Road bike for approx €1300? Battaglin anyone?

RonanCFD

I'm getting back into road cycling after a long period of mountain biking, and I'm after a new carbon road bike. As well as getting to work, intention is to do some longer (~60km) cycles at the weekends with a couple of friends, but I don't have any plans to race at this stage.

I was all sold on getting a Planet X SL Pro Rival @€1300. The spec seems great for the price, and I really got on well with SRAM shifters when I had a go of a friend's Fondriest. Unfortunately the shop is really struggling to get any stock so I'm starting to look at other options, especially now that the sell-off of 2012 bikes seems to be kicking in.

Other options at around the same price are:

Battaglin C12 Plus Veloce 2012 @ about €1400. Frame looks great, not so familiar with the Campagnolo Veloce Groupset but seems OK from googling.

Cannondale Supersix Apex 2012 @ €1495. Again the frame looks great, step down from Rival to Apex groupset but I'm told that the difference isn't enormous. Starting to creep well above my original budget!

Felt F6 Apex 2012 @ about €1300 Geometry might be a bit more race-oriented than I'm after, again a step down from Rival to Apex groupset and I don't really like the paint job.

Felt Z6 Tiagra 2012 @ about €1300 Geometry suits me better, prefer the looks to the F6 but I really don't like Tiagra.

Any advice would be appreciated, especially if anyone has experience of the Battaglin (and Veloce in general). My preference at the moment is for either the Battaglin (don't know why, it just looks right) or the PlanetX (showroom is just down the road in Athlone, and has my preferred groupset). I'm buying on the bike to work scheme and I'm a bit of a beginner to road bikes, so preference would be to buy locally, or failing that, from Wiggle.

Thanks,

Ronan

Plastik

http://www.planet-x-bikes.co.uk/i/q/FBPXPRORIV12/planet_x_pro_carbon_rival_road_bike_2012

That will show you the size, color and stock level of SL Pro's in stock. If you're not ordering through the BTW then forget about the Irish distributor and order directly from PX themselves.

Kav0777

Plastik wrote: »

http://www.planet-x-bikes.co.uk/i/q/FBPXPRORIV12/planet_x_pro_carbon_rival_road_bike_2012

That will show you the size, color and stock level of SL Pro's in stock. If you're not ordering through the BTW then forget about the Irish distributor and order directly from PX themselves.

Followed the link, all appear out of stock.

This, however, has stock left:

http://www.planet-x-bikes.co.uk/i/q/CBPXRT57RIV/planet_x_rt_57_sram_rival_road_bike

route66

I've never heard of a Battaglin before.

If you are coming from Mountain Biking, then maybe the slightly more relaxed geometry of the Ridley Orion would suit? Available from Wiggle for a smidgen under your budget too: link

Nice review in Bikeradar here: link

Plastik

Kav0777 wrote: »

Followed the link, all appear out of stock.

This, however, has stock left:

http://www.planet-x-bikes.co.uk/i/q/CBPXRT57RIV/planet_x_rt_57_sram_rival_road_bike

Apologies. That's strange . That must have changed in the last few minutes only. When I copied/pasted it was showing stock of black&white XL, white L and stock of S too.

Lemag

Plastik wrote: »

If you're not ordering through the BTW then forget about the Irish distributor and order directly from PX themselves.

The OP has already stated that they will be using the BYW scheme. However, depending on how his/her employer administers it, they may still be able to get the bike from Planet X Uk or from any other foreign company.

Seaneh

Plastik wrote: »

If you're not ordering through the BTW then forget about the Irish distributor and order directly from PX themselves.

Why, the price is almost identical?
And If he goes through Athlone he has a point of refrence for repairs/warranty stuff.

He can also actually try the bike before buying.

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

countrykid

battaglin are the manufacturers of the machine that Stephen Roche won many of his big races on! great heritage and a family business..
nowadays there bikes are hard to come by and i dont know of an Irish distributor .. seen a few at events this year and they look pretty good to me..

veloce would be a value groupset from campagnolo but that said i'd favour it over similarly priced shimano gear which would be Tiagra... sweeter shifting and just better looking! cheaper shimano cranksets are just ugly..

