Road Cycling

Soldato
Joined
24 Apr 2013
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3,067
@Jonny ///M - I've got an Arione R1 in black/red so has the carbon rails etc. It has a little rip on the back left of the saddle if I remember right so it is not pristine. See how you go and with Roady as he has a few but I have this one here if you are keen.

I think I'll be trying to the latest and greatest Fizik's in a few flavours via a local supplier which should be cool and helpful if it comes off. I am on the Antares R1 Versus Evo at moment after years of nothing but Arione R1's and I have never ever been "happy" with any of my saddles. My TT saddle is the TT specific Arione as well and anything beyond a 25 and I'd be torn in half.
 
Soldato
Joined
18 Oct 2002
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Hereford
I could give the first one a shot. My mate has an r5 he got straight off an aeroad and sitting on it in the carpark it feels comfier than the zero.

The R7 seems to be an OEM version that you can find on ebay, as is the R5 maybe.
Yeah my broken one is this R3 in Grey/Black, the cheap one is the unnumbered black one and the Open is the White R3 one. Will dig them out later for some pictures.

I loved the Arione and thought I got on well with it, thinking that my quite big quads needed a narrow saddle. But as soon as had the opening on the Specialized BG Phenom with a wider nose it was a revelation. So much more comfortable over longer distances or higher mileage weeks/more fatigued riding. I think I move around quite a bit on the saddle so the wider nature and cutout cause less chafing. The Phenom didn't work for me on the turbo though, so that's where I got the Arione Open. I'd probably have stuck with it but several people I know switched to the Specialized Power and I was able to grab one at a great price and really get on great with it. Without that £50 bargain I'd never have tried one and stuck with Fizik. :o

Just saw these on hukd...

https://www.merlincycles.com/continental-gp5000-folding-clincher-road-tyre-700c-127979.html

Continental GP5000 for £32 (£8 comes off the price when you add it to your basket). Good price.
Mega deal. Works on the Tubeless too, £53 down to £42.40!
 
Soldato
Joined
22 May 2003
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10,855
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Wigan
Roady. Do it. Great tyres.

I spent all last night musing about winter bikes and went round in circles even thought about a CX One cross bike and putting Cantis on but the cabling is then so ugly.

The one I want they no longer sell! A used frame on eBay at the moment..,
 
Soldato
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8,420
Location
Hereford
Quite tempted even though I have no 'use' for them yet... Tubeless is certainly the way forwards but for now I'm running these cheapy Specialized 32's on my Diverage and see no need to change them even for the summer.

New bike horizon is constantly changing. New bathroom this year so doesn't really look like it'll happen until next year. Little man doesn't get a chunk of his childcare paid for until January 2021 so until then I'll just be eating into savings anyway (as can't really save any money until after then). But then that isn't a huge problem as I've still got some savings anyway. Hmm... So I'm kinda in limbo (read that as the CFO is going to deny any new requests currently).

Tyre clearance has ruled out the Canyon Aeroad and don't think the Ultimate really offers me anything. Who knows about the new ones when they're released. The Tarmac is more of the same, offers a little more but also so incredibly overpriced I think I'd have to go for the Venge to really specialize it 'more' to cater for future TT type fast riding and justify cost. With my Diverge now down to 10kg the 'summer' bike has to be more aero, lighter and DI2/etap hydraulic disc to be a decent enough upgrade. But then that puts a Venge up into the 'selling a kidney' pricepoint. So I really do like the idea of building one up and buying parts spread out until I'm 'allowed' to spend on the frame/groupset which she would see as less expense... ;)

Do love the 2019 Venge in the 'Battleship Grey' colour. *drool*

Then again more recently I've also considered going back to Giant for the Propel Disc. Certainly get more for my money buying it complete, but I don't love the look of it as much as the Specializeds...

I hadn't really spotted many of the less off the shelf frames/builds/bikes with as aero disc frames with tidy integrated bars for hydraulics, but if anyone knows or spots one...
 
