London Fixed-gear and Single-speed SJS Cycles

One for the roadies!
My housemate is getting on the bike2work scheme and was quite sold on the Tricross (geared) but has been thinking about splashing out on the Tricross Comp which is £1200. He asked me whether it's a good deal, to be honest I'm not sure. It's good spec (105/FSA mainly) but it's still an Alu frame. Its going to be used for commuting and longer rides including London-Paris next year. So......
For that money would you be expecting fully carbon, or is it better to get alu with better specs?
If I should take this the fuck off to bikeradar please say.

Prices have gone a bit crazy and £1200 can't really buy 105/carbon any more. Having said that, one of the best value carbon framed bikes is the Focus Cayo which is £989 with 105.

The boardman team is a grand and full carbon with sram rival I think. Has had lots of good things said about it as well.

Darn you Bernhard I was just finding the link to the Boardman.

Boardman team (quite racey style)
Carbon + Sram rival
http://www.halfords.com/webapp/wcs/s...egoryId_165710

My first chioce would be a Ribble racing sportive though (more comfy).
£1099 with Shimano ultegra
or
£1059 with campag Centaur
http://www.ribblecycles.co.uk/SpecialEditionBikes.asp

So you can pretty much choose between Rival/Ultegra/Centuar for around a grand. Worth checking which has the best wheels for your purposes though.

if the boat can be pushed out a bit further then planet x are doing a full carbon frame with dura ace for 1600 http://www.planet-x-warehouse.co.uk/?p=4990

buy the planet x, flog the gruppo and get a carbon frame for free

Good call. Those light weight model B wheels are great for the money too. Not sure how much the finishing kit weighs, but that should be one seriously light bike.

Fixed ;)

even more of a bargain !

Cheers, all good suggestions. Don't think he will want to stretch any more than 12-1300 though.
So general consensus is go for full carbon then?

The focus cayo team replica is £1300 (£500 off) at wiggle which has SRAM Rival and Aksiums, thought that looked quite good!

Considering this price range (1000 - 2000 GBP).
What is the benefit of carbon fiber anyway?
It seems like everybody wants and has a CF frame. Including myself.
You MUST have it because it's cool (or hot?).

But for the rest it doens't have any benefits.
Weight, compliance, strength, stiffness, overall quality mostly the same.
Just the prices are higher for carbon are higher.

So, for GBP 1200 it's certainly not a must to have a CF frame.
On the contrary! With a alu frame, you CAN have a better spec (or a higher margin for the producer/seller).

But you get what you pay for.
Make your own choice.

I've got no experience with the Cayo but I've heard it's incredibly stiff. Good for balls-out sprints but not the most comfortable ride. They do a 7 day test ride so your mate could have it for the week and send it back if he doesn't like it.

+1

I had a chat with an experienced rider at my LBS and he suggested that for the same price I was willing to pay for a carbon I could get a better spec Alu frame which would also be a bit more comfortable for the really long rides. Looking at a Colnago Arte this weekend and hopefully it fits as it's a lovely bike.

1200 will get you an entry level carbon roadbike or a high end aluminium one i would go for the latter personally. if you want a carbon roadie then you need more than 1200 or else its not really worth it IMO

the low end carbon frames are not necessarily going to be any lighter. personally i would go alloy with carbon stays and a decent lightish set of wheels.
or save up and buy a proper steel bike. :-)

Starting with a very reasonable explanation and ending up with a Colnago?
Doesn't matter. Everybody will have a Colnago once in his life. Just for the emotion though. Because not everybody can afford a Ferrari...

Would you say it was a bad move?

Just been having a look for alu frames with high specs but not really having much luck - as soon as you get out of the £900 range it swaps to full carbon frames.
Steel would be great but not in his price range ( I don't think?)

I've read that both the cayo and the boardman are more race machines. I'd go for one of these more comfort focused bikes (my personal taste).....

Ribble Racing Sportive,
[COLOR=#062971]http://www.ribblecycles.co.uk/SpecialEditionBikes.asp[/COLOR]
Planet-X Ti sportive (£2k! so would need to look for a lower spec than DA)
http://www.planet-x-warehouse.co.uk/..._Ace_7900.html
Bianchi C2C Via Nirone 105 (alu with carbon stays)
http://www.tredz.co.uk/.Bianchi-C2C-...Bike_22810.htm
Bianchi C2C 928 105 (full carbon, but £1.5k)
http://www.evanscycles.com/products/...mpaign=froogle

£1,2k Used to be an extremely competitive price point, but recently things have gone a bit tits up. So you dont get so much for your money anymore. The Ribble (my first chioce) gives the most for your money. But both the Bianchi's have great framesets, that are well worth upgrading over time (although theres nothing wrong with 105 for us mortals).

No it doesnt have to be carbon, but its easier to build a comfortable carbon bike than alu (IMHO). A nice Alu bike...

