A road bike for hilly terrain

darrenheaphy

So I've signed up for Quest 12 adventure race (link) which is a 147km combination of cycling, running and kayaking and need a bike recommendation. Up to now I've done the top distances of Quest events (60 to 70km events) on a mountain bike (Specialized rockhopper). I love the bike but road cycling the Quest events feels like cycling in glue compared to everyone else who effortlessly glide past me. Heh, I even did the Ring of Kerry charity cycle on it one year! I'm a runner every other day though so I know nothing about road bikes other than I should get one by now. My budget is somewhere between 1 and 1.5k. Presumably there are road bikes built with speed in mind, long flat distances? I want to get a bike built for typical Irish roads with lots of hills :-D Any particular bike or bike type you recommend?

Lumen

Any road bike with a compact crankset.

Borderfox

Have you slick tyres on your mountain bike or knobbly ones?

smacl

Lumen wrote: »

Any road bike with a compact crankset.

And if your heavy, a wider cassette, 11-28 or 11-32. If you're adventure races also include some light off road cyling, e.g. Gael force Dublin, a CX bike might be the better option. Edit: Just looked at your link and its all sealed roads, looks like a tough event!

Steve SilverMint

http://www.chainreactioncycles.com/mobile/ie/en/cube-attain-sl-disc-road-bike-2017/rp-prod154520

lescol

Having looked at the route on the link the only section of badly surfaced road will be the Lough Brin climb. I've done that on steel, aluminium and carbon road bikes without a problem, it's just badly potholed with sections of loose gravel, it's far worse to descend than climb! The descent past the lake is narrow with grass in the middle of the road, there's good visiblity so when the overgrown hedging on the left is forcing you into the grassy bit then riding on the right is safe enough.

Reading the route description I cannot see how it's possible to cycle 98km on the second section going via Molls, Lough Brin, Ballighisheen, going from Acoose straight over Ballighisheen, Caherciveen, around Valentia, Coominaspic, Ballinskelligs to Waterville will give 98km.

As Lumen says, a road bike with a compact chainset will do the job for you. You might benefit from a 30 tooth cassette on the couple of steep bits.

darrenheaphy

Yeah it's an awesome event, isn't it? BorderFox - I used thick but slightly flat tyres on the Rockhopper <- that's the exact bike

So any road bike will do eh? Thanks for the tips on the compact chainset. Steve - that bike looks great, thank you.

darrenheaphy

Just curious, cycle folk, looking at Chain Reaction Cycles. I rather like the bike Steve Silvermint recommended, the Cube Attain SL (link) the more I read about it. There are other two good deals on CRC too: The Lapierre Sensium 300 (link) and the Sensium 500 (link). What do you lot think of the latter two?

darrenheaphy

Merry Christmas! I held off for Jan sales so want to buy in the next week or two. Just curious - any other recommendations? I see there's a new Cube 2018 model out, is the difference merely marketing?

siochain

Some really good value to be found here http://planetxireland.com

Russman

darrenheaphy wrote: »

Merry Christmas! I held off for Jan sales so want to buy in the next week or two. Just curious - any other recommendations? I see there's a new Cube 2018 model out, is the difference merely marketing?

I was in a Cube dealers a week or two ago looking at the 2018 Attain SL Disc and from what the guy said to me, it seems the spec is ever so slightly lower on the newer model (own brand wheels Vs Mavics on the 2017 model & RS500 cranks Vs 105) and as a result they could price the 2018 model a little lower apparently.

I’ve no idea if any of that is true, it’s just what he said to me.

velo.2010

Interestingly enough, according to the 'Secret Pro' on Cyclingtips, bikes from BMC, Canyon, Trek, and Specialized are deemed a level above anything else in the pro peloton.

Russman

velo.2010 wrote: »

Interestingly enough, according to the 'Secret Pro' on Cyclingtips, bikes from BMC, Canyon, Trek, and Specialized are deemed a level above anything else in the pro peloton.

Yeah, I saw that alright. Interesting article.
As an aside, that Cube that the Op is considering looks like serious value - would that be viewed as a decent bike ? Are Cube alu frames good ?