Fastfwd01

First, I have searched the forum and read through several other threads on this topic and they provided some great info. I might have the opportunity to upgrade my bike and I would want to try to make the most informed decision possible before doing so. The budget would be up to $5k.

I feel like a broken record in saying this and I apologize for the long post, but I’m pretty new to cycling I just really started getting serious a little over a year ago. My main interest seems to be cycling for fitness and participating in longer events; metrics, centuries, gran fondos, etc. I can’t see myself ever desiring to compete in crits, etc.

I actually already have a 2015 Cannondale Synapse 5 Disc 105. It’s aluminum and a bit on the heavier side with the disc brakes, but I actually like my disc brakes and I notice that it is not incredibly substantially heavier than even some of the carbon endurance bikes with disc brakes. It’s coming in at 20.74 lbs right now with only pedals, Garmin speed/cadence sensors, and Mavic Aksiums for wheels. I do note that disc brakes limit the selection of wheels. Regardless of the weight factor I gather that a carbon bike might substantially improve the comfort level of riding longer distance.

I like my Cannondale and I would certainly consider a carbon Synapse. I have to confess that I am drawn toward one of the more exclusive brands that are a little less common – BMC GF01, Cervelo R3, Colnago CX Zero Evo, etc. I question just how much of a headache it would be to buy a bike with a more limited dealership network. Especially when the local dealer that handles most of the more exclusive brands seems to want to be an ass to me and I would rather not deal with him. I’m fairly capable of handling a lot of my own maintenance for that matter. I could possibly order any needed parts online through another dealer maybe?

I’ve never ridden any of the mentioned bikes and quite frankly when I have gone to ride bikes they all seem fairly similar to me. I thought I would be more sensitive to nuances now that I’ve ridden several thousand road bike miles, but maybe because I’m just taking a short parking lot ride basically I can’t tell much. Maybe I still haven’t developed the sense that I should before making a decision on a new bike.

My impressions of the bikes listed – the BMC appears to have won a recent award as bike of the year from Cycling Plus magazine. I do actually like my 5800 105 group set and I could see me going with that again and maybe spending the difference on a set of wheels. Not crazy about the 105 GF01 color scheme to be honest. I appreciate that it seems to have a bit more blend of a race ready geometry possibly, but I’m curious how that would actually fit me.

The Cervelo R3 looks to me to have the least *endurance bike* appearance of most of the bikes in this category. I frankly know little else about it. I know even less about the Colnago – it’s Italian. That’s about it honestly. LOL Sounds like the perfect Gran Fondo bike. I know, I’ve got a lot of reading to do on these bikes.

Appreciate any input and/or suggestions of other bikes to consider, etc. I will try to just go ride the bikes, but that might be more easily said than done.

rjones28 

If there is a Fuji dealer near you, check them out. Good value in a mainstream brand. No discs on their carbon endurance bikes though.

Fuji Bikes | ROAD | ENDURANCE SERIES | GRAN FONDO 1.1 C

Specialized has a couple of models that might work for you; the Roubaix and the Diverge. They're both available with disc brakes. The Diverge can handle wider tires.

Specialized Bicycle Components

dtrain

While I understand the draw of more exclusive brands, I'm happy as a clam with my carbon (rim brake) Synapse, 5800, and a nice set of wheels. I'd maybe go Hi-Mod and 6800 with a larger budget. On the other hand - it sounds you have a pretty solid bike for where you are now and the next few years going forward.

Dave Mayer

Advice:

• I have road bikes in carbon, alu, ti and steel. Multiples of each. I cannot feel much of a difference between them in terms of ride quality. They sound different, and the carbon bikes are definitely the lightest. Tires and saddles make all the difference in terms of ride quality.
• My best climbing bike is a Vitus 979 from 1983. Its frame is a whippy noodle. So much for stiff bikes being more efficient.
• 'Endurance' road bikes are the latest faddish thing put forward by the industry. Supposed to give you a more upright riding position. Which is good for me too, as I find it easier on my neck and arms being more upright than the pros. I converted my regular old-school road bikes to 'endurance' bikes by flipping the stem around and adding a couple of spacers. This is a lighter and cheaper solution than buying a bike with a large head tube.
• Disks: another faddish thing. They add a whole bunch of weight, cost and complexity for a non-issue. I commute daily on a road bike down some hideous descents. In the rain. Rim brakes are just fine.
• Sloping top tubes. Another faddish design flaw transferred over from the MTB world. These result in a heavier frame overall than a traditional horizontal frame. Unless you have freakishly short legs, you don't need a sloping top tube.
• 11 speeds. An absurd joke dropped on us by a bike industry desparate to maintain sales churn. The industry needs to add a cog every few years to render the previous stuff 'obsolete'. Check out the prices of 10 vs. 11 speed chains, cassettes and rings.
• 'Brand names'. You'll pay roughly 25% more for a 'top shelf' recognized brand name bike than a less recognized brand like a Fuji, or Garneau or the REI house brands. Everything else being equal. Or if you buy the same frame from the Asian factory and scrounce the parts yourself, then you can probably save another 25%.
• By far the biggest upgrade bang for the buck: light wheels. Carbon wheels are a revelation. Carbon tubular wheels are amazing. My heavy steel bikes feel faster and more responsive with tubulars than my carbon bikes with clinchers. Bottom line is that clinchers are fundamentally performance disadvataged - sorry.

