First Road Bike – Help Narrowing Down

so first few rides will be with spds & mtb shoes, might even keep the peak on the helmet, oh the shame

LOL. Don’t forget the Camelbak too!

😀

…pics and first impressions later this week

Looking forward to seeing the pics and seeing what you make of it.

I managed to get to ride a couple today, not super conclusive but this is what I thought. Bear in mind I haven’t ridden a road bike in a long time.

RT-57 Carbon Small
First off ridiculously light. loved the look of the bike the drivetrain kit was superb and the machined billet calipers could only be appreciated by a blokey bloke who tinkers in his shed…..I loved em. Stopped well too.
Got up to speed really quickly and felt stable, turned well and as said stopped great.
My only reservation was when standing and putting the power down, the front end for me felt very twitchy, and I felt uneasy throwing the bike side to side to get the momentum up.

2011 Giant TCR 0 (Alu) Small – Stem 80mm
Felt really nice and as the RT-57 wizzed up to speed with ease. Felt a lot smaller than the Planet-X ride but still felt ok. Standing up and powering was a totally different story, it felt great and controlled. Didnt get to do any high speed cornering but what I did manage it felt very stable. Full Ultergra kit, was easy to use would be second nature after a few rides.

2012 Giant Defy Composite 1 Medium – Stem 100mm
From the off although similar to the TCR it seems a much more compliant ride, It was a little more stretched out (slightly but didnt feel big)and it felt like it would be a more comfortable middle ground from a racey frame. The super helpful shop guy swapped the step for an 80mm and lowered the stack by 10mm to try and achieve a similar riding position of the TCR. This was much better for me, bars a little closer and a little racier, but still with the forgiving frame.

Its really hard to pick between them as there were too many variables to compare, namely the frame geom, material & frame size. To be honest Id be happy with either of them, with a few tweaks to the seat position and stem length etc.

Ive yet to try the Trek 3.1/3.5 as they were too large and the Specialized Roubaix was the same. I’ll grab my friends Roubaix this week to rule this one in or out as the case maybe, but I’d imagine it’ll be a bit too high at the front for me.

Im in search of trying a TCR carbon Small and Medium back to back with a Defy Carbon Small and Medium, then I’ll report back.

Stevo – good feedback – I will try and do same tomorrow. Cheers

the most interesting part for me is that you are a bit less in height and felt ok on a Defy medium, yet I am unsure whether at 5ft 10 to go for M or M/L…

‘the most interesting part for me is that you are a bit less in height and felt ok on a Defy medium, yet I am unsure whether at 5ft 10 to go for M or M/L… ‘
Unless you are really short in the leg, the 13mm extra standover height wont make much difference. An extra 15mm in the top tube however is pretty significant if like me you’ve got long arms.

My Lynskey is a M/L and is only a 52cm seat tube, but has 55.7cm effective tt length which combined with a 120mm stem gets me somewhere close to my correct position.
Before i had this, i had a Trek 1.5 and had to have a 56cm frame that was borderline to tall for me just to get a top tube long enough, as the 54cm frame was way too short and cramped.
The madone 3 series have these same measurements, so i couldnt get one even if it was ‘the best’.
Giant TCRs and Defys would fit me much better on paper with the M/L being a 53.5 with a 56tt
Spesh would also seem to fit me with the tarmac 56 actually being a 53 with a 56.5tt and the roubaix 56 being a 51.5 with a 56.5tt.

p.s. i’m 5′ 10″ with 30″ inside leg and monkeys arms!

You do realise though that as none of the bikes you are looking at have campagnolo on them that they are all crap, dont you? 😉

Stevo – update from me – I have just ordered a Defy Composite 1 having been into Dales and Alpine and looked at Spesh Roubaix Elite, Trek Madone 3.5 and the Giant. Unfortunately none in stock and 15 week delivery BUT I got it at the Christmas Sale price which is 20% off 😆

iainc – Member

…just ordered a Defy Composite 1…15 week delivery BUT I got it at the Christmas Sale price which is 20% off …

😯

You’ll be getting it almost around the time they’re reducing the 2012 ones!

