thehammerdog

The new Calfee "suspension" focused race frame looks great and is just another high end racer focused "comfort" bike. I own a Bianchi C2C full carbon comfy bike and luv it. With the Treks and Specialized comfy race bikes being so successful where does it go??

shelbyfv

It's nice to have more appropriate choices. There are very few racers among us and the real racers don't pay for bikes!

StanSeven

There are a lot of racers here, myself included. I'm not sure what you mean by "real racers" but I assume you mean elite pro's on major sponsored teams. If so, that's a very small proportion although many of us get team discounts on bike sfrom LBSs that sponsor.

bonz50

agree 100%. however, racers are still a vast minority of total road cyclists, so I get his point as well. it is likely that 90+% of road cyclists would be better served by these comfort geometry bikes like Domane/Synapse/Roubaix/etc. I include myself in that, as much as I'd love to get a racer geometry bike, if I put my ego aside I'd probably be happier with a comfort bike. at my next purchase I'm going to put in the old 'college try' to get past my ego and make sure I give the comfort bikes a fair shake.

Elduderino2412

I don't see why anyone would need suspension on a road bike. Unless all the streets where you live are cobblestone.

Campag4life

I will say this. I ride with three other guys mainly. Two are on Cervelos and other a Giant TCR. All are slammed race bike geometry. I ride a '12 Roubaix SL3 Pro with Campy I built frameset up. I am likely the fastest of the four although one guy is an ex racer and still ridiculously strong when he wants to ride that hard. I have owned 30 race geometry bikes. The Roubaix hands down is the best bike I have ever owned by a fair margin because of my fit mostly but also includes the overall riding dynamic of the bike. It is simply superlative. I rode 50 miles last night in fact and beat my buddies up the hills. We are all close to the same strength. On a long ride, I am convinced my position on the bike causes less fatigue. I ride in the drops a lot and they are very comfortable with minimum drop.

Will comfort bikes dominate over time in the pro peloton. No. The guys who race bikes for living are on the outliar fringe of physicality. Unique riders. Would the vast majority of average riders be better served on a so called comfort roadbike? To my mind, without question. That said, there are many here that prefer a slammed geometry and I told get that. I am quite the opposite however.

IP Freely

Am I the only one who finds comfort bikes, well, uncomfortable? I prefer the feel of my Felt F series (slammed) to anything else I've ridden, including the Z series and the Domane. The more upright position wears me out faster and I have a distinct distaste for the "elbows jammed into my midsection" feeling the I get on comfort bikes.

I can't be the only one that prefers a race geometry for recreational riding, right?

ps I am also lanky as hell, so I'm sure that has something to do with it.

svtmike

If you get that feeling, the fit wasn't dialed in (or the bike just wasn't right) for you. I ride my Roubaix with a very mild saddle-to-bar drop, am well-balanced on the saddle and my arms are in no way compressed. There's nothing about 'Comfort' that implies a poor fit is required.

Campag4life

What Mike said. The handlebars on my Roubaix are well out. My back angle on the hoods is conventional 45 degrees. A common mistake is to set up a comfort bike like a cruiser. Wrong. Benefit of a comfort bike is to preserve the same reach aka saddle tip to handlebar center of a slammed bike. The difference is the fit is up and out and not down and in. I also see a lot of guys on slammed bikes set up wrong...down and in which robs power. Racers ride down and out.

beatlebee 

I prefer my aluminum CAAD for crits. It is a noticeably harsher ride than my supersix. I am not the only one.

MattFoley

Doesn't Fabian Cancellara ride his Domane exclusively?

DinoShepherd

Please don't interrupt the d.ick measuring contest going on here...

bonz50

what we need now is a Venge/Roubaix. an aero comfort bike

Campag4life

Lets say he does. The secret with pros is...sometimes, not all the time, their frames are custom...come from custom molds. Pros typically want a shorter head tube and longer top tube. So Fabian's position on a Domane, particularly if custom is the same as a slammed race bike geometry. Even if it is off the rack, you can get darn close to the same set up as a slammed race bike by sizing down and going with a 140-150mm stem and a bit more setback which many pros prefer. When Boonen rode for Specialized he rode a hybrid mix of Tarmac and Roubaix which was made in a custom mold. This allowed for a shorter head tube but the softer rear end with longer chainstays he preferred as a hedge against a bad back. Of course his 'bad' back is better than our good backs even on a bad day.

Also, I am sure Trek engineers if they want can tune the so called rear hinge of the Domane to be virtually rigid for Fabian's race bikes. I bet his Domane rides more like a Madone H1 than a Domane...only a guess. Marketing.
Lastly, I rode with a guy on a new Domane a couple of weeks ago. His position on the bike was perfect and replicated a slammed position. Most comfort bikes can be set up close to a slammed position if that is the rider's intent.

DonDenver

^Spot on: racers ride down and out…and short.

For me, I like the familiar race feel of down and out but have opted to go longer…as in wheelbase. And that’s what the class of bikes described in this thread have provided for me.

