advice on purchasing a new entry level roadie?

thomas_cho

Well Peterlip already answered the question on what a compact crankset is. You can also use an online gear calculator to work out the ratios of gear combinations. eg a 36X27 combination will give u the same ratio as the 30X23. So if you went with a triple crank, and a 11-23 cassette, you could get the same low range with a compact crankset and a 12-27 cassette.

You will lose some high end speed with a compact, but you have to assess whether you will miss pedalling at 53X12 or not.

Why do you think you need a triple crankset? Do you need the gearing for hill climbing? or touring?

anthonyg

Well at 5' 6" you shouldn't have any major fit problems.

Honestly all these different brand bikes come out of the same few factories in Taiwan and the quality of all of them is high. Deal with a shop you feel comfortable with and offers good service.

Fit and comfort wise try and be sensitive to how much weight is on your saddle and how much you are placing on the handlbars. Are you comfortable with the reach forward or down to the handlebars? These issues are adjustable to a point but you need to start in the right ball park and it's prefferable to have most of your weight on the saddle/pedals and only a limmited amount of weight on your hands/shoulders.

Buy a bike that feels stable and avoid those that wander around. This is a little to do with quality control and whether the bike was built straight.

Regards, Anthony

FeltFella

Yep, just bought a Felt F80 from Melbourne Bicycle Centre in High St Prahran for $1,260! Ride it to work and love it! Have only had it for a couple of weeks now and it seems to go well. It has Shimano 105 so it's pretty good for the price.

99Honeyburst

I'll admit my bias right up front here - I just purchased at your price point so of course I think I got the best bike the money can buy - but here's my 0.2c worth...

I did a lot of research (I mean a lot - I'm stupidly anal about toy purchases - especially those that I'll spent lots of hours using!) and just couldn't find a better bike for the money than the Cell Triumph:

http://www.cellbikes.com.au/product.php?id=564

The thing that swung me to it in the end was the quality of the running gear for price. One shop in the Sydney (I won't name them 'cause they probably wouldnt want to be quoted without permission) said they can't buy the Shimano gear on the Cell bikes wholesale for what the bike is sold for - reason being (I think based on comments on forums) is that as a manufacturer Cell get Shimano gear at up to a 60% discount.

The others on my short list were the Giant OCR1, Felt F75 and Trek 1500 - with the Giant running a close second in the end. I've had it only a week and have clocked only 250kms odd so far but it's damn nice. The 105 group works really well and the geometry of suits me nicely - it's reasonably aggressive but I'm a big guy (6ft3 in the old scale) so I have lots of room to stretch out on it and go hard

Might be worth a look for you...

btw: To owners of the other bikes on my shortlist - I'm not dissing them in any way - they are all great bikes - the Cell just worked for me.

greenleprechaun

hahaha, thats a bit confusing, but info very much appreciated!
i want the triple cranks beacuse i'm planning to do some events.. on my agenda is the great vic bike ride this year. so i want to have a big range of gearing if i need it. i guess buying a decent bike will give me alot of motivation to train with it for the event.

fauxpas

http://www.bicyclestore.com.au/Felt...ikes-c-274.html

Felt have good comparison pricing as they only put the quality into the important things and taper off to ordinary for the rest of the componentry.

Wait for this Felt F75 to go on special or negotiate changing some items for women's items such as seat-stem-cranks.




Or you could go the F80 and save a bucketload of cash.

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Albert 50

So that's where you,ve been.

fauxpas

lol, been riding to work and back only. Tried riding 50+k at a time and nearly fell off the bike with boredom. Buying my first home too, which sapps heaps of time.

I visit the crits at nth Wyong with my staffie pup and I am considering bringing my POS bike out for fun. Will try and get cheapest bike and biggest arse award.

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broady

Can i jump in on this action for similar advice - i posted a thread on the 'new bike advice' but arent having much luck - im hoping you fellow Aussies & Kiwis can help me out - looking at a Giant TCR Alliance 1 or a Trek 1500 both run full Ultegra F/R Derailleurs, cranks shfters - Giant is full carbon except Alloy down tube and the Trek is full alloy with carbon forks - both very nice bikes and crap all over my current ride (Repco Vertex with Grip shift gear changing on the aero bars - shes a cracker). Can't decide as both bikes are on the money at $2100 - any advice or experience with Giant/Trek?????

greatbigjezza

I have been doing a fair bit of research on this exact topic as well. The bikes I have looked at included the LeMond Tourmalet, Felt F75, Kona Zing, Cannondale Synapse (with 105), Bianchi Via Nirone 7 Carbon Mirage and Trek 1400.

From what I can see the LeMond is the best option (for me) based on the components and geometry. There seems to be less of a trade off in mixing cheaper parts in with better ones (e.g. it is all 105 except the brakes, which are Cane Creek - still a good brand. The others all have no name brand brakes. Most have a cheaper crank and chainrings or bottom bracket etc.). I also think that the Bontrager rims are better than the Shimano ones, but not as good as Mavics, so you really need to weigh all the components up.

The other thing that sold me was the geometry of the LeMond, it has a longer top tube (better if you have a relatively long torso) and more length in the headset (therefore higher handlebars for a more old school 80's or 90's style upright riding position). It fits like one or two sizes up from most others due to this and the way the manufacturers measure their bikes (i.e. a 49cm Lemond roughly equals a 53cm Trek, a 61 cm LeMond = actually bigger than a 63cm Trek!).

You are probably best of buying the one that fits you best though, when all is said and done. Also, you might value some other feature more, like a carbon rear triangle (the Felt or Bianchi) and be prepared to trade off a little from the components to get it for < $2K.

BTW, looking through the reviews on roadbikereview.com (http://www.roadbikereview.com/cat/l...67_5668crx.aspx) the LeMond also was the best rated (4.93 from 13 reviews) by its owners, who all loved it.

Regards,
Jezza

artemidorus

Both great bikes - decide the matter on fit.

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"All that we see and seem is but a dream, within a dream..."

FeltFella

Update on my Felt F80. Since I bought it (3 weeks ago), I have had to change both tubes! The first one went when I went to pump up the front tyre and when I removed the pump, the valve just blew off and that was the end of that! The next happend yesterday when I got on it to ride to work and I noticed the rear tyre was flat! For no reason at all! Lucky I had purchased a spare tube the last time I had a problem so I just replaced it. Looks like Felt have really skimped on other componentry but the irony is that for what is probably only 1 or 2 $ extra they could have used decent tubes and this would not have happened. This has left me with a very bad taste in my mouth and really puts me off being able to recommend Felt again. I was already planning my next bike (next year) and now I am not considering Felt.

nerdag

I wouldn't be so quick to blame Felt for that.

Valve stems breaking can happen to any tube - cheap or costly. I've had a few premium Michi and Conti tubes break at the valve stem after installation, so it's not a problem unique to cheap tubes.

Rear punctures also happen all the time. It's an unfortunate fact of riding on the road. IMHO it's a whole lot cheaper and less wasteful to fix punctures with patch kits than replacing them. Obviously, busted stems usually can't be fixed.

Felt do make nice, good value bikes, and a few busted tubes shouldn't detract from that.

n

broady

thanks artemidorus and greatbigjezza - fit is hard though also as the shops dont necessarily have the exact bike in the the exact size, the Giant does but Trek dont - also Giant is a compact frame which is completely different to what i am used to and feels like my sons BMX as far as size goes - i was hoping Trek was better to ride cause the guys at that shop are genuine and not hitting the sales pitch as the Giant guys do - unfortunately i think the Giant rides a bit better, about 700-1000g lighter and a bit more responsive - whattya reckon screw the personalities?