Originally Posted by
bruce19
A life long friend of mine wants to be, as he states, a "roadie." He knows I've been cycling for years and he has been riding a hybrid on 8 mi. trips for the past couple years. He lives in Charleston, SC and I live up in CT, although he is coming for a visit in December. He was a pretty good athlete through HS, is about 6' tall and not particularly overweight. He also says he has a budget of $1,000 or so. I did a little research and found a really good deal on a Fuji Roubaiz 1.3 can be had at my LBS. The bike retails for $1150 but I can get it for him for $1,000. This is an AL frame w/CF fork and 105. He liked what he saw but then also saw a 1.1 for a little more. (He's going to be a great roadie. He's already wanting to upgrade.
) For $200 more he gets the same basic bike but with Ultegra rear derailleur, Ultergra shifters/brake levers and 105 brakes (instead of BR-561). My take is that he will be better served with the 1.3 and can use the $200 difference for pedal/shoes. Neither bike comes with pedals. Just wondering what others think.
One of my teammates (lives in the town next to you) has both an aluminum 105 Felt and a carbon Trek with Ultegra. The Felt is I think 2 years older than the Trek and the two bikes have parts from the same generation of Shimano (they look so similar I didn't realize he was on the Trek for a bit). He admits that the Trek was a disappointment in terms of return on investment. His $500 race wheels were a better investment. He said that if he had to do it again he'd have stayed with the 105 bike and just bought the wheels.
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"...during the Lance years, being fit became the No. 1 thing. Totally the only thing. It’s a big part of what we do, but fitness is not the only thing. There’s skills, there’s tactics … there’s all kinds of stuff..." Tim Johnson