Difference in alloy and carbon frames?

There are some fantastic aluminium frames available now that really demand to be considered above carbon frames. The Cannondale CAAD 12 is an exceptional aluminium framed bike.

Carbon frames are still the most highly desirable but if I was looking at 2 bikes atvtbe same price and the aluminium model had a better groupset and wheels then I'd absolutely plump for that one over a lesser specced carbon frame.

There's a lot more to a bike that the Frame material.
Care to post any frame only links please?
 
https://masoncycles.cc/shop/categories/definition-bikes

https://www.merlincycles.com/kinesis-racelight-aithein-frameset-68044.html

https://www.westbrookcycles.co.uk/frames-c6/caad12-t301

Here are a couple to get you started. Aluminium is making a resurgence at the moment so there are plenty more. If you are looking at complete bikes at sub £2000 or frames under £1000 then you are going to be spoiled for choice with top quality aluminium offerings.

Sorry it took so long, I'm in the USA at the moment.
The Merlin frame looks really good! I'm looking to spend about £1200ish for a full build. Exclude wheels, I already have some mavic aksium.
 
You'd be surprised but Decathlon have an excellent range of bikes called Btwin. Their top line aluminium models are ridiculously well priced for what they are and should definitely be put into consideration
I had a btwin triban 520 and it served me well for over 3 years. They are top notch bikes for that price, and we'll good quality. But it got stolen over a month ago. So contemplating if to pay a shop £100 to build me a bike, I choose the parts or to buy prebuilt. I honestly don't know what's better.
I want my next road bike to be blue, but don't see any options for frames anywhere lol.
I love cycling but have little knowledge of what's good or not.
 
They are both pretty budget frames and aero is always a little bit heavier than a 'climbing' bike.

I'd agree with a good alloy frame/carbon fork + 105 over something like carbon/carbon + sora.

Decent brands have their lighter bike frame coming in at ~690g for a Trek Emonda, ~680g for the Merida Scultura/Wilier Zero6 and under 700g for the Cervelo R5Ca.

Just pick any big brand, decide if you want Aero, Sportive/Endurance or a typical road bike with 'aggressive' geometry. Probably something a bit more relaxed for so say Giant Defy, pick a groupset and frame choice that you can afford you'll be sorted.

I don't really like B'twins as they always seem to have some sort of weird geometry.

We were putting out Carbon framed Felt F4 with Ultegra, 3t finishing kit and Rs21 ~7.7kg for £1299. That would kick the arse off a B'twin any day of the week.

The same frame with 105 and own brand wheels/finishing kit ~8.1kg for £1080. That is really quite an aggressive bike that with decent wheels could be raced.
Thanks for the reply, I appreciate it. Well this bike would just be pleasure rides. London/countryside, long distance like 50-100 a session. I don't really understand the difference of modes or cycling, endurance etc? Could you explain, I just love cycling, but haven't looked into all this lol.

Also found this, https://www.trekbikes.com/gb/en_GB/...bontrager-pro-isocore-vr-cf-road-bar/p/14103/

I was thinking to go alloy frame set , and get this handlebars and possibly seat post if that's worth it?
I've already got mavic wheels, just need to decide on frame and group set
 
The main difference is the stack or height of the front end.

Race bikes are low and long so your back is flatter and more aero, endurance/sportive bikes are usually around 2cm higher in the head tube to sit you up higher with a straighter back.

Usually they also have a wider tyre 23 vs 25 or 25 v 28 etc for comfort, gear ratio on the cassette usually 11-32 rather than 11-25 or 11-28 to make clmbing easier and generally speaking have a more compact handlebar making the reach shorter again, drop of the bars not as deep and often gel under the bar tape for comfort. The newer adventure bikes take this to an extreme with 28-30mm tyres as standard and often 'sub compact 46-36 vs compact 50-34' chainsets designed to be useful off road

Aero bikes generally have a geometry similar to that of the race bike in the range.

I wouldn't bother with a £300 handlebar from what you are saying. Get the right style of bike, probably something more relaxed, make sure you get the right size and go from there.

Any niggles you can dial out as you go along, starting with a decent tyre combined with your Mavic wheels. Keep the standard wheels for worse weather.

If the road buzz is bad then try a comfier bar tape with gel inserts rather than an expensive bar.
Thanks for the reply! There's just so much to take in, I just want to make sure I have the best ride possible, not too cheap not too expensive. I think maybe, I'd prefer an endurance style bike.

