Originally Posted by
D-Fuzz
Given the price of steel framed bikes, I think a steel framed roadie that would be appreciably lighter than my Rove is out of my budget range. Giant raves about the compliance of their hydroformed aluminum tubing but I doubt it is as good as a butted chromoly frame.
It sounds like you are not unduly burdened by a strict budget, so you are in the fortunate position of doing some wonderful experimenting.
I would rather have two bikes than be messing around with tyres and wheels, unless once I changed, it wasn't going to be changed back for months.
If you don't have a second bike, having one can be pretty handy in case something happens to your primary bike and you then have a back up bike to ride till your primary bike is fixed.
Rather than fret too much at this stage, go do some test riding, for I would imagine this road riding group of yours would drop you badly going down hills as you only have a 40T chainring on your crank.
Whilst you don't want to buy an uncomfortable bike, I'm not sure that you should be insisting that any second bike must be as comfortable as your first bike, especially if a second bike trades off a little bit of comfort for a notable speed improvement.
In addition to Giant's Defy range, I would be looking at Trek's Emonda and Cannondale's CAAD and Synapse ranges, whether you end up going carbon or aluminium frame, the above 3 makers have some great options in both materials.