Is a top end bike worth it?

[Milzy]

Titanium frame? Which?

Any. I have the Atheine which is lightly built aluminium and it's flipping good at everything especially climbing.

 

[vickster]

Any. I have the Atheine which is lightly built aluminium and it's flipping good at everything especially climbing.

On its own, don't you have to do anything...is it an electric bike...

 

[Cycleops]

Nice kit is nice, but there is always the risk that youll look like a maggot on a diamond

I think you're missing the point a bit here, but you'll feel like Johnny Depp on one of his celebrity girlfriends.

 

[mustang1]

And wheels. The most important bits?
On a 5k S Works, presumably nothing is unique?

I see what you're saying. I'm not sure if on a custom bike you will necessarily get cusotm wheels. I think I'm asking "how custom is custom?". If the frame is custom.bit everything else is off-the-shelf, is it really a custom bike? And are people properties really so different that they need custom?

I would totally get a custom bike, but I would ensure more than just the frame is custom. I would want custom everything and I don't think such a bike exists.

Buuuut, I have yet to ride a steel custom bike, I heard they really glide so I am yet to learn....

 

[swee'pea99]

raging trouser tent

Weren't they an indie band back in the '90s?

 

[toontra]

I already had a few bikes including a mid-range titanium (around £2500) but following an insurance payout from a cycle incident last year I spent the best part of £4k on a Cervelo and upgraded all the components. I've fallen in love with cycling all over again. I'm training harder and planning all sorts of rides for the year ahead which I probably wouldn't have done.

For me it's been worth it!

 

[vickster]

I see what you're saying. I'm not sure if on a custom bike you will necessarily get cusotm wheels. I think I'm asking "how custom is custom?". If the frame is custom.bit everything else is off-the-shelf, is it really a custom bike? And are people properties really so different that they need custom?

I would totally get a custom bike, but I would ensure more than just the frame is custom. I would want custom everything and I don't think such a bike exists.

Buuuut, I have yet to ride a steel custom bike, I heard they really glide so I am yet to learn....

Hand built to spec is custom for me, different to anything off the shelf...ok so the parts won't be custom, but the choice of said parts would be, I consider my handbuilts as custom and the bikes that have been built to my spec as custom even if the frame and individual parts aren't. I prefer not to meet someone on the same spec bike as me at the top of Box Hill or in Richmond Park...with an S Works Tarmac that could well happen!

That said, any roadbike I would buy off the shelf would require some level of personalisation, not least a different saddle, narrower bars and getting rid of black bar tape

 

[Ciar]

Come along now, don't be hasty.

probably a discount if you are hasty....

 

[MichaelW2]

If you have £5k jiggling around in your pocket along with the urge to ride a top quality bike, why not. Personally I would be selecting a custom frame that is sized for me, with stiffness and strength suitable for me, not a roid-fuelled monster being paid to ride or die. I could probably get Parlee or Sarto or Calfee to build somthing well under the UCI weight limit.

 

[vickster]

The only Parlee I've ever seen was £11k...was mighty purtee though

 

[Paul_Smith SRCC]

I am often asked by a customer, "how do I justify...." should that be an 'N+1' or investing in the higher spec' model, often my answer will be "do you want it"? If the answer is "yes" and they can afford, then if the product choice is appropriate it then why not? Arguably it is not just about the riding experience, many of us are into 'bicycles' as well as 'bicycling", they are our pride and joy, our two wheeled friends and not just a piece of equipment that allow us to enjoy a bike ride.

A Ford Mondeo is no where near the same investment as a Rolls Royce, but that doesn't mean it will not do the job it was designed for, and do it well. The same analogy can be applied to bikes. Like many things you get a diminishing return the higher up the scale you go. Bikes need not be expensive, yes it's the norm' that the higher up the scale you go within the same manufacturer you should expect higher performance, the brakes, gears and riding experience will often feel superior. Note how each of us quantifies 'how much performance difference' is always down to the individuals perception. I don't play tennis, give me Andy Murray's tennis racket and then ask me to compare it with another half the price and I dare say it will feel no different to me; yet to Andy......

