Road Cycling - Thanks for the help on AL everybody, I ended up getting an R700...

58 cm, it fit me like a glove and it rode beautifully. I considered going up to the r900, but LBS man told me that the difference between the r700 and r900 is the wheels, and I'm probably going to use my own tubulars anyway. I asked him about the stiff ride of AL and he said that the carbon fork, and some curved pieces in the frame help dampen the ride a little. He also said that unless I was planning on riding 60 or more miles at a time, that the stiffness probably wouldn't be a big deal. By the time I get myself up to 60 miles I'll be more than happy to get a new bike.

Thanks for you help everybody.:beer:

p.s. It's the red Saeco paint job...I like it.

Originally posted by Blackjack
p.s. It's the red Saeco paint job...I like it.
Red is a good colour for a bike, as is blue [my roadie], yellow [my GF's roadie, my 'cross bike and my MTB], green [my old-school MTB], and black.

Some pinks are okay [Telekom]...

But bikes have no business being purple, orange or white.

The best colour, though, is Gios blue.

The LBS guy must be a space cadet. The r900 is ultegra/105 mix with much better wheelsand the r700 is 105 /tiagra mix.The stuff about the ride is B.S. and hype. The r700 color is nicer.

Maybe it was the r800 then, anyway, it was the hourglass seatstays and the carbon fork that he said helped to dampen the ride, and I believe him because I've heard it elsewhere too, (esp. the carbon fork)

As for the tiagra, I really don't care mutch about my front derailler, the 105 is only like $5 more anyway, I'm not going to put that mutch into a bike for slightly better components and better clinchers, but that's just me.

Originally posted by Blackjack
p.s. It's the red Saeco paint job...I like it.

Very nice indeed!!!! :D

To be honest, the R900 has really nice wheels, while the R700 has good wheels. The only down-specs on the R700 appear to be the front derailleur and the cassette, which are Tiagra rather than 105, and some Cannondale private label stuff [brakes, saddle, crank]. The FD is sort of a non-issue, since there's not really a whole lot of difference between the 105 and Tiagra FDs. The cassette is different, but you're going to wear it out in 15,000-20,000 km anyway, and it's relatively easy to replace if you want to. The R900 has Ultegra shifters, which are nice, but functionally not that much of a step up from 105...

The areas where the R900 is notably better are the wheels, crankset and shifters. On the other hand, its costs about $500 more and comes in really crummy colours... and since this is your first roadie, I don't think you'd know the difference to ride it right away. Look at the wheels as something to upgrade, likewise the cassette and crankset, over the next few years. Besides, everyone should have a spare set of wheels...

Very nice bike :)

I was going to get that bike too hehe...

I have had my R700 for about 2 months and love it. I hope you like yours as much as I do mine!

nice bike, enjoy riding :)

Originally posted by velocipedio

Red is a good colour for a bike, as is blue [my roadie], yellow [my GF's roadie, my 'cross bike and my MTB], green [my old-school MTB], and black.

Some pinks are okay [Telekom]...

But bikes have no business being purple, orange or white.

The best colour, though, is Gios blue.

I agree about the red (my commuter) but I take exception to your derogatory comments about white bikes. My road bike is white and I like it very, very much, thank you.

I will admit that I didn't think much of white bikes until I fell in love with this one...