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Soldato
Joined
25 Feb 2004
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18,137
Location
Hampshire
@Berger I'd really contemplate not worrying about what you've already got and just get a cheap bike with all the kit on it already. Saves so much faff and usually they work out cheaper. If you can get a full CX bike with mudguard mounts and Tiagra for 1k go down that route and get rid of any old stuff you're not using. I went through the same thing when I replaced the Ridley and it just worked out better getting something new would be cheaper in the long run as all the kit will be new and warranty covered and means you can just ride it. Sure something in your size would be dirt cheap as well.
 
Soldato
Joined
27 Feb 2003
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7,171
Location
Shropshire
@Berger I'd really contemplate not worrying about what you've already got and just get a cheap bike with all the kit on it already. Saves so much faff and usually they work out cheaper. If you can get a full CX bike with mudguard mounts and Tiagra for 1k go down that route and get rid of any old stuff you're not using. I went through the same thing when I replaced the Ridley and it just worked out better getting something new would be cheaper in the long run as all the kit will be new and warranty covered and means you can just ride it. Sure something in your size would be dirt cheap as well.

The Dolan RDX is available built with R7000 105 hydraulics for £999 - just need to add mudguards (£30) and pedals of your choice
 
Soldato
Joined
22 May 2003
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10,855
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Wigan
The Dolan RDX is available built with R7000 105 hydraulics for £999 - just need to add mudguards (£30) and pedals of your choice

I do suffer from slight budget creep but that is a good build.

I’d like to build myself as saddle would be changed and a few other bits and bobs.

I’d be tempted to plumb for some slightly better rims, Hunts, Hope RS4 or Shimano slightly higher up the range...
 
Soldato
Joined
25 Oct 2006
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5,386
Oh dear what have strava done with their maps. Presume they've stopped using Google maps. It looks awful now!
I thought they moved from Google Maps to Mapbox (using OpenStreetMap) quite some time back when Google started charging to even embed a map.

The thumbnail maps on list activities page and mobile thumbnails too. It's still using Google Maps when you open the map on mobile.
 
Soldato
Joined
23 Nov 2004
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10,646
Yeah my broken one is this R3 in Grey/Black, the cheap one is the unnumbered black one and the Open is the White R3 one. Will dig them out later for some pictures.

I loved the Arione and thought I got on well with it, thinking that my quite big quads needed a narrow saddle. But as soon as had the opening on the Specialized BG Phenom with a wider nose it was a revelation. So much more comfortable over longer distances or higher mileage weeks/more fatigued riding. I think I move around quite a bit on the saddle so the wider nature and cutout cause less chafing. The Phenom didn't work for me on the turbo though, so that's where I got the Arione Open. I'd probably have stuck with it but several people I know switched to the Specialized Power and I was able to grab one at a great price and really get on great with it. Without that £50 bargain I'd never have tried one and stuck with Fizik. :o

Mega deal. Works on the Tubeless too, £53 down to £42.40!

Messaged me details and I can pay for the damage one to try it mate.

I put my saddle forward slightly tonight and it felt fine until smashing it began, top of my thighs were on fire something awful. Spent the last efforts I did right far back on the saddle to help with it.
 
Associate
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Soldato
Joined
18 Oct 2002
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4,617
I'm a long time campag man, hate shimano flappy brake levers

but both of those bikes have got me twitching. Campag stuff is such stupid money now. I can't justify Di2. SRAM doubletap seems weird.

i've got as far as plugging the numbers into a geometry spreadsheet to see how they compare to my current bike. With a bit of spacer faff i can get both within 5mm of my current fit.
 
Soldato
Joined
18 Oct 2002
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8,420
Location
Hereford
Oh dear what have strava done with their maps. Presume they've stopped using Google maps. It looks awful now!
Yeah it looks like a paint by numbers gone wrong. Routes/plots also look far too blocky/vector type rather than smooth. Gah! Sure hope it's just teething issues as Fitness & Freshness keep breaking for me too. Sometimes the 'numbers' load wrong (my Fitness score sometimes reads over 100 when it's 53), other times when it populates the graph is 'frozen' and I can't highlight or scroll across it.

