Another First Road Bike Question

[htid]

Hi all,

I've been cycling to work on my hybrid for a long while now and take the bike out into the countryside at the weekend. I've decided I want a road bike for my weekend riding and plan to do some cycling trips to other cities (so 100s miles over a few days etc.).

I've been looking a lot and was planning to get something from my LBS. I'd decided on an Orro Oxygen for £1400 after looking at what they had available as it seemed to have a good spec and I like the looks of it (obviously personal preference!) The specs to save you time are:

Custom blend of 20, 40, 60T carbon fibre
BB30 for excellent power transfer
Shimano 105 10 speed complete groupset
3T Accelero Pro 40 wheels
3T Ergonova bar
3T Arx Stem
3T Stylus Seatpost
Prologo Kappa Saddle
Continental Ultra Sport Tyres

I'd been umming and arring as to whether or not I wanted the Orro Gold with Ultegra 6800 (£2000) but decided I could upgrade at a later date if I wanted. Thing is, I just had a quick look at Ribble and found that I can get their Sportive Azzurro with Fulcrum 7s and the Shimano Di2 for £1900! I know Di2 is a very very good bit of kit from the reviews I've read and I'm thinking that for an extra £500 it's surely worth it. Ok I know it's a bit expensive for a newbie, but I think I'll regret it down the line if I don't go for it. It's just that obviously buying from my LBS will mean I'll have somewhere to go if anything goes wrong, whereas with Ribble I'll not have that.

I won't say that money is no object, but I can afford the extra if it's worth it (that's the very top end of what I'm willing to spend). What would you guys do? £500 extra for Di2 over 105 is tempting me...!

Thanks
Chris

 

[SteCenturion]

Hi Chris.

The Orro Gold is featured in this months (issue 25) edition of Cyclist magazine (a very fine publication).

FWIW the Orro Gold at £2400 is an exceptional spec for the £££, yes it's more than you intended but the Orro frame I feel will be higher quality than the Ribble, although someone will be along to dispute/correct me on that.

I had at one point thought of buying a Ribble R872 frameset & having it built up with my parts.

There have been some on here who can't fault their Ribble bikes, but many grumble about their buying/customer/after care experience.

If Orro are local to you (where are Orro by the way) ? I would say go with them, whatever model you choose.

Di2 is just under £1k if you want to upgrade later, you could sell off your used 105 at a later date to put towards it, although I have no idea how much this would fetch.

Best of luck with your bike hunt.

Steve.

 

[htid]

Thanks for the reply.

Orro are based slightly North of Brighton so I could go there, but my LBS stocks their bikes. I agree that the gold looks good, but I really can't afford 2600. The Ultegra version at 2k looks good, but I feel cheated paying more money for a worse groupset than if I went for the Ribble. I'd consider paying an extra 500 over the 105 model for di2, but not paying an extra 600 for Ultegra.

Going to go into my LBS now and have a chat to them.

Cheers!