Globalti
Legendary Member
Some advice please?
I ride a 2006 Specialized Roubaix, which has compact 50/34 and an 11-27 cassette. Apart from the big gap between the chainrings I find the ratios pretty suited to my strength, age (56) and experience and great for climbing the steep hills around here. The bike is light, fast and comfortable over a typical 50-60 mile ride.
But I fancy a hooligan bike for those summer evening 1 hour 30 blasts around the lanes with my buddy. The owner of a LBS has offered me a surplus team Specialized Tarmac SL4 Pro with Sram red, reduced from £4000 to £2000. I rode it this afternoon and thought it was superb, light, fast with razor sharp handling, stiff but not harsh at all. However it has a mid-compact 52/36 and 11-28 and the position is, as you would expect, very "arse in the air" with a zero stack head tube and quite uncomfortable hard bars.
So this is the cycling equivalent of a Ferrari, half price. I should be thrilled but I'm not convinced it's the right bike for me - to spend £2000 on something you're not sure about doesn't seem a good idea. There must be other sharp-handling bikes out there, which are a little less uncompromising and have the same compact gears I'm using now.
Help put this all in perspective for me please!
I ride a 2006 Specialized Roubaix, which has compact 50/34 and an 11-27 cassette. Apart from the big gap between the chainrings I find the ratios pretty suited to my strength, age (56) and experience and great for climbing the steep hills around here. The bike is light, fast and comfortable over a typical 50-60 mile ride.
But I fancy a hooligan bike for those summer evening 1 hour 30 blasts around the lanes with my buddy. The owner of a LBS has offered me a surplus team Specialized Tarmac SL4 Pro with Sram red, reduced from £4000 to £2000. I rode it this afternoon and thought it was superb, light, fast with razor sharp handling, stiff but not harsh at all. However it has a mid-compact 52/36 and 11-28 and the position is, as you would expect, very "arse in the air" with a zero stack head tube and quite uncomfortable hard bars.
So this is the cycling equivalent of a Ferrari, half price. I should be thrilled but I'm not convinced it's the right bike for me - to spend £2000 on something you're not sure about doesn't seem a good idea. There must be other sharp-handling bikes out there, which are a little less uncompromising and have the same compact gears I'm using now.
Help put this all in perspective for me please!
