Going to treat myself to a pre Christmas gift and have decided to upgrade my aluminium Specialised Allez Sport to something carbon.

Don’t want to spend the earth so have been looking at Ribble and Planet-X.
The Ribble I like is the R872 but the bikes on the Planet-X site are confusing me….

…I like the R57 but fear it may be too stiff and as harsh as my current aluminium bike, the Pro Carbon looks a more comfortable bike but is it getting long in the tooth now, a bit heavy, a bit too flexy etc?

Anybody tried either?
I don’t race but at the same time I don’t want a commuter type road bike that I then have to change again if I do start racing.
Will the Pro Carbon be enough bike to grow with me as my road riding improves or is it for comfort only?

I have a RT-57, and it isn’t harsh at all!! I’m a mountain biker really, and it was my first proper road bike. I’m nog that flexible, but I’m about to take it out for 80k, and don’t expect any problems. Mine was the SRAM rival gor £999 last Xmas.

I’m selling my nearly new focus cayo, it’s in the for sale section if you want to take a look?

I bought a Ribble R872 couple months ago and it has been superb. No issues with it being too harsh or too flexy … its just one of those bikes that feels really comfortable to ride. Really love mine. Only expected to keep it until the new 2014 Canyons came out .. but decided its well good enough to not need upgrading.

[/url] Untitled by danthomassw13, on Flickr[/img]

My RT-57 in the Rockies 2 weeks ago!! That’s here I’m headed today too!

I bought a MEKK Potenza SL5.5 2012 model for £1098. Really comfy ride and i just keep wanting to go further. Did a 112 mile ride a couple of weeks ago and although tired i wasn’t in pain anywhere.
Really happy with the bike.

I have the R872 (Badge stealth as it was before Shimano told them they cant use Stealth) bought as frame only. Built up with existing parts, new groupset and wheels. Ride compared to my previous bike (first gen Kuota Kharma) is nicer. Feels more stable and responsive. Kuota on a fast descent by me got twitch. The Ribble feels safe. Can be built as a pretty light bike. Mine comes in at just over 16lbs, with Campag Chorus and Shamal wheelset.
Mate of mine has the RT58. Was telling me the other day that to him the ride feels a bit dead. But hes not sure if thats due to the carbon or other issues.

Also selling my Cannondale SuperSix in the classifieds, great condition as long as your over 6ft it will fit 🙂

Why set on carbon? Ime 1k alu bikes are better than carbon equivalents – just cos it’s carbon it doesn’t make it magically better ! The best 1200 quid bike I’ve ridden had an alu frame (giant TCR). Alu frames are cheaper to make and therefore you’ll get more bike for your money when comparing alu to carbon.

IMO/IME

Carbon?
Aluminium?

P’ah! What you need is a steel road bike. For only a bit more I’m selling my Indy Fab Club Racer – a light-tourer come audax come winter come commuter bike (mind you, that’s only the frameset and a few extras 😳 )

Hungry Monkey….i’m open to all ideas, just that i’d heard carbon mutes more of the annoying high frequency road buzz and some of the jarring that aluminium frames transmit to the rider….more often than not at the moment i cut a ride short not due to fitness issues but the terrible state of the roads and the battering my body has taken on the ride.

LardLover….i’ve been looking at Steel and Titanium too for the reasons above, i think i probably need to try before i buy.

Hungry Monkey +1 my main bike is carbon, but there are some great alu ones out there that will be better spec’d for same money..

Cannondale alu is not too harsh with 27.2 seat post and narrow stays.

Wiggles range is worth a look, all made by Ridley.

If you’re buying cash rather than Credit or B2W, definitely consider 2nd hand. Road bikes tend to be a lot better looked after than Mountain Bikes on the whole, and £1k will get you a LOT of 2nd hand road bike.

For instance, selling my 10 month old Merida Scultura Comp 904, with full Ultegra upgrade right now. Bike was £1500, upgrade to Ultegra pushed the cost to about £1800 all in new. Done about 1500 miles on it, it’ll come fully serviced with new brake pads and I’d like £900 for it. It’s a M/L size (equivalent to a 56cm) if you were interested… But certainly, even if not interested in my bike, there’s a number of very nice 2nd hand bikes out there right now!