Silvercivic27

I love my Colnago Cx Zero Evo...but mine doesn't have disc brakes. Also, it's not Italian...it's

ColaJacket

Try riding the bikes for at least a few miles. A lot of bike shops in my area, are on a busy road, but have a residential area right behind them for road testing. Try to find a big hill next to the bike shop. Go up and down the hill with the new bike and the old bike. Maybe try and find a road that is a little rougher instead of smooth asphalt.

If you still can't tell much of a difference, save your money. When the right bike finds you, you will know it. Don't waste your money until you road test a bike that really excites you.

GH

Lazyass

Nope.

TrojanHorse

It doesn't sound like you're in a rush... see if you can rent some bikes for longer rides and evaluate them that way. Some shops do demo days too, where you can actually get out for longer than just around the parking lot. Keep your eyes open for end-of-year sales too, the bike model year should be ending in the next few months. Pinarello is another name you might want to check into - I know a handful of guys who bought them and they can't say enough good things, but it's possible that you have to be middle aged or more to appreciate them. . They're also commonly copied (Chinarello) so buyer beware.

PaulRivers

I rode around 15 road bikes last summer, and the only one that really impressed me in ride quality over what I have now was a Trek Emonda. I plowed over a major pothole and barely felt it, in addition the bike stayed super stable in it's handling when doing that. I personally thought it was a better endurance bike than the Domane (their official endurance bike). For road feel the Emonda is a little on the light side, but you get such a protected isolated ride it was impressive. I'd rate the Domane a 1/10 for road feel, the Emonda a 5/10. (P.S. That's in "SL" aka 500 level carbon or above, the 300 level carbon was not as impressive).

You should do a longer ride than the parking lot. You don't need to do 50 miles, but just 2 miles gets you a much better feel for the bike than just the parking lot.

Another suggestion is to search for bike demo days. The company (specialized, trek, etc) will bring a whole bunch of bikes specifically so you can take them out and test ride them on a longer ride. They usually do them a couple of times a year.

P.S. There's no better frame material for best long distance ride quality than carbon. I took a Steel Volagi - a bike specifically designed for good ride quality - out on an extended test ride, and the Emonda was clearly better. Not all full carbon bikes are better - they can make stiff and crappy carbon frames if they want - but in my opinion having ridden a lot of them is that the best carbon is definitely better for dampening vibrations and absorbing road shocks than the best steel is.

Fastfwd01

I've been tempted to look at the more aero geometry super light bikes to better my Strava segments, but even on my Synapse I can feel the strain in my neck over about 70 miles. I just can't imagine how that would work out on a bike that forced me into a more aggressive position. Maybe I would figure out how to adapt to it, but it seems unlikely. My primary interest is in longer distance - including something that might be better suited to tackling climbs in those distances. I need to drop body weight too and get in better shape no doubt.

I have seen people reference that a carbon bike can absorb more of the road vibration and make the ride less fatiguing. I don't feel like I'm being vibrated into fatigue now, but from the few test rides that I went on I seemed to believe I could in the least feel a difference in the dampening the carbon bikes offered. Otherwise, it was difficult to distinguish anything major for me personally. Different geometries, etc. maybe. It was difficult to go from one bike shop to another and compare what bike A from bike shop 1 was like vs bike B from bike shop 2.

Lazyass

RPK79

If I had $5k to burn I'd get that orange bike I saw at the LBS. Orange is totally in this year!

dtrain

Yup, that's important right there.

Fastfwd01

Yes, I rode one amongst the several that I went around and test rode. It wasn't a Dogma or Prince - I'm not exactly sure which one it was though maybe the Rhaza? I think it had a psychological effect of feeling like riding a Ferrari/exotic. That may sound dumb. It's just a bike. It just seemed less pedestrian. I would like to base a decision on more than whatever psychological influence the country of origin of the brand is (I know they are all made basically in the same place in Asia).

