phread59

+3 on the Domane and Secteur!!!! I've ridden a secteur and thought it was fantastic. I've not given a Domene a ride though. The 1.X series is a good bike too. But I'd stick to 1.2 or better to get a carbon fork. I've also rode a Spesh Allez. They are not bad at all. Look at the wheels as others have said. Ride them all and see what you like.

I will add one warning. All these bikes will have different tires on them. They will affect the ride quality quite a bit. As will pressures. So be careful with these to not get wrong impressions.

I bought a Spesh Rubaix. And love it except for the tires. I'm gonna switch the 23's off it and put some real good 25's on it. I got a real steal on it. I'd suggest looking Spesh. They've been dumping the Rubaix's and Secteur's latetly. But the deals won't last. So some haste is warrented.

Ride them all and get a bike you love and ride the snot out of it.

Mark Shuman

MRT2

Take your time. In the scheme of things, you have barely broken in your Trek hybrid. Give it 6 months, or a year. You may be falling into the N+ 1 trap. Who knows. you may decide the your hybrid is all you need. Or you may decide that for your next bike, an entry level road bike isn't good enough, and what you really want is a carbon fiber frame with Ultegra level components.

Edit:
The other thing to consider is, in a year, you might weigh a lot less, and the sort of bike and wheels you would consider might be different.

Jarrett2

Thanks for all of this great info. I'm not really in a rush, just curious at this point. I'm at the point where the bike trails are starting to feel a little confining. Like I could be going faster if I didn't have to slow down for all of the hard turns and people in the path.

I thought I would trade off on my hybrids more often, so they would be in rotation, but I ride my DS 8.3 exclusively and the FX 7.2 stays parked in the garage 24/7. That's also driving my desire to trade it for something that might get more use.

Someone mentioned converting the FX to a road type bike. Is that worth the effort or better off just trading in?

MRT2

My understanding is, such a conversion can get expensive, and you still basically have a hybrid. Maybe you should rent a road bike and see how you like it.

sstorkel

Why not take your current bike on the street? You don't have to have a road bike to ride on the road. Heck, I use an old rigid mountain bike for short-commutes and grocery runs. I put some slick tires on it and it works great on the street...

I've never found that trading in was a particularly good option. You're probably better off selling the bike yourself, especially if you live in an area where cycling is popular. Converting a hybrid into a road bike probably doesn't make sense unless you can do the parts swapping yourself and you're willing to invest time looking for great deals on parts.

brons2

The road bike brifters are not cheap, that's the part that most people can't get past. You have an 8 speed drivetrain which complicates things further, most current road drivetrains are 9 to 11 speed. Bar end shifters can be used but that depends on whether you would be open to that concept or not. They're $100 or less. I have them on my Rivendell and like them in that application. However I don't like the bar ends on my tandem because I don't want to take my hands off the hoods while riding due to the precious cargo on the back. Hard to say whether you would like them with your single bike or not.

Aluminum drop bars can be had pretty inexpensively, $50 (and under). Possible stem change to adjust drop bars to fit you. Cost varies. I'm going to assume $40 for discussion's sake

Keep existing brakes, get levers designed to work with linear pull brakes for drop road bars, maybe another $50. (Assuming you're not using brifters that is).

Keep existing 12-32 8 speed casette.

Keep existing 48/38/28 crankset.

New slick tires say $75-ish for some Vittoria Randonneur Hypers, a nice smooth rolling wide tire.

So yeah $315 total, assuming you do the work yourself.

The nice thing about a converted hybrid is that it will have clearance for much larger tires than do most traditional road bikes, if that is important to you. The wheels on a hybrid will certainly be tougher than those on an entry-level road bike as well. And you'll have a wide range casette which in my mind is desirable.

I do have a friend who has a Trek hybrid with drop bars and brifters that he rides on brevets i.e., 200, 300, 400, 600KM rides. He rides Grand Bois Cypress tires that are rated 700x30 but actually measure 32mm wide.

