_DavidGrossmann

Hello i'm trying to show my friends and family some good road bike options on bikes direct (they all have different price ranges) so I want your opinion on the best road bike (best components, frames, shape... for the price) in these price ranges. this what I have so far


[$250-$450]
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[$450-$700]
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[$700-$900]
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[$900-$1000]
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[$1000-$1300]
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[$1300+]
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P.S. I will most likely end up using this as a guide alot for me, my family, friends...

dtrain

You might have a problem finding stem shifters on bikes over $1k.

Elvo

Don't they show the prices and specs on the website?

dr_lha

How do we rank "best" and "worst" BD bikes? They're basically all the same: Generic Kinesis frames, with decals from old dead brands, and raising levels of components depending on how much you pay. My guess would be a $1300 BD is better than a $250 one. Ranking bikes available at each price bracket? Who exactly has the broad knowledge of all BD bikes that would allow them to do that?

ColaJacket

How do you know that they are going to be comfortable without a test ride. If you don't know enough to know which bikes are good, I doubt if you're going to be able to decide for them which bike is the best fit for them (if you can actually get a fit for them at all). And will you be able to put the bikes together and do the maintenance for them?

Take them to a LBS (or 2 or 3) to test ride some bikes. If you're really worried about price, if you can find a Peformance Bike near you, they have very competitive prices. By the time you or they pay a LBS to put the bikes together and do maintenance, you've probably eaten up all the savings from BD.

BD is really only a great option for people that already know how to do maintenance and have a bike with a good fit, and know the measurement, so they can transfer them to a BD bike.

GH

RJM

Which ever one is orange is the best bike.

JerrySTL

But red is faster.

_DavidGrossmann

sorry I meant sti shifters

_DavidGrossmann

yes but I ont know enough about all the components to know which one would be best

_DavidGrossmann

by looking at the components in each one and comparing them I dont know enough about the components yet to know what makes one bike better than the others

dr_lha

Here's a good way of ranking:

Higher price = Better components.

Given that BD is a level playing field, i.e. you're not paying a premium for boutique branding, if you narrow down to the type of bike you want, you can pretty much guarantee that a higher cost bike is going to be better equipped.

_DavidGrossmann

when I said comfortable I was trying to base it off of personal experience with individual components (ex. those [brand name here] seat post's suck) and yes I was gonna assemble them myself I love fixing things and I have all the tools

_DavidGrossmann

thats what I always tell em but they dont believe me

_DavidGrossmann

yes but if there is 15 different choices in a given price range which one would be best

dr_lha

Yeah, BikesDirect sucks doesn't it?

Dan333SP

Haters gonna hate, but I think this is a pretty rad deal in the sub-$900 category-

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Nice looking steel frame, 11 speed 105 (of course, not a complete group, the brakes and crank are probably sub-par), ect. I wouldn't kick it out of my garage. Don't let the naysayers on here deter you from buying a bike on there. The prices are very low on the face of it (Carbon! Ultegra! $1400!!), but you just have to know what you're getting yourself into and be absolutely sure about the frame size.

Edited to add: There's probably no way to test any of these back to back unless you know someone with a few of their models, so your best bet with picking one versus another in a given price bracket is which one looks the best to you and hoping for the best. If you make an educated choice about groupset in advance you can be quite happy, my brother dropped $650 on a Motobecane Vent Noir and 5 years later it's going strong and he loves it, but it's definitely a heavier bike and limited a little by Tiagra shifters which I personally don't care for, but some people like them a lot so YMMV.

gpburdell

The one that the rider finds most comfortable (fits best).

dr_lha

If you want a nice steel frame bike, you'd be better off looking second hand IMHO. The frame on this thing is "Reynolds 520", i.e. basically standard 4130 Chromoly, which probably means it's pretty heavy. Sure 5800 brifters/shifters are nice, the rest of the equipment though is sub-par or unbranded (seat post, stem etc).

Of course, if you're a beginner you're much better buying a bike that you can actually test ride first. Some states have BD stores, that allow you to do that. For most buying online is going to be a lottery.

EDIT: BTW if you look at the dropouts and seatpost detail on that bike's frame, you can see that it's essentially the same frame as the Jamis Quest Elite, except with lower quality tubing (and the geo's probably different). Not surprising I guess as they're likely both frames made by Kinesis.

ColaJacket

If you don't know which components are better, by doing a little internet research, I don't have much confidence in how well you can maintain the bikes, even if you love fixing things and have all the tools.

Do the research yourself, most of the BD bikes have Shimano components. There, I did some of your work for you. That one page will help tell you which Shimano groups are better.

What size are you going to order for your relatives? Do you know how to measure them, and compare those measurements to the geometries of the bike to get a close fit? Do you know the difference between race and endurance geometries?

GH

ColaJacket

How can you tell with BD?

GJ

dtrain

I really think you are asking a lot of posters here - you could mostly do this research yourself. Even if I wanted too, the results might vary if I valued certain things more than others would. For example, is full carbon more important than Ultegra shifters? Is comfort or speed/aero positioning more important?

For components:
Tourney - Claris - Sora - Tiagra - 105- Ultegra - Dura Ace
and/or
Apex - Rival - Force - Red

rms13

$350 gets you brifters at BD

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1. But yes, with the amount of bikes on BD with redundancy, overlap and personal preference one person's list of best bike at all of those price points will vary from another's.

2. That is a lot of leg work for someone to come on a forum and ask complete strangers to do for them

_DavidGrossmann

bikesdirect switched completely to shimano (anything otherwise I'm pretty sure is just leftover) and originally thats what I was solely basing my options on. Yes I do know how to measure it it's generally measured from the center of the pedal to base of the seat post unless stated otherwise and yes I do endurance geometry tends to have the handlebars higher.

rms13

Definitely what I would buy (but I'm biased toward steel). Yes brakes and cranks are bargain, yes RS11 wheels are boat anchors (but hey at least they are Shimano) and yes Reynolds 520 not some fancy high grade steel...but still a comparable steel bike from Jamis or Raleigh will cost around the same for Claris or Sora level

rms13

I think he's referring to measuring the people and fitting them to the correct geometry frame