£2,500 but do I go endurance or racy?

[Gruffy]

First, some basics. I'm 35, 80kg, which is 'racing snake' for my height of 6'4". I only started riding in May but have fallen for cycling and am generally very fit, so I'm already reasonably quick. I do about 250km a week. I don't think I'm interested in racing but I do like the idea of endurance and audax events. I've done centuries and a 200km already. That said, I will be doing some challenging sportives and looking to set good times. I will, from time to time, get to ride in the alps and I also plan to ride London-Monaco next year. I have had a lot of knee surgery and haven't been troubling the rankings on hills, but that's just turning a corner and I'm slowly creeping into top 5-10% positions on Strava, so that may or may not be an issue any more.

I thought I'd settled on the 2015 Cannondale Synapse Carbon Ultegra, thinking that I could use this for audaxes and it wouldn't give up too much performance compared to, say, a SuperSix EVO when I wanted to put the hammer down, but an experienced riding buddy has just cast doubt on the wisdom of that. His advice was that the time saved over a long ride by having more comfort would be lost in pace and he'd go for the most focused bike possible.

All for n+1 and having a dedicated audax bike and a quick bike, but with regards s-1, s is probably a small number.

I'm aware that the best advice will be to try and test ride both styles, which I'm going to try and do, but I'm not sure how easy it will be to persuade Evans etc to let me take bikes out for 100 mile rides. After all, it really comes down to "is the racier bike still comfortable enough at the end of a massive ride". Ideally I'd do even bigger distances.

I've done enough research to have settled on 11-speed and disc brakes too. The extra gears are a plus for my knackered knees and the Alpine rides and I'm very keen on disc brakes. I'd rather keep discussion away from the pros and cons of these and focused on the bike.

So, with that out of the way, I invite opinion and advice from the sages of Pedal Powered. Where should my money go?

[Gruffy]

That was my initial thinking. Plus UK roads (and the first 15 miles I do in any direction out of London in particular) are bloody awful. They really can't be giving away much performance if the big boys are using them on the bumpier stages, can they?

[Gruffy]

The current bike is a 60 and that feels too small, though it does have a short (110) stem.

I'm very flexible. I used to do kung fu & tai chi to a high level and have held on to most of my flexibility. Should be as able to adopt a racing position as a racer of a similar age.

Edited by Gruffy on Monday 18th August 19:18

[Gruffy]

964Cup said:

The more bikes I ride, the more I think the whole thing is largely nonsense for most riders.

I get this. I'm sure it's mostly n+1 marketing and the real world gains (comfort or performance) are negligible for most of us, but I wonder how significant they are over 300/400/600/1200km. I really need those long-distance test rides. I'll try to get two consecutive weekends where I can get out and test ride centuries with a couple of benchmark Strava segments near the start; one flat sprint, one hill and one fast descent. Maybe a lap of Richmond Park too. It's hard, I know, but if I can keep as many variables constant as possible it'd be interesting to assess the difference between an endurance bike and a racy bike empirically as well as 'feel'.

To add a bit more background: my FTP is only around 250 at the moment but I'm still getting newbie gains so hopefully this will go up a bit. On out-of-town solo rides over decent distances I'm currently averaging around 33km/h. I realise it makes me a cock but I do like a bit of Strava trophy hunting and PB attempts. I'm hoping to build the endurance over the next 12 months to tackle London-Monaco, one of the Spring Classics, audax events up to 400km and hopefully some Alpine stuff (Club du Cingles 'appeals'). In the mid-term I really fancy things like London-Edinburgh-London and maybe even the Transcontinental Race. Perhaps I'll succumb to n+1 by then but I'm hoping the bike I buy will get me to this stage without breaking me.

[Gruffy]

Birdthom said:

You mention days in the Alps. My 'quick' bike is a slammed 58cm Supersix (I'm 6 foot 1). It has a pretty steep saddle to bar drop but I find the position great and comfy most of the time. Out in the Alps this year however I found that repeated long steep descents were hurting my neck because I was having to crane my neck up further than usual. It got a bit tiresome after a while, and I'd consider taking my taller training bike next time. Not a problem here in the UK, but worth mentioning.