Have you looked at Cyclestore? 2012 model already with 10% off and 10% free goods (plus they price match too). They may just have stock as they’re a proper bike shop as well as a warehouse – got to be worth a shot versus waiting ’til Easter!

gtth – I did have a wee look there, there is a supply problem apparently with some sizes all over the place. I’m buying from Dales in Glasgow who are a pretty big dealer, so they said they will speak to distributor when they are back on 9th Jan and try and jump the queue…… I think(hope) they were giving me worse case – they also reckon that they probably have some in that size coming (for stock) anyway, but apparently can’t find that out till 9th. If so I will get one of them.

iainc – Member

Stevo – update from me – I have just ordered a Defy Composite 1 having been into Dales and Alpine and looked at Spesh Roubaix Elite, Trek Madone 3.5 and the Giant. Unfortunately none in stock and 15 week delivery BUT I got it at the Christmas Sale price which is 20% off Thats great mate, what did you actually get to ride in the end and can you remember what the characteristics were of them….and send me the link for the shop where you got it from will ya.
I’ve just lined up a test ride on s/m on both defy Comp 1 and TCR advanced for later this week. So should be sorted but that 20% is massive 🙂

Cool – roll on the 9th (but not too fast as I don’t really want to go back to work anytime soon!) 🙂

😀

I’d forgotten that I know someone who has done the Trek bike fit training and passed. I don’t dislike the guy but he is one of the most useless individuals to ever mechanic a bicycle this side, and the other side, of The Carpathian Mountains.

I’ve also met at least two fellas who wander around looking for bikes with a bike fit type printout suggesting crank lengths that don’t exist and other borderline achievable measurements that come nowhere near any stock bikes and which would be very difficult to recreate on custom builds.

I’ve also known at least one example where you hit the exact spot their printouts say they need, and the customer then finds in very short order that they are major league uncomfortable.

Dales[/url]

Stevo – I rode the 2012 Defy Advanced SL in a medium, which was a bit small, and a M/L Defy 1 2011 (geometry is unchanged) which fitted well, so I got the sizing sorted, although not actually rode the composite frameset. The overall fit was good in M/L. They do have a L one they are going to build up next day or 2 so I can actually have a prod at it ‘in the flesh’.
On teh back of GTTH post I also spoke to a couple of other Giant Dealers, who all said same thing re delivery times, but you could be lucky with the sizing you are after. The Dales sale runs for another few days and does include mail order bikes…..

Cheers for the link, I couldnt see the Composite 1 listed on there but I could give them a call.
That’s great news on yours, quite jealous now. If you rode the Aluminium version (Defy1) then the Carbon will be just so much more lush. I’m sure you’ll love it!!!

Stevo – it’s not on their website, but the 20% off applies to all bikes they sell, even if not in stock, as long as ordered during the sale. Can’t wait to get it !!!!

The boss put the foot down on the n+1 rule, so my Cannondale BadBoy is now on the classifieds 😥

Righto. ‘n+1’? whats that mean. You mean you have to a one bike household?

Ive a Cannondale Carbon rush, but there’s no way that’s leaving the house 🙂

‘n+1’? whats that mean.

The correct number of bikes one should own is n+1, where n is the current number of bikes owned.

what njee said ! I had to compromise to keep close to ‘in the goodbooks’ and I don’t use the BadBoy much, even less once I put my Jake the Snake back to cx mode, so punting 1 bike keeps my overall number the same at 4

Ah I see!! this will be my first +1 ever! Divorce would follow even the mention of +2 I’m sure…….4???? good work!

Well the saga has finally come to a conclusion…. hopefully the right one 🙂
As said I had a organised a test ride on the Defy Comp 1 and a TCR advanced 3 as they were a similar price. but when I turned up the weather was awful so we got them set up on the trainer to see how things measured up.

I was surprised to find that Im actually a Small not a Medium as in the other shop. This would explain why I wanted to try the shorter stem.
On looks alone I was settling on the TCR, the internal cabling and the frame shape was a piece of art. But I was reserving judgement till I had had a ride on both of them. Well yesterday I got to ride both and although they were both great to ride, I felt a little uncomfortable on the TCR, its definitely a much more focussed ride and I think I would really struggle to relax and ‘settle in’ to that on longer rides.

