Looking for a new road bike around the £1K mark
Nothing too racy on the geometry numbers, I’m not as supple as I once was 🙂

Any recommendations for a short list to look at?

Orbea Aqua T105. brilliant bike, I love mine.

if you’re small theres some RT57 bikes in the clearance corner at PX
http://www.planet-x-bikes.co.uk/c/q/clearance_corner

the RT 57 being a less stretched geometry than PX’s Pro carbon frame.

Canyon Roadlite?

Cheers- I’ll check those out

need a 58cm unfortunately Stoner

I like Giant, Specialized and Trek.
I believe that the larger brands invest in production techniques that smaller Companies can’t afford.
I also would tend to go for an Aluminium frame.

Were I to start looking for another road bike.
I’d start with those three brands.

I am actually up for a new road bike, but think I may hold off until the hydro brakes come out.
I’ve been googling and seems that Shimano and SRAM are looking at / prototyping hydro brake systems fo road bikes.

Just to resurrect this – It’s a **** nightmare trying to choose a road bike, much worse than MTBs

It’s that ~£1K pricepoint question that keeps coming up
I can’t really get my head around what’s a racy geometry and what isn’t
I currently have a 2005 Trek 1400 and love the way it rides so looking for something with similar characteristics

Can someone help with with the geometry?
Are any of these particularly extreme?

Cannondale CAAD10 105
Planet X Pro Carbon Rival
Ribble Evo Pro Carbon 105
Rose Pro-SL 2000 105
Canyon Roadlite 7.0 Ultegra

Cycling plus had a £1000 bike a test a month or so ago.
The highest rated was the Giant Defy 1,closely followed by the aluminium Boardman Team.
If you fancied Italian then the Cinelli Experience with Campag Veloce
came close to the Giant and Boardman.

Ive got a kuota korsa lite… It’s ace! V lite and stiff.. Good luck with defy 1 very rare although if your a medium I know where there’s a. Couple!

Boardman. The Team Carbon is down to £1300 at the moment. If you catch them at a good time..usually Bank Holidays, the discounts are often bigger. Mine cost me £1080 on Chrimbo Eve!
Or the Team at £800.

Great bikes, despite the Halfords link.

Thanks guys but I have a large enough shortlist as it is
I was hoping to get some input on the geometry

Cant’t you compare the geometry of the trek to the bikes in your short list?

To a large extent, as long as you don’t plump for an outlandishly inappropriate frame, you can tailor the position with adjustments to spacers, stem and seatpost/saddle position.

if you have a road bike already that fits you and you are comfortable riding on, get the tape measure out. you want the distance of top tube plus stem (horizontal) and vertical distance from fork ends to bars. these will give you the main bits, vertical drop from saddle line to bars will be useful also

http://www.bikeradar.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=40042&t=12792228

is it like this one ?

Cant’t you compare the geometry of the trek to the bikes in your short list?

I’d need to get a protractor out my my school bag that I threw in the garage in 1975 🙂
I don’t know – which is what I’m trying to figure out – what it is that makes a frame more racy than another
steeper head angle or shallower? ditto for the seat tube angle etc.
I can measure the top tube and seat tube etc. easy enough
but comparing the geometry is not proving as simple as it sounds

is it like this one ?

That’s the one

I have just bought a btwin facet from decathlon it was £999 full carbon, full 105 with a tripple its a fantastic ride for the money i love it. Good warranty on the frame even comes with pedals.

Think I’m getting somewhere

I found the numbers for my current Trek, comparing them to the Cannondale there doesn’t appear to be much in it, Trek numbers first …

Head angle – 73/73.5
Fork offset 4.5/4.5
seat angle 73.8/73.5
chain stay 41.7/40.8
Wheelbase 100.6/99.3
Top Tube 56.2/56

when people talk about a ‘racey’ position they mean long reach and the bars as low as you can stand them

is the stem flipped as per the photo ? if so you’ll need to account for this when replicating your trek position

is the stem flipped as per the photo

Jesus, no, I’d need to be a contortionist 🙂

Mine’s set with the hoods level

carerra but i like it

Currently looking at one of these myself, looks v good value and had a sit on one the other day felt nice too

I would go for Rose Pro SL of your list for internal cable routing. Otherwise all those options are much the same.