I know most people would say just go buy a road bike. But I'm a bit different than most

jsigone

the Geo of the FX isn't designed for drop bars so all that cash spent to convert will just be wasted. Keep the hybrid a hybrid and roadie a roadie. Don't mudd the waters, that's what N+1 bikes is for. One bike per type of job required. If you want more miles and speed, then the roadie is the the way to go.

brons2

The retrogrouch in me would reply: The geometry of many (most?) road bikes is intended for young, fit, non-clyde riders and not for normal humans.

To me the frame doesn't look much different than a road bike. It's not like we are talking about a full suspension 29er here:
https://www.trekbikes.com/us/en/bikes...ess/fx/7_2_fx/

I think it would make a good road bike conversion. But we most likely come from far different mindsets. All of my road bikes have a relaxed riding position with the handlebars level with the seat. Sure, I can go faster if I drop the handlebars some, just from the aerodynamics alone. But I don't really want to ride that way, so I don't.

brons2

I missed this before. It's a good suggestion. Just try getting some slicks without making any other changes, and see if you like the bike that way.

Pedalocity

I'd also strongly recommend you try the Giant Defy series. I was in a similar position to you in that I bought a Giant Escape RX1 when I got into biking on June 25 but after a month and a half of adjusting everything I just could not get comfortable on the bike.

I ended up test riding aluminum and carbon versions of the Trek Domane, Specialized Roubaix, and Giant Defy and found that the geometry of the Defy suited me best. A nice bonus if the Defy works for you is that its generally a much better value than the others, with the Defy 1 well within your budget after the trade in.

As for weight concerns, I'm somewhere around 300lbs and I have had no issue with my Defy Composite 1, including no spokes broken on the stock wheels after ~500km on them. My LBS strongly believes that the stock wheels should be fine for my weight as long as the spokes are properly tensioned and so far *knock on wood* they've been right.

brons2

Hey OP check this out, a whole thread full of pics of flat bar road bikes

https://www.bikeforums.net/showthread...oad-Bikes-here

(ignore the smarmy comments)

post 84 is someone who made their 7.7 more roadie-like.

here's another interesting one:

https://www.bikeforums.net/showthread...8#post16015098

ClydesMoose

Just up the road from you there are a slew of Cannondale dealers Might be worth looking into a CAAD8 or a Synapse if you can swing a drive into Dallas.

brons2

There was a poster on here who was having problems popping spokes on his 2300 equipped CAAD8. The included wheelset has straight 15ga spokes. Not the best option for a clyde, unless you can finagle some more appropriate wheels from the dealer.

jsigone

Even if you got a 3-4k bike, it will still come with $250 retail value wheelset that will likely pop under a clyde. Imagine what a $800 bike comes with. There are some nice heavy duty stuff out there for only $200. At least the Synapse 105 comes with some decent shimano wheelset that should hold up, they have like 14ga SG spokes, super thick and wider rims.

ClydesMoose

I popped a couple on my CAAD8, but that was mainly because I bent the hell out of one whilst emergency unclipping and jamming my heel into the rear wheel. Then, the stress of the bent spoke caused another to pop, and then another..etc.

My LBS took care of me though, and gave me a takeoff wheelset from a CAADX. All good now

jsigone

drool to the CAADX....maybe that will be my next yr bike

ClydesMoose

I know. I want a CX bike too. But, I need to get an MtB first. Probably gonna get a TrailSL 29er 4 or One of the Trek X-Calibers. I'm torn

jsigone

I love the fat tubes of the Cdale trail frames. reminds me of their CAAD10 line up but for for the dirt. I have a spesh 29er singlespeed I'm gonna use this yr for cross. I just built a new wheelset for it for everyday duties so the other set I had on there will be w/ skinny CX tires and taller gearing for racing cross.

side_FX

I did read that the Domane can be fitted with a 700 x 28 tire. I also like the CrossRip with a 700 x 32.

fietsbob

Just restating..