RonanCFD

Thanks for all the feedback. Yes, I'm using BTW scheme, but I'm a director of my company so I can buy from anywhere as long as I stick to the conditions of the scheme. Having said that, I don't really want all the hassle of getting things ex-VAT from a UK supplier and administering the VAT payment myself, so I would rather buy locally or failing that, from Wiggle or CRC as they can give me a euro invoice with VAT at our rate.

I'm literally half an hour from the Planet X shop and they are nice lads so I wouldn't buy direct from the UK Planet X unless there was no other option.

Re: the RT57, I just don't like it - I don't know what it is, maybe its the colour schemes but it just doesn't look right to me. The SL Pro frame looks better in the flesh than in photos, whereas the 57 looks even worse! I know the £999 special is a fantastic deal, but it just doesn't do it for me.

The Ridley Orion is lovely, but unfortunately they only have M, S, XS. I'm just over 6' so I would need a large. A shame as the geometry looks ideal for me.

countrykid - that's interesting. How would you rate the Veloce relative to SRAM Rival?

I'm pretty taken with the Battaglin, I just would have preferred to go to a LBS as I'm inexperienced re: bike setup etc. Here's a (mostly positive) review of the Battaglin C12 on BikeRadar (different spec but same frame I think)

Off to Dublin tomorrow so will try to get to a couple of shops and try a few more things out...:)

Ronan

countrykid

im a campag head to be fair so may just be a little biased!
i like sram too...clever and very well engineered mechs...the top line sram stuff is extremelly well made.
i have most campag groupos ( cant afford record sadly!!) and i find it bulletproof.
needs far less tuning and tweaking than its japanese rivals..
ive got veloce (older model) on a run around and never have had a prob with it.. brakes are fantastic. that battaglin frame looks sweet...paired with camapag i dont think you could go wrong.

RonanCFD

When you're on the drops, can you pull the Campag shifters back like you can with Sram?

I had a good look at the Felt F6 yesterday - looks better in the flesh than in pics but does look very race oriented.

I was expecting lots of feedback about the Cannondale - does anyone have any experience of the supersix?

Ronan

hesker

RonanCFD wrote: »

I was expecting lots of feedback about the Cannondale - does anyone have any experience of the supersix?
Ronan

Have you seen this thread?

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2056758041

Post #8 and beyond

RonanCFD

Ah, yes - Plenty of feedback in there. Thanks.

RonanCFD

I decided to hold on for the PlanetX in the end, and finally got it last night after a llllloooooonnnnnnggggg wait... The Battaglin sold out in my size early on in my deliberations which made the decision easier, although I also missed a Cinelli Saetta in the Wiggle sale by not acting quickly enough.

First ride today once the roads have warmed up a bit!





Thanks for the advice, everyone

Ronan

RidleyRider

RonanCFD wrote: »

I decided to hold on for the PlanetX in the end, and finally got it last night after a llllloooooonnnnnnggggg wait... The Battaglin sold out in my size early on in my deliberations which made the decision easier, although I also missed a Cinelli Saetta in the Wiggle sale by not acting quickly enough.

First ride today once the roads have warmed up a bit!





Thanks for the advice, everyone

Ronan

Well wear!:D

Seaneh

RonanCFD wrote: »

I decided to hold on for the PlanetX in the end, and finally got it last night after a llllloooooonnnnnnggggg wait... The Battaglin sold out in my size early on in my deliberations which made the decision easier, although I also missed a Cinelli Saetta in the Wiggle sale by not acting quickly enough.

First ride today once the roads have warmed up a bit!





Thanks for the advice, everyone

Ronan

Wow it's gorgeous in those colours!

Did you buy it through Athlone?

RonanCFD

Yes, hence the long wait! To be fair to them, they are completely at the mercy of PX UK in terms of supply. Mark in Athlone is a gentleman and put up with me ringing what feels like every day for the last month.

I love the colours too - I could have had a white one a couple of weeks ago, but I'm glad I waited.

Just back from my test ride - the roads are shocking around here but the back end was really comfortable. I felt a lot of road buzz through my hands, but even on my mountain bike these roads are really bad. Got on great with my first try with the clip-ins, no issues at all. A happy bunny!

Cheers,
Ronan

RonanCFD

A few more pics:

RidleyRider

Great pics, you should put them in this thread

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2056298249

RidleyRider

Great pics, you should put them in this thread

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2056298249

RonanCFD

Will do!