Originally Posted by
carjeff
I'm a middle aged competitive runner. Unfortunately my body is starting to rebel against my primary sport, and I need to find another one for a day or so a week. Wife wanted me to shake the dust of my 18 yr old univega, but unfortunately I just sold it on craigslist and must get a new one
She also thinks that I'm not gonna ride much, and the new one will just gather dust also. Therefore my budget is ~$1,000.
Went to several LBS's. One has a leftover 2009 Trek 2.3 in my size that looks like a great deal.
http://www.trekbikes.com/us/en/bikes/2009/archive/23
Also am thinking of either a Cannondale CAAD8-6, or Synapse 6.
http://www.cannondale.com/bikes/road...6-tiagra-15829
http://www.cannondale.com/bikes/road...6-tiagra-16613
Which would be the best for me. I have not yet ridden them, so I cannot comment on the ride/fit. I am attracted to the Trek mainly for the price reduction, and 105/Ultegra vs. all Tiagra. But several friends that have Cannondales. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.
You might want to consider the possibility of spending a significant amount of time riding. I was running before I started riding as well and my marathon preps had left one of my knees in pain. So I was looking for a bike around $1100 to cross-train and ease the damage to my knee. I ended up getting an $1800 bike and have not been running since then. I might eventually go back to running, but the thrill of a fast ride, many more calories burnt than running, and a much gentler sport that won't leave me handicapped unlike almost all my older runner friends (unless I fall badly, of course), has convinced me to just stick with cycling for now. If you might really get into cycling, you might want to consider a better bike, namely with Shimano 105 or higher components at least. I bought Cannondale CAAD10 with SRAM Rival and no regrets at all.
The best part is that I am not really losing any of my fitness. If anything, my legs are getting much stronger and my joints are healing, so getting back into running after a few months is not really going to be a difficult transition. This is an awesome sport. No wonder it's so highly recommended for runners.
P.S.: If you're considering racing/di-tri-athlons, you might be better off going with racing geometry, like the CAAD instead of the Synapse. Also make sure you get a recommended fit using a fit calculator, such as the one from CompetitiveCyclist, because some shops might not necessarily get your best race frame size correctly. That happened to me.