Quote:

I'm 6'1" and currently 325lbs and dropping slowly now

and saying the spokes broke on the FX , Id want a big upgrade in high spoke count wheels ,

contrary to the low spoke count trend that new bikes s eem to specify.


Have you considered something like a Trek Cross-Rip you have the Drop Bar thing ,

but capable of wider tires, and sturdy 29er wheels .. 622-35 rather than 622-23..


how often did you revisit the LBS, to check tension~truing balance maintenance,
on the spokes of those wheels?

softreset

I've put a 295 pound rider (now 269) on a Trek Domane 4.5 C (myself), although not on the stock Bontrager Race wheel set. I bought a 32 spoke wheel set off eBay for $275 that has held up exceptionally well and looks cool to boot.

Wheel set - https://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...m=330981377549

Wheel set on bike - https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/.../Domane45c.jpg

The big selling point on the nicer Domane was the endurance geometry. Whereas on my previous bike (a '96 Raleigh) I found at about mile 20(ish) my comfort would fail, the Domane has allowed me to go faster and further and be comfortable. While I totally get that "it's not about the bike" in my case, purchasing the Domane immediately allowed me to improve the quality, quantity and duration of my riding. I contribute much of the success of 26 pounds of weight loss in 7 weeks to the bike choice.

Technically the weight limit on the Domane is ~ 275 from the manufacturer. The bike can absolutely handle more (I had a co-worker go for a half century on the bike last weekend and he's easily ~ 330. The wheel set... probably not. It's a 20/24 spoke set and when I picked up the bike it was very obvious that a few rear spokes were not properly tensioned.

Personally, I opted to not even try to ride them. I'd rather save them for when I'm closer to ~ 215 and can enjoy them.

Jarrett2

Thanks for all the ongoing info, it is really appreciated.

To answer some of the questions posed:

The LBS's in Dallas seem to all carry Trek and Specialized for the most part. At least the three stores I've been too. And two of the stores were chains with multiple other stores in the area. So it appears that Dallas is mostly a Trek and Specialized spot. Maybe there is another store out there that has other brands, but I have not found them yet.

Yes, I have ridden my hybrids on the road quite a bit in the last few months. My long rides (30-40 miles) are typically on bike trails just because they are more controlled, but I have done 15-20 mile runs strictly on the road with both bikes. My DS and FX have a different ride despite appearing much like each other. I thought my FX with the more narrow tires and fixed fork would be similar to a road bike, but it did not based on yesterday's experience.

I went to my fave LBS and test rode some Dumane's. Some 2 series and 4 series. I liked the 2.3 quite a bit. Another LBS recommended the Specialized TriCross and Trek CrossRip, but no one seems to carry those in my size which appears to be 60cm on road bikes.

It's quite a jump in price going from the hybrids to the decent road bikes it seems. Plus I'm concerned about them handling the weight, although the Dumane's felt perfectly fine yesterday. Still researching.

mtalinm

don't get a Domane. I have one, and at 290 am too heavy for the pivot seat (IsoSpeed) - it just sags down when I sit onit. very uncomfortable. maybe it was ok at first but weakened over a couple f months. also, the rear rim cracked, which hasn't happened to me before.

my Roubaix however has been gr8. I built a custom wheel using a Velocity Dyad touring rim

Jarrett2

I was worried about that isobar thing. The little salesman could make it move by putting his hand down on it hard. I was thinking, what's going to happen if I put my butt down on it for a few thousand miles?

I found a Giant dealer in Waco, south of me. The have the Defy. Seems to be a little more reasonably priced.

mtalinm

on the bright side, its really comfy on a trainer. but I am selling mine because it just doesn't work for road riding. did a gran fondo on it last weekend and had pain worse than when I climbed Mt. Washington.