Keeping the cockpit feel I enjoyed from my younger fast twitch days was met with an SWorks Roubaix (fitted for me as flipped and slammed, zero rise top cap, -24 shim) but blended nicely with the extended wheelbase I was seeking. Perhaps with more age, less elbow to elbow racing, longer event riding, faster solo descending on mountain passes in cross winds or just the cumulative effect of road cracks to the bones; extending the wheelbase a tad has made the difference for me. More stable tracking, rock solid lines and, new turn apex at my top end speed that does not have me question my greater responsibilities

elcruxio

Higher might be more uncomfortable for some (me for instance)
This for me is mainly the fact that when my position is too high, my rearside doesn't work as suspension and takes all the hits straight to the spine.
When I'm low and lying on the bike all the bumps and shocks just bounce my butt up and down, but nothing goes to the spine. This is a bit hard to explain but a dutch bicycle will work as an example. A mary poppins like dutch bike riding position takes all the bumps to the spine, no argument about that. For me a roubaix type geometry would do just that. Just realized why that happens.

My lower back/hip angle is about 45 degrees. If I were to have a back angle of 45 as well I would lose the suspension arch that I have in my lower back. When my ultimate back angle is 30 degrees it creates a small lumbar bend in the lower back upper back midsection. This is the suspension. Lose that, and pain will arrive quite rapidly.

Also I get more power when I'm lower.

This intertwines to saddle setback and body proportions also, but atm I'm too tired to even think those things. But thinking a roubaix type is in someway superior is oversimplifying things

IP Freely

This is very well put. I have the same problems on more upright bikes.

Campag4life

A Roubaix is superior for a given set of riders as is a slammed road bike superior for others like yourself. Let's say road bike riders are a perfectly symmetric bell curve of riders from pro racer to 85 year old long time cyclist. It stands to reason that a given bike type will work best for a given style of rider.

grolby

Unless the roads you ride on are velodrome-smooth, suspension will make any rider faster, period, because the rear wheel will be in contact with the ground more of the time, and the rider can spend more time pedaling and less time absorbing bumps. It will also improve cornering traction - again, if the pavement is a bit bumpy, suspension will keep it settled and in better contact with the road. The benefits are obviously small on road bikes, and very little suspension is needed, but there's still the potential for performance improvements. It's not very well-appreciated that Trek's Domane is also a rear-suspended frame, thanks to the decoupled seat tube and top tube. I wouldn't anticipate a revolution any time in the near future, but I wouldn't be surprised to see low-travel, high-rebound, high-damping pivotless rear suspension start to make its way slowly into the road bike world. It won't change the world, but a lot of riders actually could benefit.

Bandera

Yep, and now it's time to ride out and less down.
The 2nd time I fractured my left clavicle in a race wreck my doctor said "One of these days that's going to bother you some."
That day is here.

I built up a "Gran Fondo" design Merckx EMX-3 not long ago setting the seat extension, position over the crankset and reach identical to my road bikes. Measurements indicated that cutting spacers from the steerer length would give me the 4.5-5cm drop I've become used to for 30 years.
With a test ride in order and being a firm believer in "measure thrice and cut once" off into the Hill Country I went. That steerer is going to stay as is for the foreseeable future, I really like this machine and the position. Efficient, comfortable and solid.

-Bandera

elcruxio

Well of course. It's not like we only have one available geometry. Different things fit different people.
I think thr roubaix type bike is a great thing. But I wouldn't buy one (yet), nor would I recommend one for my friends (who are youn like me)
Hamstring flexibility does a lot. It's not enough that you can handle a position, you must excel in it. And young people can gain tremendous amounts of flexibility with a reasonably little effort.

Then again, when you get older things change.
( for example When I was 16 I never had hangovers, nowdays I afraid to drink...)

svtmike

The Calfee frame that was mentioned in the OP is not a "comfort" or "relaxed" geometry, BTW.

https://www.roadbikeaction.com/Featur...ion-Manta.html

oldbobcat

Spartacus' Domane is hardly the same geometry you're going to find at the local Trek concept store. The same goes for Boonen's Roubaix. Needless to say, the ride and handling aren't as choppy as the corresponding Madones and Tarmacs.

grolby

Cancellara rides a stock Domane, presumably with Trek's low-stack head tube ("H1"). If this option is not available to customers, this is the only way in which his bike will differ from stock. In the old days of steel, and into the era of aluminum and ti in the 90's, professionals were not on stock bikes, but in the last ten years it has become incredibly rare for pros to ride custom frames. The molds for a carbon monocoque bike are far too expensive for it to be worth the investment by the manufacturer. Tom Boonen famously rode a custom Specialized for the first half of the 2008 season because he complained about back problems. That custom bike made big news because it wasn't carbon fiber. It was aluminum. Even Specialized couldn't run off a custom CF frame for Boonen, it's just not practical. What they did instead was to design the Roubaix SL2 geometry around his body, then started mass-producing that bike. So you could say, in a sense, that Boonen has a custom carbon bike, but really it's just a stock frame set that was designed specifically for him. Any other pro on the same size Roubaix is riding Boonen's geometry. Given Cancellara's involvement in the development of the Domane, the situation is likely similar there: the bike was designed for him, and they simply mass-produced it in that geometry. The vast majority of pros are indeed riding the same geometry you can get at the local dealer of whatever make of bicycle happens to be underneath them.

shinyandfree

https://www.cyclingnews.com/features/...-hi-mod/259375

I don't think it's all that rare, particularly for the Roubaix/pave spring classic type bikes.