Synapse v Secteur advice please

[ChrisW2]

Hi everyone, a newbie here...

I am looking to buy a decent road bike for fitness and general enjoyment. I have been riding on my old mountainbike quite often, rides up to 50 miles with plenty of hills. I'm now thinking of upgrading to a proper roadbike, but I would like something with a wide range of gears and something comfortable.

So I have seen these two and wondered what the cyclechat community thinks?
http://www.evanscycles.com/products/cannondale/synapse-8-sora-triple-2014-road-bike-ec054418
http://www.evanscycles.com/products/specialized/secteur-x3-2014-road-bike-ec053051

 

[DCLane]

Evans should be able to get both in for you to test, they're fairly 'common' models.

I've a Secteur which has proved great over 8000+ miles, although in racing it's not the quickest out there.

However, the Cannondale's got the better groupset.

 

[jack smith]

I'd personally go with the cannondale for the better spec you also get more gears as standard the specialized seems to have badly cheaper out on parts for that price range

 

[jack smith]

Cheaped*

 

[Shadowfax]

Would you not have to ride both to comment ?

 

[ChrisW2]

Thanks for the replies. I won't be racing....purely riding for fitness and pleasure. I like the look of both bikes but was wondering what difference I would notice in the groupsets for the extra £100? Anything else worth considering for similar money?
Cheers,
Chris

 

[vickster]

Cannondale, it's not black

I'd consider one of these with Tiagra and carbon fork, unless it has to be a triple http://www.ashcycles.com/site/giant-defy-2-2013

 

[MetalPig]

Not tried the secteur but test-rode the synapse and liked it alot, in fact i was very close to buying it before i eventually went with a Giant Defy.

 

[Peteaud]

Spesh has lower gearing, Dale has better groupset.

50/50 but i would have the Dale.

The defy 2 is good (i had one, but got rid of it to get the Synapse).

 

[ChrisW2]

Thanks everyone. I will get down to Evans and hopefully try them out. I have a local bike shop that sells Giant, so I will have a look at the Defy 2 as well.
Will the Defy 2 have the more relaxed geometry, or is it more of a racer?

As far as the gears go, will I notice much difference between the low gears? One is 30-32 and the other 30-28.

Chris

 

[vickster]

Relaxed, and can be made more so by a simple stem flip

 

[SteCenturion]

A triple chainset is not really that necessary on a road bike any longer as a compact 50/34 with a wide range cassette from say 11-28 up to 11-32 will give a big spread of useable gearing.

I won't comment on which bike is best as it would be pure conjecture on my part having never ridden either brand or models.

Best advice is test ride 'em.

Maybe get best spec but even then if you prefer the lower spec you can always upgrade parts as they wear out.

I would however aim for min of 10 speed now that 11 speed is here.