So should I go for a prebuilt?
I wanted to do pay a shop to do a custom so I could have it my way, possibly are there any good bikes you'd recommend that have a show room I could visit?
It's just soooo much haha,
My budget is about £1.1k
 
The btwin I had, was good enough quality for me. But stupidly I used it for courier work. Bad idea.
It's just a step up I want, even though the btwin range is perfect lol.
 
The two highlighted kinda conflict, you wouldn't find many places doing a complete custom build with cheap enough quality parts to make it under £1100. That might sound awkward but just hear me out...! ;)

You're at the stage you want something 'better' or just more specific than you had before, equally your experience is limited to what you've already ridden and know, no matter how small that experience is. You could go through 'shopping' for parts by reading reviews for this that and the other online to then put together into a build... BUT you really need real world experience of said parts together to determine suitability/comfort/compatibility. If you go by reviews it's really is pot luck if you end up with components perfect for you/your build as the majority of reviews are quite specific to the reviewer and bike they are using...

It's a bit catch 22 - you need a way to try some of the parts out in an unbiased and balanced way to make your own decisions. It can mean buying 11 saddles and trying them all before selling 10 of them. Or it could mean getting your sit bones measured as part of a bike fit to determine more specifically what width of saddle suits you, then deciding if you want it firm/solid and the miriad of other 'features', then using this information to try and narrow your search (buying 3 and selling 2).

Really it's a minefield without having friends bikes to try or loan bikes from your local bike shop to try. For example, I rode with the 'Giant Contact' saddle on my Defy 1 (2015) for probably 12 months before changing it to a Charge Spoon, less than 2 months changing it to a Fizik Arione. I found it loads better than the Giant and Spoon but as I gained fitness and rode much more I started to struggle with saddle sores. I changed to various different more expensive shorts and found them better, increased mileage again and suffered again. When I bought a new bike (Specialized Diverge) it came with a totally different saddle than the Arione - a wider nose, a central relief channel and more gel, it's been so comfortable I actually bought another to put on my Giant! I still suffer with sores occasionally but nothing like before. Equally my experience of saddles is only 5 different saddles. There's probably a better saddle out there for me, but finding it will mostly be down to luck!

Thanks for the reply, I get where you're coming from, but I do not have the funds to do that nor the time and patience. I'm just picky, but this shop my work is partnered with does full bike builds for £80. I'll see later on in the year what I'll. Might just chicken out and buy a Ribble/ Giant bike from what I've looked at
 
ok so I custom built a £1200-ish (RRP) bike a few years ago

There were a few reasons

1) I wanted campagnolo, and I wanted a specific frame
2) I wanted handbuilt wheels i'd built myself
3) I already had about £250-300 in lightly-used parts in the shed
4) I really enjoy building bikes, and had all the tools I needed so wasn't paying anyone.

You really need a critical mass of reasons like that to even get close to making sense over just buying it off the peg. Even if you change a few parts and sell everything else off, you'll still likely be better off buying off the peg.

I've not had a brand new complete bike since the 90s. I chop and change, some parts follow me to the next frame, others go. I've only had one brand new frame in that time too, copious used ones though.
I'll pay you to be my Bob the builder
 
The only real way to do that is to know exactly what you want, have the time to surf around for the right prices (can take months & waiting for things like Black Friday) combined with the knowledge and tools to do all the work yourself.

You can get some amazing deals on second hand parts, mostly due to people buying complete bikes and swapping things out, or those who just replace whole bikes, rather than parts. But it is an utter minefield! :)

Saytan's example above is a prime one - many times you can't buy the parts cheap enough to even get near to an off the shelf builds RRP, then there's deals on them and cashback and trade ins and and... ;)

EDIT: might find this useful (as i went into depth about saddles above): https://roadcyclinguk.com/gear/buying-guides/six-things-affect-comfort-saddle.html

https://roadcyclinguk.com/gear/buying-guides/cheap-road-bike-sale-deals.html
The link on the right seat is really useful information, thank you.also from the list of bikes, only worth one I could see myself buying is this.
https://www.rutlandcycling.com/3714...1a6080571c8270876e84&referrer=affiliatewindow
Prefer to have a blue frame bike, since it's my favourite colour.. but it seems hard to come by. Not so popular.
 
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