New Bike Advice

[SimonJOsborne]

Good site that Distrazioni del Giorno. Oh, they have cycling news too

I have been using Google heavily since I have been doing my research. It doesn't hurt to have a few good recommendations to cut through some of the crap when you are starting to get into something properly.

And on that note back to Pez....

[SimonJOsborne]

Damn browser double post...

[Graham O]

Simon,

Have a read of this weeks cycling weekly. They have a good article on the 'Sunday Bicycles' bikes. It did quite well against a litespeed, specialized and a colnago and doesn't cost the earth.

If I were buying, I think I'd have a good look at one of these.

Ta,

Graham.

[SimonJOsborne]

[quote="Graham O"] It did quite well against a litespeed, specialized and a colnago and doesn't cost the earth.

If I were buying, I think I'd have a good look at one of these.

Ta,

Graham.

[Graham O]

Its a 'Sunday Silk Road'..

Titanium frame, Ksyrium Wheels and Ultegra Group for £2,400 or so. Frame on its own is about £700 I think.

Suggest that you read the article. They also rate the Specialized very highly. It is £3500, but has dura ace.

I bet you could build this up into a cool bike for £1600 or so (i.e. frame and forks (900) + ultegra (400) + fulcrum 3 (250) + extras..

Buying bikes is really interesting..I must stop now..

Ta,

Graham..

[Kevin Rynne]

Have you thought about a visit to cycle fit, their own brand bike is as close to custom as you get without custom specific sized tubes, (as ridden by Warick in premier road races). The fitting there is costly but recomended. I have a specialized s works which is the most comfortable bike I have owned, if not the lightest. But I fares well in weight to price comparison. If you are thinking of the roubu I would suggest building up a frame as you will only end up changing the bits later as upgrades. Also those roval wheels as supplied by spez have had poor reports as they are heavy and slow plus Ive heard on the grapevine that Tom Boonen et all are refusing to use them. For some inspiration check out weight weenies or pink bike. Ive also heard some good things about those Sunday ti bikes. Right Im off to buy my copy of cycling weekly.

[SimonJOsborne]

The good... I went to Croydon to spec up a new bike today at GBs. Took a Look 486 for a ride round the block and took the Roubaix Expert test bike for a decent ride. I did like the frame and ride but wasn't happy with the finishing kit. And the fact they didn't have any Ruby Pro's left in the UK was fate I think. So I got Guy to do me a quote on building up an S-Works Ruby SL frameset. I am looking at full Dura Ace groupset, Ksyrium ES's, Fizik Aliante saddle, ITM 4 ever bar and stem, and Conti GP4000 tyres. It came out to about £3100, so £2800 after ACC discount. I may see if I can work on that. I was contemplating Dura Ace 7800 wheels on special at £375 and Fulcrum 3's at effectively £360, but I had a look at a frame against the wheels, and the Quick Step team colours with the Kysriums is going to look gorgeous

The bad... When I was cycling back my wheel went into a Tram track and me and the bike flipped on to the pavement. I scraped along the ground some and managed to graze myself in about 7 different places. The bike seems to be ok apart from one brake lever that took a knock but seems functional. So I won't be doing my 100 mile rided around the Castles of Kent tomorrow

[Stu Merckx Man]

good and bad to hear simon!

[George]

You Boy's hey

First Stu,

Now Simon.

I'll have to teach you how to ride around Croydon Safely

rule 1 ride across the tram tracks not into them

rule 2 don't cycle down the pedestrian high street at all

rule 3 don't take your credit card to Geoffrey Butlers

rule 4 make sure when you crash you do it on a demo bike

rule 5 when you come off try to look cool like you meant to do it

[SimonJOsborne]

I must have tumbled about a bit, hence injuries on both sides. And I stopped myself on my face so that has to count for effort

Normally I am so careful over the tracks and I usually avoid those routes, but I had just come back via East Croydon Station. And must have caught my wheel in the line as I was moving from right to left over the tracks after the stop near The Cricketers

I should have stopped for a pint to calm the nerves

[Stu Merckx Man]

what happened when you went got back in the shop?

[SimonJOsborne]

Luckily (strange choice of words) I was on my way back home on my Trek 1400.

On another note was just looking at GB's site and saw that Fulcrum 3's are on sale at £295 at the mo. Now the Ksyrium ES's are sexy wheels and have some great reviews, but are they £245 sexier

[SimonJOsborne]

Interesting the Ksyrium ES's are the wheels that come with the complete S-Works Roubaix bike which is £3600.

I could do with checking out that review in this weeks Cycling Weekly.

[Ian A4size]

Simon, you are only going to do this once (dream bike that is ),so go on and spoil yourself- you know you wanna

[SimonJOsborne]

Hmm popped into GB's today on my day off to finalise some of the particulars of the build. I had settled on going for a compact 50-34 with a 12-27 cassette which would give me more or less the same range as my triple. But I found out that there is no Dura Ace specific compact, so that leaves you with the generic Shimano R700 crankset if you want a complete Shimano groupset as I do. So it got me thinking are there any advantages of going with the R700 compact as I am intending over say a DA triple (aside from saving weight)?

To be honest I am starting to think I would prefer to have a complete DA triple groupset so the components match, I would be familiar with the gearing, plus it looks good