Forget those Victorian era cable shifters as well, get eTap

I can relate to all of these points. I recently bought my first road bike after years of throwing scorn at the idiots on the road who clearly didn’t understand that there was a world of filth escaping their notice. My son was the turning point and once he started to want to ride road, I had no choice but to follow behind.

I went to shops, browsed the internet and in the end, not really knowing what I wanted (yet alone needed), I punted up a few hundred quid on a nice looking Planet X bike which seemed to be OK, without being extravagant. I swapped the stem for a longer one pretty much before I rode it (good call, that), removed the garish stickers from the silly carbon wheels (there was *no* way I was going to draw more attention to myself than I needed!), slapped on a spare pair of SPDs and then got out and rode it.

And you know what? I love it and am having a great time! I have no idea what I’m doing and, most of the time, have no idea what my fellow riders are going on about, but I stick with them and try to listen and learn. One day, I’ll probably get a posher bike (or, perhaps, a less posh, but newer one) but for now, I’m just enjoying myself.

Don’t think too hard. Set a modest budget and go out and buy a bike that only moderately exceeds it (well, we have to be realistic here!) and feels comfy to you. If you’re uncertain, go to an LBS and try a few bikes. If you’re an idiot like me, plonk for the first one that seemed about right and spend two weeks in the garage cursing it, but either way, get out and enjoy your new bike.

And I can promise you that you will 🙂

Thanks guys, lots of food for thought.

Tired – yep, I know that all this is on me, but as highlighted by others – for me at present, MTB is an hour or so of fun between faff at each end. It’s the faff I don’t have time for right now, hence wanting a road bike. True, I have a 700C commuter, but that’s just not that much fun to slog up hills, and neither is it that much reward back down them.

Which gets me back to the bike. Comments duly noted about sizing. I’m going to hold off that Lapierre until I can ride a few. The money isn’t so much an issue for me. I’m fortunate enough to be in a position where I can think about spending that much on a bike, and I don’t tend to swap them much when I have them. Aside from the commuter, my last purchase was my main MTB – a 26″ Cotic Soul from 2008. I know what spec level I like, and don’t generally put anything less than XT and decent wheels on my MTBs, so I’m not likely to step much below that on a road bike I want for pleasure.

Disks I think I’ll leave – it barely rains here, and very rarely enough for me to need to ride in it (i.e. I can just wait for it not to be raining, then go out). DI2 I’m interested in, but I know that mechanical Ultegra will be fine, so it won’t be a deal breaker.

I’ll chew the cud some more, and maybe get a smart turbo to at least get into a pattern of exercise 3-5 times a week. I’m intrigued by the comments about instead of going for an endurance bike, that perhaps an out and out racer might suit me more, given my likely riding pattern of 1-2 hour blasts. That’s an interesting take on things, and one I’ll consider further.

Cheers

Z

Hi Zokes,
This time 18 months ago I was in a similar situation to you.
I bought a Rose GF [one of their ex-demo bikes]
It is a blast to ride, has some very decent kit on it, comfy, fast…I use it around the lanes of Cumbria and have tackled some of the harder passes. But my fitness was the issue, not the bike.
The bike has SRAM Force 22 running kit which is great, and rim brakes.
If I was buying another I would go for discs but only due to the wet area of the UK I live in.
Otherwise the bike has been perfect.
https://www.rosebikes.com/bike/rose-xeon-team-gf-4400-818639/aid:818683#0-H1I1U-H1I1V-H1I1W-H1I1X-H1I8N-H1I1Z-H1I8Q-H1I8P-H1I8O-H1I8M-H1I8L-H1I1f-H1I1g-H1I1h-H1I1i-H1I1j-H1I1k-H1I1l-H1I1m-H1I1n-H1I1o-H1I1r-H2xyj-H2xyk

Well, just to complete the record, I’ll be picking up one of these on Saturday: https://www.giant-bicycles.com/au/tcr-advanced-sl-1

Test rode a TCR Pro the other week and it fitted like a glove, $2k discount and all of a sudden the SL is affordable and so light I think it might actually float away.

Thanks again for your advice guys. Comments on going for an out and out racer were very good and did change what I was looking at. If I do end up with both the stamina and time to do whole day efforts perhaps I can look at endurance bikes in a few years. Now to get fit, and fast…

Nice, I’ve got Ultegra DI2 on the Canyon I bought just before summer, and it’s superb. Would hate to go back to mechanical! (Although to be fair I’ve not not compared it directly to a brand new mechanical Ultegra, so the difference may not be that important…)

Nice – well done for not being swayed into buying a $500 s/h bike on the basis it’s all you really need at the moment, there’s nothing that will inspire you to ride quite like having the bike you really want to ride. Re brakes – Ultegra 6800 calipers are fantastic & are plenty if you’re only ever riding in fair weather, a cheap set of training wheels can be had for pennies if you end up riding more in town or whatever.

