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Bit of an outsider but I wonder if this would meet your requirements?
https://www.merlincycles.com/3t-strada-team-red-etap-aero-road-bike-174645.html
Got the aero frame, electronic gears, deep wheels etc etc. Not sure on the overall weight.
Or you could get the arguably much better value mechanical Force one and save a packet but add weight:
https://www.merlincycles.com/3t-strada-team-aero-road-bike-151095.html
My Scott CR1 SL build was 7.5kg with ultegra, Ritchey bars and stem, and superstar wheels.
£1300, I think.
I cracked the frame at the chain stay, from either being too fat, bunny hopping too much, or crashing too often.
Even though 7.5 isn’t featherweight, it felt incredibly light, I could straight arm lift it by the seat post.
I replaced with Vitus Di2 disc at 8.5kg or more. Feels like a tank. Love it though.
FWIW, despite my new bike being a touch over 8kg with pedals, I got a number of PRs on my first couple of rides - on roads which I ride loads.
I put this down to the stiffer frame (huge box-section BB) and perhaps the rims being a smidge deeper and tyres tubeless.
I did 210km on my propel yesterday .
Was still getting PRs on it after 160kms.
Ride segments previously done on my ultegra/Mavic ksyrium giant OCR and/or my Kona touring bike.
Modern bikes are great.
How can a road bike be worth 10k when this is 6.8k?
https://www.cannondale.com/en-gb/bikes/mountain/cross-country/scalpel/scalpel-hi-mod-1?sku=c24111m10md
Because roadies have deeper pockets than mtbers
You can save 140g by using tubulito over standard inner tubes. Cheapest upgrade per £ I think?
OP.
The general census is that aero trumps weight unless you only climb big mountain passes.
How can a road bike be worth 10k when this is 6.8k?
There's more money in road cycling, so the market adapts to take advantage of it!
Bit like Rolex watches, whose sole purpose it to be expensive, telling the time is optional.
My canyon ultimate sl (Not the top of the the range version of the frame) weighed 7.2 kg including pedals, and cost me 2k in 2015. It was of course rim brakes.
My giant tcr advanced pro 0 with disks, deep carbon wheels, di2 etc costs over twice that and weighs closer to 8kg. Very few disk braked bikes come in at 6.8 kg, regardless of price. Remember pro bikes use tubs. I reckon you could count on 1 hand the number of disk braked bikes from the top manufacturers that come under 6.8kg once you have fitted pedals.
Tbh loads of pros bikes weigh over 7kg, and thats with tubs and top of the range kit.
Did you consider the propel @tpbiker?
Thinking of buying a pure road bike for the first time in my life and would be inclined to go for an aero frame. If you're spending footflaps money, though, it has to be a long term purchase. Just wonder if the look of stuff like the propel or a systemsix wears off after a while and would seem very dated, whereas something like a tcr is more classic and will always look great.
You can save 140g by using tubulito over standard inner tubes. Cheapest upgrade per £ I think?
Tubes. How quaint.
OP.
The general census is that aero trumps weight unless you only climb big mountain passes.
I was sort of hoping you could have both. Living in Cambridge, aero would be the better choice, but I just quite fancy a light bike for some of the huge (over 50m) hills we have around here 😉
Garry I agree
I bought a propel.
It has a number of components. That are absolutely specific to the frame.
Namely the seatpost the stem the fork and the handlebars.....if you don't like the reach or drop your ****ed ....hell even the angle of the drop is fixed as it's wing profile clamp.....
But I like it 🙂
My mates tcr advance was a bargain though the blue and yellow one. 1600 quid with ultegra. I think it climbs better but on the flat or when sprinting the propel blitzs it. It's just stiffer.
Modern road "race" bikes seem to be going more aero, taking bigger tyres and (probably as a result) getting more comfy.
Are "aero" and "endurance" bikes becoming more nichey as a result?
Cambs is basically like my old stomping grounds of Herts, but even less hilly - so I'm gonna go out on a limb and say you probably don't require a 6.8kg bike OP.
Garry I agree
I bought a propel.
It has a number of components. That are absolutely specific to the frame.
Namely the seatpost the stem the fork and the handlebars…..if you don’t like the reach or drop your **** ….hell even the angle of the drop is fixed as it’s wing profile clamp…..
But I like it 🙂
My mates tcr advance was a bargain though the blue and yellow one. 1600 quid with ultegra. I think it climbs better but on the flat or when sprinting the propel blitzs it. It’s just stiffer.
Sounds like one for a test ride or three. I think the propel looks awesome, tbh, just that buying a bike for the longer term is a bit of a different perspective.
My.last road bike was 15 years old .
When I look back at the parts I changed I changed the wheels and the groupset(3 times as they wore out)
The rest was stock.
