Giant Defy Composite 1 or Cannondale Synapse 105? You were so close!

Making a meal of roading’ – I/everyone was/is like this when they start mountain biking. Imagine starting out mountain biking and buying a Lapierre Zesty- you’ve lucked in. Roadwise I didn’t do this. I went cheap frame/fork.. Same if you buy a cheaper framed/forked mountain bike etc as your first bike. It aint a bad bike- however the Defy felt so much nicer. As did a Supersix but I didn’t have supersix budget at the time..

Seriously fella, you’re riding a bike that would’ve been a Pro’s dream a few years ago and has a race winning palmares as long as your arm. Just ride the chuffing thing and stop trying to get to an impossible point.

until you get it feeling right for you.

Or you realise that what you thought was right either isn’t or maybe isn’t realistic. I’ve seen many new roadies spent time and money making their bikes ‘more comfortable’ when ultimately just getting used to riding a road bike was what it took.

I’d recommend a skills course.

You never do though, you dont think anything you’v ever bought is any good, Blur 4x, Turners, Marzocchis, the list is endless. We have all been watching you for years and wondering whats next. Good entertainment, keep it up

Yeah yeag, cos you all ride round on a rigid steel bike that you’ve owned since year dot and you never swap and change/buy new bikes 😉

I’m merely a sacrificial figurehead for all you serial gear-swappers to hide behind

I’d recommend binning those UltraShite tyres first off, heavy and puncture prone.

I bought the PX Pro Carbon back in February which came with FSA Team 30 Wheelset. The wheels weren’t good to be honest, flexed, slow to pick up and generally felt sluggish. I bought a set of Fulcrun Racing 5 wheels in June and there’s a massive difference. Slightly lighter, noticeably stiffer and more responsive. The other thing that made a difference was changing the San Marco Ponza saddle. That was one hell of an uncomfortable piece of rubbish. It’s only me second road bike but is far superior to the CAAD 8 Tiagra I replaced.

San Marco Ponza saddle.

I concur on that.

I bought the PX Pro Carbon back in February which came with FSA Team 30 Wheelset. The wheels weren’t good to be honest, flexed, slow to pick up and generally felt sluggish. I bought a set of Fulcrun Racing 5 wheels in June and there’s a massive difference. Slightly lighter, noticeably stiffer and more responsive.

Thats good to hear. TBH I will need a second wheelset for my rat/commuter bike build- I’ve got a old shabby steel frame/fork/BB IOCC brand? that I can put the FSA’s on so double-win.

It’s only me second road bike but is far superior to the CAAD 8 Tiagra I replaced.

Quite surprised by that. I’d have spent the money upgrading around the CAAD8 frame. Not ridden one but they seem to be highly rated.

Getting back to your original question. Some good wheels and tyres will make a difference, enough to transform the bike into something your happy with ? impossible to say, but they would be the thing that would make the most difference. you’d have to go up a few notches’ not to something slightly better, but they’d be an investment that could go from bike to bike in the future.

I’d start at the beginning by putting some more psi in your current tyres, try anything over 105 front, 110 rear then experiment.

Winters here, waste of money chucking £’s at a new set of hoops,, just experiment with psi first and hack over the winter, once into March you will have another few months under your legs and then you’ll probably find you’ll want/need a new bike.

HTH

I’d start at the beginning by putting some more psi in your current tyres, try anything over 105 front, 110 rear then experiment.

Unless he’s north of 16 stone, that is way too much. In 25mm tyres anything over 90psi is ‘a lot’.

Quite surprised by that. I’d have spent the money upgrading around the CAAD8 frame. Not ridden one but they seem to be highly rated.

This is what I did with my CAAD4, got it perfect, and then the DA shifters died!

