I want to get a new road bike to replace my TCR Carbon, basically I’d like something with more tyre clearance and that’s about it to be honest as the bike itself is excellent.

It’s decked out with 6700 Ultegra and Fulcrum Racing Quattros, so the plan is to buy a bike with lower spec gear on it but a good frame and transplant my existing gruppo & wheels.

The two I’ve seen, like and are readily available are the Focus Cayo 7.0 and the KTM Revelator 3300, both of these are nice and light frames with plenty of tyre clearance, the plus point being that the same frame is used up to far more expensive bikes in the range so the only compromise at the price point is the kit hanging off the frame.

What else at around the £12-1300 price point would you suggest.

Oh yeah it’s likely it’ll be a B2W purchase too so that limits things a little

I had a look at the decathlon carbon one today. 105 all over it for £1 but Blimey it is ugly

why do you want more clearance, for mudguards (I’d get a frame with proper mounts) or just a bit bigger tyres ?

are you sure it’s the frame that’s limiting you ? My brakes (ultegra) offer less clearance than the (racey) frame does

Synapse

Scott Solace 30 at Westbrook cycles (or somewhere else if you find it cheaper).
I’ve got last years 20 and it’s a great frame and takes decent rubber (27mm Open Paves with no problem)

If you get on with the Goant, why not a Defy advance?

KTM looks nice and has a good review in CW, most importantly they rave about the frame which in your situation, is just what you want. A good base to serve as an upgrade platform. Nothing else jumps out as doing what you want, essentially you want the best frame you can get for the money but the likes of Trek and Specialised cheat and use lower spec frames compared to the upper end, I think Trek have at least four grades of carbon throughout the range so you get a down spec’d components on down spec’d frames hence I love Cervelo who have just one frame spec for each model and but as you say the 1485 spec frame is used on all but the top 2 KTM bikes.

I’d go for the KTM personally, it looks nice.

Defy Advanced with 27c Pave tyres. Plenty of choices, but the Defy is an excellent frame and highly recommended and becoming even better value for money now.

At your price point, wheels will be the compromise. Everyone will be trying to give you full 105 and a decent frame, but wheels will be heavy and tyres wire beaded.

Sorry to be a bit thick. Can a TCR not accommodate 28mm tyres? Or did you want even bigger than that?

Not bothered about what comes with the frame as I’ve got nice bits to swap, just the standard of the frame it self.

Regarding tyre clearance it’s tight as **** with 25’s, here’s a shot of clearance to the seatpost, it’s equally tight under the brake brace

What size of tyre would you want to use? If 28, then I’d be wondering whether the advantages of an extra 3mm of tyre width is worth the hassle and expense of getting a new frame, especially since you’re otherwise happy with the bike. If you’ve decided it’s worth it, then you must have more money than me 🙂

Not sure you’ll get anything better for £1000 B2W, unless you are lucky and are in one of those schemes that go up to 3 grand or whatever!

Wouldn’t be going above 25mm for the vast majority of my riding

And 25mm are a problem on the TCR? Is it quite an old version?

Edit… ah just seen the photo. Looks ok to me. You want to run fatter than 25mm?

It’s not that old, 2013 model.

Don’t want to run bigger than 25’s but they are very tight in the frame as you can see

Good thing that, more aero 🙂

Seriously though, I have the same frame and run the same tyres. Never been at all worried about clearance.

Oh and my first road bike was from Alf Jones from about 25 years ago, see they still use the same sticker 🙂

use a different brand of 25c tyres; GP4000s size up bigger than stated.

Steve, iirc you’re same height as me… Here’s my custom built Revelator 3300 for reference… If you’re anywhere near, you’re more than welcome to take it out for a spin as it’s a demo bike anyway.

I’m running tubeless 25’s on 25mm wide rims (17mm internal) and there’s still plenty of clearance in there. I could definitely get 28’s in there if needed. Can’t recommend the bike highly enough. OK mine is a little (to put it mildly) higher specced than standard, but the frame is so good, it warrants it. The 3300 should really be viewed as a vehicle to get you the best possible frame for the money with a groupset and wheels thrown in so you can ride it out the shop. Bung your Ultegra and wheels on it, and it begins to do it justice!

If it helped at all, we’ve got a 2014 Revelator 3300 55cm still in stock, standard Tiagra build. Was £1299, but now reduced to £1k. The framesets are also available seperately too if you wanted to go that way.

So you have a bike that you’re happy with, that runs 25mm tyres fine. You don’t want to ride fatter than 25mm.What am I missing?

As scardeypants said, have a look at your brakes…the blocks are already set fairly low in the caliper arm. Choose your frame carefully or you may be buying new brakes to accommodate the additional clearance. I’m not sure that I’d bother if I liked the original bike

For that sort of money you could get a nice one of the faux cx bikes currently all the rage. N+1 is never wrong and even if you only went 105 you’d see an improvement on 6700 (I have and do). You might even be able to get 685’s at that price but for me, 105 and discs on a high end ally frame with loads of clearance plus the original bike for blasting about on is a good compromise. I went CAADX and upgraded to Spyres/Kinesis crosslight cx wheels but still under your budget.

Sorted 🙂

I thought 25s were the sweet spot for speed and comfort?

get the revamalatator

Why are you buying a full bike, just for the frame? As nice a bike as you’d get for £1300, you’d get a nicerer F&F Shirley?

To be fair the Revelator is a cracking frame and the same on most of the range bar the very top two.

It’s pretty tricky getting a F&F on B2W, kinda makes it tricky to ride to work on 😀

I don’t want a faux CX / adventure road bike. GOt a proper CX lined up for this winter.

There’s a boat load of clearance between the brakes & the tyres

Are you getting tyre rubbing on the frame when climbing/sprinting? Or having issues with stuff clagging up the gap between the seattube and the tyre? If not, I’d be sticking with what you’ve got. Or admitting it’s a new bike itch rather than dressing it up with being an actual problem!

I had one of the very first carbon TCRs. Yes tyre clearance was tight but never an issue, but the short chainstays made it a very nice handling bike.

I’ve found gp4000’s on the large size whilst gp4seasons come up small. Still if your set on the new bike plan how about a Genesis Zero same hi modulus carbon frame throughout the range and the base model is £1300 with Tiagra.