I have 2k to spend and it must be at Wheelies, the bike will be expected to be ridden every weekday for at least 15y as was my last commuter so Im happy with the budget

Spec list:

It will be my main commuter – parking at work is bomb proof (literally)
It must take mudguards, and pannier rack a nice bonus too
Big tyre clearance and discs essential
Must be half decent on winter road rides – touring bikes appeal but would be too heavy for the club
Must be happy on a tow path or fire road if I fancy a detour home

Ive been thinking about this for weeks and just cant decide on what to go for, I should probably just flip a coin tomorrow but what the hell can I put it to the STW collective, what would you go for and why from the following short list Ive come up with:

Diverge smartweld
GT Grade 105 carbon (worries here with rack mount)
Kona Sutra LTD – like how this is “different” but worried about club runs
Genesis Datum 20 – if you can get one and again rack poss not allowed
And anything Ive missed??

The Diverge is my top choice, only niggle is that the plug and play mudguards dont come down far enough to keep my club mates happy although I could always attach flaps to the ends

Cheers

I had a test ride on the Datum 10 the other day on a Madison demo bike.

They only had a medium so it felt a little small but it was lovely to ride. The Tiagra gears were really slick and the brakes were good. Went around the back streets behind the bike shop that was hosting the event and these were typical UK back streets, not big potholes but a lot of the surface was damaged. It just soaked that up. Bike felt light and fast even on the wider tyres.

Thing is though, why (aside from the colour) would anyone buy the 10? If you’ve £1800 to spend, you may as well stretch the budget and get the 20 because you get a lot more bike for that £300. It’s an odd price point to have 2 different models at. The 30 sits above them both and is obviously going to be above some budgets.

I went for a pre purchase fit. He suggested the Specialized carbon comp too (about £2.5k) and said the finishing kit was better on the Specialized.

I was weighing up whether to get the Datum 30, and even looked at the Specialized Roubaix which is £4k. At that point common sense kicked in. I figured a power meter would be more fun than electronic gears and the money I saved would buy me a bike in the future (or, if 105 gets di2 in a year or 2, the upgrade kit when it comes out)

In the end I ordered a Datum 20 with changed bars, stem and a power meter.