Carbon at £1k ain’t all that IMO, I’d save and spend a bit more, your Allez Sport is pretty good.

In a similar position but with a bit more in the budget. At what point do people consider carbon worthwhile then?

im with cynic al
id rather have decent alu over the cheapest carbon.
i never buy the cheapest anything if it can be avoided.
not sure what price point that would equate to though tbh.

You ‘can’ buy a decent carbon bike for a grand now. Look at the Dolan L’Etape bike. Terry Dolan doesn’t sell tat bikes and that’s a grand well spent if you did. People scare others about bikes, not riding nice without any proof on what they say. I have a Cube alloy frame and a carbon road bike and the carbon frame is leagues ahead in all ways. Most frames are made in the far east nowadays.

I love my carbon too.. Have a carbon tcr sl which is very stiff but not overly harsh quite comfy in my book.. (if that makes sense) equally I have a 2003 tcr alloy sl and it is very comfy too 🙂

The new tcr sl alloy is silly light too just over 1000g apparently !!! Lighter than a few carbon frames

You ‘can’ buy a decent carbon bike for a grand now. Look at the Dolan L’Etape bike. Terry Dolan doesn’t sell tat bikes and that’s a grand well spent if you did. People scare others about bikes, not riding nice without any proof on what they say. I have a Cube alloy frame and a carbon road bike and the carbon frame is leagues ahead in all ways. Most frames are made in the far east nowadays.

Agree with this, nothing wrong with a good Alloy bike but cheaper carbon can be good as well. If you fancy carbon I can’t see any reason to change your mind because of advise on here.
I’ve seen moomans R872 and for the price its stunning, hard to fault really. Worth going up to £1180 and specing it with 105 IMHO.

I’ve ridden a few 1-1.5k bikes, alu and carbon. Of the bunch the TCR has been far and away the best. Yet to find a carbon one in that range which was as nice to ride as the giant (not forgetting it’s 1150g frame weight).
In not saying that a Carbon bike of that price will be shit just that you almost definitely will get more from your money from an alu bike.

At what point do people consider carbon worthwhile then?

About £4k when its not possible to spend any more on an alu framed bike?

In all seriousness you probably can get good carbon framed bikes for £1k, but the parts hung off it will be at least one tier below on everything, and the frame probably wont be better, just more expensive to make.

I’ve just bought a Giant composite defy 3 2014 as my good bike has been put to bed for winter. I only paid a grand and I can’t believe how good it is for the money. I was expecting it to be awful considering I’m comparing it to a full Dura Ace spec’ed super bike and it just isn’t. The thing to note too is at its heart is a quality frame, so upgrading components down the line is always going to improve the investment.

just bought a couple of SL Pro’s with full 2×10 Ultegra on mine and 3×10 on the missus bike which also came with a womens Prologo saddle that retails for £120 and fsa carbon bar & stem and is everything that we’ll ever need from a road bike unless we take up racing professionally any time soon…

Have a 2007 alloy Giant TCR (bought used for £400) and a new Giant Defy Advanced SL (10x more!). They are set up to have the same contact points (Arione saddle, KEO pedals and carbon bars with fizik microtape) and dimensions. The carbon frame is nicer to ride and perhaps a little smoother, but the alloy TCR is a truly fantastic frame, and the newer one is even lighter. The older Ultegra shifts better too. The bikes share wheels (Kysirium Elite and Giant PSLR Aero). The TCR was upgraded with a full monocoque carbon Ritchey fork and bars. It has a carbon seatpost. It is not a harsh ride in the slightest. It weighs 450g more than the bling bike (which is Giant’s lightest production frame).

Personally, though, I’d find a Defy Composite with Tiagra components if I was looking at the OP’s budget. The wheels are heavy, but is is an excellent bike. At at that price point there are some very nice alloy options too.

OP check if paulscycles have any supersix’s. Its supposed to be amazing.

Was just about to say Paul’s cycles for a super six, mates just got one in gate post size for about £1100

This is all you need http://www.rutlandcycling.com/155057/products/giant-tcr-composite-2-2013-road-bike—white-purple.aspx

But then again, I brought this http://www.rutlandcycling.com/108684/products/giant-tcr-sl-1-2013-road-bike.aspx and it’s brilliant!