Aluminium road bike upgrade to carbon

pete6296

Looking for opinions on a carbon bike with a budget of 1800.
Seen a nice bike look 765 optimum with 105 groupset.
Thanks

sin_26

pete6296 wrote: »

Looking for opinions on a carbon bike with a budget of 1800.
Seen a nice bike look 765 optimum with 105 groupset.
Thanks

All bikes below five grand are crap.

Thanks

magicbastarder

well, that was helpful.

pete - dolan bikes would be one option, the pricing is competitive; here's one with reasonable kit (given the price), for STG£1k
https://www.dolan-bikes.com/road/road-bikes/road-bike-carbon/dolan-l-etape-carbon-road-bike-shimano-5800.html

that's a general purpose geometry, they do racier options; this would just fit in under budget at current exchange rates (not counting for delivery)
https://www.dolan-bikes.com/road/road-bikes/road-bike-carbon/dolan-tuono-sl-carbon-road-bike-shimano-105-5800.html

sin_26

magicbastarder wrote: »

well, that was helpful.

pete - dolan bikes would be one option, the pricing is competitive; here's one with reasonable kit (given the price), for STG£1k
https://www.dolan-bikes.com/road/road-bikes/road-bike-carbon/dolan-l-etape-carbon-road-bike-shimano-5800.html

that's a general purpose geometry, they do racier options; this would just fit in under budget at current exchange rates (not counting for delivery)
https://www.dolan-bikes.com/road/road-bikes/road-bike-carbon/dolan-tuono-sl-carbon-road-bike-shimano-105-5800.html

Sure it was. Personally I would never suggest any bike without some basic information eg. type of cycling, distances, experience, expectations etc.
It sounds like I want to buy a car for ten grands and expect that everyone will read in my mind?

CantGetNoSleep

1800 is a decent budget for a road bike. For that amount you are looking at 105 or Ultegra and ideally non-rubbish wheels. I got a Canyon Ultimate SL from their warehouse for 1599 last year. Carbon frame and Ultegra 6800

fat bloke

I'd be taking that 1800 to Donedeal and knocking on some guy's door to take his "cost 4 grand 8 months ago" bike off his hands.

I've been eyeing up this Willier http://www.chainreactioncycles.com/ie/en/wilier-gtr-team-ultegra-road-bike-2018/rp-prod166052

I think it looks pretty, but I am sure there are more things to look for when buying a new bike

pete6296

sin_26 wrote: »

Sure it was. Personally I would never suggest any bike without some basic information eg. type of cycling, distances, experience, expectations etc.
It sounds like I want to buy a car for ten grands and expect that everyone will read in my mind?

Hi.
I typically cycle around 200km a week if I can and do a few sportives. Avg around 29kmph on my spins and I wud like to get my speed up a little. Everyone recommends upgrading to a carbon.
Thanks

magicbastarder

i recently 'upgraded' to a carbon frame. in my experience, carbon in and of itself won't make much difference to your average speed. you might shed a kilo in weight, which is better than not doing it, but that might be 1% of your total rolling weight - so don't fret the frame material.
you may find simply being more comfortable on the bike will make a bigger difference for you.

pete6296

Weepsie wrote: »

The bike you mentioned, mightnt necessarily be one for speed or zipping up and down hills. It's I believe very much an endurance frame. Built for mile munching comfort. Look bikes are lovely though.

Thanks for your feedback.
What wud be a good bike for speed and zipping up and down hills?
Thanks

Macy0161

Depends what you want to be doing, but I love my tcr advanced 1 which I got ballpark your budget over last winter, if anywhere is selling off your size frame. Mine was a 2017 model, but the only change to 2018 was colour scheme...

CramCycle

pete6296 wrote: »

Hi.
I typically cycle around 200km a week if I can and do a few sportives. Avg around 29kmph on my spins and I wud like to get my speed up a little. Everyone recommends upgrading to a carbon.
Thanks

Unless your racing out and out, upgrading does not necessarily mean Carbon, and in fact many carbon frames are out done by alu ones. There are sweveral awful carbon frames out there that would be a downgrade.

Do you want speed or comfort? What is your current bike and is it comfy? What wheels are on it?

I bought fancy wheels this year, in all my time of cycling, this has made more difference than anything (in relation to a product rather than the engine). Glad I didn't buy a new bike or similar as I would have had the same average wheels with little or no benefit.

Macy0161

CramCycle wrote:

Unless your racing out and out, upgrading does not necessarily mean Carbon, and in fact many carbon frames are out done by alu ones. There are sweveral awful carbon frames out there that would be a downgrade.

