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I'm bored trawling geometry charts so thought I'd see if any suggestions here.
It's for my dad, he does decent mileage and currently has a 10 year old flat bar roadie and he'd like something nicer/newer/faster, discs and carbon frame. He injured his shoulder in an accident a few years ago so needs something relatively relaxed to keep him in comfortable position. Genesis Datum currently tops the list, anything else I should recommend to him?
Specialized Roubaix?
Jamis Renegade Expert was under £1250 at Evans recently, 11 speed hydro 105, full carbon and thru axles. Don't know if they've still got any though.
To be honest all the 'sportive' bikes seem to be much of a muchness, I spent a while geeking out over geometry charts and I'd swear the Synapse/Roubaix/Diverge/Datum/Defy are all the same (actually Defy might be a tiny bit lower now I think about it).
Giant do one called the Anyroad Comax. Looked like decent spec etc and quite upgradeable, not too sure about the looks though! It seemed the most performance oriented of the truly upright/short frames.
Other than the Anyroad I think you'd be looking at touring frames, I had a Salsa Vaya a while ago which felt great on long road rides (put in a couple of respectable hilly centuries on mine). Sold it eventually as it felt far more sluggish than my carbon Synapse (unsurprisingly!) but regret that decision now, could have been built up lighter with some nice tyres and made a great long distance bike.
Norco Search, Spesh Diverge and OO Bish Bash Bosh would be good choices along with the Datum. Nice thing about all those bikes is the option to run big (40mm+)tyres for more comfort.
Roubaix. Longest headtube I've ever seen. Defy is a lot lower and much more of a race bike.
A flipped stem is always possible too.
Oh god, I shouldn't have looked, new Vaya has triple butted tubing and a caron fork, plus it's orange!
Thanks, some good suggestions. The Jamis is sadly sold out at that price though even at full whack seems ok value. Diverge probably top of the list at the moment, stack is same as most of the others but reach looks notably shorter.
Check out the GT Grade, I have the alloy version but they do a full carbon range and the front is like a barn door