2k and 3 stone lighter

[johnpembo73]

I currently have a Felt F95 bike which is great, she has all standard parts. I have really enjoyed getting to the weight I wanted and it gave me my first century whilst on the Cheshire cat.

I am thinking of upgrading my bike but also keeping the F95. I would like to become faster on the flats whilst at the same time becoming stronger on the hill climbs and would like a carbon bike to do this.

I am not sure if weight of a rider has an influence in the choice but I weight 149lbs with a height of 5 foot 6". I have not done much research in to new bikes as of yet so Id thought I would ask here for some advise and go from there. My budget is around £2000.

I know this sort of post would of probably been asked many times before but would appreciate your input here.

Thank you for reading.

 

[Mr Haematocrit]

I would look at the Specialized Tarmac or Roubaix, I think they are great bikes and specialized customer service is pretty good imho

 

[smokeysmoo]

You don't have to go carbon, there are alu bikes that are lighter than carbon. Check out Cannondale CAAD10's and the Canyon Ultimate Alu bikes. I don't know the weight of the Canyons, but the CAAD is lighter than just about anything apart from very very high end cf.

Just a thought

 

[vickster]

In this month's Cycling Active (~£1500 carbon test), the Trek Madone came out above the Specialized Roubaix and the Giant equivalent. Depends if you want a US mega-brand or maybe something a bit different. If you are happy with your Felt, how about the carbon version?

Get the frame geometry and groupset you want (105, Ultegra, SRAM Red?) and you can always use spare cash for better wheels

Ribble and Planet X worth a look for bespoke too as you can build what you want.

I have a Pearson with SRAM which suits me, nice and comfy compared to alloy with carbon fork flat bar

 

[johnpembo73]

I would look at the Specialized Tarmac or Roubaix, I think they are great bikes and specialized customer service is pretty good imho

Thanks for the tip. I have cyclestore in Congleton very close to me so I'll pop in to check them out.

 

[johnpembo73]

You don't have to go carbon, there are alu bikes that are lighter than carbon. Check out Cannondale CAAD10's and the Canyon Ultimate Alu bikes. I don't know the weight of the Canyons, but the CAAD is lighter than just about anything apart from very very high end cf.

Just a thought

These alum bikes surly cant be as strong as the carbon ones at the same time as being lighter?.... I will have to go see these in person.

 

[johnpembo73]

In this month's Cycling Active (~£1500 carbon test), the Trek Madone came out above the Specialized Roubaix and the Giant equivalent. Depends if you want a US mega-brand or maybe something a bit different. If you are happy with your Felt, how about the carbon version?

Get the frame geometry and groupset you want (105, Ultegra, SRAM Red?) and you can always use spare cash for better wheels

Ribble and Planet X worth a look for bespoke too as you can build what you want.

I have a Pearson with SRAM which suits me, nice and comfy compared to alloy with carbon fork flat bar

Thank you for the heads up on the Cycling active. I'm off to buy it

 

[MacB]

At that budget you have a fair amount of choice but I'd take a good look at the Planet X offerings, they often have great deals and you rarely hear a bad rep on them. Still some 2011, or even 2010, bike offers floating around the web.

 

[smokeysmoo]

These alum bikes surly cant be as strong as the carbon ones at the same time as being lighter?.... I will have to go see these in person.

I've had a Focus CF MTB a Focus Cayo CF road bike and a Trek Madone 5.5 CF road bike, yet I went back to alu from carbon because I lost all confidence in CF at the time. I now appreciate I was highly unlikely to experiene a failure with any of my CF bike frames, but the fact is I'm just much happier with alu and have far more confidence on them then I ever did CF.

I may well revisit CF as a frame material in the future, (but I'll never entertain it for bars and seatposts), but then again it's doubtful as long as Cannondale keep on producing the CAAD