I can understand that. Do you reckon it was simply that your neck was unaccustomed to long descending periods or something permanent that you wouldn't adapt to? Would adding more spacers be a quick fix for trips like that, just to take the sting out of it?

[Gruffy]

11-32 would be ideal. I often spin-out on descents and really wish I had taller gears.

As it happens I'm renting an R3 in a couple of weeks to keep the miles coming while I'm in California. 3 days of that should make for a thorough test ride.

[Gruffy]

Dammit said:

I've settled on 52/36 with 11-32 (11 speed) as a "do anything" set of ratios.

That's my plan too.

[Gruffy]

Circular routes out of Santa Rosa, 1-3rd Sept.

[Gruffy]

When I say 'racing snake'; I'm at 11% BF at the moment, but my upper body still has some atrophy left to go as I've only cycled 3,000km so far. I'm trying to fight that but my weight is still coming down. I don't think I'll go below 78kg though. I've been as low as <5% before for other sports, but don't fancy that again at 35. I'm not planning to race (famous last words) so 10-12% BF will likely be as low as I can justify going on a long term basis. If I ever get serious then I may cut for the summer seasons.

I think I've ruled out the Synapse. Now I'm looking at more aggressive bikes and seeing how far £2.5k goes. Supersix or something from Canyon, perhaps. They look like phenomenal value. No disc options though.

[Gruffy]

thetrash said:

Gruffy said:

11-32 would be ideal. I often spin-out on descents and really wish I had taller gears.

As it happens I'm renting an R3 in a couple of weeks to keep the miles coming while I'm in California. 3 days of that should make for a thorough test ride.

Where about are you going to be riding? Am there in a couple of weeks too with my bike.

Here are the routes I rode.

75km, 1,448m crossing the mountains between the two valleys
http://www.strava.com/activities/188467371
The descent down into Calistoga was awesome, with a great surface and good radius corners for high speeds. Spring Mountain was a pig of a hill, especially climbing the steep side. The descent was lots of fun but some scruffy surfaces (and camouflaged by the dappled sunlight) gave my sphincter a workout too. The 20% hill back to our B&B was great for making sure you rinsed every ounce from your legs by the end of every ride.

125km, 1,456m riding the Pacific Coast Highway
http://www.strava.com/activities/189019971
I was hoping to beat Levi Leipheimer (our neighbour) and his pro chums on a worthy segment here but had to settle for 4th place, 10 seconds slower than Laurens Ten Dam. Obviously it goes without saying that LTD was riding at threshold when he set that time. PCH was nice but bloody windy.

[Gruffy]

So, having abandoned the idea of an endurance bike, I now find myself drawn to Canyon's goodies.


Ultimate CF SL 9.0 £1,999
Di2 is an option at £600, but I think I'll wait for n+1 for that (and discs, it seems).


Ultimate CF SLX 8.0 £2,599
Is the extra £600 paying for better wheels and a 150g weight saving over the SL 9.0 or am I missing something?

But, in true 'PH, screw the budget' style, I'm now looking longingly at this:


Aeroad SLX 7.0 £2,699
Same spec but in aero form and with Cosmic Carbone SLE. Seems like the best value of the three.

Opinions and thoughts from the masses?

Edited by Gruffy on Tuesday 9th September 19:29

[Gruffy]

I was originally looking for a jack of all trades but saw my friend's logic in opting for something more focused. I do think discs are the way to go but as this will be a 'best' bike for dry weather it's not a huge trade-off. I definitely don't need an aero bike* but the lust factor is high and satisfying that will make riding even more enjoyable.

*unless Mrs Gruffy is reading this, in which case I'd like to point out that the Aeroad is an entry-level bike and really is the most economical choice

[Gruffy]

I reasoned that the pros still choose the Aeroad for the Tour, over softer options, so it's probably just a case of applying a bit more Rule #5. I'll be fine, especially with you towing me all the way to Monte Carlo