an early Sunday morning and have disinterested looks thrown at you from the potbellied supa-bike riders!
I would say 105 is the top level of what Hora wants. Most of the race bikes I see have 105 or Ultegra. People seem to upgrade the chainset, but then not bother about the rest. Tiagra seems quite usual on the training bikes I see. I guess I must live in a poor part of the country or something.
Money seems to go on wheels, clothes and power meters. Groupsets make no difference.
In fact, all this equipment discussion obviously makes you out as a mountain biker. A roadie will be far more interested in what jersey you are wearing.
As per mountain biking- plain but muted.
Not covered in the cycle manufacturer or the names of tours etc etc.
Sod that- sad enough on a mountain biker! 😆
Hora it's a Lemond Sarthe. Older models were Reynolds 853, this one is True Temper Platinum OX. It's a keeper, I might change the groupset and wheels at some point in the future but the frame is lovely.
What leg shaving cream are You getting? 😉
Question - in general which type/genre of roadbike has more relaxed geometry? I'm guessing time trial has a steeper/rakish set of angles, same with serious roadcycle with audux/touring more relaxed?
Have you looked at the builds on Ribble? They look pretty good from what I can see. You can get a 105 equiped bike for under £1k.
I really did not get on with the SRAM road shifters (Red and Force) and couldn't wait to get back to Shimano. The SRAM single lever did not suit me, so it is definitely worth trying both types of shifters on a test ride.
I went from 105 to ultegra - not for weight but for shifting performance (old 105) and it was def better but 105 was fine TBH 🙂
Winter bike/commuter has 8 speed Campag Veloce which shifts very nicely for what it needs to do 🙂
What about a cross bike rather than a road bike??Best of both worlds then. Then when your board/scared of riding on the road you can nip off on to some decent stuff. + enter the 3 peaks.
To paraphrase Glee.....
They're not versatile, they're bi-sexual!
Seriously, try one, my touring bike is noticably slower/harder work than my racer, stick CX tyres on it and I'd go faster sat at home pokeing blunt needles in my eyes.
Go s/h and look for a cannondale CAAD frame, not the lightest but well regarded and often compared to steel bikes in terms of 'zing'. My entire bikes cost me sub £600 for the basic bike, upgraded wheels to R-550, dura ace 20speed (the older model though, the shame of it), FSA SL-K chainset and carbon bars, nice-ish saddle, gp4000 tyres.
Just the Stem and seatpost to go.
Then I'll look for a new frame, maybe.
Question - in general which type/genre of roadbike has more relaxed geometry? I'm guessing time trial has a steeper/rakish set of angles, same with serious roadcycle with audux/touring more relaxed?
You've got it - basically the 'faster' you're (meant to) go on a genre of bike pretty much implies steeper angles.
It's not a crazy difference - my 'relaxed' CX/winter bike doesn't feel that much lazier than the more race style PX Carbon jobbie.
[url= http://www.epic-cycles.co.uk/Genesis_Equilibrium.html ]http://www.epic-cycles.co.uk/Genesis_Equilibrium.html[/url]
Genesis Equilibrium is a nice option. And it has room for mudguards making it very versatile. It's a looker too.
I got the Aether (same geometry but cheaper alu frame) for my winter bike and it is excellent. I would have gone for the Equilibrium but it was way over budget.
Re: SRAM or Shimano.
I have SRAM Force groupset on my best bike and it is really good, but the shifts are noticeably more "agricultural" than the 9sp Shimano on the winter bike. I love the doubletap levers though.
It is light for the money too. Force is a bit lighter even than Dura-Ace in BB30 form and only 10g heavier in GXP external BB form.
I'd have no hesitation in recommending it.
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Top one is 'relaxed' geometry, bottom one is 'race' geometry, not exactly a massive difference...