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New bike fever - want something fast, Tiagra or 105, with rear rack mount
I am sick of my dog-slow steel Fuji Touring. I'd like to get a real
road bike, but still need to commute 7 miles. Anyone have any thoughts on bikes to try? Lots of times the commute is my most frequent ride. I squeeze in about 500-700 additional miles on weekends & charity rides. I have $300 coming to me in gift cards for the LBS that sells Cannondale and Specialized. So I'd rather try there first. (This is the Twin Cities' Erik's chain.) I test-rode the Specialized TriCross. I like the front & rear rack mounts, matte paint job, saddle, and new Tiagra shifter design. I didn't like the weight, and the ride wasn't a dramatic upgrade from my Fuji. I haven't tried it with clipless pedals, but there wasn't much of a "snap" to it. They have no Specialized Allez. Does that have rack mounts? I won't be carrying more than 50 - 75 lbs of cargo. Also, I probably will never use a front rack, and will probably never do a loaded tour. Opinions / reccomendations? |
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New bike fever - want something fast, Tiagra or 105, with rear rack mount
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New bike fever - want something fast, Tiagra or 105, with rear rack mount
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New bike fever - want something fast, Tiagra or 105, with rear rack mount
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New bike fever - want something fast, Tiagra or 105, with rear rack mount
On Aug 8, 10:34 pm, wrote:
I won't be carrying more than 50 - 75 lbs of cargo. Also, I probably will never use a front rack, and will probably never do a loaded tour. Opinions / reccomendations? That's a lot of weight to add over the back wheel of a road bike, with skinny tires and low spoke-count wheels. It's also enough weight that, when carrying it, the difference between a 20 pound road bike and a 30 pound touring bike won't mean much. I'd keep the touring bike with its rack for use when doing a loaded commute, and buy a road bike to use for those times when you don't need the rack. r |
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New bike fever - want something fast, Tiagra or 105, with rear rack mount
wrote:
I am sick of my dog-slow steel Fuji Touring. I'd like to get a real road bike, but still need to commute 7 miles. It's not about the bike. I lighter bike will not be noticeably faster on the flats, and only a little faster climbing hills. Sounds to me like the Fuji is appropriate for your kind of riding. Lots of times the commute is my most frequent ride. I squeeze in about 500-700 additional miles on weekends & charity rides. You might want to keep the Fuji for commuting, and get a more sporty bike for the weekend/charity rides. But don't expect a huge difference Art Harris |
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New bike fever - want something fast, Tiagra or 105, with rear rack mount
wrote in message ups.com... I am sick of my dog-slow steel Fuji Touring. I'd like to get a real road bike, but still need to commute 7 miles. Anyone have any thoughts on bikes to try? Lots of times the commute is my most frequent ride. I squeeze in about 500-700 additional miles on weekends & charity rides. I have $300 coming to me in gift cards for the LBS that sells Cannondale and Specialized. So I'd rather try there first. (This is the Twin Cities' Erik's chain.) I test-rode the Specialized TriCross. I like the front & rear rack mounts, matte paint job, saddle, and new Tiagra shifter design. I didn't like the weight, and the ride wasn't a dramatic upgrade from my Fuji. I haven't tried it with clipless pedals, but there wasn't much of a "snap" to it. They have no Specialized Allez. Does that have rack mounts? I won't be carrying more than 50 - 75 lbs of cargo. Also, I probably will never use a front rack, and will probably never do a loaded tour. Opinions / reccomendations? Hell, 50 - 75 lbs of cargo to me IS loaded touring! There is no way in hell I'm putting that kind of extra weight on a "true" road bike. |
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New bike fever - want something fast, Tiagra or 105, with rear rack mount
On Aug 8, 11:13 pm, Steve Gravrock wrote:
On 2007-08-09, wrote: I won't be carrying more than 50 - 75 lbs of cargo. Also, I probably will never use a front rack, and will probably never do a loaded tour. Whoops. I skimmed over that part. Depending on how solid those numbers are, you may need to reconsider your options. Most inexpensive rear racks have a load limit around 50 lbs. If you need to carry more, you'll have to spend more. Also, even at 50 lbs you might want longer chainstays than most sport bikes have, especially if you climb steep hills. Maybe 50-75 is a bit much. Maybe 50 is a more accurate limit. But no, I don't think I want a low spoke count, just to be safe. |
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New bike fever - want something fast, Tiagra or 105, with rear rack mount
It's also enough weight that, when carrying it, the difference between
a 20 pound road bike and a 30 pound touring bike won't mean much. I'd keep the touring bike with its rack for use when doing a loaded commute, and buy a road bike to use for those times when you don't need the rack. I agree that the weight won't make much of a difference. Yet on 95% of my loaded commute rides, it's only about 20-25 max lbs of clothes, etc. 50 lbs on a severely loaded day, which I can shift over to my vintage Rockhopper mountain bike. Since $$ is always a factor, I'd like to take the $300-350 from selling the Touring and apply it to a faster bike overall. So the Pilot looks like a contender if I can lose the $300 gift card discount, or the base Allez if I can live with lower-end components. How about anything from Cannondale? |
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