Spec Me A Road Bike - £3k to £5k

AndyCr15

AndyCr15

AndyCr15

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Joined
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Barnet, London
As some of you will recall, last year I got heavily into cycling, to lose weight. I started on an old hybrid, then bought a new hybrid, then bought a friends old carbon frame road bike. Even when buying this one (only £500) it was to see how I would cope on a road bike (6'3 with a bad back at times).

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I seemed fine on it, but really miss the disc brakes I have on my Hybrid. I'm also told the groupset on this 2nd hand road bike is very old. I replaced the wheels with some nice £700 Campagnolo wheels, which is annoying I can't transfer, but I guess they will bump the value of the outgoing road bike.

I have some cash saved up and could go as high as £5k I guess, but would much prefer to be about the £3k mark. At the same time, if that's a waste and I can spend £2k for the same experience, please tell me. I know nothing of bikes though, (not even how the gear ratios are explained etc) so looking for some help (and maybe explanation) here :)

Info you might need, I'm 6'3 and 97kg. On my current road bike I hardly ever use the smaller ring at the front. I'd love something with a power meter built in, to connect to my Wahoo ELEMNT, but at the same time, I can just buy this after. Let me know if you need more info.

Wiggle looks to be a good place for me to buy as I get 12% off a lot of bikes as a 'Platinum Customer'.

A lot of the 2019 bikes seem heavily discounted on Wiggle, like this one. But would I be better getting a 2020? Does the technology move on that much?

What would I get in this £5.2k bike that I wouldn't in this £3.5k bike?

I'm in no huge hurry. My original plan was to buy a new bike in March. Just thought I'd make a start on gathering advice :)

Thanks for any help.
 
I’m no expert on bikes, however if you have a bad back I would go for a bike fitting when you have your new bike. You need to take into consideration geometry of your bike. Essentially you have a trade off of comfort and speed :)
 
The difference between £5k and £3k is likely to be much of a muchness. £2-3k is probably the sweet spot, closer to the £3k for something with full hydraulic disc brakes (might even squeeze di2 in there). Unlikely to get good wheels on most bikes... perhaps if you spend closer to £5k, but likely better to save the money and just upgrade wheels on cheaper a stock bike.

AndyCr15 said:
A lot of the 2019 bikes seem heavily discounted on Wiggle, like this one. But would I be better getting a 2020? Does the technology move on that much?
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Doesn't move on super quickly. There can be differences in groupset and kit on the frame but often the next year frame of x manufacturer will just be a different colour scheme. Unless you can't find what you need in discounted last year bikes I see no reason really to not reap the benefits of a last year bike. You may have more luck than the average cyclist as you'll be requiring larger frames that tend to be harder to sell :)

AndyCr15 said:
What would I get in this £5.2k bike that I wouldn't in this £3.5k bike?
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Nothing majorly different but the kit is different. On the CRX you have Sram Etap wireless groupset which compared to the CRS is just Sram's electronic shifting - and it's wireless, no cables. Some prefer it, others prefer Di2. The wheels on the CRX are a main manufacturer rather than Wiggle's own brand. Likely a little better.

Jimbeam3678 said:
I’m no expert on bikes, however if you have a bad back I would go for a bike fitting when you have your new bike. You need to take into consideration geometry of your bike. Essentially you have a trade off of comfort and speed :)
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Go for a bike fit before, then get the right size bike instead of trying to make (potentially) the wrong size bike fit.
 
You could get a very good road disc bike for under £2k, especially if your scour for EOL models from this or previous years.

For example, it might "only" be Shimano 105 (I have 105 5800 on my Cube Attain GTC Pro Disc 2016, cost me under £1k in EOL sale in May 2017), but if my lower back was less troublesome I'd love to get https://www.paulscycles.co.uk/1827/products/giant-propel-advanced-2-disc-road-bike-2019-green.aspx and maybe think about getting some deep aero rim wheels as upgrades at some point.

Cube Attains are good for people like me with lower back issues, I don't know if the geometry of the https://www.paulscycles.co.uk/330/p...ace-disc-carbon-road-bike-2019-redorange.aspx would be too aggressive, my 58cm is 388mm reach and 610mm stack, but 56cm in this Agree seems to be 390mm/573mm respectively.

https://www.rutlandcycling.com/bike...20-carbon-endurance-road-bike-redblack_474001 could be an option for something comfy, relaxed and clearance for 38mm without guards (which is very surprising for a Domane to me)!
 
Nice problem to have.

Can't offer any useful advice but subbed to see the bike porn this thread needs.

Pictures of all suggestion should be mandatory.
 
From your OP it sounds like you don't do much climbing so you could look at one of the aero type frames, but be careful as the geometry will be more aggressive. Is it all road riding you're doing?

With a budget of £3k-£5k you've got the pic of some lovely machines. My advice would be to get to some shops and have a look at some in the flesh regardless of where you actually end up buying from. You never know - you might see a bargain in store and you're more likely to be able wangle a free bike fit and at the very least they will build it for you.
 
I’d be wanting a custom bike, probably go for a nice steel frame with top end components, though I know some would prefer the aesthetics of a carbon frame.
 
