Is there a road bike in my future?

steve Beyer

Thinking about getting a road bike, just for the variety and to have it for when traveling, especially when going to area with hills (EN camp in future maybe). Don't want to spend a ton as I won't use it a lot (I've always done all training on a tri bike ,don't mind it or know any different), around $1500.00 I'm thinking. Is it possible to get a decent bike in that price range,and what are some recommendations (makes/models)?

John Withrow

Absolutely! I recommend a 2-3 yr old bike that was a high end one when new over the lowest end brand new bike. Generally the main thing that changes yr to yr is the paint job. I have bought so many bikes on eBay that I have lost track at this point. You can find a great one for that price range if you're patient and watch a bunch and are open minded. To be honest, most of the brands are very similar but some just do a better job of marketing then others. There are certainly some fit differences, but I have found them much more general than some of the tri bike brands... What size tri bike are you? How tall are you? Do you use a crank based Powermeter on your tri bike because if so, might be useful to buy a roadie with a compatible bottom bracket. What kind of components to you currently have? Generally all Shimano/SRAM stuff is compatible but something else to think of.

Dino Sarti

Yes…. You need a road bike. At least one….

Withrow - You need an eBay buyers guide thread or place on the wiki.

I bought a full carbon CX bike on ebay about a year ago. The bike was a year old when I got it and it was in mint shape. The guy was even willing to meet me at my local Starbucks to pick it up. How cool is that! The bike was in the bay area, but he was near my house seeing his family for Thanksgiving. He drove the bike down and saved us both the shipping cost/headache.

The only difference between my 1 year old bike and the current new model from Specialized at the time was the grouppo. SRAM made some small change to the CX group that year.

steve Beyer

@ John..6' tall and I ride a 56cm Felt with Dura ace components and a power2max PM. So you recommend just start checking out eBay, and no particular make, just find one with desired frame material and components? Any particular brands you like?

@ Dino... "At least one..." Why did I KNOW you would say that . Same question.....any particular brands you have liked (I know you have a "stable")?

Coach Rich

The answer to the question "do I need another bike" if always yes, with the following qualifications

• The number of bikes you should own is N + 1, where N = the number of bikes you currently own. 
• N must be greater than 2
• This N +1 natural law can also be expressed as S - 1, where S = the number of bikes at which your Spouse will divorce you. 
• Note there is no BF-1 or GF-1 expression of this rule, because they don't count yet. 
• If you are en route to converting BF or GF to S, then the rule becomes N + 2, ie, get the bike(s) you want now, when you don't have to ask permission, before you do have to ask for permission...unless you have a bag of cash and an offsite storage locker, in which case you can continue to do whatever you want.

Here endeth the lesson. 

Gonzalo Canteros Paz

Great Lesson!

Dino Sarti

There are a lot of great bikes out there. If you ride Dura Ace right now and like that group, then it's easy. If you want to ride with power and like that crank, you can start with one that is compatible. Most are convertible, but compatible to start could be a good move.

Regarding makes I like, I think there are a ton of great makes out there. Currently, on the road side I like Madone. Trek is a good maker and their top end bikes are assembled in the US. I also like Colongo if you want something exotic and Italian. They can be had on ebay with a lot of frequency. For triathlon I like Cervelo because I think that the P3 was such a game changer and the P5 has been fun to ride.

Cannondale makes a great bike, Specialized should be considered. Cervelo's road bikes are also really slick. I am not expert, but I do love them all…..

Spend some time on the manufacturers websites. Wade through the marketing, watch the market on-line and then snap up the one that makes you feel like you are getting a deal on what you want. If you miss that one in an auction scenario, there will be another right behind it. Don't give your heart away until the thing is in your garage. You gotta remain impartial until the deal is done.

jaleslie

I started "fitness" with road cycling.  Had a Specialized Allez (mostly aluminum), which was just fine.  ~$1200 new.  I sold it on Craig's list and now have a Giant TCR (almost all carbon).  Much better ride of course, but if you're not gonna ride it much or use it like a "beater bike", aluminum is not unreasonable at all.  Dino is the expert....he does seem to have a "stable".   Just wanted to put in a plug for Giant too.  I think any of the big brands in that price range are good bikes...components and wheels really change the $ more than anything.  

Cervelo, Trek Madone, Giant TCR or Defy, Colnago, Specialized (Tarmac or Roubaix), Cannondale (supersix, etc.), Bianchi....all probably fine.  Blue, Felt, Ridley....I see less of them, but probably just as good and wouldn't hesitate.  

Agree with gently used on eBay (or Craig's list....usually allows you to actually see/ride it before dropping $) over brand new from LBS, especially if you're familiar with bikes/minor adjustments/etc., as you clearly are.  

