CityCyclingEdinburgh Forum » Questions/Support/Help

New bike - advice and suggestions welcome

(22 posts)
  • Started 12 years ago by Instography
  • Latest reply from kaputnik
  • This topic is not resolved
  • poll:
    Go for the road bike : (4 votes)
    40 %
    Get the cross bike : (2 votes)
    20 %
    Buy something else : (1 votes)
    10 %
    Get over yourself, you've got too many bikes already. : (3 votes)
    30 %

    10 votes


  1. Instography
    Member

    It's one of the two times in the year when the company cycle to work scheme becomes available so I've opted to take it to the max and give myself a grand to spend on a new bike. But which?

    I'm restricted to Evans and I already have a tourer, a single speed and a mountain bike. The mountain bike is a my bimbling to the shops and dragging weans in the trailer bike but I don't climb mountains anyway. So I don't need a mountain bike.

    I'm thinking of a cross bike (like this) as a tough commuter (although that has a lot of overlap with the tourer) or a straight road bike (like this nice Genesis) so I can chase wingpig up Arthur's Seat.

    Any suggestions?

    Posted 12 years ago #

  2. DaveC
    Member

    I'd love to see the crosss if you get it. I bought a Cotic >X< a couple of months ago on our last scheme. I opted for the Cotic as its a steel frame. The Genisis has a better spec of gears I think.

    Posted 12 years ago #

  3. gembo
    Member

    Instography - the road bike is the missing link in your collection but then you need a tough commuter too [assuming keeping the tourer for touring?]. Both looked good - the genesis I see comes with 25mm tyres [obviously these can be swapped] - I find that a better width when using my road bike to commute to work on A70 potholes as per my scheme suggestion that the main use of the bike is to commute to work. My payments end this month but cooncil have come up with a solution to revenue and customs wanting a cut at the end. I remain in the scheme for another 5 years but without making a payment - ie I cannot use the scheme to get another bike for a good while. However, I am not making the payment as of next month so I can look around for yet another bike at a local shop outwith the scheme - council restricts you to EBC.

    Posted 12 years ago #

  4. Cyclingmollie
    Member

    I think you should go for the road bike if you enjoy the thought of chasing wingpig up Arthur's Seat. No other bike will work for that. Try to find out how much it weighs. For a road bike I think the sweet spot is below 20lbs. The braze-ons for mudguards are a good feature as you could use it through the winter as well.

    I wish I'd bought a road bike sooner than I did as it was so much more fun around town than the second-hand mountain bike I had been riding.

    Posted 12 years ago #

  5. Dave
    Member

    The parts on a bike without mudguards have a limited life when the salt goes down. I also chewed through a front rim in one winter season (albeit doing a fair daily distance).

    So for me, the cross bike has it in every circumstance.

    The only thing is, if I already had a rugged drop bar bike with mudguards (the tourer), then maybe a fair weather bike would make more sense. Hmm.

    Posted 12 years ago #

  6. wingpig
    Member

    You're not chasing me, you're chasing Joe. There are much faster people than me to chase, too, including one on this thread who posted a 3'12".

    What's the area of non-overlap between the tourer and a cross? What would the weight difference be like once you've added mudguards, seatpack, lights and a rack to a cross to make it commute-friendly? Is the tourer's geometry not attacky enough? When you say "road bike" do you mean "I'm not attaching mudguards to that" rather than just a light tourer with skinnier wheels and calipers rather than cantilevers which doesn't come with a rack as standard?

    Posted 12 years ago #

  7. amir
    Member

    Road bike to which you can fit full mudguards and even a rack. It will give you a whole new dimension to your cycling enjoyment.

    I bought my Ridgeback Horizon (a road bike with mudguards) many moons ago and it changed my view on cycling.

    Posted 12 years ago #

  8. crowriver
    Member

    I notice you don't have a folding bike: that might fill a gap in your collection? I believe there are 'folding' road bikes around (eg. Airnimal) which gives you a performance bike which also folds...

    Think about it.

    Posted 12 years ago #

  9. Instography
    Member

    Actually, at the moment I'm chasing dog walkers and joggers up the Seat, then Dara, then Joe.

    The tourer's like a comfy chair. Its geometry is relaxed, its forks springy and its gears made for climbing fully loaded. It's a lovely bike to wander the length of Jura and fine for commuting but harder work than the single speed. The cross would probably be, how you say, more attacky. No idea what the weight difference would be although I'd likely not put a rack on it. But just as specced the weight difference is 2.5kg. I suspect I'd put skinny tyres on the cross. I suppose I'm thinking of the cross as more of a robust road bike than a light tourer.

    I think what I really want is something like my single speed but with gears. I don't really know why I'm thinking that it needs to be more robust than a road bike since I haven't managed to break a bike yet so maybe I should actually be looking at something like this.

    Posted 12 years ago #

  10. kaputnik
    Moderator

    I've got the CAAD9, the 8's big brother. Both have quite a tall head tube, giving a comfortable position for longer distance riding at speed.

    I love the 9, the main difference is it's a price step up for lighter wheels and a slightly lighter frame. It certainly does zooooooooom up hills when needed.