If we all bought only the bikes we really needed, there would be a whole lot of wasted spare-room / loft / cupboard space in the world – yes I hide bikes in the loft so the missus only ever sees the number i’ve declared in circulation 😉

I’ve been very, very impressed with the Ultegra hydro’s on my Boardman – more so than I expected in fact as I didn’t think the difference would be noticeable in the dry. Di2 is also nice, especially the front shifting.

That looks a very, very nice bike, and I am sure you should get a lot of fun from riding it.

I do suspect that you might find the 52/36 chainset is too large a jump. I would suggest you see how you get on with riding the bike: if you are so fit and going out for such relatively short periods that you are able to ride comfortably in the big ring most or even all of the time, then it doesn’t matter (and I envy you).

However, if you find that you are using the inner ring a fair amount and that the drop in gearing from big ring to small ring is too much (even with a simultaneous shift at the back to smaller sprockets), then you might find a 39t inner, or even a 42t inner, to be better. You could still fit the 36t for any big long day rides or rides in hilly terrain.

39t rings are fairly inexpensive, but if you were to decide that you wanted 42t, I think you might only be able to get a Dura Ace version (or an after market TA ring), which would be more expensive (but still nothing like the very high cost of the Shimano outer rings).

A 42t inner? I don’t think he’s planning to time trial it…!

52/36 and an 11:28 on the back is a pretty standard combination that a lot of road cyclists use (although not me – I’m a wuss and therefore have 50/34 and 11:28 on my main bike).

A 42t inner? I don’t think he’s planning to time trial it…!

52/36 and an 11:28 on the back is a pretty standard combination that a lot of road cyclists use

It depends upon the rider, their fitness, the terrain and the duration and intensity of the ride.

Put simply, whatever the ring sizes on your bike, if you find that you are in the small ring and small sprockets (and/or big/big) for much of the time, or that you are frequently making simultaneous double shifts (front and rear) on non-rolling terrain, that suggests that your gearing is not ideal for you/your circumstances (although that may change with improving fitness).

In that event, one of the options is to fit a smaller big ring, e.g. 50, 48 or even 46. That is what I would do (and have done) when I want gearing for longer rides and was not bothered about losing the very high gears.

However, if you are only going out for an hour or so and there are no steep hills, then you might find a 39t or 42t inner gives a better range of lower gears.

If I were in the OP’s shoes, I would wait and see how I got on with the existing gears, but if I did find the 52/36 unsatisfactory, then I would be very tempted to have two chainsets: 52/42 for the quick blasts, and a smaller chainset which I could fit for any long days with big hills, e.g. 50/34 or even 46/34.

If I were in the OP’s shoes, I would wait and see how I got on with the existing gears, but if I did find the 52/36 unsatisfactory, then I would be very tempted to have two chainsets: 52/42 for the quick blasts, and a smaller chainset which I could fit for any long days with big hills, e.g. 50/34 or even 46/34.

Or, depending on fitness, just do what 99.9999% of the road cycling world does and stick with either a 53/39, 52/36 or 50/34 for all your riding…

Zokes, one other comment I would make is to say be careful you don’t overdo it. You are likely to find that the speed and responsiveness of the bike encourages you to push yourself all the time. To state the obvious, you cannot batter yourself every time you go out, otherwise you will end up stale, over-trained and burnt out. Similarly, be careful about using computers, power meters, heart rate monitors, Strava and the like, and make sure you don’t become a slave to such tech.

Even if you are very fit, and you can sustain high speeds for the whole of your rides, make sure you also fit in some easy slow rides where you can just relax, enjoy the views and enjoy being out; even better if it involves a cafe stop.

Thanks for the follow-up comments guys. I’ll stay with the stock gearing at present as rides will likely have both hilly and long flat sections (Adelaide is on a coastal plain bounded by some pretty sharply graded hills) – advice on when perhaps to think about changing rings is very appreciated.

Sadly I’m not very fit any more, hence the purchase. My short commute and the rare time I manage to get out MTBing isn’t getting me enough exercise, hence the decision to buy a road bike. I have a target of getting back to being able to do 100kms by the new year, but I’m not going to kill myself trying. I’m only 33, but have seen my fitness at a bit of a crossroads in recent months, and suspect if I don’t start doing something about it soon it’s only going to get harder as I get older. A few friends and colleagues seem to be in the same boat (coincidentally all after becoming fathers and lapsed MTBers), so hopefully there’ll be a quorum of subtle peer pressure without having to go al STRAVA!!!1!!1!!!.

