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What road bike would you buy?

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Road Cycling “It is by riding a bicycle that you learn the contours of a country best, since you have to sweat up the hills and coast down them. Thus you remember them as they actually are, while in a motor car only a high hill impresses you, and you have no such accurate remembrance of country you have driven through as you gain by riding a bicycle.” -- Ernest Hemingway

What road bike would you buy?

Old 08-03-12, 07:41 AM
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What road bike would you buy?

Looking to start racing and not spend a ton of money..... Thinking about these to bikes and not sure which on to go with.

https://www.competitivecyclist.com/fr...ke--10841.html

https://www.excelsports.com/main.asp?...jor=1&minor=35

let me know what you think. Thank!
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Old 08-03-12, 07:50 AM
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can you test ride either??

if you can't I'd go with the Wilier just based on CC's reputation.
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Old 08-03-12, 09:17 AM
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I say go aluminum, e.g. Allez or CAAD.

Crashes are fairly common in Cat5 amateur races. If you're on a budget, drop $1000 on an aluminum bike, and you'll be half as upset as if you crashed that $2000 Wilier that stretched your budget.

And, of course, the performance will be nearly identical.

If you make it to Cat4 or Cat3 without getting wiped out by your hospital bills, then you can drop some dinero on a nice bike.
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Old 08-03-12, 09:30 AM
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i like the wilier better, but i could do w/o the red.
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Old 08-03-12, 11:05 AM
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Both those bikes look nice and seem like decent deals. If you're groupset agnostic, get the one that looks the nicest to you. I don't ever care what my bike looks like while I'm riding it, but if I didn't like how it looked when not riding, that would bug me the rest of the time.

For racing, lots of people recommend an aluminum frame like the CAAD or Allez because if you do crash it hard enough to break, you just trash it and find a used replacement for around $500 on ebay (easier if you're a common size). Very small dings you can monitor carefully, whereas common wisdom says a small ding in carbon is a catastrophic failure ticking time bomb waiting to go off. On the other hand, a simple break in a carbon frame will probably not be more than $500 for a repair and repaint. Some big guys feel the lower end carbon is flexier and don't like the feel when stomping on the pedals.
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Old 08-03-12, 11:31 AM
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Originally Posted by milkbaby
Both those bikes look nice and seem like decent deals. If you're groupset agnostic, get the one that looks the nicest to you. I don't ever care what my bike looks like while I'm riding it, but if I didn't like how it looked when not riding, that would bug me the rest of the time.

For racing, lots of people recommend an aluminum frame like the CAAD or Allez because if you do crash it hard enough to break, you just trash it and find a used replacement for around $500 on ebay (easier if you're a common size). Very small dings you can monitor carefully, whereas common wisdom says a small ding in carbon is a catastrophic failure ticking time bomb waiting to go off. On the other hand, a simple break in a carbon frame will probably not be more than $500 for a repair and repaint. Some big guys feel the lower end carbon is flexier and don't like the feel when stomping on the pedals.
+1 for CAAD or ALLEZ with 105.
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Old 08-03-12, 12:27 PM
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wilier
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Old 08-03-12, 12:37 PM
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If you've got the flexibility, go with the Wilier. The Ridley has a much taller head tube.

I like your question about Wiler or Ridley and the answers are Cannondale or Specialized
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Old 08-03-12, 03:58 PM
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neither..................go to local shop...caad 10 better deal
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Old 08-03-12, 04:08 PM
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Willier for the frame, but would prefer the Ridley's Ultegra.
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