Bike Research

Just some ramblings...

I'm moving away from the idea of a fitness/hybrid bike like the Trek FX series towards going for a road bike, leaving a mountain bike as a later option.  The compromises trying to get a intermediate type bike just seem too large.  I went and ran part of the trail from our neighborhood to the main bike path around here, the W&OD, and that trail requires a full mountain bike.  There's no way a hybrid can get through there intact (and it would be no fun). 

So I'm thinking of getting a road bike.  First, I need to figure out if I can will get to the W&OD by car and park (so yes, this plan would involve getting a bike rack for my car) and also figuring out the extent I can get to road bike paths via the regular road system. 

I'm not yet clear on what you get for different price ranges and what sort of deal can be had (bikes can be gotten significantly off list price).  Randomly starting out, here is what I'm looking at.

Trek

The two entry level Trek road bikes are:

Trek 2.1

Trek 2.5

Both Treks have Shimano 105 deraillereurs (basically the price range I'm looking at), moving from 2.1 to 2.5 gets you the Shimano 105 crankset, brakes and better wheels. I'm probably going to rule out road bikes with components under the Shimano 105 level (or not? -- I'm not sure what the trade-offs are and I'll probably only know after use...I do know that good construct and tuning is more important than parts, you can install any good part badly). 

The next range up from that gets you from an aluminum to a carbon frame.

Trek Madone 4.5

Trek Madone 4.7

Again, moving up from 4.5 to 4.7 gets you the Shimano 105 crankset, brakes and better wheels.

On to the next brand, Giant.  Here we have, in order of rising in price:

Giant Defy 1

Giant Defy Advanced 2

And finally, out of my price range even with steep discounting, Giant Defy Advanced 1

The components here, mostly Shimano Ultegra 6700, is the next step up from Shimano 105.  No longer entry level. 

Googling suggests that the wheelsets on the Giants may be better...

If I knew what I was doing I might go for the 'build your own bike' approach, but that may be for a few years from now.

And so on...more research.  I need to try out bikes, which means visiting different dealers for different brands. Obviously there are more brands and dealers out there.  The level I'm aiming for is pretty standard and basically it will come down to how much I get off the list price to make the bike affordable. 

Update #1: Specialized Roubaix is the Specialized counterpart to Giant Defy.   Is the H2 fit of Trek similar, or it H2 less of en endurance fit?

Comments

[David]

I have heard about serious safety hazards with carbon fiber frames. They can shatter unpredictably while riding at high speed. This problem (obviously) doesn't exist with aluminum.