I’m well aware that this is probably more bike than I need now, if ever, but we only live once, eh? 😉

That said, I nearly fell off my chair when I saw how much a new Cotic Soul would cost at anything approaching the spec of mine. Bikes do seem to have become expensive in the last decade!

Some good info on this thread, so bookmarking for later.

Great choice. Now up early and enjoy it. I like to be back from my 100km training ride by 9:30. So an early start to set you up for the day.

And TCRS are all-day comfortable. Not a lot in it compared with a similarly set up Defy or Propel. Don’t believe the hype 😉

As a dad and a committed MTB’er the one thing you need to keep involved in the sport is an understanding Mrs. Road riding has definitely become more regular for me as the time restrictions are less. It’s great to do both though – your bike handling on the road should be pretty good already and when you get back on the MTB you should be able to feel a fitness difference.

Just to chuck another bike in the mix; Cube Attain GTC SL disc – another direct order, not sure on ASD price but good value spec.
1 mate got the carbon and another the ally – both are great in their own way. We rode to Berlin last month and as relative newbies they both found them pretty comfortable when I was predicting all sorts of shoulder/neck probs.

Disc V rim; in dry road conditions rim brakes are fine but with the geo of bikes like the Cube Attain you can hit gravel/dirt trails too with 28c tyres on – we had plenty of forest tracks in N.Germany. I love my Ultegra rim brakes on the road but would have preferred the feel of hydro discs when on unpaved tracks. Just my twopeneth – modern road bikes are pretty handy off-road too.

Ok, so just to finish the story, for those familiar with Adelaide, there’s a common training hill that’s a cycleway up the old freeway. About 9km and average 4.8% gradient. Daryl Impey’s time on Strava is 20ish minutes.

Last Thursday on my Salsa I did it in 47 minutes. Not great, but not ridiculously poor for me, six minutes longer than an old PB from fitter days. Yesterday evening I rode the TCR for the first time and smashed 10 minutes off Thursday’s time. I can now do it in 37 minutes.

Most of you probably aren’t that fussed about the minutiae of an unremarkable, slightly podgy 34 year old’s times on a route on the opposite side of the world to most of you. However, I really enjoyed that ride. I really really enjoyed it. And that’s why I wanted a new light bike, one that pushes you to try harder and speed up hills, rather than my salsa that punishes you until you spin in the granny ring.

So yes, I’m sure I could have been just fine with a Sora-specced ally frame for $1500. But, I doubt I’d be wanting to ride back up that hill again this morning if I’d gone down that route.

Confirmation bias in action 😉

So long as you are out riding and enjoying it then it’s all good…

Crack on fella!

So yes, I’m sure I could have been just fine with a Sora-specced ally frame for $1500. But, I doubt I’d be wanting to ride back up that hill again this morning if I’d gone down that route.

I rode up loads of big mountains on my Sora spec ally rig…

It’s nicer on my new Ultegra carbon fibre bike, of course, but there’s definitely a hint of confirmation bias in action as cookeaa so correctly points out 😆

Well done mate, youve not got thousands of other segments to smash 😉

Enjoy!!

Confirmation bias in action

So what? The purpose of the exercise was to get a bike I enjoyed riding up hills.

Job jobbed.

I think people are suggesting you could have done that for half the price. I doubt any time differences between a high end bike and a mid to low end bike would be within the margin of error of Strava.

That should have been ‘ you’ve NOW got..’ positive style!!

Perhaps I shouldn’t have (TBF mostly in jest) said anything about ‘confirmation bias’…

I don’t think the choice was really quite so binary as “Sora-specced ally frame for $1500” or “6k Di2 clad ego sled” (there was a page and a half of people mostly suggesting you moderate the budget for your very first road bike) but meh, a good bicycle was bought and will doubtless get used, so go ride it and ignore the interntz, We’re probably just jealous anyway 😉

I think people are suggesting you could have done that for half the price. I doubt any time differences between a high end bike and a mid to low end bike would be within the margin of error of Strava.

At the risk of getting into yet another pointless argument with you, if you’d read the whole thread you’d have seen that the bike it’s being compared to is my Salsa Casseroll, which is hardly what you’d call entry level.

But meh, the giant was bought for me to enjoy. I’ll do that. Sorry if a lapsed cyclist finally getting back to enjoying cycling through the purchase of a bike he can afford has offended anyone. I just don’t see the point in buying a low end roadie when all my MTBs are of similar high end spec, and were chosen very carefully at the time of their purchase/build.