People usually trot out the line that the PXs are noodly (esp in big sizes) rather than being wooden (though I suppose they’re probably not absolutely exclusive terms – more subjective bobbins 😀 )

I’ve had 2 of them (L & XL) and I didn’t find either to fit either description; they’re perfectly good-riding frames IMO

Get the wheels anyway Hora – I suppose they can go on your next frame if putting them on the PX fails to turn you on (if I were you, though, I’d make sure they have disc hubs)

Quite surprised by that. I’d have spent the money upgrading around the CAAD8 frame. Not ridden one but they seem to be highly rated.

As far as climbing is concerned there’s not much in it, the PX is lighter so maybe just edges it. But it’s descending where I found the biggest difference. I didn’t realise how twitchy the CAAD 8 was until I rode the PX. Just point the PX and it goes there. I suppose it also helps that the Ultegra brakes on the PX are massively better than the Tiagra on the CAAD.

I changed the standard wheels on my Spesh Roubaix to some Prolite Braccianos after about 18 months. They made a very noticeable difference, especially climbing and getting up to speed. That was 6/7 years ago and as a sometime roadie I’ve changed nothing since. There are some Hope pro3/Mavic open pros on here somewhere at a decent price.

Cani just add that bikes/wheels aren’t fast, its all about the rider! 😀

These? singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/hope-pro-3-road-wheels

Sold 🙁

at the risk of standing up for you, Hora,

i didn’t particually like my Planet-X Pro Carbon either, first road bike for me, had one in 2010, 2011 ish, didn’t do a huge amount of miles on it, but it had some weird vibrating/resonate issue on descents, could only take 1 bottle in a small,

my brother has one though, bought earlier this year he’s done 3.5k on it and seems to like it, although he came from a Specialized Globe single speed hipster thing, and probably doesn’t know any better

No, these

I’ve seen many new roadies spent time and money making their bikes ‘more comfortable’ when ultimately just getting used to riding a road bike was what it took.

Got my first modern road bike after 10 years away, hated it for first 6 months, tolerated it for next 6, now is more or less all I ride.
It just takes time, the pX is hardly a dog – just let it break you then rebuild you 🙂

This is a very fair comment. My advice to you would be to learn to live with what you are currently riding and all its little foibles. Once you have a bit more experience you’ll be better informed when/if it comes to your next upgrade or bike. I just think you’re rushing into change for changes sake at the moment.

It’s very possible that what you think is a good change now, you’ll subsequently regret as you get more used to road riding.
scotroutes-I think your good common sense may fall on deaf ears,hora seems to think that changing bits/spending money is the way to go compounded by the fact that he thinks he should have bought another bike and going by his serial MTB frame swapping once it’s in his head that something isn’t right then it’s hard not to.I sort of understand that cos I’m sure we all get bugged by things that don’t feel right but sometimes you need to persevere .What sort of mileage and riding are you doing on the PX hora?

The planet x is pretty good and fairly comfy. If I were you I’d ride it through winter and then change bits come next year.

There’s quite a bit of ‘odd’ ‘advice’ in here! Hora, Wheels and tyres wise you can upgrade significantly and for not too much cash. The FSA 30s are not a great wheel. GP4000s and s2s are ace. 4 seasons also. As someone else has said Ultegra wheels are good.

Andyhilton – Member
There’s quite a bit of ‘odd’ ‘advice’ in here! Hora, Wheels and tyres wise you can upgrade significantly and for not too much cash. The FSA 30s are not a great wheel. GP4000s and s2s are ace. 4 seasons also. As someone else has said Ultegra wheels are good.

If you’re doing lots of miles over winter then it’s probably not worth changing wheels just yet, unless of course you don’t mind changing them again in a few months when they’re worn out

I’ve never had a set of wheels wear out in a few months.

Congratulations? 😀

Change your tyres first, conti ultrasports are the bog standard OEM tyre you get on any bike built to fit a price point, see how GP4s might improve things.

Then think about the wheels, although I’d be inclined to keep the FSAs through winter, let them get utterly shagged out and when spring comes round invest in some ultegras perhaps, and it’ll probably seem revelatory…

It’s not bragging, it’s a statement of fact. Unhappy with the **** wheels you have? Change them now. They aint gonna wear out between now and April.

