humboldt'sroads

After months of saving, window shopping, near-purchases, and selling my beloved fixed gear, I placed my deposit on my new 2010 CAAD9 5 in charcoal gray about 15 minutes ago. Back to the world of geared riding I come!!!

Making the trip from Sacramento to Redwood City next Saturday to pick it up. Hard to find something better spec'd for $1100, though I know I could have a CAAD10 for only $300 more. Something about the "Handmade in the USA" just sounds good though and I like the looks of the 9 frame a little more. Plus I figure I'd rather spend that savings on replacing the FSA crankset with something a little more durable. Real pics and full review to come..

10 Wheels

Nice colors....

captnfantastic

super sick! My advice is leave the crank alone for a while. Don't spend money for the sake of spending money. Trust me, things will come up that you'll need to buy. Tubes, tires, a different saddle, new bibs, water bottles, tacx tao cages, a good pump if you don't already have one. +1 on the color!

humboldt'sroads

Good point capt'n - I'll ride the Gossamer until it starts groaning too much and at least give it a chance - the shop said they can replace the compact with a standard too which I'll take them up on. Yeah, I'm stoked on the color - the 105 build came either in the charcoal with red accents or a super bright toothpaste-blue with white; nice looking but I like darker colors in general... Stoked they had the charcoal.

thcri

The Handmade in America gives one a good feeling don't it? When I was buying I was saving for a Madone 5 that was to be Hand Made In America and about the time I had saved up enough they switched it. Instead of buying I continued to save to get the Madone 6 and glad I did.

captnfantastic

Do some research before making this decision. I started with a compact, thought i'd be a big man and buy a standard. It's okay but I often miss that 34 on long climbs. In fact i'm on the lookout for a good sale on a compact to switch back. Also, a 50x11 technically has higher top speed than a 53x12. I know you have fixie experience, which gives you some pretty massive leg strength but climbing a mountain in your 39x23 or 39x25 can still be overwhelming unless you weigh 130 or are lance. Just something to consider.

moneypit

Did you purchase from GoRide? I called and chatted with someone there regarding their Cannondales...

humboldt'sroads

Yeah, I saw their add last week and called them today as soon as I sold my fixie.

As for the gearing, I've had both a compact and a standard in the past and there's a great argument for both. When I lived in Humboldt county, the mountains are steep and not graded well so I preferred having the compact. Most of my climbing now is in the foothills and nearly all of my riding is around Sacramento and I've loved the standard. Anything under 8% or so and I'm pretty happy with standard gearing, but I'll have to give that some more thought.

Santaria

Congrats on the bike. Same one I bought in December (color, everything). The crank isn't too bad. I've found fault in the tires more than anything.

The compact has a lot of room in higher gears to still power through on flats. No idea on hills yet, since the only Hills we have live over on Elizabeth St.

humboldt'sroads

What does the bike come standard with? Probably will immediately go with Rubino Pro's since that's what I'm used to. I've heard the FSA's have been getting a little better reviews with BB30 as well. I actually haven't had a chance to ride a CAAD9 yet, but rode a CAAD10 and fell in love with the stiffness and geometry. If the CAAD9 is remotely as responsive as the 10 I'll be very pleased.

rangerdavid

Sweet!! that thing is SCREAMING!!


Welcome to the club!!

RD

Accordion

I have that bike. Don't upgrade anything yet. I put 5000 miles on it in its stock form before upgrading the wheels. You can beat the crap out of it and it will take it so don't worry about that crank.

Be sure to make certain that your crank's serial numbers don't fall into the recall. Mine missed it by about a month. Who knows how long yours has been on the floor.

Good luck!

2ndGen

Pretty much going to repeat what I just posted on another CAAD Convert's thread...

Congratulations! I was totally stoked to get my hands on one of the last of the "Handmade In The U.S.A." models myself.
The CAAD9 will be a legend. It's the last of it's kind in the CAAD line. Classic styling. Great value. A beloved frame.

Now, you report to the C.O.C. at once: -----> https://www.bikeforums.net/showthread...CAAD.../page42

Crankset? Easy and relatively cheap ($150.): Ultegra SL.
Light. One of the stiffest cranksets of it's time.
Ready to blend in perfectly with a 105 group.
It's an outrageous value and much better than the OEM FSA.