Jimbeam3678 said:
I’m no expert on bikes, however if you have a bad back I would go for a bike fitting when you have your new bike. You need to take into consideration geometry of your bike. Essentially you have a trade off of comfort and speed :)
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I wouldn't say I have a bad back, but I have and was just conscious that a road bike could put me in a position that might make it come back. It doesn't seem to. I like that Wiggle and other places appear to do a 30 day test ride, which could be real handy.

Kelt said:
With that budget I'd be looking to buy this:

https://www.e-bikeshop.co.uk/Orbea-Gain-D20-Alloy-2020
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Whilst that sounds nice for the few climbs I have, I don't think I'd want electric assistance for my riding. Maybe if I was commuting.

Adam-r said:
From your OP it sounds like you don't do much climbing so you could look at one of the aero type frames, but be careful as the geometry will be more aggressive. Is it all road riding you're doing?

With a budget of £3k-£5k you've got the pic of some lovely machines. My advice would be to get to some shops and have a look at some in the flesh regardless of where you actually end up buying from. You never know - you might see a bargain in store and you're more likely to be able wangle a free bike fit and at the very least they will build it for you.
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I don't know whats considered climbing, but an average ride for me is 20 miles with 1,500ft of climbing. Yes, it would be just for road. I put some knobblies on my Hybrid to do any off road I might want.

Can anyone recommend a good bike shop, preferably North London or Herts, that would have this sort of £3k type bike in?

What is involved in a bike fitting? Does it cost and what do I get? Ideal measurements?

Thanks for the help all.
 
Such as this? It does look and sound nice. **EDIT** What would be the difference of Ultimate over Endurance? ** Can you only buy direct from them? Does this make the better value then? (A quick google tells me this is the case)

A thread I'm reading on road.cc people generally say very well specc'd for the price. Good enough wheels you usually don't need to replace. Maybe wait for them to have a sale, but tbh, I guess I could wait months and months for that?

What do they mean when they say 'tubeless ready'? It's not tubeless, but I could take the tubes out and put valves in?
 
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The geometry on the Endurace is a bit more upright and the ride is meant to be a bit more comfortable, but I don’t find my older Ultimate uncomfortable to ride all day.

They occasionally have sales but the discounts are generally not significant because they are priced pretty competitively.

Tubeless ready is as you say, the wheels are tubeless but the tyres aren’t, you’d have the option to fit them in the future.
 
Currently going through the same process in a similar (bit lower) price range ahead of some triathlons and a trip to Switzerland for some climbing in the summer. Spent the end of summer borrowing a colleagues Specialized Roubaix which was pretty nice and relaxed position wise.

I've also looked at Canyon, good spec for the price but I've heard bad things about them if you have any issues, which has put me off a little. I've been looking at the Ultimate CF SL Di2 (Ultegra) Aero for £3.75k (price seems so much higher in £££ than here in DKK) or you can also drop the price down to £3k you don't get the Aero model, comparison shows the only difference between the Aero and and the standard is the wheels. It's linked in an earlier post, but pics for the porn :eek:

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There's also the more aggressive Aeroad in a similar price range and spec.

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You can also check the Canyon outlet for some "damaged" (usually just small scratches or wear and tear) bikes with a small discount, they have some Movistar and Katusha training bikes on there for last season if you're a fanboy as well. There's just something about Canyon that is putting me off, I'd love to have my mind changed.

I'm going to test ride a Specialized Tarmac during the week, but their 2020 frames at an affordable price are a bit ugly imo. I had my eyes on this 2019 edition a week ago but it seems they've sold out. Some others of note on my list: Cannondale SuperSix Evo, Giant TCR Advanced Pro. If you look around hard enough (including second hand as others sell while buying in sales) you can even grab a Cervelo S3 or a 2018 Venge for a decent price. Not sure about in the UK but Facebook marketplace is pretty popular here in Denmark for selling road bikes.

I'm a little torn between some of the above "lower end" carbon specs, or dropping down in price to something like a high spec Specialized Allez Sprint (aluminium frame) and buying a tacx or wahoo for winter (February and March are rather unpleasant outdoors here in Copenhagen).

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Note: I'm only just getting into proper road cycling so I'm not really that certain on spec to price point quality.
 
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I'd say performance gains are moot at £2-2.5k and above.

Past that, aesthetics - so paint job, and totally internal cable routing - are what I'd be looking for.
 
Bits I've read said Canyon customer service was very good. Everyone says they're the best value, so I'm leaning towards an Endurace at the moment. That or perhaps the Ultimate, but the slight edge toward comfort has me interested. I can't imagine there is that much difference in pace?
 
I'm a mountain biker but i would test ride any bike especially at that cost. I demo'd my Giant Trance 1 first and that was only £3,199.00.

I don't know if its a roadie brand only but never heard of Wilier and personally don't rate Vitus.
 
Beerbaron said:
I'm a mountain biker but i would test ride any bike especially at that cost.
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A reasonable point. I guess/assume you're covered by distance selling regulations at worst? In fact, I see they have 30 day returns, albeit on the bike not being used.

**EDIT** Hmm, have just seen they do the Endurace Aero in Red...

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Quite a bit of my riding gear is in red and black :) . Could be the winner right here.
 
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If you’re going for a mail order bike check out Rose. A lad in my club has one. Seem pretty good for the money. Plenty have canyon also.
 
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