Work out what your realistic budget is, work out what you want to use your new bike for, and providing you are realistic with both you need not spend a fortune. That does not mean that in time you won't of course, it's not unusual to gradually upgrade your bike as your friendship with it grows. Add to that the more you become 'man' or 'woman and machine in perfect harmony', the more you will notice and appreciate just what the upgrades will achieve.

My personal bike I use for holidays started life with Campagnolo Veloce components, I have since invested in Campagnolo Record, simply because over time it has been promoted to my favourite bike and I wanted to indulge, it was more desire that necessity. But yes, the brakes do work better, as do the gears, and I have a contented smile when I look at it; yet the gears before worked, the brakes stopped me and I still smiled when I admired it; although in each case just not as much as I do now.

Note "work out what you want to use your new bike for" can be a huge topic in itself. the key is to be honest with yourself. So many times I have had a customer end up choosing a different bike than what they initially thought. For example, a couple of summers ago I had a lady come in with her husband with her Dawes Galaxy, to use that as a size reference, with the intention of purchasing a lighter, faster Audax bike. I asked them what a typical bike ride involved, her husband advised that they mainly ride together at weekends and on touring , he is more than happy to wait at the top of a hill, when she catches up off the merrily go.

This is where I will often dig a little deeper, I asked her "do you mind getting dropped and catching up on each climb", her reply with a resigned laugh was "I hate it". The Dawes Galaxy was in good condition, so I suggested she could keep that for 'touring' and day rides where the weather was less favourable and invest in something with an even quicker overall set up than an Audax bike for day rides. The conclusion was she decided on a Sportive-Endurance bike. Fast forward to one summer later and an email from her husband calling me a few choice words, as she now drops him on a climb and at that moment she's far less kind that he used to be

 

[Justinslow]

I specced my dream bike, which ought to be pretty unique, mainly as a number of the components weren't actually available at time of ordering!

The frame has now arrived and took three months from point of ordering. The rims arrived pretty quickly, although the hubs are yet to arrive, three and a half months and waiting - they should be here soon. The most unique part is the gruppo, so unique that despite assurances it would be available early 2017, the delivery has now been put back to June. I can't say that I am over joyed about the bike not being ready from spring, but that's a bit of a first world problem. You've got to love SRAM's time lines and ability to actually bring a product to market on time...

That said, it will be great when it is finally ready and I shall have to slum it on my Scapin until that point

Sadly, I did find that building a 'dream' bike did mean that the budget was stretched a little...

You're not getting this from Lifecycle are you?

 

[Shaun]

I have a slightly modified alloy framed £500 commuter that is light, fast and comfortable for its use - but it's nowhere near as much pleasure to ride as my four-figure carbon Spesh Roubaix road bike (my Rolls Royce bike) ... it's like floating along the roads in your favourite armchair.

I think for us regular folk there's probably an upper spend limit where we'd get to the law of diminishing returns, although I wouldn't mind testing that theory out with a range from, say, £3000 to £11000 ... you know, in case anyone from a well-stocked retailer is reading and fancies loaning me a few bikes to test over the next year or so.

 

[Crankarm]

This thread is just an excuse for bike porn. None of these road bikes are any good for every day road riding commuting etc in all weathers come rain or shine. They will get trashed. In the '80s people were sold a marketing dream which was mountain bikes, everyone needed a MTB and that was what they were sold. Now it is expensive road bikes because the bike industry is trying to sell aspirational products to people who want to be like Cav, Froome boy, Wiggins, Trott, Emma Pooley or which ever Pro is winning at the top. It's rubbish. It's the same with cars speed, power, F1, etc.

Define a "top end" bike. If you have a spare £5k sloshing around and you just want all the gear and no idea, go ahead, join the huge club who buy something totally unsuitable for the use it will actually get but just want to spend a fortune to impress the neighbours or the other guys out on their sunday morning ride. A fool and their money are easily parted.

