Has anyone bought a REALLY BAD £1K + road bike??

[Dave7]

It's too easy to just say "you get what you pay for" and (like others) I'm going slowly crazy trying to evaluate bike/frames.
As an example.......if you compare Cube Agree to Specialized Roubaix Elite they have similar quality spec' but the Specialized is £750 more
When I ask the dealers how that is justified they say the Cube/Ribble etc. must be using poor quaity frames and that their bike is much better/easier to ride (especially up hills)........................SO
Has anyone bought a e.g. Cube/Ribble etc and later thought "I wish I had paid the extra and got an XYZ?

 

[accountantpete]

You will be forever going round in circles Dave!

Comfort comes from the design and material used - it's a subjective matter and in an ideal world you would be able to properly test-ride each bike. You can't, so you read up a bit on each and try and get a rough idea.

Speed is a different thing altogether - this is less subjective in that the lighter and stiffer a material is the faster the bike will be.
If speed or getting up hills really is your bag (baby) then you should look for a frame weighing around 1kg and getting good reviews for it's stiffness. In my experience the frame weight is where 500g really is a big issue.

 

[smokeysmoo]

+1 for going round in circles. Depends on the model and spec etc. Take the CAAD10 for example, you can buy the 2012 entry model for £1400 with 105 kit, or the top end model for £2600 with DA, but colourway aside the frames are identical on all three CAAD10 models. Other manufacturers don't always work this way, and the cheaper bike may have a less well engineered frame as well as lower spec components. Not saying it's a bad thing, and they have to engineer/build to a price point, but some do it better than others.
Personally I'd rather know the frame was the best I could get and then upgrade components along the way if required.

 

[derrick]

Does not matter what you buy, you will want something better if you really get into it, when i bought my bianchi i hummed and harred about how much i should spend, but if i knew then how much i was going to enjoy it i would have bought the next model up, but saying that if i had bought the next model up, i would probably be thinking the same and should have gone for the even more expensive one, just got to find one you like and go for it, i think when you get up to a £1000.00 you will have to be very unlucky to have bought a bad one,

 

[Dave7]

So-----------do you think the "opposition" are talking rubbish (maybe even telling porkies!) when they say the cheaper manufacturers are using poor quality frames?

 

[derrick]

Don't think there talking complete rubbish.
There are differant grades of Carbon, Alluminium, or steel, you will have to find out which grades of material are being used,

 

[gaz]

Two reasons it could be.

• You pay more for the big names. They charge more because freds will pay for it.
• Some companies are pushing the research pretty hard to make bicycles a little bit better, thus in turn drives the price up.

I had a genesis day 01 (11 model), it cost £1,000 and it was a joke. The frame was 520 steel so it was good but the components used, specifically the brakes, where poor. They saved costs by miss matching parts and this caused issues in stopping. The company them selves dismissed any issues that where described to them by many owners.

 

[smokeysmoo]

Don't think there talking complete rubbish.
There are differant grades of Carbon, Alluminium, or steel, you will have to find out which grades of material are being used,

^this.
They're probably guilty of poor salesmanship, ie: rubbishing the opposition unnecessarily. Of course there are different grades of all frame materials, so you buy what fits your requirements, weight, pocket etc. For example, if you have a £1k budget, you wouldn't perhaps expect that bike to take you around Le Tour as efficiently as the bikes the pros bike, (personal fitness limitations aside).
Equally, if all you plan to do is pootle around local lanes on a weekend what's the point in spending top dollar on a high end carbon weave?
Also remember, most frames are built in the far east under licence, so one factory could be making frames for several manufacturers!