Just to ask, as I was tempted by some aluminium frames when I upgraded (was geometry for me too). Are the lightweight thin aluminum frames that much more robust than carbon? That was a concern for me, but ultimately the deal I got helped make my decision to tcr over the caad that I was looking at too.

pete6296

CramCycle wrote: »

Unless your racing out and out, upgrading does not necessarily mean Carbon, and in fact many carbon frames are out done by alu ones. There are sweveral awful carbon frames out there that would be a downgrade.

Do you want speed or comfort? What is your current bike and is it comfy? What wheels are on it?

I bought fancy wheels this year, in all my time of cycling, this has made more difference than anything (in relation to a product rather than the engine). Glad I didn't buy a new bike or similar as I would have had the same average wheels with little or no benefit.

Thanks. Current bike Cannondale Synapse Disc, wheels very poor so replaced rear with mavic aksium as spokes going every few weeks. Also don't find disc brakes any good, they are mechanical.
Thanks for your valuable opinion

CramCycle

Macy0161 wrote: »

Just to ask, as I was tempted by some aluminium frames when I upgraded (was geometry for me too). Are the lightweight thin aluminum frames that much more robust than carbon? That was a concern for me, but ultimately the deal I got helped make my decision to tcr over the caad that I was looking at too.

It really depends on the Carbon and on the Aluminium frame. Carbon has many different ways of being layered up and formed which all affects weight and strength. Same with Alu, how it is formed, what blend is it etc. I have a Scandium contaminated 7000 frame. Probably slightly harder to work with but apparently far longer lifecycle than a regular Alu 6061. Its lighter than a CAAD12 as well, coming in at 40g lighter for the equivalent frame and is a comfy racer, strong and responsive without piledriving your hole in a race.

It should outlast my use of it by a few years. They don't use this alu anymore though as apparently it is too expensive. Alu6061 is easier to work with and can be made quite thin without much loss to strength and longevity.

As someone else once said to me about the safety and longevity of the different materials, the warning signs are obvious:

Steel: It starts creaking, 20 years later it gently bends and cracks
Aluminium: It creaks, groans and within a few weeks or hours it snaps suddenly
Carbon: You wake up in hospital 28 days later wondering how you got there

This is of course, grossly exaggerated. Decent carbon, well looked after will probably last as long as any other material. Aluminium no longer has that 5 year lifetime that it used to be advertised as years ago.

CramCycle

pete6296 wrote: »

Thanks. Current bike Cannondale Synapse Disc, wheels very poor so replaced rear with mavic aksium as spokes going every few weeks. Also don't find disc brakes any good, they are mechanical.
Thanks for your valuable opinion

Nothing wrong with a Synapse, not my cuppa tea but they are a grand bike. Are you comfy on it? Askiums are better than the stock wheels that come with bikes but are still Mavics entry level wheels. I thought they were great until I got better ones.

Firstly are you comfy on your bike?

Are you as fast as the people you ride with, with the exception of racing, riding faster than the people you are with seems like a silly target, if you can keep up with them with ease then your fast enough.

Depending on your budget, and what you want to do, get a bike fit first. Your bike may not be the right fit or size, getting a new bike probably won't fix that. let him know you are thinking of a new bike but will stay with the one you have if it is the right size / fit.

pete6296

CramCycle wrote: »

Nothing wrong with a Synapse, not my cuppa tea but they are a grand bike. Are you comfy on it? Askiums are better than the stock wheels that come with bikes but are still Mavics entry level wheels. I thought they were great until I got better ones.

Firstly are you comfy on your bike?

Are you as fast as the people you ride with, with the exception of racing, riding faster than the people you are with seems like a silly target, if you can keep up with them with ease then your fast enough.

Depending on your budget, and what you want to do, get a bike fit first. Your bike may not be the right fit or size, getting a new bike probably won't fix that. let him know you are thinking of a new bike but will stay with the one you have if it is the right size / fit.

I did a bike fit on the synapse. Thought if I was to invest in proper wheels cud be better getting a good deal on a new bike with a better wheelset and brakes. Weighed bike and it's 12.5kg.
Thanks

pete6296

Weepsie wrote: »

The bike you mentioned, mightnt necessarily be one for speed or zipping up and down hills. It's I believe very much an endurance frame. Built for mile munching comfort. Look bikes are lovely though.

Seen a nice Giant Propel Advanced 2 to fit within my budget.
May be a better option than look 765 optimum I mentioned.

saganfan

When moving from alu to carbon I went with the Canyon Ultimate CF SL 7.0. 105 groupset, Aksium wheels, Conti 4000SII tyres. It was €1600. I'm very happy with it.

Weighs about 9kg

pete6296

saganfan wrote: »

When moving from alu to carbon I went with the Canyon Ultimate CF SL 7.0. 105 groupset, Aksium wheels, Conti 4000SII tyres. It was €1600. I'm very happy with it.