Colnago primavera 105.
http://www.evanscycles.com/products/...mpaign=froogle

+1 to what was said about getting the option with the best wheels.

My road bike fell just within the OP's mate's budget (without any Cycleschematics going on), and has Campag Neutrons, a carbon Centaur groupset, and all my favourite contact points.

At ~7.5kg/16.5lb, it was also lighter than all the OTPs in the same price bracket.

FYI, the frame is aluminium with carbon seatstays, has been comfortable enough for CenturyPlus™ rides, but is also stiff enough for brutal climbs, and tracks around corners better than anything else I've ridden.

Don't Wiggle do some kind of scandium jobby? I bet that pisses on their similarly priced carbon Foci.

There's also the option of getting a Cervélo S1 built up by a shop. That's apparently a fantastic frame.

Which would seem, logicaly, to be the best option at this price point. It just seems bike manufacture's jump from full alu to full cf these days.
Yeah, they used to 'Kiron something' with carbon stays, 105, Easton finishing kit, and decent easton wheels.

No, certainly not.
If you want a Colnago, get one!

You can get a better bike for the same money, but perhaps that's not what counts.
What I wrote before: people who want a Ferrari should buy one and not a Volkswagen for the same money). Probably the VW is better, but it's not a Ferrari...

Im not sure what the rules for the bike to work scheme are... if your allowed building your own bike is probably the most cost effective way... look for a 'nearly new' second hand frame and you can go pretty high end if your patient... I got a 6mnth old s-works tarmac for £650... barely a scratch (from one of those city types). If not allowed think using the ribble bike builder is the way to go. Their frames are pretty good for the price.

Also recommend shimano ultegra spec wheelset for best bang for your buck.

You can get a shop to build you a bike. You can't use the voucher to buy parts etc. My suggestion about the S1 was to find a shop that will do a build of one for around £1200 (doable, just).

That wiggle Kiron blah blah thing is amazing value at £800, I think that would be a great choice. Only drawback is that he was going to go through Brixton Cycles (our local bike shop) which he wouldn't be able to do with wiggle

If you went to Brixton Cycles with a print out of the Kiron or whatever, and asked them to work out their nearest equivalent in spec/price, they'd work something out...

Just seen that 2010 Specialized bikes have arrived in stores so the '09 bikes are getting discounted.

The '09 Allez Elite is the same bike as the '10 Allez Comp but can be had for £880 reduced from £1000 vs £1200 for the new bike.

Whereabouts? Or is it generally available?

Very limited sizes though, only 49cm and 56cm available

cervelo FTW.

i ride the S1 and i love it. it's the nicest geared bike that i've been on. including more expensive rides. it's fast fast fast fast fast.

just watched the vid. it's exactly as he describes. good vid.

Spesh Roubaix Elite. Full carbon, 105 - 1400 quid. Nice.

Edit: probs get a discount soon for 2009 model

Fuji CCR2. Full carbon, 105/Ultegra, £300 off at evans at the moment.

http://www.evanscycles.com/products/...085?query=fuji

Pleas be advised that I know little about bicycles.

Stick around here long enough and you might learn something.

I've learnt lots of new swear words.

A built up Cervelo for under £1200?

The Tricross Comp has carbon seat stays and a carbon fork for all the comfort advantages carbon fibre has to offer. But as said before, for £1200 you could get a Trek 1.9 with full Ultegra for example and still only have an aluminium frame.

Its worth thinking that realistically, how good can a full carbon bike around £1000 be with the materials, and how much filler have they put in there.

ADT - was that you on the Spesh road bike on the TNRC?

jumping on this thread as i'm bored and broke - i've got one of these but with ultegra i'll sell it for 600 pm me if you want details - [FONT=Arial][COLOR=#1f497d] it's large 58 [/COLOR][/FONT]

everytime i've tired to buy one of thier sale items they are always out of stock when you ring them up. buy my focus instead.

Is buying a second hand bike possible on bike2work? Because you can get a really good bike for 1k second hand.

No.

yes it was

The S1 is notoriously well priced. I don't know whats available in the UK, but the stock set up here in the States comes with full ultegra, FSA cranks/bars and all other good bits for 1300 with the current currency conversion. Not to mention a killer 3T fork. And this isn't some shit Scattante with nice parts.

That would depend upon your relationship with the bike shop owner...
I did.

there were some of last years soloist teams with full ultegra available for 12-1300 not that long ago
probably slane cycles, primera or one of the big cervelo dealers.

bike factory?

not strictly true about the parts thing on cycle scheme actually. You can buy a bike and upgrade parts etc.

I think they might not like it if you bring in a frame and use cycle scheme to buy the parts. Cyclesurgery are quite good - if you want to upgrade, say, the groupset or saddle etc, then they'll 'buy back' the bits that you're replacing, so there's less of an impact onto the total.

In other words, you could buy a decent aluminium framed road bike, then use the cycle scheme to upgrade some or all of the parts (not sure about whether you can upgrade everything mind).