Another 'What Bike' Thread

ABEasy

Hi all, as the title says I'm looking for a new bike and need your help. Looking to upgrade from a Trek 1.1 which I have since April last year, happy with the trek but the Sora is starting to annoy me (coming off the drops to change gear). So rather than change the groupset it makes more sense to change the bike

I've been looking at carbon bikes with 105, (might be convinced to try sram). As money is tight at the moment I'm not going to break the bank. I've got 4 in mind 2 relatively cheap 2 a bit dearer. The more expensive are the trek 4.5 (105) and felt f5 (105) both about €1900 the cheaper are the boardman team carbon (105) €1250 and planet x sl pro carbon (SRAM) €1300.

I've been leaning towards the boardman, seems to be good spec for the price. The downside is halfords won't allow me test it and I'd prefer to buy from my lbs (help the local guy and all that).

So any suggestions of other similar bikes?
What do you thing of the boardman, spec wise, price wise and ride wise (for those who have one)?
Would SRAM be worth a shot, if so rival or red?
Or should I wait till off season and pick up 2012 model trek / felt at a discount (looks like the summer isn't coming anyway)?

I plan using the bike for regular weekend spins of approx 100k and midweek 2 x 40-50km spins.

Thanks.

Edit boardman listed at 1460 but assuming 15% Axa discount

ABEasy

Anybody?

Links to bikes below

http://www.boardmanbikes.com/road/road_team_carbon.html

http://www.trekbikes.com/ie/en/bikes/road/sport/madone_4_series/madone_4_5/#/ie/en/model/details?url=ie/en/bikes/road/sport/madone_4_series/madone_4_5

http://planetxireland.com/products-page/sl-pro-carbon-bikes/planet-x-sl-pro-carbon-complete-bike-sram-rival/

http://www.feltbicycles.com/Ireland/2012/Road/F-Series/F5.aspx

Dubba

First thing to do is get your current bike running well, a gear tune up in your lbs shouldn't cost much.

Secondly, I think the PX is the best bike of the bunch you listed, certainly the lightest. I've had one for a couple of years now and find it great and the SRAM Rival is perfectly good, esp at this price.

Another option for €1,000 is a Canyon Roadlite which are supposed to be good bikes too.

macnab

I have a 2010 Boardman Team carbon which weighs less than 8kg, I recently bought a Trek Madone 5.2 Pro which weighs less than 7kg. Apart from the fact that the Dura-ace on the Trek is smoother when changing gears there is nothing in the difference in the two bikes performance wise. In hindsight I would have been better off just upgrading the parts on the Boardman as they needed changing, instead of splashing out thousands on a bike that doesn't go any faster. Just for reference: I average 32km/h on a 45km commute.

ABEasy

macnab wrote: »

I have a 2010 Boardman Team carbon which weighs less than 8kg, I recently bought a Trek Madone 5.2 Pro which weighs less than 7kg. Apart from the fact that the Dura-ace on the Trek is smoother when changing gears there is nothing in the difference in the two bikes performance wise. In hindsight I would have been better off just upgrading the parts on the Boardman as they needed changing, instead of splashing out thousands on a bike that doesn't go any faster. Just for reference: I average 32km/h on a 45km commute.

Thanks for the reply macnab, think I'm gonna go for the boardman, it seems really good value. How do you find the sizing of the boardman compared to the trek. Just checking the geometry, the top tube on the 53' boardman is 55.5cm whereas the top tube in the 54' trek is 54.3cm (the 51.5' boardman is 54cm) does this make much of a difference.