Trying to work out the cheapest way to get a carbon road bike kitted out with Shimano 105 and decentish wheels and have come up with following.

Ribble Evo frame/forks £366
Ultegra 6700 wheels and tyres £290
105 Groupset £400
Saddle £50
Post £50
Bars/stem/tape £65

Works out at just over £1200 and would probably weigh around 17 lbs.

Anyone think of a cheaper way to a similar result?

A Giant TCR Composite 2 can be bought for £1100 but once you add decent wheels and tyres it will end up at around £1340.

You’ll be lucky to get that down to 17 lbs.

Anyway, do you really want carbon? For that budget a nice aluminium frameset will likely be much nicer than the cheapest carbon frame you an find. Carbon for carbon’s sake and all that.

105 groupset, yep, can’t go wrong.
I assume you mean the carbon laminate RS80s? If so, yep, pretty good. Although handbuilt wheels on something like Velocity A23s would probably ride better. Those Ribble frames are horrible though.

cheap carbon?

Anyway, do you really want carbon? For that budget a nice aluminium frameset will likely be much nicer than the cheapest carbon frame you an find. Carbon for carbon’s sake and all that.

I was coming to ask that.

My £600 boardman (alu) is lighter and a nicer ride than some £999 carbon bikes that mates have got. not as stiff mind…

No, not the RS80’s, Ultegra’s for £240. plus £50 for decent tyres.

Was guessing the weight from a mag review of that frame but with heavier wheels – think it was 8kg.

Whats wrong with the ribble frames? I know very litte about road bikes, but the reviews I read by various magazines made me buy a Ribble Sportive Bianco kitted with 105 and I think its great.
It cost around £1200.

OP – you appear to know the price of stuff.

Why not find about the value of stuff? Like good advice, maybe even from LBS, or test rides?

Radon might have something similar (check bike-discount.de) but to be honest, a Canyon for the same price or a CAAD10 will be just as nice.

That Ribble build will be closer to 18.5 – 19lbs. Build it with Sram Apex however and you save nearly 1lb over a 105 build.

Good advice here I thought.

LBS? trying to work out the cheapest 😀 (and best)

Ebay direct from China might save you a few quid if you really want to save money/weight?

For £1200 I’d look for a 2nd hand CAAD10 Ultegra, and spend the change on wheels.

My CAAD4 is 16.3lb (inlcluding 105 pedals, mags usualy quote without) and cost me about £1200 to build from a 2nd hand bike with new bits to upgrade everything, and that’s starting with a fairly heavy 9 year old frame and fork.

As a general rule, for a given price, carbon bikes weigh more because carbon’s not actualy any lighter than aluminium without spending silly money on the frame (e.g. CAAD10 and SuperSix are the same weight at 1150g + paint) but costs more, so a CAAD10 ultegra costs the same as a supersix 105, but ultegra is about a lb lighter than 105.

On that basis I’d go for a Planet-X Team Alu and throw money at the spec, it’ll save more weight in the groupset than on the frame.

Cheapest way to a Carbon road bike with Shimano 105?

Answer : 2nd hand

http://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/for-sale-large-planet-x-sl-pro-road-bike-1

Nicest bike I’ve seen at that price was a 2011 Specialized Allez (comp I think).

About £1200. Modern E5 Alloy (used on the SWorks bikes a few years ago) frame, chunky, stif chainstays, tapered fork, full 105 groupset, average wheels. Saw one with some C24s on, very nice.

Mostly all my opinion, but I’d rather have an alloy frame that has some room in the budget to use nice materials and design elements, than a carbon frame made as cheaply as possible.

Guessing here, but that build would be 19lbs if you’re lucky, although weight isn’t everything, but I assume if you’re going carbon then light weight is one of your goals.

My advice, go down your local bike shop, get fitted on a £1000 alloy bike that fits really well, keep the stock wheels for winter use and buy some nicer ones for summer.