Road bike recommendations

More than one cassette?! Are you mad?!?!

Team mechanics change the cassette to suit the day's parcours, rather than fitting one at the beginning of the season and hoping it lasts.

You might be right that they do change cassette, but according to the mechanic, the ratios stay the same;

The Team Sky mechanic told us the whole team have been riding 11-28 cassettes for most of the season, since they got the F8s - they rode them right the way through the Dauphine and they'll be riding them for the entire Tour.
In the past riders would have ridden 11-23 or 11-25 cassettes and swapped to a wider range cassette only for the mountain stages, but Team Sky have moved away from this approach - the riders are comfortable with the combination of the bike and gearing combination in all situations so they're sticking with it.

It make more sense that with 11 speed, it's basically a 11-25 with a granny.

Canyons always sat right at the top of the list, if there was a way to pay by cheque through their office (or in any other way) I would go for one in an instant.

Dan - what kind of spec should I expect to see on a CAAD10 for that money? I assumed they would be above my price bracket. Regarding the Nago, I think I need to just convince my shallow side it would be a daft purchase. My logical side already knows.

Thanks for everybody's input :)

I'm in pretty much the same boat (same budget, have to pay with cheque)

The Planet X RT-58 Ultegra 6800 looks bloody good for the money. Doesn't seem to come in XXL though so it's a no go for me.

http://www.planetx.co.uk/i/q/CBPXRT58ULT6800/planet-x-rt-58-ultegra-6800-11-road-bike

You'd think that considering all the shit they've had with seatposts and clamps that they would keep it simple and stop fucking about with stuff like that.

That is the exact reason why I sold my BMC (with its 'streampost' seatpost) and chose a CAAD10 3/4 years ago.
No proprietry/gimmicky shite (apart from BB30, which I haven't had to replace...yet).
Apart from standard drivetrain wear replacement, I haven't had to change a single component.

yeah the carbon seatclamp on my BMC used to terrify me. I was almost 10kg heavier then too... :-o

I genuinely thought there was a defect in our shop floor BMC when I tighten it with a normal allen keys, the clamp pop out of the frame if you put a torque a tiny bit higher than the recommended 5nm.

which is the rose to go for? can someone map the rose line to the canyon line pls?

The Xeon RS is the one I have my eye on. I've not ridden it though.

10mm less headtube and no silly stems. The frame is not mech/elec' specific.

what kind of spec should I expect to see on a CAAD10 for that money? I assumed they would be above my price bracket.

Some good prices on last years CAAD10s here:

http://www.paulscycles.co.uk/m7b65s6p0/Road-Bikes/CANNONDALE/Racing-Road-Racing

Give me a shout if you want to have a look at mine, I don't know what size your last one was.

yeah the carbon seatclamp on my BMC used to terrify me. I was almost 10kg heavier then too... :-o

Boast post. :)

what's the consensus on how the rose bikes ride? they seem as good value as canyon used to be

from a quick look, it seems like:
xeon RS: ultimate AL SLX
xeon CRS: ultimate CF SL
xeon x-lite: ultimate CF SLX

x-lite w/dura-ace is £3K, which seems like a great price. canyon's do have pedigree tho (even tho that's increasingly becoming tainted by anecdotal frame failure chat)

jammy has a xeon RS and he loves it

There is a tour test of alloy bikes. The canyon and rose RS framesets are significantly lighter than the others. I think the canyon pips the xeon weight wise but it's a few grams.

You can, to an extent spec the build of the rose.

I've got a Xeon CRS and I love it.

When are the Canyons available with 5800? I'm getting one. Simple as that.

Endurace CF is available from mid august ..

Late to the party here, but I have a Rose CRS too, with Chorus. It's absolutely brilliant. Very very fast regardless of whether I point it up hill, down hill or on the flat. Can't recommend them enough, particularly for the money and the fact you can tailor lots of parts both in terms of what you have fitted and the sizing. Bar width, stem length, crank length, chainring sizes, cassette ratio all to my preference. Cheaper transport costs from Germany than Canyon too.

When I checked the 2015 Trek line up, I notice that they almost ditch the whole Madone series bar a couple (the race fit and the upright fit).

The Emonda replaced the Madone as the MAMIL choice of set-up.

http://www.planetx.co.uk/i/q/CBPXRT57ULT/planet-x-rt-57-shimano-ultegra-6800-road-bike

Further to the advice dispensed in this thread (and some from elsewhere) - I'm currently looking closely at one of these. My biggest gripe is that (IMHO) it's pretty ugly, and the PX branding is doing it no favours whatsoever. However, everyone raves about PX in terms of performance/cost ratio, and FULL Ultegra 6800 does sound good...

If I were to get a (much much sexier) Cannondale CAAD10/SuperSix with 105, would the performance difference be that significant? It's shallow I know, but at least I'm being honest: I need to find my bike attractive to wanna get on it

The CAAD7 (Old 9 speed Ultegra) was the only road bike I've ever owned/ridden, so I'm not the most clued up in this respect, sorry!

Good thing about the CAAD10 is that you can always take one out for a test ride to make your mind up.

Indeed, but without the adequate knowledge or comparison points, I'm worried I won't know if what I test ride represents good VFM regarding the drivetrain (when I'm fairly sure the PX would be)

...would the performance difference be that significant?

The frames no. The groupset yes.

Geometry of the bike and your limbs is more important.

disclaimer I've not ridden that PX, I did have a raz on a few CAAD10s and a Nanolight.

You'll have something to compare it to your CAAD7.

So a general rule of thumb is to prioritise groupset over frame? (so long as geo is appropriate)

Ed, well I'm hoping anything at that price mark gonna be better than the 7!

Prioritise frame over groupset (especially the fit).

Fuck it, I'll take a Caad10 for a test ride - if I like it, I'll get one. Should probably not make it any more complicated than that!

Thanks chaps