H20.1

"oh, and i used to live up in d.c. the poser factor up there is extreme- what you get when you combine youth, lots of money, and status-craving. "


Yep, I realize this thread is not of that nature, but Im glad you know what Im talking about. This area (DC) is horrible for that, I guess its kind of made me have a knee jerk "anti" reaction whenever discussion of exorbitantly priced bikes comes up.

poululla

For pure class you cannot beat this DANISH beauty.

PRINCIPIA REX PRO: Eat your heart out guys

Richard Cranium

Much like cycling clothing, bicycles have precise character regarding fit and usage.

Frame construction, materials and fit are always a compromise of values that take into consideration a range of riders.

I am going on an extended ride next week and will be "tailoring" my bicycle to what I expect the route conditions to be.

A particular set of wheels, with a change of gearing and tires will be configured. I'm considering a "quick-release" seatpost rack for additional storage.

The bicycle will be quite different from when it rolled out of the LBS.....

Several other bicycles setup for differing purposes will remain home.

jeffathompson

Best Roadbike for the money? Trek Y-Foil. Little known UCLV bike from Trek, only built a couple years, were outlawed from sanctioned racing because they were to fast.

Still lots of them around. I bought a brand new one in Feb of 2001 for $1100. Has Shimano Tiagra components though. Just as fast as the High buck stuff, not as durable.

Lots of used available too.

Teding

Agree, agree, ...
Took delivery of a new Heron Touring in June, and waiting on one for my wife to arrive. Rivendell and Waterford were a little too much for my buget...maybe someday.

IMHO, Lugged steel is real.

The bike that you like to ride IS the best bike.

SteveE

A custom steel frame by Richard Sachs would get my vote as the best road bike. Beautiful workmanship, fully-lugged, fabulous paint by Joe Bell, and custom-built to meet your needs.

APGe Zippy

Colnago are the Rolls Royce of bikes....not to some tastes though, but I love the paint jobs (I own one now )

De Rosa make lovely light frames.

Trek......yes some good bikes are made outside of Europe.....make a frame that nearly tempted me to get the credit card out...the Team Replica.......WOW.

Cannondale, I had a Cannondale MTB and that was superb, I can't afford a Road version though

Those are my choices.

Zippy

Anastasia

The best road bike......... a Seven of course. However, you can't go wrong with Waterford, IF, Calfee, Serotta, Bianchi, Colnogo.

Actually, the best thing is to find a bike that not only fits, but also suites your style of riding. Are you a distance person? Are you a racer? Are you a sprinter?

Everyone has a different opinion about this question.

Good luck on your quest.

scotts

I'm sorry kids it has to be my Cramerotti Meastro, beautifully made, lots of chrome, flawless enamel paint, light and a dream to ride the steel all day!

peawee03

After doing many miles on bikes that offer up much resistance riding (bad berings & hubs, parts falling apart, toeclip pedals, etc... ), my dream bike has to do three things:

~Extend beyond my abilities enough for me not to worry about her holding me back for the next few years,
~Fit properly
~Work and perform the same (right) way every time I place a demand on her.

BTW, ever notice the male tendency to call any beautifully crafted mechanical object "her" or "she" (i.e.- ships, nice cars, bikes, etc...)

I don't know about you guys, but the bikes I have available to me now makes me wish for a Trek 1000 or a Giant OCR 3. And yet, I still love to ride.

mainman

Don't try a Colnago C40. I bought a C40 (all carbon frame) 18 months ago and the bottom bracket shell (metal) which is bonded to the carbon frame became completely disengaged due to either a bad bonding chemical or bonding process.
Either way, Colnago WON'T WARRANTY THEIR FRAME!!!

This is not what you expect from the makers of high end frames.

You don't expect shabby construction or warranty issues when you pay $3500 for a frame.

Captain Crunch

My dream bike is the Pinarello Prince and I can't wait to someday wake up and get over this dreaming. My pillow can't take all this night time drooling. Some others that I would like to own are De Rosa and Colnago. I also like the Eddy Merkcx Team SC model which is really sweet. I suppose the list could go on and on but I will keep my sites set on the Pinarello for now. No use in splitting up the hopes!

Blackjack

Lance Armstrong rides a stock 5900. Here a couple of snips from an article at VeloNews

There are four different colors of Treks you will see U.S. Postal racing on in the Tour. These are two different road bikes and two different time trial bikes. The two road frames you can buy, and there is no difference between them and models sold in bike shops...The OCLV technology of bonding tubes into carbon lugs built in-house at Trek does not lend itself to making custom frames, because the expense of each lug mold is so high, and the lugs cannot be flexed vary the tube angles. There is little doubt that they are indeed stock.

