Originally Posted by
lmk5
Your post leads to another question: Is it worth spending the extra money to go with carbon instead of aluminum? Shimano 105 instead of Tiagra? Anything else worth the extra dollars?
My old bike - S-Works Tarmac --- beautiful riding machine - carbon soaks up the bumps and has very efficient power transfer. Di2 shifting is worth every penny and the disc brakes were awesome ! Not to mention premium tires which came stock --- this was a great bike!
Notice i said WAS. I got to where i wasnt riding it enough to justify having it hanging around when i really needed (need is relative) a new mountain bike. But if i had been dedicated about riding it at least 100-125 miles per week, i would have kept it for sure . Its a wonderful bike and i cant say enough good about it except that i think for me the Roubaix model would have been even better
Sooooo --- that said. With the proceeds from selling the above bike plus a few other things, i built the aforementioned mountain bike , and had my local shop refurbish an old Litespeed i have had since 2002. I stripped the paint from the frame (it was one of the painted Litespeeds ) and utilized an old Campagnolo Record 10 speed group and other parts i had laying around . It looks good, gets lots of compliments anytime i go out, and is all the road bike i really need for the rare occasions (maybe once every 2 weeks at most) that i get goaded into a road ride
It doesnt look too far off the back, but the bike , despite being Titanium, transmits a lot of road vibration, the analog shifting is clunkier than Di2, and the head tube is shorter so im always in a "race ready" position whether i want to be or not. Weight difference is really not that much
So for me and with the amount of road riding i do -- the re-furbished old bike (but this would have been close to state of the art when it was new) is a better fit for my needs than the new 12k Superbike --- But that is the operative phrase - "For my needs" -- as the new bike is still better