saw this earlier this year, crackign deal but when i click on the link again, there's a contender:
https://www.rutlandcycling.com/bike...c-sl6-sport-disc-2019-carbon-road-bike_461559
in this case, i will probably pick the tarmac instead. but ...just all talk, not in the market for another bike lol
Great deal, 32% off is nice. But the Sport frameset is bottom of the Tarmac range. It's Fact '9r' carbon which is the cheapest, heaviest and most compliant stuff. Good sportive/endurance type stuff, but not stiff or light. Geometry is said to be slacker on the Sport ranges but can't confirm that.

https://www.rutlandcycling.com/bike...sl6-expert-disc-carbon-road-bike-green_459288
The Expert, which is also on a fantastic 34% sale is using Fact 10r carbon which is only 1 step below their top Fact 11r which they only use on S-Works frames. The frame itself is listed at around 200g lighter than the Fact 9r carbon and that's without any other savings from the other carbon components, carbon wheels and Ultegra.

But is it really worth £1000 more? Frame alone, no, but combination with groupset and carbon wheels. Possibly...

https://www.specialized.com/us/en/stories/fact-carbon-fiber
 
Soldato
Joined
18 Oct 2002
Posts
4,617
Yeah it looks like a paint by numbers gone wrong. Routes/plots also look far too blocky/vector type rather than smooth. Gah! Sure hope it's just teething issues as Fitness & Freshness keep breaking for me too. Sometimes the 'numbers' load wrong (my Fitness score sometimes reads over 100 when it's 53), other times when it populates the graph is 'frozen' and I can't highlight or scroll across it.

Great deal, 32% off is nice. But the Sport frameset is bottom of the Tarmac range. It's Fact '9r' carbon which is the cheapest, heaviest and most compliant stuff. Good sportive/endurance type stuff, but not stiff or light. Geometry is said to be slacker on the Sport ranges but can't confirm that.

https://www.rutlandcycling.com/bike...sl6-expert-disc-carbon-road-bike-green_459288
The Expert, which is also on a fantastic 34% sale is using Fact 10r carbon which is only 1 step below their top Fact 11r which they only use on S-Works frames. The frame itself is listed at around 200g lighter than the Fact 9r carbon and that's without any other savings from the other carbon components, carbon wheels and Ultegra.

But is it really worth £1000 more? Frame alone, no, but combination with groupset and carbon wheels. Possibly...

https://www.specialized.com/us/en/stories/fact-carbon-fiber


there's a lot of gibber talked about materials. Truth is, if you painted them all the same colour and fitted the same components, then peoples selection of which is best based on feel would be effectively random. There are limits on this obviously, gaspipe is always going to feel rubbish, but the difference between "really good" and "the absolute best we can do" is basically indistinguishable from on top

back in the day when the exact grade of your steel was of the greatest of importance there was this: http://www.habcycles.com/m7.html
 
Soldato
Joined
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8,420
Location
Hereford
I don't disagree that, especially when it's carbon frames made within the last couple of years from a very refined builder/factory like Specialized use. There should be very little progress to make each year, so their claims always seem quite bold!

Lets be honest I think the Fact 9r carbon used in the 'Sport' is the same carbon they where using for the S-Works top of the line Tarmac SL4 that Saxo Bank where riding in 2008, that or the SL3 anyway. The layups are probably totally different, far more modern, aero and probably better researched, while also being built for the general public to abuse over many years, rather than a season of being well looked after by a Pro. So those are probably the biggest differences people will likely 'feel' rather than the differing carbon types. Then again, people replace their wheels for far less than a 200g weight saving. Still think going for a poo before riding is a much cheaper alternative, but just think - you can do that AND have a newer, lighter bike! :D

But when you think year on year the different Tarmac's seem to be 10%+ stiffer than last seasons, several hundred grams lighter while also (somehow) being more compliant...!

Specialized are not the only brand doing this by far, marketing creating so much hype and misinformation. Equally even with all the snake oil involved, they seem able to back up with data. Other brands less so.
 
Soldato
Joined
18 Oct 2002
Posts
4,617
Returns start to diminish rapidly above about £1500-2000

is a1 £1000 bike £500 better than a £500 one? definitely.
is a £4000 bike £2000 better than a £2000 one? much more subjective. For most people, nah.
 
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