Road bike recommendations

Radon bikes in Germany do stiff, heavy alu bikes with good kit.
http://www.radon-bikes.de/xist4c/web/Sage-6-0_id_25964_.htm

You can buy a very similar frameset alone as Quantec or Drossiger.

Best bet though is buying used with 105 or something and putting whatever shifters and rear mech you want.

Merlin Cycles sells these, as well as loads of other decent Budget offerings. Not much Sram though.

http://www.merlincycles.com/road-bikes-44114/

44x17's CAAD8 too small for you laner?

http://www.lfgss.com/thread127610.html

This is the drossiger frame I had been in mind.

http://www.bike24.de/1.php?content=8;navigation=1;product=36821;page=1;menu=1000,4,34;mid=0;pgc=0

44x17's CAAD8 too small for you laner?

http://www.lfgss.com/thread127610.html

Actually perfectly sized, so i'll probably buy that, then do this...

Best bet though is buying used with 105 or something and putting whatever shifters and rear mech you want.

my work mate looking to replace his stolen bike; since the insurance isnt paying he needs to be on budget; so he will be probably keen on that 105 group

why isnt the insurance paying out of interest?

I did a 15 minutes test ride of a Genesis Volant 00 the other day as a uni friend was looking for a ~£500 road bike our LBS recommended him the Volant and he said it was comfy but wanted a 2nd opinion so I went and test road one too.

Claris isn't that bad at all and the Volant is lovely, if i was looking for a cheap alu road frame I'd definitely be interested in one and put a better group on it. Really nice ride.

It was stolen from work garage which was open (while the deliveries of stuff was happening) at the time of theft

gah, bummer

Surely the company insurance would cover it? It's still stolen from their property.

No, no they wouldn't. Employee's personal possessions and all that. If you were really chummy with the company boss, maybe they'd throw you a bone, but otherwise, nope, nope, nope and nope.

Don't bring nice things to work, kids.

^ this and the person who was in charge of delivery (one who kept the garage door open) has shrugged off the responsibility too

I keep mine in the cleaning closet situated behind 2 RFID card entry doors inside the office

Nothing to do with them, unless they stole it.

Nah some cunt walked in with a shitty bike left it there and took the nice bike with him

no bike locks?^

Always amazed people don't look their nice bikes in office bike areas.

^^ nope its a secure garage which has key entry from road side and RFID from office; has one of these type of stands: http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_NTjlyrQrB3k/SomKXg4G-WI/AAAAAAAADyI/P8hodClsKfQ/s400/Garage+Organization3.jpg

Best you can do is lock it to itself.

Very common to get bike stolen from secure area ironically.

My carbon frame has developed a crack in the seat tube. I'm thinking of transferring all the parts onto a new frame. Got a budget of up to ~£300 so was considering either a Chinese full carbon frame, possibly a second hand Cannondale CAAD9/10 frame with full carbon forks or something else steel/aluminium with carbon forks. It'll be a nice bike for general training/club rides and maybe a bit of racing.

Anyone got any other suggestions?

Second-hand CAAD10 frames can be had for about £300-400. Probably the best bet. Bear in mind it's BB30 so might have to change your crankset or use an adaptor. Braze on front mech with a 27.2 post too.

Another choice is the Kinesis Racelight.

What size are you? There's a guy in Aus on WeightWeenies trying to shift a 56cm HongFu frame, he could probably drop the price a bit and mark it as low value so you don't get stung with imports.

Other than that, check Planet X, they've still got some stock of SAB frames left over which can be good value for money

Does anybody know when we'll see the first bikes available with Shimano 5800? Particularly interested to see what deals Rose and Canyon will be knocking out. If I can get a new alu bike for under £1k with 5800, I'll be delighted.

You will be able to, I suspect. Considering the Roadlite AL with 5700 is avail for 899 or however ridiculously cheap it is.

You may have to wait until 2015 bikes are released though, I'd imagine.

Thanks. That's what I suspect re pricing. When do next year's bikes tend to become available? Back end of summer/September I'm guessing.

Yup