) I just do not have the time to get out mountain biking as much as I need to

Lamest, cliched excuse ever.

Don’t know how much a Ribble would cost to have sent out to Oz but I have one and it’s great…and cheap!

Aluminum Ribble Ultralite.

I used their bike builder page to have it built to my spec.

Decent 105 groupset.

Quality contact points: Ritchey bars, Cinelli seat, stem and post has made it almost comfortable!…with decent quality thick bar tape (don’t scrimp on these areas, they make a huge difference).

Wheels are Fulcrum, nothing flashy but not heavy either.

With a smattering of carbon in the contact points I listed above it sits at 8kg which I’m happy with.

I initially bought a Spesh Allez as my first road bike and it was ok but adjusting to a roadie position was difficult even though the Allez is considered more Sportive than Race…so I did the opposite of what’s expected and bought the Ribble which has proper Race geo (short head tube, straight to tube, proper head down and arse up riding position)…i thought that if I’m going to be uncomfortable then I might as well be uncomfortable on something that looks fast and I will develop into.

It’s been a revelation, with the Allez there was more weight on my backside which given the rigid back end of a road bike made it hurt and gave me lower back pain…perceived wisdom to cure this is a comfortable saddle and padded shorts…no thanks, I wanted a carbon saddle and lycra without a bloody nappy in it!

The more racy position of the Ribble has spread my weight more evenly between pedals, bars and saddle which has meant I keep the gorgeous sub 100g carbon saddle and get to ride in lycra shorts without looking like I’ve had a dump in them while riding.

I know everyone recommends what they own but I think the bike is brilliant and it was only about £1500…not sure what that is in Oz dollars but it’s got to be cheaper than what you’ve been looking at!?

Cheers Deviant. I looked at the Ribbles, but as with Canyons decided that having no way to try the bike beforehand meant that it was a non-starter.

Glad you’ve got a bike that you like, coming from the MTB world I too initially thought a bike with more sportif geometry might be better. However, after trying a couple of racier bikes including the TCR I went with, I was pleased to find that this seemed to suit me better. Being a Giant, it’s mostly Giant finishing kit, but it seems nice enough in an unassuming way. Bars certainly comfortable enough, stem light and stiff. Saddle may take some getting used to and not much choice on the seat post given that it’s integrated 😆

I just don’t see the point in buying a low end roadie when all my MTBs are of similar high end spec, and were chosen very carefully at the time of their purchase/build.

May I refer you to the thread title?

May I refer you to the thread title?

You may:

“I know very little about road bikes, but I think I’ve decided I want one“

Which bit of it said that I wanted a cheap one?

I’ve ridden MTBs costing >$3k for the past 15 years. Do I need to? No. Does anyone outside of elite sportspeople? Probably not, but it doesn’t stop them doing so and enjoying it.

I’m sorry you’ve taken such umbrance with me being very happy with a purchase that was most definitely influenced by some of the generous advice provided on this thread.

Zokes, never mind the comments, tell us more about the bike. What was it like going down the hill?

I think people are suggesting you could have done that for half the price. I doubt any time differences between a high end bike and a mid to low end bike would be within the margin of error of Strava.

Not sure what umbrance means but if its similar to umbrage I’m not sure where I have show much. Glad you like your new bike but doubt its made you much faster thats all.

Zokes, never mind the comments, tell us more about the bike. What was it like going down the hill?

Better than me! And certainly better than me in the dark on a damp road with a number of kangaroos to contend with (and I’ve seen the damage one of those can do to a 4wd at >60 km/h…). When I finally find myself home at the weekend so I can ride in daylight I’ll post an update.

Whilst I can’t comment on how it handles at very high speeds yet, the rate at which it accelerated was startling, nudging 60 km/h from a standing start with almost no effort. Cornering was equally astonishing. But, even on a dry, roo-free road in daylight I can safely say that it’ll be a while before I’ve grown the confidence to really see how it goes at speeds of 70+ km/h. As an aside to that, for all the worries about carbon rims and braking, it pulled up very quickly and predictably when I needed it to.

Not sure what umbrance means but if its similar to umbrage

That’d be the one 😉

Glad you like your new bike but doubt its made you much faster thats all.

Well, I was up and down this particular hill on the Giant in less time than it took me to haul myself up the same hill four days previous on the Salsa, and did the climb 10 minutes faster (37 minutes, down from 47 minutes). New bike or no new bike, I’m quite chuffed with a >20% reduction in time, especially on a hill that until the other night I’d only ever seen as a very unpleasant experience.