Keep us updated...I like to live vicariously...Dino keeps me really entertained!

 

Dino Sarti

Well said, Jeff. Giant is great too. A shop just opened in my neighborhood called Empire Cycles. They have tons of a giants on hand. The stuff is great looking. I would say any maker that sponsors a Tour team is top notch.

John Withrow

In my opinion, for that price range, the order of importance should be:
1) Carbon Fiber
2) components
3) brand

Re: components, generally about 3 yrs is worth a jump in class to me. What I mean is I'd rather have a 2013 bike with 105 or a 2010 bike with Ultegra than a 2006 bike with Dura-Ace. If you don't have a road bike currently, you won't notice the difference between SRAM and Shimano. The components are cross compatible and I have mixed and matched plenty with no issues but they do have a different shifting mechanism and method. I personally prefer the Shimano shifting style on a road bike! but that's personal preference. There's no reason you couldn't find a Cf Ultegra or force bike for your price. If you get lucky, you might find Dura Ace or SMAM red. Remember that series of components also matters and this is generally correlated with the age of the bike. Ultegra 6700 is the newer (10spd) model and I personally like it better than the older D/A (10spd) model which was 7700. But those two would be very similar, but there is a BIG difference if you went the opposite direction and compared say an Ultegra 6600 bike to a D/A 7800 bike, with the D/A the hands down winner. Does that make sense?

Re: brand... I still think it matters much less than the other 2 things. I think there are a ton of niche brands out there that make great bikes. When you see one, read some reviews and see if the ride "feel" matches what you are looking for. Some are stiffer than others for instance. Some may be more responsive or twitchy or cushy and soft. None of these things are good or bad... Just the preference of what you are looking for. I've found on eBay that there is a very efficient market for the big well-known brands like trek, cervelo, or specialized... That means you "might" be able to find a better deal on one of the lesser known brands. I have gotten 2 "steals" on Blue bikes (an RC8 and an AC1) and I really loved them both. I currently ride a Cannondale Supersix and think it is awesome as well. Frankly, I don't think I have ever owned a bike that I didn't love and as a household, I may be 2nd in EN as far as number of bikes (to Dino of course), but I get to count my wife's multiple bikes as well...

robin sarner

Consider bikesdirect.com. Great deals if you buy carefully. Carbon or titanium frame. Or even alumnum frame with carbon fork. Make sure wheels have precision cartridge bearings. Etc.

consider a disc brake cyclocross bike. Very versatile.

Contesting the bike #s. Six bikes myself. 11 in the household. Take that

John Withrow

here are several examples:

The RS is Cervelo's "relaxed" road bike that is a little "softer" and supposedly a bit more comfortable (as a point of reference, their R3 is their lowest "race" bike and would be "stiffer"). This one has SRAM Rival components, but looks very nice and "might" trade cheap for a Cervelo (I personally think SRAM Rival components would be totally fine and are a little better than the Shimano 105): http://www.ebay.com/itm/251383305211?ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1438.l2649

This Madone looks like a brand new frameset, but has the older Ultegra 6600 components. But the price might be right... http://www.ebay.com/itm/190969982805?ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1438.l2649

This Tarmac is a nice bike and is basically brand new, but his reserve is likely above your price range (or it will trade above your range: http://www.ebay.com/itm/121218240243?ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1438.l2649

These are just a couple of examples, but there will be many many more every single week...

steve Beyer

You guys are awesome! Got the green light from the wife, and I'm ON IT

@ John...your input on components does make sense, and thanks for the links!

@Robin...didn't know your were a contender with Dino

@coach Rich...you've obviously put TOO much thought into this, having become a "science"complete with formulas!

@Jeff...yes Dino DOES keep us entertained doesn't he!?!

@Dino...well what can I say. I think Rich described you one time as a "man among men" when it comes to bikes

Keep any other input coming.....I'm in the hunt!!!

Coach Rich

Posted By steve Beyer on 21 Nov 2013 08:26 AM






@Dino...well what can I say. I think Rich described you one time as a "man among men" when it comes to bikes

It's his garage that makes him a Man Among Men. Other than that, he's just doode with a lot of bikes and a wife that rolls her eyes a lot 

John Withrow

This wasn't supposed devolve into a bike counting competition, but the JW "household" sits at 15... It's kind of cheating though because only 8 of them are "nice" bikes. The others are either my kids bikes or cheap mtn bikes for guests at our summer cabin. Only 5 of them are my own bikes (2 tri bikes, 1 road bike, 1 cross bike and 1 mtb bike) I recently had 2 other road bikes but I *gasp* sold them after I bought my SuperSix because I had friends who were looking for their first road bikes so I gave them good deals to get them started...