Had same dilemma a while ago and would have gone for the Rose but went Genesis Equilibrium 10 only because Steel is Real.

If you go Cannondale, the Synapse is less racy than CAAD and I believe they are same or similar money.

Just been for a half hour test ride on a Specialized Secteur Comp
Bit over budget but that might just be the one, can’t get a test on anything else

Don’t suppose anyone knows of any failings/problems with the Secteur do they?

when i looked it was massivly overweight (esp compared to the other bikes uve mentioned above)

Personally id say, CAAD 10 or the giant defy

mines been flawless for the last 1000 miles or so. I picked it up for a good price in the specialized annual changing colour scheme sale.

there was one going cheap on the classified a couple of days ago.

I have just bought a road bike and had the same budget as you. I was looking at Planet X Pro Carbon with Rival, Giant Defy, CAAD10 and the Decathlon Btwin Facet 5. I went for the CAAD in the end, although geometry is slightly more agressive than the others. I had a CAAD9 that was stolen so knew the bike suited me and I got a good price on the 10. Just waiting for it to be delivered…can’t wait.

there was one going cheap on the classified a couple of days ago.

I found 2 – cheers

I keep wanting to hit the button on the CAAD10 but I’m a bit concerned it’ll be a bit too extreme for 5hr+ rides
I dunno, this is worse that choosing a new MTB

The PX gran fondo offer on atm is pretty good. Je James advertise a Mekk for £999 if mags (carbon with 105/tiagra mix)

I keep wanting to hit the button on the CAAD10 but I’m a bit concerned it’ll be a bit too extreme for 5hr+ rides

They’ll only take 4 hours on the CAAD10 🙂

*watches this with interest*

I’m in the same boat, but having the rack-mounts-or-not dilemma. Apparently the Giant Defy 1 should have rack mounts but the one I’ve seen doesn’t, even tho’ the sale man said it did. I think they must be getting slightly different frames from somewhere due to the high demand.

My shortlist:

Cinelli Experience (no rack mounts but a great looking bike)
Giant Defy 1
Tifosi CK7
Kinesis Racelight T2
Ribble Sportive Bianco

Not that short a list really 😆

The Spesh Secteur did seem heavy to me and the reviews aren’t great.

jota180 its not too extreme. Ive got a Six which has pretty similar geometry. Coming from a mtb i found it was quite low so i swaped the stem (pointing upwards) for about 3 months and then moved it down a spacer at a time and adapted my body to being lower at the front. If you follow this approach there is nothing to stop you riding 10hrs a day its just if you jump straight into the most aggressive position and ignore your body that u will have issues

doing 113 miles on sunday! :s

As a road newbie I’ve just been through this process.. went for a Felt Z85 in the end. Used the British Cycling membership Wiggle store plus one of Wiggle’s 10% off 2012 bikes they were running the other week – which brought it in a fraction over £700..

All sorted now

Binned everything on my shortlist [as you do] 🙂 and picked up a good deal on a Specialized 2011 Roubaix Elite SL2
£1400 is not too bad for that bike in my eyes

I’m happy now

I really think you cannot go wrong with a Planet X Pro Carbon/Rival or Giant Defy at that price point.

I really think you cannot go wrong with a Planet X Pro Carbon/Rival or Giant Defy at that price point.

Giant Defy M/L – not available
Planet X Pro Carbon/Rival L – only available with an all red frame

You don’t want a CAAD10 – very nice but racey ride
position. Handles awesomely though.

jota180 – Member

All sorted now

Binned everything on my shortlist [as you do] and picked up a good deal on a Specialized 2011 Roubaix Elite SL2
£1400 is not too bad for that bike in my eyes

I’m happy now

I understand that the Roubaix’s are more comfort orientated, and with a compact chainset, you’ll be clocking up the long distance miles in no time!

Enjoy

the Spesh is a lovely bike, and very comfortable. earlier this year I was dithering between the Roubaix, Trek Madone 3.5 and Giant Defy Composite, and at the time they were all around the £1500 mark. All very good bikes and in the end I went for the Giant, as better spec for the money and uber comfy ride. I think they have a supply problem now though due crazy demand

Just had the phone call that they don’t have the bike 🙁 despite the website listing it as in stock

Back to square one

PlanetX have a sale on their Gran Fondo until tomorrow.

defy, here