Ai52487963

(took darwin's advice, haha)

So I realize there's a search button and I realize this question has probably been asked on this forum 100 billion times, but I figured I had nowhere else to turn.

I'm in the market for a road bike (flame on!) and the one's that are at my LBS that caught my fancy were:

Lemond Etape
Trek 1.2
Trek 1200

As you can tell, I'm a poor college student, so the $1k+ all carbon jobbies are out of my window at the moment, but I figured the ones above for the prices of $6-700 were a good fit, but my knowledge of biking physics exceeds my knowledge of biking components and value, so which should I vie for if I'm going for a long-distance bike that will also climb up mountain roads well? Or what others would you recommend in that price range for tackling the Pac-NW hills? (I've already combed the sticky on the bikes under 750, and the above were the only common ones I found locally)

edit: Ventured to my LBS today and I tested out a bunch of 52cm treks, my findings were that

2007 Trek 1500 ($1000): Excellent components, kind of a stiff frame though. If I could take the components and place them on a softer ride, I would.

2007 Trek 1200 ($700): Best balance of the ones I looked at. Decent shifting and nice ride comfort, good price too.

2008 Trek 1.2 ($700): Compared to the 1200, I don't think this delivered as much. Shifting wasn't as solid, I don't, about equally as comfortable. If I had to choose, I'd have to re-test and maybe edge towards the 1200

2007 Rocky Mountain Solo10 ($1000): Wow. I went to my LBS earlier to browse treks and lemonds, but the guy pulled this out for me and I was very impressed. Very comfortable, though maybe that rear carbon setup is more psychological than functional. Only bad part was that my toe collided with the front tire. Maybe I could swap out the pedals? Kind of pricey, but on sale from $1200, so...


Those were my results. I'm not a drop-bar road biker at all, so my views are incredibly greenhorn. What do you guys think?

Psimet2001 

For that price point you're not going to have a lot of pros and cons to debate. They are what they are. test ride them and see which one fits/feels the best. The ones you mention are all in the Trek family (including the LeMond) so you get what you get.

jsharr

Those are all basically the same bike, esp. component wise. Trek owns Lemond. Ride them all and buy the one that fits best.

Ai52487963

wow, timely responses, too!

Thanks for the advice!!

Little Darwin

You also need advice on good post titles.

Even if it is the same thing, at least this one wouldn't have wasted my time if your title indicated it was yet another which bike to buy thread.

I think you are wise coming here for advice, but let's put some thought into the title.

Ai52487963

fixed as per darwin's request :-P

bbgobie

Basing your decision on how the shifting felt is probably not a good way to go about testing bikes.
Those bikes probably come with about the same groupsets, and it would just be a simple adjustment if the shifting is off on a bike.

dcvelo

+1 on that...that was a drivetrain that needed adjustment. Had nothing to do with the bike. Honestly I don't think there's much difference at all in the Trek 1 series (or 1000 series) frames. Not familiar with the Rocky Mt., but in this price range quality and components tend to be largely equivalent...go with what feels best.

And guy, you're a college student. Leave the "soft ride" frames to my 50+ colleagues who are into that sort of thing

dmb2786

I just bought a 2007 trek 1500 on saturday. the shop had two and they were selling them for $800. i live in VA btw. i couldn't afford a $1000 bike (poor college student also) but i love my 1500. the 105 components are probably worth the money. i haven't found stiffness to be a problem. so i don't have advice, but there is my experience.

mollusk

Here is my advice: But the one in the color that you like best.

They are all OK bikes.

If the cycling bug bites you hard you will want to start upgrading. Don't do that! Make a note and stash the cash. Eventually you will have had the desire to upgrade almost everything on the bike. Before long you will have enough cash to buy the bike that you now need/want and you will have your original bike to ride in crappy weather.

ragboy

catchy handle -- are you a safe cracker?

Ai52487963

worse, ragboy, a physics major!

the handle used to be an e-mail of mine that i changed when i told a friend I didn't like some teacher (he told her), she printed off our IM conversation and I changed my email to this because I know she'd never remember the numbers.