For some bizarre reason though Gran Fondos just seem to have an appeal to me and an Italian bike seems fitting for them. It's a really dumb reason I know and I most likely wouldn't base my decision on that. It could just be a weird phase of my interest in cycling.

rjones28 

The orange accents on the Fuji Gran Fondo 2.3 look pretty nice in person.

RPK79

The one I was eyeballing was an S-Works. I'm not actually looking to replace my Fuji though. Sure it's a "heavy" steel bike from a decade ago with last generation 105, but it's versatile in what it can do since it takes larger tires than today's road bikes. Besides, it goes just as fast as my legs will propel it. Too bad it's not orange though...

icyclist 

"I just can't imagine how that would work out on a bike that forced me into a more aggressive position."

You neck would feel fine if you ride - and train for - what you mentioned: "cycling for fitness and participating in longer events; metrics, centuries, gran fondos, etc." You might as well say you can't imagine what your legs would feel like if you had to ride 5,000 feet up in a day, if you've never ridden more than a few hundred or so. Ride enough and you can be comfortable on any bike and climb any mountain.

I'm with those who say differences between bikes are minimal. Get what you like.

Fastfwd01

I believe you've taken my comment out of context. For that matter - what is important to me might not be important to you, but that doesn't make what's important to me any less valid. Strava motivates me. Seeing personal records broken and placing in the top ten motivates me. It keeps me interested. I couldn't care any less that I'm not pinning on a number and racing those people on a circuit under the same conditions, bla, bla, bla whatever the Strava haters have to say about it.

Anyway, the context of my statement was that in spite of the temptation to choose a bike that would be more competitive on Strava segments that my main interest in long distance with consideration of climbs on those rides.

You've always been super nice to me and I don't intend to spark a debate. I just get tired of being chastised over being enthusiastic about Strava.

Campag4life

Honestly, all the input here isn't going to help. There are simply no bad bikes discussed including your Al Synapse.
An Al bike will serve many if not most. I do believe endurance geometry is best for the average rider but you already have that.
Honestly, unless you want to drop 2 more grand, stick with what you have. Maybe you will come to this conclusion after you ride more bikes.
A bike not even discussed here which started the endurance genre...the Roubaix is the bike I ride and the best I have ever ridden and I have ridden and owned a lot of bikes. People have different tastes. To me the Roubaix is the best handling bike ever created because of its stability and others will find it too slow handling. No universal truths. Top bikes are necessarily better than others...they are different. Depends on rider preference.
Your best money spent would be a power meter and work on your fitness. The bike doesn't matter that much once you get the level you already have.

This CAT1 knows what he is talking about:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WY5Fe9MzN0I

Silvercivic27

It sounds like you just need to bite the bullet and get a carbon framed disc braked endurance style bike like a Colnago Cx Zero, or the GF01 like you mentioned. That sounds like what you will be happy with. The Cx Zero is definitely the most comfortable and my favorite bike that I own by far. Also, you should know that if you haven't participated in a Gran Fondo yet, they are very difficult if you intend to be competitive!

Silvercivic27

I hate that durianrider guy.

Fastfwd01

Well, I sense a tone of sarcasm, but if you really want to know - my Dad got a notice of four more oil wells last week and he offered to get me a new bike. It's not going to take any food out of his mouth to do it. So, I am considering taking him up on the offer. I would at least like to make an informed decision if I do. There are just so many options out there. I'm sure you can't go too wrong with most of them.

Not looking for a debate on the ethics of a parent buying things for an adult child either.... I'm beyond caring really.

alathIN

As long as we're talking about carbon endurance bikes, let me chime in with my favorite brand Volagi:

The Liscio II is their carbon endurance bike Liscio II | Volagi Cycles

but if I were spending the kind of money you're talking about, I'd go for the Ti Viaje https://www.volagi.com/purchase-a-viaje-ti/ and get more versatility with similar weight and same or better ride quality.

There are not a lot of Volagi dealers, but if you want you can give them your measurements and have them send you a test-fit bike to ride.

RPK79

I suggest the orange S-Works one then. It looks sweet.

dtrain

Okay - I'll lay off the Strava dig. I was just surprised to see it mentioned at all in relation to bike shopping considerations. True enough that it wasn't the point of your post. My bad.

Tell your Dad you have a new bike, but thanks. I think a cycling vacation makes more sense.