Audax?

paranoid

I currently commute on a Lapierre RCR100 - like it but looking for something for longer distances.
I don't want a full-on road bike. From the internet I think I want something like an Audax - more comfortable than a road bike but lighter/faster than a tourer.
I hope to get this under the tax incentive; so up to around €1K. Any suggestions?

DirkVoodoo

How long is your commute? Just so we can gauge what you might consider a longer cycle.

blorg

Why do you not want a full-on road bike out of interest?

Generally the difference between a "full on" road bike and audax is that the latter has a slightly more relaxed geometry and clearance for wider tyres and mudguards.

"Audax" is a bit of a speciality market these days and many manufacturers have come out with more "relaxed geometry" road bikes in recent years (Specialized Roubaix was prob one of the first here, but the new Trek Madones by default have an extended headtube unless you specifically opt for the "pro" version.)

What are your specific requirements? For what it's worth Race Blades are OK as mudguards- not quite as good as full length but fine if you are going to be wearing cycling clothing.

cunavalos

Just a quick look on chain reaction brings up these two
http://www.chainreactioncycles.com/Models.aspx?ModelID=26673
http://www.chainreactioncycles.com/Models.aspx?ModelID=26672

The price seems a bit higher than you would expect to pay for a similarly specced road bike but i suppose that is due to audax being a "niche market"

paranoid

thanks for the responses.
My commute is about 10km each way.
I don't want a road bike as I'm not built for speed and want a bit more comfort.
By longer distances I mean 50-70 km runs, Wicklow 100 (200 in my dreams) and maybe some light touring. I want to be be able to fit a rear carrier. Mudguards are optional as I found them pretty useless in the past.

blorg

Rear carrier orients you more towards touring-type bikes, most mid to higher end road bikes won't do this. You may have had bad mudguards as decent ones are pretty indispensible in wet weather if you want to avoid a wet bottom. Basically all specific "audax" frames will allow a carrier although many entry level road bikes will also so they may be an option for you.

Lumen

I bought a Kinesis Racelight TK from Epic Cycles.

It has relaxed geometry, the right clearance (and long-reach brakes) to fit proper mudguards, and eyelets for racks.

I spent about £1k all in. The Veloce groupset pushed it higher.

The bike was built up to my exact spec before shipping, which is something you can do with the likes of Wiggle.

I'm also quite fond of cyclocross bikes (see the Kinesis Crosslight 4T on that same page). The advantage over a normal road bike is that you can fit wider tyres, but you still get the drop bars and nice road components. The disadvantage is that the brakes are not as powerful as on a proper road bike.

BostonB

Why are the brakes not as good?

Lumen

BostonB wrote: »

Why are the brakes not as good?

Because you're using road levers (lots of force over a short cable pull) with off-road brakes (which need a lot of cable pull).

More here.

I have mini v-brakes on both cyclocross bikes, and they're fine, except when compared to proper road brakes. If not set up perfectly, you just run out of brake lever travel.

blorg

I too have mini v brakes on two drop-bar bikes, a tourer and a cyclocross bike. To be honest they probably stop the bike as good as road calipers but you don't have as much modulation, they are quite "grabby", e.g. either on or off. What you get over standard road calipers is tons more clearance for big tyres and mudguards.

I have cantilevers on another bike with drop bars and previously had them on the tourer, these really did not work well, they slow the bike rather than stopping it. This may be down to the setup but I was never really that happy with them. They are also very fiddly to set up, I would avoid them.

One thing about the mini-v brakes- if possible get ones with barrel adjusters on the noodles. V brakes expect there to be a barrel adjuster on the lever which there is on flat bar levers but not on drops. So you need it on the noodle to do adjustment as the brake pads wear. The noodles are easily replacable so you can retrofit this.

An alternative to all of this if you require big tyres is long reach calipers which I have never used but most audax bikes would tend to come with if they don't have standard calipers. I have heard but cannot vouch that long reach calipers don't work quite as well as standard ones.

Regarding all this talk of big tyres, a lot of comfort comes from this, even going from 700x23 to 700x25 makes a big difference (you would get 25 on just about any road bike though.)

Lumen

blorg wrote: »

Regarding all this talk of big tyres, a lot of comfort comes from this, even going from 700x23 to 700x25 makes a big difference (you would get 25 on just about any road bike though.)

The other possible option is wider rims. HED Ardennes are designed this way, dunno whether there is a cheaper option.

Rim width is really hard to tell when buying from internet shops, as it's often not on the advertised specs. This is compounded by the issue that (apparently) cyclocrossers use normal road rims, even with 35mm tyres, and often use mega pressuers to reduce pinch flats - this confuses the issue if you're choosing a cross bike for comfort.

blorg

I've used 35mm tyres on standard road rims without difficulty, both on and off road (doing the Camino de Santiago.) Pumped up for the on-road bits, let some air out for the off road. No problem with pinch flats.

Itsfixed

Hi

I've just bought one of these as a frame and fork and transfered bits from my old road bike over. But it is available as a complete bike for about €1000.

The attraction for me is that i like steel and its very reasonably priced. It got 9 out of 10 in a review in Cycling plus magazine recently.

I haven't finished building it up yet, but will post here this week my initial impressions. If you can get the carbon fork option - do, as the steel fork is quite heavy. Will probably end up weighing about 24lb. Heavy enough.

Lumen

Another thing, Ribble do some reasonably priced Audax/winter trainer bikes. The "bike builder" on their website only works in Internet Explorer IIRC.

I was going to buy a Ribble, except when I phoned them for advice they just wanted to sell me a carbon bike instead.

Lumen

blorg wrote: »

I've used 35mm tyres on standard road rims without difficulty, both on and off road (doing the Camino de Santiago.) Pumped up for the on-road bits, let some air out for the off road. No problem with pinch flats.

Ah, I was going on an account of some monster mountainous UK cross race in Cycling Weekly a few weeks ago, the sort where broken frames are quite normal. That level of abuse isn't exactly relevant to commuting.

paranoid

Again thanks for the feedback.
I think I'm looking for tyre width of c. 28mm with a more relaxed geometry than a road bike.
The Tifosi in CRC linked above is available from Wiggle cheaper; the spec. seems to vary so I've asked Wiggle for thier exact current spec
I also have an old (early 90's) 531 frame that I could build up, but the Tax scheme makes a new bike fairly attractive.

Lumen

This might be of interest...

Quest Audax/Trainer

...as you can fiddle with the dropdowns to see what difference different groupsets and finishing kit make to the price.

At €1k you've got a fair bit of choice with metal frames.