I'm trying to help Mrs F-J buy a road bike. She's already got a mountain bike but is looking for a lighter road bike to go a bit faster round town.

Our budget is a grand or less and the two I've narrowed it down to are:

Cannondale Synapse triple – which has a triple chainset and a decent frame

or

A planet x full carbon which has a full carbon frame and fork and SRAM Rival but doesn't have a triple chainset.

Of these two, does anyone know anyone who has either of these bikes? Anything good or bad to report??

Are there any other bikes we should be looking at?

Thanks

F_J

PX is good value for money but and it's a big but, the angles are a bit off so it's ok on the flat, can't climb well and is rubbish on descents and cornering can be interesting.

if she is anything like mrs T-R then she will want and probably benifit from the triple .

tried a compact and the gear jumps are just too big to be useful (plus she had a triple pre compact )

of course some macho men will be along to tell you compact is all you need and that she just needs to learn to deal with it

Planet x are really good value for money. Look at Ribble too. You don't need to spend loads, I race and train on an alloy bike that costs a lot less than that and it is more than suitable.

Giant seem to be quite popular with some of the women I ride with.

http://www.italian-solutions.co.uk/product.php?productid=161728&cat=280&page=1

Got one, its great value and great looking, however, my girlfriend hates it………but what does she know!

HTH 🙂

Fab – thanks everyone.

Alwyn & Spey Stout – will have a look at the bikes you suggested – hadn't considered either of those.

Joxter – the "interesting cornering" probably rules the PX out for now… thanks for sharing.

of course some macho men will be along to tell you compact is all you need and that she just needs to learn to deal with it

53/39 all the way… 😀

(Seriously, a triple is good. for winching up all sorts of stuff. Oh, and you have to remember Joxster is an ex-pro road and track rider, so his view of how well something rides may be more, er, "highly tuned" than others.)

Carriegold of this parish (before the great Christmas blackout) has a Bianchi Dame of some type that was about £750 and is a lovely little bike. I believe it was referred to as "like a real bike but smaller" by the wags on here.

My wife has just bought a cannondale synapse like the one in your link and loves it.She was pretty much set on a WSD Trek 1.5 but after riding them both got on much better with the Cannondale.The bike shop changed it from a triple to a compact chainset for her at no extra cost.