Road Cycling - Advice for first road bike purchase

Hello all,

I am looking to buy my first road bike (well, first since my Schwinn 10-speed from when I was 12 years old). I am a little overwhelmed by the choices.

My limit is about $1000. Maybe a little above and I'm pretty sure I want to get at least 105s. I'm 6'2" 180 lbs., and my initial quick fitting indicates I'll need a 61 cm frame. Unfortunately, there aren't a lot of those available right now.

Anyway, I've found some of the following bikes in my general price range: Specialized Allez Elite, Fuji Robaix (a Team was a little more), Giant OCR-1 (and one of the TCRs). The LBS has an '02 Lemond Zurich (new), which I'm sure is nice, but is probably an extra $500 and a Raleigh International.

I know I need to ride these, but it rains every day here. I just want to know that all the brands are quality and I won't have to worry about the bike falling apart in six months. Any reassurances/advice are much appreciated.

Those are all good choices, though I am partial to Lemond. Just be sure to ride them all, and be sure to ride each one that interests you for at least 30 minutes.

Good luck & post a pic of the winner.

Like you, I'm shopping for my first road bike. I've read magazines, newsgroups, and listened to lots of riders' opinions. Over the past two weeks I've also been test riding bikes at area bike shops within 50 miles of my home. I'm probably driving the shop owners crazy, but I have really learned a lot from my rides.

Assuming that the bikes you test are fitted to you, I've learned that most of the new bikes in that price range feel real good for a short ride, say up to a half hour. But when I have had a chance to take them out for a longer ride the differences between them begin to be very apparent to me. On longer rides some bikes feel like they'll shake my fillings loose. Others feel just as good at the end of a long ride as they did the first few minutes. Oddly, this seems to be closely correlated to the price of the bike! -- either that, or I'm too easily influenced by my expectations.

At this point, after having ridden 6 different brands, some of them several times, I'm steering toward a steel frame bike with 105 components. Don't know where I'll end up yet, but that's what I've learned.

The Allez with the steel frame looks really sweet.

Yeah buy a FONDRIEST!!! It'll cost you more than $1000 but it is worth it.

Look at the Jamis Quest. A very good steel bike, carbon fork and Shimano 105 equipment. It is a good durable 20 lb bike that is about $1,000-$1,100 depending on where you get it. I rode one of these for two years prior to getting a ti bike. Go test ride one, it was the smoothest bike I tried out for that 1k budget. FYI, I live in Lake Tahoe area in California and the roads for the most part are real bad. The bike held up real well.

Snowblower

Look into Felt. The Felt F65 is in your range, with full 105 components, carbon fork, nice wheelset, at about 20 lbs. Plus, it looks really cool and the bright yellow is very visible. I have this bike and it's been a blast.

http://feltracing.com/F65.html

That felt is sweet.I love yellow on bikes.

Fuju and Jamis are both good value.
Is this bike for racing or general fitness, sunny day fun use, winter training? Do you intend to commute?
If it rains , you may want to consider a frame with threaded eyelets for fenders and a tad more tyre clearance than on a competition racer.

I don't think I'll be doing any racing any time soon. Sometimes I do long rides-I've done 127 miles in a day on my mountain bike (275 over three days). Mostly 30-40 miles in a day. Possibly a sprint triathlon at some point (which is racing, but I'm not trying to win or anything).