Originally Posted by
thedave80
I hope i'm not opening myself for some trouble here but i'm at a crossroads an could use some advice. I am pretty far away from any bike shops so here goes.
I have a 1995 wheeler titanium road bike that as far as I can tell is set up more for racing. I'm having some hand issues that I think I have narrowed down to that my hands just don't like the old school sti shifters it has on it. I am therefore considering upgrading to new 105 10 speed.
The problem is that the amount I have in my budget is enough to upgrade everything or enough to sell the current bike and buy a giant defy 1 or similarly equipped bike. I'm mainly looking for distance rides and not really any racing so I like the idea of being more comfortable on longer rides.
I do for the most part like the fit on my bike and am not sure that buying a new bike is the way to go. It seems like mostly the difference between road and endurance bikes are a longer wheelbase and a taller head tube to get the bars level with the saddle. I am almost level as it sits and could go level if I wanted a large riser stem so if thats the only difference i'm not sure it's worth it.
I've got about two weeks from getting home to get this figured out before I am off riding the STP so i'm trying to gather as much information as possible. I'm basically looking for the best way to spend my money, by updating my bike and making it more endurance oriented or by selling it and buying a new bike thats set up for endurance riding.
Okay i'm going to try and add the picture later, my tablet is not cooperating very well right now
Sorry for the length of the post, there's not many people to talk bikes to over here lol. And for reference my current bike is a 1995 titanium framed wheeler r11 with some decent stuff on it already.
There is another variable which you don't mention in your post which is tire size. It is the single biggest factor in comfort level. Get a bike that can take a 28c or 32c tire and the difference will be immediate. If you want a bike designed for comfort and long riding, the soma san marcos is well designed: fab.com/archives/product/san-marcos-frame-set.
Another good possibility is a cyclo cross frame. Soma makes a really nice cross frame; so does Surly. That gives you a reasonably fast frame that will take fat tires. Even when I raced regularly, I trained on road bikes with stout wheels and a little fatter tires because I lived in a city that had pretty awful roads and I liked going offroad on my racing bikes. Get a road frame that can take fat tires and you'll be happier.