But I have "located" or "bought" on eBay ~15-20 other bikes for friends over the past 2 yrs. The FedEx guy knows my wife by name because all of those bikes were delivered to my house. I build them, then hand deliver them to my buddies. Researching bikes and finding good deals and then tinkering with getting them all setup is one of my stress relieving "hobbies". It's a bit annoying for my wife but I keep reminding her that it's a cheaper and healthier hobby than hookers or drugs!

John Withrow

oh yeah. I forgot to mention. I "HEART" Dino! I've never met his wife, but she must be a saint!

Al Truscott

I got motivated to count our bikes...
Me...4, wife, 2, kids no longer @ home but left behind 3, in CO house, 4, so 13. If i hadnt dumped 3 other kid bikes, I couda been a contenda?

jaleslie

Wait a minute....I didn't know we could count kids' and spouses bikes....I have 5 kids!  

John Withrow

Steve, do you know what Bottom-Bracket your Felt/Power2Max has?

[Deleted User]

Posted By Rich Strauss on 20 Nov 2013 07:31 PM

The answer to the question "do I need another bike" if always yes, with the following qualifications

• The number of bikes you should own is N + 1, where N = the number of bikes you currently own. 
• N must be greater than 2
• This N +1 natural law can also be expressed as S - 1, where S = the number of bikes at which your Spouse will divorce you. 
• Note there is no BF-1 or GF-1 expression of this rule, because they don't count yet. 
• If you are en route to converting BF or GF to S, then the rule becomes N + 2, ie, get the bike(s) you want now, when you don't have to ask permission, before you do have to ask for permission...unless you have a bag of cash and an offsite storage locker, in which case you can continue to do whatever you want.

This deserves a spot in the Wiki somewhere

rlh2000

Hmm. I have one bike. A road bike. I bought for just $1k in 2009. Clip on aerobars because I'm cool. Thanks for reinforcing the idea that I need to buy myself a nice Christmas present this year.

steve Beyer

@ John...When I bought the power2max I had to make sure the BB was compatible, and I bought the Felt used, so I took a picture of it and sent it to them (it was compatible). Telling you this to say I don't know what BB it is, but it says on the BB..."A-B2-56" (which I assume is the model and size), and under that it says.."AK070199" . Does that mean anything to you?

John Withrow

Those might just be your bike model and serial number stickers... You never told us what type of Felt bike it is or what model yr. Can we assume it is a Felt B2 or is it something else? Do you know what model yr? If not, what does the paint scheme look like or can you drop a picture in here. Do you know what crank it had on before you replaced it with the Power2Max? Was it Dura ace or FSA or something else? Your bottom bracket is 'probably' a Mega Exo if your crank was originally the FSA one. Does that ring a bell? If your crank was a dura ace then you just have the regular old Shimano BB. The Power2Max can be ordered to work with any BB. You don't happen to still have the box or the paperwork or the confirmation email from when you bought the Power2Max, do you?

steve Beyer

@John..Figured it all out (emailed power2max....awesome customer service BTW). I had FSA cranks on it originally (that were not compatible with P2max), and so got FSA Gossamer cranks from them also because those worked with my BB which is a Megaexo, so you were right. So if I want to swap the P2max PM onto the road bike, I will need to put same cranks on it, and of course make sure it comes with a Megaexo BB or some other compatible one correct?

Bike is a B2 BTW

John Withrow

you got it. Mego Exo makes it easy. but any bike with extrernal cups is also easy. You can get a Mego Exo BB for about $25 bucks and simply screw it into the frame if the bike happens to come with say Shimano cranks. I'd have to do a little digging though to see if some of the newer/wider BB's would be compatible, but I think it would be much more difficult for some than others. I do know you can get a cheap adapter as well to convert a BB30 frame to be able to take Mego Exo.

Summary: Most bikes you will look at in that price range will be fine. Some of them (Shimano or GXP for instance) "may" require a new BB (~$25) and others (BB30) might require an adapter (~$35) but those are both very easy fixes.

Dino Sarti

This thread just got super boring. It was way more fun as it digressed into a measuring contest....

John Withrow

Says the guy with the biggest... Um... ...Feet.

steve Beyer

@Dino...what's the chance for us poor souls who live vicariously through you, of getting a picture of your "stable"? Or is that a, you could show us, but then you would have to kill us kind of thing?

jaleslie

@ Steve....you started this....gotta let us know what you get!

moetai@gmail.com

So 10 bikes here for a family of 3 (4 are mine, 2 are my wife's, 2 for my kid and 2 "extras" for visiting friend). Almost bought a 2013 speedconcept 7 serie yesterday but i am pretty sure 4 is my S-1.
As for the thread, Performance bike is having some sick deals on FUJI and Scattante bikes

moetai@gmail.com

U might be able to get an Aluminium/carbon scattante bike and order a stages powermeter for just above 1800$