    Posted 12 years ago #

  11. Cyclingmollie
    Member

    Instography, there's a little devil on your shoulder telling you it's all about performance. That Cannondale will give you performance in spades.

    Posted 12 years ago #

  12. Dave
    Member

    The main practical difference between road and cross bikes (apart from the brakes) is the tyre clearance. I had a road bike which would only take 23mm tyres with mudguards (and not proper mudguards at that).

    That's OK, but unless you're racing around on brand new tarmac (that we have so much of in Edinburgh), a wider tyre is appreciably better IME.

    Buy one, and then get the other next time!

    Posted 12 years ago #

  13. Cyclingmollie
    Member

    Trying to find a bike that will do everything will result in a bike that doesn't do anything really well. I suppose a cross bike might be more practical in town but out in the country on good roads it wouldn't give you the same experience as a good road bike. I have two road bikes and the winter one with its heavier components and mudguards is nothing like as much fun as the lighter one I use in summer.

    Posted 12 years ago #

  14. kaputnik
    Moderator

    When it comes to wanting a burst of speed, there's something to be said for a frame that's deliberately engineered to be light and very stiff.

    Posted 12 years ago #

  15. Dave
    Member

    "nothing like as much fun as the lighter one I use in summer"

    What, all two weeks of it? ;-)

    It should (I confess my relative ignorance here) be possible to get cross bikes which are quite light and stiff, since people race professionally on them, just as on road bikes.

    You can use the same wheels and tyres (if you prefer not to go for discs) although again, with discs coming to the top level of UCI cross racing, it should become pretty easy to get sprightly disc road wheels - you can already buy carbon tubular cross wheels, for instance.

    There are a lot of things to think about. For me, I could never justify a fair-weather only bike, unless maybe the laid back sort. So the cross bike - which really just means road geometry and finishing kit on a frame with more tyre clearance - would be where it's at. But with discs ;-)

    As I said upthread, if looking for a Sunday bike for our short summer, and having got a good robust tourer already - maybe the all-out road bike is the one to get!

    Posted 12 years ago #

  16. Morningsider
    Member

    Agree with Kaputnik - the first time I rode my current road bike (Giant SCR2 - now about 5 yeras old) I was literally laughing out loud at just how fast it was, especially up hills. It's still a joy to ride and works as a daily commuter - fitted with full length SKS mudguards, worth checking those clearances if you want at least a modicum of practicality.

    Posted 12 years ago #

  17. Wilmington's Cow
    Member

    "... which really just means road geometry... "

    Not quite - it's definitely somewhere in between road and mtb geometry. More upright than my Kaffenback (which is much more tourer than pure road bike as it is), which a shorter top tube. Renders it more comfy so it tends to be the bike I use when going for a pootle with my other half (as well as being a little more burly to handle occasioanl rough surfaces since I've got CX tyres on as well).

    Posted 12 years ago #

  18. Cyclingmollie
    Member

    Dave: "What, all two weeks of it?"

    Yes, that's the problem. I've only ridden 2,000 miles on my summer bike in the last two years. That's maybe equivalent to twenty weeks of reasonable summer weather.

    Posted 12 years ago #

  19. wingpig
    Member

    You could go for a non-disc cross to maintain wheel compatibility. I'm always surprised at how noticeable simply swapping down to a smaller tyre or using a different wheel can be. Getting the bad-weather/lumpy-terrain capability of a big frame clearance with the ability to remove the guards and swap in the singlespeed's skinny wheelset would make it feel relatively springy if you wanted to bounce it up some hills in the summer.

    Posted 12 years ago #

  20. amir
    Member

    Dave: "What, all two weeks of it?"

    Tom: "Yes, that's the problem. I've only ridden 2,000 miles on my summer bike in the last two years. That's maybe equivalent to twenty weeks of reasonable summer weather. "

    You need to reinterpret summer in terms of what we actually get. I have managed 2,500 miles this year on my summer bike, only putting the SKS race blades on twice.

    Posted 12 years ago #

  21. kaputnik
    Moderator

    Road bikes often go for as short a wheel base as possible, with the rear wheel tucked right into the seat tube (which is often sculpted to get the wheel closer in) and a very upright fork. This helps for the feeling of added zoom and very responsive handling around corners at speed (but can make them feel very unstable).

    Down tubes and chain stays are often very wide on road bikes so as to be stiff (particularly in aluminium frames).

    Head tube heights get quite low, which allows you to be aerodynamic but can be uncomfortable if you're not used to the position or are planning on using the bikes for long distance.

    But you can shop around and find a wide range of shapes and sizes of "road" bikes and at the lower end of the market, I don't think there's a huge amount of difference between dropped-barred bikes at the lower end of the market, which are generally all compact geometry frames with the same basic kit and geometry, more suited to a relaxed club or sportive riding than out-and-out racing.

    Posted 12 years ago #

  22. kaputnik
    Moderator

    I managed about 1,000 miles on the "best" road bike since about May. Not sure what I had done up to then as was using a shared computer. It got me round the tour of East Lothian on an appaling day by virtue of some full-length crud guards and popping the handlebars up to the top of the stack height. The rest of the year they live at the bottom.

    Posted 12 years ago #

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