Weighs about 9kg

Thanks, am I correct in saying I can only order online for canyon and it would not qualify me for bike to work scheme. Thanks

magicbastarder

depends on your employer; some might have restricted lists of shops they'll deal with, but there's no official restriction on who you can buy the bike from.

i believe canyon will not split the invoice if you want to spend more than €1000 though.

pete6296

magicbastarder wrote: »

depends on your employer; some might have restricted lists of shops they'll deal with, but there's no official restriction on who you can buy the bike from.

i believe canyon will not split the invoice if you want to spend more than €1000 though.

https://www.canyon.com/en-ie/factory-outlet/category.html#category=road-bikes&sort=price&order=1&id=22985

Looks like a cracking bike

nialljf

At that price bracket, I would be tempted to go for a top quality aluminium frame, rather than an entry level carbon frame with lower specced components.

Have a look at comparison between carbon and alumiumium here?
https://granfondo-cycling.com/carbon-or-aluminium/

bilbot79

Last year Wiggle did Black Friday deals for 4 weeks leading up to Black Friday. each Friday the deals would change.

I had picked a bike I liked and watched and watched for it to come into the sale and on the last Thursday night I stayed till 1am refreshing and then BAM, there it was an Eddy mourenx 69 last year's model with full carbon frame and ultegra all over reduced from 1700 gbp to 1200 gbp.

It's a great bike and it started life at 4500 the year before

magicbastarder

pete6296 wrote: »

https://www.canyon.com/en-ie/factory-outlet/category.html#category=road-bikes&sort=price&order=1&id=22985

Looks like a cracking bike

but you cannot get it on the BTW scheme - canyon will not split the invoice into €1000 for your employer and the remainder for you. your employer won't take kindly to an invoice for over €2000 when €1000 is the max on the scheme they can pay.

Crocked

magicbastarder wrote: »

but you cannot get it on the BTW scheme - canyon will not split the invoice into €1000 for your employer and the remainder for you. your employer won't take kindly to an invoice for over €2000 when €1000 is the max on the scheme they can pay.

I thought they could pay what ever they/you want but only €1000 can be offset as a salary sacrifice.

At least thats what I've done on my purchases and never heard of the €1,000 restriction on the max you can spend

magicbastarder

generally, if you want to spend €2000 on a bike, your company will pay €1000 (and will want an invoice for same from the retailer), and you pay the balance, so you get an invoice for €1000 and pay yourself.

as far as i understand, unlike most other retailers, canyon will *not* issue two invoices for €1000 each. they'll send one for €2000 to your employer. who was expecting one at a max. of €1000.

Crocked

I can see why a company would do it that way, ours hasn't though. They've gone with, retailer invoices them full amount and they pay retailer full amount. Employee immediately pays any amount over €1000 to their company, and the €1000 is repaid through salary over what ever timeframe has been agree.

LollipopJimmy

I'd try and squeeze the extra few bob to but this if the size was right

https://touch.adverts.ie/road-bikes/look-765-2016-custom-build/15996006

a148pro

Op I've just bought a new bike, not sure I made best decision but here's what I learned along way

- ride as many bikes, new or second hand to get a feel for something you like. Even better if you can borrow a friend's Bike and do a decent spin on it. This will help you identify what you like about bikes, and in particular whether you want an endurance or race frame

- ask yourself what you would change about your existing bike. Weight would be a good start, 12.5kg is very heavy, you can get a vitus vitesse on wiggle 105 for 1100 and it weighs under 8kg. But online only so you'd have to find someone who owns one to give you a spin.

- Bear in mind that you might like a particular bike feel because it has nice wheels or tyres or they're inflated to a pressure that makes the ride feel good or you might happen to hop on one that hits your sweet spot for fit. Ie, you might prefer one Bike over another because the one you tried simply fitted better as opposed to that bike being definitively more suited to you

- decide how much you like hills and if you do ensure you buy a bike with appropriate gearing. I have 50 - 36 and a 28 cassette but would still prefer more gears for hills - will get 32 next time I think. Take your existing bike up a hill and see would you like more gears.

- also Bear in mind the clearance you will have for tires on a particular model. The trend is for bigger and bigger tyres, they give a much smoother ride but can feel sluggish too. I can't fit 28s on my bike and I'd like to be able to

- the consensus is that 105 is a perfectly good system and you only pay more for ultegra or dura ace to save weight, which for the money should only really concern racers or athletes. If buying new aim for 105 as anything else is unlikely to be in your budget or will scrimp on other things. On the other hand I got di2 electronic gears on my second hand bike and I think it'll be hard to ever go back so you can get great value second hand

- Bear in mind that almost all the new bikes at 105 level will have crap wheels, except some of the online offerings, canyon in particular