Looking for a new bike
 

I started riding about 15 months ago after a bike trip through southern Italy. I had a 14 year old Trek mountain bike and after the trip I bought a Trek hybrid 7.2FX. I've been riding it about one year and I'm ready to move to a road bike. (I'm 56 years old in pretty good shape and weigh 185 lbs on my way down to 160 from 200.) I've looked at the Fuji Roubaix, Lemond Alpe O'Huez, Specialized Roubaix Comp and the Orbea Onix TDF. I ride about 15 miles every morning and do one 35 mile ride on weekends. I'm planning increase to 50 miles on the weekend so comfort is a factor. I'm looking for input from anyone who is familiar with the bikes I'm looking at or for suggestions for bikes I haven't mentioned. Thanks.

Open the flood gates......:eek:

My friend just bought a Trek 1000 and he likes it very much.

Not from these parts. Those bikes are out of my league.

:roflmao::roflmao::roflmao::beer:

If you have the means go custom. The best purchase I ever made.

Only way to check these bikes out is to test ride. Of the 4 there is only one I have ridden and that was the Orbea. All that did was make me realise that I had to get a better bike than an OCR and went with a Custom build on a Lightweight frame. Even that was a after a test ride on a built up bike so Test ride before making any decisions.

And that 50 miles at the weekend you will be planning- is too low an estimate for the quality of bike you are looking at.

I'm comfortable in the $1,500 to $2,000 range. Can I do custom for that? Hopefully I'll exceed the 50 mile weekend ride.

Find a good bike shop that is willing to work with you on fit appropriate for your age and riding goals. A racer fit probably is not going to be comfortable for what you want to do. The bars should be higher than current fashion on true racing bikes. First and foremost you want to be comfortable on the bike. If the shop just press you to get something that's in stock, then they are probably not looking out for you long term comfort. Competitive cyclist has a fit category of traditional french that is geared towards comfort on the bike. Its worth a look.

All I can say is try everything you can and see what you like and what you don't like. If the bikes you mentioned are within your reach, I think you will end up with a very nice bike.
Do you have any preferences for frame materials? component groups? Do you want aggressive, quick steering geometry or more relaxed, stable geometry? Do you like a more upright position on the bike or do you want to be streched out and aerodynamic? Comfort means very different things to different people.
As you gather more hands on information, you'll start getting a clearer idea of what you are looking for. Then you can ask more specific questions and get more useless disinformation. :rolleyes:
Enjoy the search!

Sounds like I need to do some serious test riding.