compact vs. audax

souter

Okay, going to start the hoary "which bike?" thread in installments. I'm going to get a road bike on the CTW.
No ambitions apart from a few spins and sportives, so the first thing I need to decide is whether I want pure bred racer or a more relaxed geometry as the saying goes.
I currently ride a tricross and love it. As far as I can tell, the main things this has versus a pure bred racer is longer chain stays and a bigger head tube (as well as braze points and bigger wheel clearance). So my initial thoughts are moving from an Allez to say the Tifosi CK7.
Now I can see myself thinking "wish I had full mudguards/pannier etc", yet I have yet to find myself wishing I had shorter chain stays.
Say I go to cycleways and have a short spin on an Allez, what am I supposed to notice over the relaxed geometry? Aside from the ability to hit my foot with the front wheel?

blorg

Will you be getting rid of the Tricross?

If not, I would suggest that it does the full mudguard/relaxed geometry bit and you might want to consider a full on racer. No point getting two bikes the same.

I find my racers just plain more fun to ride, hard to put a finger on what it is exactly. More nimble maybe.

souter

Man you're quick! No, the tricross stays. When you say more nimble, is that good or bad for descending? (I discovered I couldn't descend last year)

blorg

souter wrote: »

Man you're quick! No, the tricross stays. When you say more nimble, is that good or bad for descending? (I discovered I couldn't descend last year)

Good for descending, good for going up too. The Tricross is very heavy also, I think you should at least try a full-on race bike. Something different.

IM0

blorg wrote:

No point getting two bikes the same.

:eek: .
Of course to the *normals* ..all bikes are the same

IM0

souter wrote: »

Okay, going to start the hoary hourly "which bike?" thread in installments. I'm going to get a road bike on the CTW.

Now I can see myself thinking "wish I had full mudguards/pannier etc", yet I have yet to find myself wishing I had shorter chain stays.

mwuhahaha welcome to the beginning of your *stable*

souter wrote:

Say I go to cycleways and have a short spin on an Allez, what am I supposed to notice over the relaxed geometry? Aside from the ability to hit my foot with the front wheel?

the go faster stripes

and a less comfortable ride, and the ability to knock yourself off with one foot when turning real slow.

blorg

Toe overlap is not a major problem, honest. There are very few situations you might hit the front wheel. I have it on my fixed Tricross incidentally and even there it is not a problem.

It's not universal with road bikes either, it depends on the bike, the size and your shoe size.

sexpot

I'd say go with the relaxed definitely. I've used both a racer and tourer for commuting and the relaxed geometry is preferable if your loaded with stuff, especially a bag on the bag. Panniers etc can be loaded well on a tourer as well.

You could still have some nice spins on a tourer/audax bike, just take the pannier stuff off etc.

IM0

blorg wrote: »

It's not universal with road bikes either, it depends on the bike, the size and your shoe size.

and whether or not you like mudguards on the winter bike, mine is a PITA at tight T juntions of small roads, I nearly get run over as once I push and turn onto the top of the T I cant get another stroke out untill facing the edge of the T :rolleyes:..if you know what I mean, some hairy moments

Good times!

souter

me@ucd wrote: »

mwuhahaha welcome to the beginning of your *stable*



the go faster stripes

and a less comfortable ride, and the ability to knock yourself off with one foot when turning real slow.

Yes, that does all have appeal. Regarding footstrike, anything that makes the bike trickier makes me cooler, I can handle that.

I want a bike that is an understated design classic for < 1000 euro, which will allow me to pootle about without being called into some hammertrain, but still have the rudimentary technology to climb hills and wipeout any POB.

Screw the audax, I want to live on the edge.