Based on this information, I would classify the 5900 as one of the best all around racers, but the best racer isn't the best touring bike...etc,etc.

Ajay213

LA rides a stock 5500 for everything but the mountain stages (where he rides the 5900). Pulled from his website;

Now that the road is turning up, LA will switch to his other ride. He has been riding the flat stages on his 5500, the dark blue bike with the red and white stripes. Made from the slightly heavier, yet slightly more flexible and comfy OCLV 120 (120 grams of carbon per square meter of material), the 5500 is well suited to Peloton life in the flat stages.

The 5900 Superlight will now be the bike of choice... Made from the lighter, stiffer, more efficient OCLV 110 (110 grams of carbon per square meter of material), the 5900 will shave crucial weight, and provide a more responsive, stiffer frame for putting all of LA's power from his crank to moving him briskly up the hills.

As to if it's custom or an off the shelf frame that's hard to say, everybody (mechanics, team, Trek, etc) all say he rides a stock bike. It would be fairly bad press if all of the marketing turned out to be total BS.

Andrew

Marlin523

Mine, of course

condor

As a fitness road cyclist, I feel comfortable riding my steel Fuji Roubaix-Pro about ten miles a day at a fast clip. It is significantly better than the bottom-of-the-line, steel Trek 320 it replaces. Now I can keep up with my buddy who rides a Klein. I have full 105 components, a Reynolds 853 frame, carbon fork, Ritchie offset-rim tech wheels, etc.

Then Friday I wandered into a LBS in New Orleans and saw a blue Serotta California III and a couple of higher models. They also carried a bottom-level Lightspeed and two higher models.

The Serotta really caught me eye. Understated, beautifully built. I started thinking, "do I really need, and can I afford, a $2200+ road bike?" I just paid $1350 for the Fuji not too long ago.

So if I got the Serotta, I'd probably start lusting after a $3500 bike, then a $4500 bike, and I'd be asking myself, "Why did I settle for the 'entry-level' Serotta?"

Question: Bikelust--where does it end? Especially when you walk into a showroom. There's that new bike smell, and everything looks so delectible.

Eric

lotek 

Condor,
Ah bikelust a wonderful thing.
The Serotta was probably a Colorado III.
I'll tell you what to do, buy an old Serotta steel frame from
e-bay (or elsewhere), build it up with modern components
and just enjoy it.
From there you can begin to look at mid to early 70's Colnago's,
60's Masi, and older Hetchins and Herse. it gets really weird
much before 1960 tho.

Marty

velocipedio

Gios.

I want a classic mid-80s Gios.

Blue like the heavens...

lotek 

Are you sure you're not Italian? maybe Itaian in a past
life?
Mateo? sure sounds eyetalian to me. . .

I want a 1969 Masi, or maybe De Rosa.

Marty

condor

Actually, the coolest bike I ever had was a 1962 (?) Atala Sport. This was an urban bike, not a racing bike. It had the tiny little clubman handlebars with the brake lever mounts welded to them and "Atala" (one "L" or two?, I forget) embossed on them.

The bike had a 5-speed Campy changer, a chainguard, and fenders. The whole bike was candy-apple red with raised chrome stripes down the center of the fenders. Chrome lugs, naturally. There was a bell with "Atala" on it, a pump, and a small leather seat bag with a tool kit. Gorgeous little bike.

I bought it in a bike shop in Verona, Italy, while on The Grand Tour with my grandparents. I had it shipped back to the States. Most of the accessories got ripped off en route. The second day I had it home, I was so engrossed in looking down at it and marveling at its coolness that I ran straight into the back of a parked car. Bent the fork. Imagine my chagrin.

Hobbled home in tears. "Maaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!!!!!!!" Got it fixed somehow. Rode all over Dallas in my troubled teenage years, using that bike for cruising as opposed to an MG or GTO like my classmates.

Eric

knifun

The best bike...you have to answer this question first...How much money do you want to spend!

Malvern star

Best roadbike - My custom built Kerry Hopkins racer
Which was recently destroyed. It waged battle with a Ford station wagon.
Ford won

Rest In Pieces bike

MichaelW

My colleague at work is building up his ultimate bike from a custom Al frame. It will be sub 11lbs with 700c wheels. Cant wait to check it out.

Guillermo

wha??? I hope he weighs less than 100 lbs or that thing is gonna break

tourist

Litespeed, Seven or Serotta in Ti. Sachs, Serotta, or Rivendell in steel. I'm not up on the Euro Mfg, but I'd not sneeze at Colnago or DeRosa.