"Top end" road bikes are fine if you are a top end rider but most are not. Expensive road race bikes, just like their cheaper road bike brothers and sisters, will get filthy. If you ride a lot of miles and you want smiles then get a bike that is going to be practical and easy to maintain and cheap to run. In Holland and Germany people ride every day bikes, bikes that are low maintenance, comfortable fast and cheap in time and money to run. Riding your top end road bike a few hundred miles on your sunday morning club ride in the summer is perhaps not money well spent, but then if you have more money than sense you are not going to appreciate or understand this anyway.

I certainly wouldn't waste £5k on these types of bikes unless I was competing i.e. racing. Pro riders are given them for free. The mugs are you guys paying eye watering sums for them. The mark up is phenomenal.

Anyway why spend £5k on a bike which weighs as much as an empty crisp packet and is just what every one else has who has no idea all the gear and has been sold the marketing people's dream? Why not just spend £500 on a road bike from Decathlon which would be just as good and use the rest of the cash you save on something else?

 

[Cuchilo]

This thread is just an excuse for bike porn. None of these road bikes are any good for every day road riding commuting etc in all weathers come rain or shine. In the '80s people were sold a marketing dream which was mountain bikes, everyone needed a MTB and that was what they were sold. Now it is expensive road bikes because the bike industry is trying to sell aspirational products to people who want to be like Cav, Froome boy, Wiggins, Trott, Emma Pooley or which ever Pro is winning at the top. It's rubbish. It's the same with cars speed, power, F1, etc.

Define a "top end" bike. If you have a spare £5k sloshing around and you just want all the gear and no idea, go ahead, join the huge club who buy something totally unsuitable for the use it will actually get but just want to spend a fortune to impress the neighbours or the other guys out on their sunday morning ride. A fool and their money are easily parted.

"Top end" road bikes are fine if you are a top end rider but most are not. Expensive road race bikes, just like their cheaper road bike brothers and sisters, have derailleur transmissions which are crap in winter and wet weather to keep clean and lubed so they run smoothly. If you ride a lot of miles and you want smiles then get a bike that is going to be practical and easy to maintain such as a hub geared bike. No mention of Rohloff as most here are caught hook line and sinker on the marketing mens' idea of what you should have - a race bike. In Holland and Germany people ride every day bikes, bikes that are low maintenance, comfortable fast and cheap in time and money to run. Riding your top end road bike a few hundred miles on your sunday morning club ride in the summer is perhaps not money well spent, but then if you have more money than sense you are not going to appreciate or understand this anyway. However if you are a genuine everyday cyclist in all weathers doing a fairly substantial mileage then a road bike with derailleurs is the last type of bike you should consider. Last year I finally finished building my Rohloff bike and it has given me back so much more free time. I would never ever go back to a derailleur transmission bike as they are far too much hassle and I was sick of derailleurs and the time they take to keep clean and running smoothly. I don't like spending my days offs work cleaning lubing and I don't have a mechanic as I am not a Pro cyclist in a Pro cycling team who have mechanics to do all the cleaning and lubing for them.

Not only has getting a Rohloff hub freed up so much time for me, it has started to save me a lot of cash. I can literally ride my bike in all weathers, dump it in the garage at the end of the day and jump on it the next day to go to work and it still works fine, the chain doesn't need cleaning or lubing every other day in shitty weather, the wheel rims and brake pads don't need cleaning or replacing because the pads are grinding the rims to a paste. I just ride it day after day after day and it still just goes on working fine. I think I have cleaned it once in the last 3 months and this took 10 minutes. So before you lot start perving on "top end" road bikes and reaching for the box of tissues define what a top end bike is. I certainly wouldn't waste £5k on these types of bikes. Pro riders are given them for free. The mugs are you guys paying eye wateriing sums for them. The mark up is phenomenal. I wouldn't buy any of the "top end" road bikes here as they are totally useless for everyday riding in all conditions unless you want to spend all your time and cash maintaining them. I wish I had not wasted so many years on derailleur transmission bikes. They are cheap nasty transmissions, mass produced with maximum mark up, especially the "top end" group sets on "top end" road bikes.

Anyway why spend £5k on a bike which weighs as much as an empty crisp packet and is just what every one else has who has no idea all the gear and has been sold the marketing people's dream? Why not just spend £500 on a road bike from Decathlon and use the rest for something for sensible?

You cant afford one can you