Road Bike Upgrade

mccutchie

Guys you must be sick and tired of people looking for advice and here we go again.

I'm looking to upgrade my current road bike (which would be entry level) to a carbon frame bike. Went to the local bike shop and basically he is offering what sounds like a great deal on a few remaining 2010 bikes which he has in stock.

These are the 3 I can choose from. Before I went in I was thinking Felt F5, but now i'm really confused.

Trek Madone 4.5
http://www.trekbikes.com/uk/en/bikes/road/madone/madone45/

Pinarello FP2 Carbon 105 Team Sky Replica 2010
http://www.wiggle.co.uk/pinarello-fp2-carbon-105-team-sky-replica-2010/

Felt F5 Team Issue
http://2010.feltracing.com/International/2010-Product-Catalog/Road/F-Series/F5-Team-Issue.aspx

All 3 bikes have a very similiar spec, the pinarello differs with MOST compenents. I could do with some advice.
Thanks

Lumen

Without riding them, I'd go for the Pinarello.

ednwireland

Lumen wrote: »

Without riding them, I'd go for the Pinarello.

really ? hate all that wiggly stuff myself

again without riding them the felt

doozerie

Regarding MOST kit I was looking at buying a pair of second-hand MOST wheels a few months back so tried to dig out as much info as I could on them at the time. There seems to be a scarcity of reviews on any MOST wheels. Some of what I read suggested that MOST wheels are made by Campagnolo but whether that is true or not I don't know. It would seem to make sense that MOST parts generally are just rebadged parts from other manufacturers though I don't whether that is actually the case.

I found one very brief review (just a couple of sentences really) of MOST Duel wheels which heaped praise on them but coming from an anonymous person on the Internet means that it should be taken with a pinch of salt. I didn't find any damning reviews of them either though, which is encouraging.

In your position I'd try to find reviews of the individual framesets first and go from there. Some of the German sites are quite anal about their testing of frames so you can sometimes find a lot of useful info (and a lot of excessive test data to make you bleed from your ears!) there. There is one view that German riders and German reviewers favour very stiff bikes, stiffer than any other nationality is happy to ride - which leads to some mindless online arguments which split into those who compare Italian frames to soggy noodles and German frames to concrete. I've got a (German) bike which rated highly for stiffness in German tests, and though I'm very light I've not found it to be the bone-jarring ride that some of those arguments would suggest it should be. So, for me, German reviews are a useful resource. Here is one site that I found interesting when comparing frames last year.

Lumen

ednwireland wrote: »

really ? hate all that wiggly stuff myself

again without riding them the felt

TBH, I wouldn't buy any of them.

One is called "Team Issue", which is ridiculous since it's got 105 on it. Another is called "Team Replica", which is even more ridiculous for the same reasons. The third one is a Trek, which I'm incapable of liking due to Lance associations.

I should probably just get over myself.

macnab

Have you looked at Canyon bikes. They seem much better value than the bikes you have listed. I only really looked at the Trek but nearly €2k for a bike with 105 components and budget wheels is robbery IMO.

http://www.canyon.com/_en/roadbikes/bike.html?b=2113

Chips Lovell

Most of the Most wheels I've seen are rebadged Campag. That Wiggle link isn't working, but if you can find another I'll be able to say which ones they are.

Lumen

el tonto wrote: »

Most of the Most wheels I've seen are rebadged Campag. That Wiggle link isn't working, but if you can find another I'll be able to say which ones they are.

Here

Chips Lovell

Lumen wrote: »

Here

Them's Campagnolo Khamsins on that bike, but I'm not sure if it's the right pic, since it has a Campag groupset on it.

The FP2 on the Pinarello website has Siroccos on it.

Lumen

el tonto wrote: »

Them's Campagnolo Khamsins on that bike, but I'm not sure if it's the right pic, since it has a Campag groupset on it.

I see this pic. It has a "MOST" groupset on it. :pac:

Chips Lovell

Lumen wrote: »

I see this pic. It has a "MOST" groupset on it. :pac:

Brakes and cranks just.

DirkVoodoo

Is M.O.St a Pinarello own brand? I mean, they are rebadged parts, but do they pop up on other bikes?

Chips Lovell

DirkVoodoo wrote: »

Is M.O.St a Pinarello own brand? I mean, they are rebadged parts, but do they pop up on other bikes?

No, it's their own brand.

snollup

Have a Felt F5 myself, the red version though. Great bikes IMHO.

Oh ya, have upgraded wheele.

mccutchie

Cheers for the feedback lads. I'm going to see can I either get the Felt or the Pinarello with Ultegra components, i'll probably go with the Felt if I do.

fat bloke

I'd go with the Pinarello, if only for some exclusivity. I ride a felt and they're great bikes but they have sold extremely well in Ireland, so basically every fcuker has one!:rolleyes: Ditto with the Trek's.

Pinarello make very pretty bikes and they also don't (as far as I know) sell any models for much less than sort of the 1200 quid mark, so as a brand they are, in my opinion, pretty upmarket.

Personally I'm not a huge fan of the wiggly fork either, but I think that's just in the pics. Any I've seen in real life have looked very well.

The team sky colours are very pretty in the flesh (carbon)

http://www.chainreactioncycles.com/Models.aspx?ModelID=51630

In truth, they're all good bikes. - Buy the one you like. You want it to put a smile on your face when you open your garage in the morning and the sun hits it.