I guess the biggest issue is if I crash in 10 years time a wing profile bar might be a tougher find than a round 31.8
Did you consider the propel
Yep I looked at the propel. A few reasons I didn't go for it over the tcr.
1, the equivalent model had all these proprietary bits like stems that I couldn't be bothered with
2, it apparently isn't as comfy, and as I don't race outright speed wasn't that Important
3, it was heavier
4, i don't really like the look of it.
Now what I subsequently found out is that what I should really have bought is a defy...I got a fairly low speced one as a winter bike and it's far more comfy than the tcr, and with decent wheels nearly as fast. In fact I'm now using it almost exclusively and the 1 year old tcr is gathering dust in a spare room.
As for bike weight, as long as the wheels are decent, an 8kg bike will be just as fast up a hill as a 7kg bike..
what I should really have bought is a defy
Have you seen the stem on the new one though?
*winces*
2019 Tarmac expert disc here with mechanical ultegra, paid £3250 in sales last year & that weights 7.3kg in 58.
This years model with di2 is £5250 probably same weight give or take 50g.
If you want to pay £5k for a 6.8kg bike then you're looking at the online brands like rose as mentioned above.
I can be guilty of obsessing over bike weight but it really does make very little difference and even scientifically on mountainous climbs a KG doesn't make that much difference.
I changed frame sets a few months back from a alloy frame with full carbon fork to a steel frame and steel fork. I added 1.2KG with all the other parts remaining the same (total weight up from 6.6 to 7.8).
It is clearly noticeable when I pick it up as humans can perceive very minor changes in weight but when riding that 1KG makes no perceivable difference.
Was wondering if those feeling the need for aero bikes can sit in the drops for a fair bit? Marginal gains an all that...
Top end is £10,799.00
Cheapest is £1,699.00Take the mean and you get £6249
So I was actually a bit low at £5k….
OMG
words fail me
basic arithmetic fail
Was wondering if those feeling the need for aero bikes can sit in the drops for a fair bit? Marginal gains an all that…
I thought hands on the hoods was more aerodynamic than drops; pretty much spend all my time on the hoods.
To be pedantic thats the mean as you have only used the lowest and highest in the range. To get the true mean you’d need to look at all the models in the range, and I can guarantee if you did the mean would be far far less than 5k!
Well if we’re going to be pedantic... The range (to use the mathematical definition of the word) of bike costs is £1699 to £10,799. So ‘mid-range’ could plausibly be in the middle of that range?
Informally, £5k for a bike is definitely not ‘mid-range’ in any common parlance. Pull yourself together footflaps.
I thought hands on the hoods was more aerodynamic than drops
Only if you hold your forearms horizontal so that you're as low or lower than you would be on the drops.
However, I get the impression this isn’t the case
Welcome to disc brakes.
Mechanical Dura Ace, caliper brakes, nice frame (Giant TCR Advanced SL), decent wheels, will get you there easily. My Defy SL with the above and deep section carbon rims is 7.2. The last savings are in the wheels and maybe a lighter carbon saddle.
Honestly the difference is half a water bottle. You won't notice the weight, but you will notice a stiff bike (hello CR1) and poor geometry.
And 5k would be mid-range - pro-spec frame and Dura Ace with some cost cutting in the wheels. But it is hard to find manual Dura Ace and non-disk on a pro frame now.
To be pedantic thats the mean as you have only used the lowest and highest in the range. To get the true mean you’d need to look at all the models in the range, and I can guarantee if you did the mean would be far far less than 5k!
£5034.71
https://www.tredz.co.uk/scott-road-bikes
14 models, Tredz prices are:
£1,699.00
£1,899.00
£2,299.00
£4,399.00
£3,199.00
£4,399.00
£3,199.00
£4,999.00
£6,699.00
£6,299.00
£8,999.00
£8,099.00
£10,799.00
£3,499.00
Sum is £70,486.00
/14 = £5,034.71
Should take the median 😉
Aero bike rider here, about 7.1kgs. Rim brake.
Yes I can ride in the drops for as long as I like. My preference is the drops with a bent arm, easy position to maintain. Drops is fine for sprints or hard efforts, but for a long effort happy with the bent arm.
My previous bike Was a Trek Emonda SLR with 1350gram wheels. Felt a great bike to climb on. Total weight was about 6.2kgs (size 52 in a H1 fit).
I live near Cambridgeshire, I much prefer the aero bike. It does feel faster for most rides. I rode in the Chilterns at the weekend, climbed was fine (was me holding the bike back).
If i was buying a single bike for all riding it would need to take 30 or 32mm tyres and be aero. Weight wouldn’t matter a massive amount, as long as it wasn’t above 8.5kgs.
As TiRed says, I'd be more concerned about stiffness and position than weight. A few extra grams going into efficiency or producing a vibration-damping frame is more important overall than all-out lightweight.