It’s not bragging, it’s a statement of fact. Unhappy with the **** wheels you have? Change them now. They aint gonna wear out between now and April.

Do you have disc brakes?

If you ride up and down hills all winter then you can wear a set of rims out in a few months.

No. Not even on my CX bike. Or my race bike. Or winter bike. I have them on my 29er and one of my HTs. Mostly rim brakes though.

If you are wearing your brakes out going up hills, you’re definitely doing something wrong. Going downhill…stop dragging your brakes! Wearing out rims in a few months…come on!

If you are wearing your brakes out going up hills, you’re definitely doing something wrong. Going downhill…stop dragging your brakes! Wearing out rims in a few months…come on!

Over the past three weeks I’ve done 570 miles of commuting (47 miles a day, four days a week). 800 ish metres of climbing/descending per day, and one hell of a lot of traffic lights and traffic to stop for. Have you seen the weather? I fully expect to be replacing my rims (well, wheels) come April. YMMV.

Buying new rims now, at the start of another long wet mild winter* is the daftest advice ever *for this particular OP*

Tyres and MTFU or get rid.

*guaranteed.

If you really don’t feel comfortable on it, why not stick it on ebay and see what you get for it. You can then get a 2nd hand defy or something you prefer.

Trouble with swapping bits out is you could end up throwing good money after bad.

But apart from it feeling “wooden”, having slab sided forks that deflect the bike when it’s in anything more than a mild breeze and having some odd sizing issues the bike sounds perfect.

As a parallel sort of experience, I bought a bargain bucket Giant OCR a few years back which was brutally harsh and came with some impressively heavy wheels as standard. In an effort to improve it, I bought some Bontrager Race X-Lites, which were decently light as replacements.

They did change the feel of the bike markedly in that it felt a lot zippier than before thanks to the prodigious weight loss at the wheels, but they didn’t make a huge difference to the harsh ride of the frame. I ended up buying a much nicer Lynskey ti Planet X which is way nicer all round.

I don’t know if that helps, I guess it depends on what you mean by ‘wooden’, but my take would be that you can add some more zip to the ride with lighter wheels, but if the frame has a defining characteristic, it’ll still have it – my OCR was ace on smooth roads in Spain and awful on the local tarmac chunder in the Peak.

If I were you I’d change the tyres, ride the bike over the winter then make a call on if and what to change in the spring.

I doubt Hora will be riding 570 commuting miles in a 3 week period 8O. Most people just go out a couple of times a week in winter. No reason not to use good wheels for your Sunday winter ride. Getting away from town I normally go through a pair of pads in winter not a pair of rims.

“Like a circle in a spiral, like a wheel within a wheel
Never ending or beginning on an ever spinning reel
As the images unwind, like the circles that you find in
The windmills of your mind!”

Kinda sums it up 🙂

I doubt Hora will be riding 570 commuting miles in a 3 week period

commuting on a bike is hateful anywhere near urban/built up areas. Unless you commute somewhere that has great roads. No ta!

Open Pave’s are brilliant tyres, make a huge difference to the feel of any bike I’ve put them on. However, from memory the clearances on the Pro Carbon aren’t huge so they may not fit. Go 24mm but even then I think it’ll be a tight fit, especially if you run crud race guards too.

Also, they wear out SUPER quick – mine are half way done and I’m on about 500 miles on them. My bro swears by conti’s, maybe look at the 4 seasons or GP’s. Anything with a high TPI count will make a difference, Vittorias run at 320tpi, so anything around that mark means they’re much more supple and (IMO) are nicer to ride.

As for the frame itself – just ride it lots and get used to it. They’re not the last word in comfort but then they’re not mega expensive either. You could spend money on wheels, but you’re better off just getting out and sticking loads of miles on what you have, replacing stuff when it wears out.

As for the suggestions about something less racey – I’ve tried a number of ‘sportive’ and all rounder bikes and found them awful – too upright, heavy, slow….

Wheres the best place to buy them from? There seems to be alot of CGII’s than the later III’s about.