If it's a BB30, "deal" with the FSA until you've saved up enough pennies for a Hollowgram.

2ndGen

Excellent! Congrats! A 6.X Madone may be in my future as well this year.

clink83

FSA gossamer cranks are pretty bad...they are heavy, mushy and shift poorly..replacing it with a closeout shimano cranks is one of the few "upgrades" that really enhance performance. It was shocking how badly it shifted it was after I replaced mine with an r700 crank.

hendrick81

The crank has nothing to do with how the gears shift, that would be the derailers...........

Daren71

My buddy and I both bought CAAD9's in the fall. His is the color of the OP, and mine is the blue and black one. Excellent choice. Mine has mostly indoor miles right now. Come on spring.

Daren

humboldt'sroads

The Ultegra SL is exactly what I had in mind - nice clean looking group and definitely performs well. As I replace my 105 components as I tack on the miles, I'll be doing so with SL. My last road setup consisted of Ultegra derailleurs, 105 shifters and a Zipp crankset I got on closeout - ended up being a very nice setup, and I really have never had any problems with 105 / Ultegra.

2ndGen: I'll definitely be reporting to the cult, but must have bike in house first. Picking it up next Saturday!

clink83

Not true. A crank that flexes will cause erratic shifting, but more importantly the chainrings on gossamar cranks are much, much lower quality and shift like crap.

kleinboogie

Enjoy!

grnrcr

1. 9-5 has a BB30 bottom bracket. Using a Shimano crank means you have to use an BB adapter which pretty much defeats the purpose of BB30. Get a BB30 specific crankset.

2. Call and make sure the one you ordered comes with 5700 105 and not the old 105. The later 9-5's come with 5700. You want 5700.

fureshi

Congrats on the CAAD9! I almost bought the same CAAD9-5 at GoRide a few weeks back also. Put money down on one but then found a basically new CAAD9-1 frame on eBay so decided to cancel my order and build the bike from the ground up. The one that I test rode felt nice and was more plush that my past experiences with aluminum bikes have been. Looking forward to seeing your review.

captnfantastic

I am just trying to drive home the point of not upgrading things that work just fine. These forums make riders think that their gear is not good enough for everyday use when realistically it works fine for any level of rider. My roadies have dura ace and the other is Ultegra, but my cross bike is all tiagra... when tuned properly the tiagra works beautifully... no problems at all, but if I spent more time on BF I would probably convince myself that I cannot race next cross season with a full rival group. haha.

As for the OP, If you plan on upgrading, I have had great luck on ebay. If you have the coin, buy your new crank now while waiting for your bike and switch it out before you put any miles on the FSA crank. A brand new take off crank will bring in more $$ than one that even has a hundred miles on. You might even come out close to even... or worst case I saw a gossamer go for $80 last week and an ultegra SL go for $120 with shipping. That's only a $40 loss (i wouldn't even call it a loss it is an awesome crank, I lost the ultegra SL bid by like $3 because I was sleeping haha)

-Pete

2ndGen

Got my Ultegra SL crankset for $170., Dura-Ace BB for $40., sold my
OEM FSA Vero crankset w/800 miles on it for $75 = $135. w/DA BB.
The shifting was a revelation compared to the FSA Vero crankset.

I've just had Dura-Ace 7800 chainrings installed on my Ultegra SL crankset.
In getting a crankset that would match up to my Dura-Ace group,
I couldn't find anything outside of a Hollowgram SI (BB30/not compatible).
The DA 7800 crankset IMO was too fugly to put on my beautiful CAAD9.
Plus, the Ultegra SL crankset was stiffer than the Dura-Ace crankset.
So, I got inspired by someone else's hybrid and created my own.
Now, I have the best of both worlds. Pics coming in a few days.

alpha_bravo

Exactly. Take a look at the inside of your chain rings and you'll see pins and ramps which help the chain shift from small to large chainring. The positioning of the pins and ramps as well as the shape of the chain ring teeth make a difference in shifting.

Truer words could not be spoken. Blindfolded, I wonder how many people could tell the difference between some of the gear they extoll on the forums. I'd agree that the crank will be just fine for quite a while. When and if something breaks, buy a new one that you may feel is more suitable to your needs.

OP - congrats on the new bike! I love my CAAD9-5 I think you'll love yours too.