£5034.71
https://www.tredz.co.uk/scott-road-bikes
14 models, Tredz prices are:
£1,699.00
£1,899.00
£2,299.00
£4,399.00
£3,199.00
£4,399.00
£3,199.00
£4,999.00
£6,699.00
£6,299.00
£8,999.00
£8,099.00
£10,799.00
£3,499.00Sum is £70,486.00
/14 = £5,034.71
erm no.
You need to multiply each price by the number of those bikes sold; and then divide the total by the total number of bikes sold.
14 models, Tredz prices are
Yep, but that's not the entire range. In fact it entirely misses out the speedster series which is their entry level model. Judging by This, there are in fact around 30 Scott road bikes. And given I'm bored I just calculated the 'average' price when you look at all bikes across their entire road range, is actually less than 3k. Which I think is much closer to what most folks would consider 'mid range'..
You need to multiply each price by the number of those bikes sold
Im not sure i agree with this! That will screw it far more towards the lower end of the price range and tells us the average price of what folks spend on a bike, not what the average bike costs to buy.
Do trek really not have any road bikes <£1699 anymore?
Do trek really not have any road bikes <£1699 anymore?
Sure, e.g. Domane AL2
What worries me a bit more is the general portliness of the range. I'm no weight-weenie, but I'd expect that a Domane SL6 costing £3,200 would weigh less than 9.3kg! That's only 0.7kg less than the £600 AL2 listed above!
Weight isn't everything, even on a road bike, but it surely is *something*...?
Im not sure i agree with this! That will screw it far more towards the lower end of the price range and tells us the average price of what folks spend on a bike, not what the average bike costs to buy.
Yep, I'm not sure either, but I'm going to argue my case anyway.
Surely the average price of what folks spend on a bike is the average bike. By definition.
its a number , That much is true.
The difference between claris and ultegra is night and day in terms of smoothness and speed of shift - my commuter has claris and the propel has R8000. Much smoother.
your 600 quid bike hasnt got disks
when you look at that kilo as a % of total weight package its minimal.
I have an MTB that weighs same as that domane . it wont go even close to as fast even with the same rider - even if the road points upwards.
Surely the average price of what folks spend on a bike is the average bike. By definition.
Yep, but the phrase that triggered this fantastically pedantic discussion was "mid-range".
Which means half-way between the top and the bottom. I think you could reasonably argue that that means half way between the top and bottom price, or the price of the bike that is half way through the range (i.e. same number of models above and below).
It's not a very useful measure, other than of manufacturers' ability to design ranges that make extremely expensive bikes look reasonably priced 🙂
Just buy golf clubs.
when you look at that kilo as a % of total weight package its minimal.
OK, turn it around. Would *you* walk into a shop and drop over £3k on a road bike that weighs that much, knowing full well that the same money could buy you a substantially lighter bike elsewhere? I'm not sure I would. (In fact, I'm pretty certain that I wouldn't!)
As I said, weight isn't everything, but it is something and that Domane is a good example of something I've known for some time - major manufacturers are lazy and they know full well that it costs money to make a bike light. By making it heavier, the frameset will be less expensive to make, will have a higher margin and thus they make more money from each one sold. Punters look at groupsets (well, rear mechs anyway) and flash carbon bits. They don't notice the cheap, downgraded chain and cassette, that the wheels are made of depleted uranium and that the tyres have all of the grip of skateboard wheels.
Of course we all know that speed is 95% rider, 5% bike, but it's still your money and your choice where to spend it. An expensive, portly bike is never going to be high up my shopping list...
I’ll be looking at pre-ordering 2021 build. Bikes are selling like hot cakes at the moment, unless you’re XS or XXL, there’s not a lot in stock anywhere
Orbeas are out of stock I was told this morning, 2021 are due in September.
My 'wishlist' is very similar to yours, also finding it difficult to find an Addict frameset in my size (none of the off the peg builds float my boat).
Current R3 is 7.1Kg and I know I'm going to have to stomach a 2 or 3 hundred grams extra.
As I said, weight isn’t everything, but it is something and that Domane is a good example of something I’ve known for some time – major manufacturers are lazy and they know full well that it costs money to make a bike light. By making it heavier, the frameset will be less expensive to make, will have a higher margin and thus they make more money from each one sold
Or the tech they've added to the frame to make it more comfortable has a weight penalty. Have you seen a Domane SL?
knowing full well that the same money could buy you a substantially lighter bike elsewhere? I’m not sure I would.
well i could have bought a lighter bike than my propel for my 3K Retail. wouldnt have had the features i wanted though.
still climbs like a stabbed rat.
Orbeas are out of stock I was told this morning, 2021 are due in September.
I've been told late July, but only Etap groupsets, apparently they can't get hold of Di2 groupsets.
Quite tempted by the 2020 Orca OMX M21eLTD-D, not 100% convinced, but maybe this colour...
other than the big SRAM boxes that is lovely.