So I have opted for the Defy and if I wish to lower the bars in the coming months there’s a good 30mm of spacers on the steerer so hopefully this will allow a little bit of flexibility.

Nice one. How tall are you BTW?
I’m 5’8″ and ride a small TCR. I did buy medium SCR ltd once, but that was too big. The compact frame does make them look tiny though.

Im 5’7″ and the small was pretty perfect after I knew what I was looking for.
Looking forward to picking it up on saturday 🙂

hilldodger – Member

…pics and first impressions later this week

….well, no pics yet but first impressions are all good 😀

Bike (TCR 0) is pretty much all I could hope for – light, taut, fast and the sort of ride that makes you just want to do another lap.
Tyres had me kacking a few times, don’t know anything about current road tyres but the one’s fitted (23mm Michelin Dynamic) don’t look like a winter tyre and do skip about a bit on wet surfaces (ie just about everywhere in the current conditions)
The Ultegra kit is perfect, but then I guess anything brand new would be, and the Giant bars/stem/post/saddle don’t do anything other than what they should.
Other than that it’s too early to say, but the overall impression is that when you get off thinking you’ve done a half decent ride, the bike kind of sneers at you and says “is that all you’ve got punk” and to be honest, the bike’s right – it’s certainly not for pootling about on 🙂

Well picked up the Giant this weekend and managed to go for a swift 20 mile run on Sunday and a couple of commutes to see what I thought.
I definitely made the right decision in going for the Defy over the TCR, the TCR would have been too aggressive for my first bike, but I guess everyone is different but this at this time suits my needs perfectly.

The steering is very direct and pin sharp, took me by surprise to start with riding a MTB for so long. As said above the tyres were a little sketchy in the wet conditions (Giant P-SL2) under braking but Im sure I’ll get used to that.

Also pleasantly surprised with the weight at 7.9 kgs (without pedals) don’t know how that compares to other bikes in this class. My friends Roubaix is 660gms heavier. weight weenie alert 🙁

Overall couldn’t be happier with the purchase so Id better get racking up the miles and make the purchase pay for itself.

Poorly taken falling over pic below 🙂

Hmmmm…..can I ask how much you got it for?

Yeah you can ask 🙂

A smidge under £1500 with all the Xmas offers applied 🙂

Decent deal. Must. Resist.

Enjoy 🙂

BadlyWiredDog – Member

When I bought my first road bike a few years back, it cost me 350 quid – Giant OCR2 second – because at the time I’d never really ridden a road bike and I didn’t know whether I’d enjoy it or not and it seemed to make sense to buy something entry level to start with, and then, if I found I liked road-biking and once I had a better idea of what worked for me, invest in something a bit nicer.

Which is what I did. And I enjoyed riding the OCR and, if anything, its shortcomings, helped me when it came to working out what I really wanted to buy when I upgraded.

I’ve known a fair few keen mountain bikers who’ve tried road riding and hated it.

I guess if 1600 quid or so isn’t a lot of dosh to you, then you might as well splash out on something nice, but I do think you’d have a better idea of what that might be if you actually got some experience on an entry-level bike.

Here’s the thing, once you’re used to a super-fast, super-slick tarmac burner, yes, entry level bikes do feel a little sluggish, but if you’re straight off a mountain bike, you won’t know that, you’ll think any half-decent road bike is a rocket-ship, full stop…

This is what I ended up doing. I tried a couple of bikes out in shops up to about £1600 in value but in the end my inner tightwad won the day. I got a 2nd hand Wilier La Triestina off eBay for a smidgeon over £500. Pretty much as-new condition as the guy I bought it off had bought it to try out riding with his roadie mates and never took to it.

Bought primarily for aesthetic reasons, as it’s a gorgeous looking bike, but the fit etc was still a punt, albeit an exhaustively googled and researched one. It’s taken a bit of tweaking (new ergo handlebars and tyres) but I’m surprised how comfortable it is now it’s set up to my satisfaction. Think I’ve been pretty lucky with the suitability of the fit and geometry as it compares favourably with the bikes I tried out in shops.

I was expecting an uncompromising filling-loosener of a ride compared to an MTB or even my steel-framed Roadrat but it’s actually incredibly smooth.