Road bike recommendations

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Specialized and Cannondale are the only 2 big manufacturers I can think of who actually do women specific geo (which are similar to mamil geos, short and tall). Rest just have shorter stem, narrower bars and different colours.

So you could look at them plus all the bikes labelled as 'endurance'. Domane, Synapse, Roubaix etc. Get the lightest most modern bike you can afford. Hence Canyon. 4700 is great. Dont bother with discs.

Do you or does she not like having short stem?

If it's you, then stop worrying about how it look, just go for a reasonable btwin road bike to get started.

Dont bother with discs.

Wait!

What?

Amey ≠ discs*

*until Dura Ace Disc 1000

Funny that you should pop up here, I was just eyeing up your volare as a possibility. Nothing at all to do with the fact that it'd match with my Zero and Equilibrium ;)

It's not a looks thing with the stem, its handling. If this is twitchy then it won't get ridden!

get scoble's volare

Eh? I didn't get that memo...

It won't actually be twitchy, just feel like it, and remember she's riding it, not you.

I wouldn't worry too much about this, ideally as long it fit, she'll ride it.

Can give you a discount on the Genesis tho.

reasonable btwin road bike

b'Twin Triban 540?

Not bad for £600 and very practical. Otherwise at that price point I'd say secondhand is probably the other way to go. Oh and remember she'll need to budget shoes and pedals.

I do sort of agree that a +100mm stem feels better. But at the same time it doesn't take long to get used to changes.

the otp wheels weight a ton and the luganos it had were awful. Also going to 105 from sram the lever action feels like crap. But rides so freking nice!

chap at lbs was nice enough to swamp the alu seatpost to the carbon one

also not keen on the fsa ring aesthetically as I am hhsb guy after all

Or the £450 B'Twin instead.

Wait till the pads bedded in and you'll enjoy the full power of those levers, but it's largely the cheaper levers that made the shifting felt a bit soft (compared to the more expensive R685).

It look pretty good.

@edscoble
being my first bike with hydraulics the braking is already phenomenal with around 20km ridden. it is just that I'm kind of missing the loud clicks sram has compared to 105 small paddle lever.

Yeah maybe. I'd say the wheels and 10 speed 105 Vs 9 speed sora are probably work the +£150.

But then at £600 you'd have to ask yourself if you wouldn't rather stump up the extra £100 for that blue Cayon Amey posted a page back.

I heard you, Shimano have a very light shift that isn't loud, and the amount of throw required to shift up can be disconcerting (to prevent accidental shifting while braking).

also my front derailleur feels like there is 3 click positions although I obviously have only 2 front rings. Might have to do some setting up

Assume that'll be the trim position between the two "main" positions - just allows you to cross chain it more without chain rub.

nice! weight?

Trim, on the small chainring, you can shift a tiny bit up to ride on small/small, on big ring, you can click down to ride big/big.

Cable tension on front derailleur should be very tight and should take minimal effort to shift up.

So my wife's looking to get her first carbon fibre road bike for weekend rides and the odd sportive. It's difficult to look past Planet X on pure price if, like both my wife and I, you know next to nothing about bikes.

The Planet X thread on here hasn't seen much action recently - can the hive mind remind me whether or not it's a good idea to go with one of their their Pro Carbon deals? She's ridden a borrowed pro carbon and got on with it, so geometry/fit shouldn't be an issue.

Thanks...

High end alu over cheap carbon, also no reason why she's can't go for men bikes (unless need to be extra small).

Look at Canyon for value, maybe Trek Emonda, Giant Defy, etc.

When I switched out the luganos I checked the weight of the front wheel sans qr but with the disc rotor..it was so much (950g) that I dont dare to weight the full thing before I upgrade the wheels :D

otp setup is 8,6kg without pedals. If I get it under 8 with pedals (most likely getting pd-a600) im quite happy with it. Currently contemplating between china carbon versus building wheels with novatec revo velocity aileron.

at least I dont have any more upgrades for the seatpost (excluding enve) to lust after, as I got the carbon cannondale upgrade free of charge.

A mate had the RT-57. That seemed like a really good bike. Light, stiff, etc. He liked it and did a few tris on it.

The Pro Carbon looks like their old carbon frame / the one they've had for ages, so I don't think it's anything special. Nothing wrong with that, but you shouldn't regard as premium.

I don't necessarily follow ed's view, as something like a CAAD10 or 12 looks to be +£1k for a lower spec. Or if you went for a frameset the kinesis Aithein is just under £600 which takes a bike to well over a grand (depending on what's in your parts box).

Compare the exact spec to other options to make sure it is a good deal. PX often apply a liberal description to their groupsets. Ie front and rear Ultegra mech with say 105 shifters and an OEM chainset and brakes, described as "Ultegra", but probably equates to 105.

Oh and remember there is no guarantee of customer service.

Seatpost is 25.4 no?

I'd go china carbon (light bicycle) 30mm-ish and bitex or something.

Latex tubes, road pedals (!), Kalloy stem and stop there I'd say ;)

@amey
yeah the seat post is 25.4. There is cannondale c3 alloy, c2 carbon and 25mm setback enve.

I went for 38mm tubeless ready 23mm wide china with novatec. Switched the awful 320g c3 bars to sensible 260g px 7075 bars. I got road 105 pedals also but no road shoes atm. Kind of would like to use the bike in daily life so dunno if road shoes are next on my list.

already got latex tubes.