Recommend Me A Carbon Road Frame ... Please

tweenster

I would really like a carbon road frame, don't ask me why, I just do. Value for money is important so Planet X are certainly one to consider but are there any others that I should be considering? It will be used for general training and sportives so I would like a reasonably light frame to help get up "them thar hills". I weigh 74kgs so am not a lightweight but am not exactly heavy.

Any recommendations and/or experiences would be appreciated.

cougie

I like my giant tcr - but the planet x is prob better value. I think they only do whole bikes tho now ?

azzerb

Dolan are worth a look, as are Ribble.

aracer

Pedalforce. Either RS2, QS2 or ZX3 depending on your preferences - at 70kg I have a QS2 which seems to work fine (I wouldn't exactly say 74kg was heavy - it's surely on the light side of average for recreational riders). More hassle to get, but you get a lighter frame for less money compared to Ribble / Dolan / PX.

bhm100

Ditto on the Pedalforce.

I've just built mine from the latest group buy and it makes for a very light & smooth bike. Unfortunately you've just missed the group buy but having now seen one of their frames I'd say they are easily worth the full list price. I bought the frame, forks & seatpost from them, all excellent quality and very light.

It's my second carbon frame, the first was a Trek OCLV from 2002 which I still have & is still going strong. I'd guess the Trek has slightly thicker tubing and is also fractionally heavier, but the design is 6yrs older.

Considering the Pedalforce was half the price of the Trek, I can't honestly say there's twice the value in the Trek. In fact having seen the Pedalforce I'd struggle to find any reason to pay £1000 or more for a CF frame (like I did in 2002).

robbarker

I can only comment on the two I've had - Trek 5500 and, more recently, an 07 Giant TCR - both are wonderful frames. My reasoning for buying the Giant was that it's a genuine monocoque from a huge company who have proportinately more to spend on design, testing, moulds and autoclaves, therefore there's less chance of failure. The design is also the mixture of responsiveness and mile-eating smoothness that I was after.

JWSurrey

Always a fan of Condor frames.
BMC are pushing in to the market this year, and I noticed a few out on the Tour of Wessex - They look a bit radical round the top/seat tube/stay interface though.

Beware what you wish for - Last year I opted for an Ally triangle with carbon stays, as I felt it was tighter and more responsive/faster up the hills than the equiv. priced full carbon offering.
(I can regularly average +1 to +2mph on this frame, over my steel bike).
It's worth getting a test ride in, just to compare.

In fact, I think Cervelo's bottom of the range frame is actually part ally. for this reason - Nice and tight/responsive. You'd be hard pushed to tell it apart from a painted carbon offering.

justyn_c_uk

Another vote for Pedalforce, I have a ZX3 and its fantastic VFM. Check out their website and then Max Lelli , same frame different colours.....

azzerb

aracer wrote:

Pedalforce. Either RS2, QS2 or ZX3 depending on your preferences - at 70kg I have a QS2 which seems to work fine (I wouldn't exactly say 74kg was heavy - it's surely on the light side of average for recreational riders). More hassle to get, but you get a lighter frame for less money compared to Ribble / Dolan / PX.

My frame + Fork + headset + seat post came in at £450, and the frame is a sub 1kg according to the site (940g medium manufactures weight).

Manufacturers weight of the RS2 in their medium is 960g, or 1kg for the 55cm. So in my personal experience, i got more from Dolan than i could from Pedal force.

aracer

What Dolan frame's that, azzerb, and where did you get the weight from? From what I can see on the Dolan site, for that price you can only get an alu frame.

azzerb

aracer wrote:

What Dolan frame's that, azzerb, and where did you get the weight from? From what I can see on the Dolan site, for that price you can only get an alu frame.

It's last year's Volare, so i got it for cheap. Think this year's Volare has red writing, but they have a couple of last year's Volare's left I think. The weight is off their site, I never weighed it, so can't confirm actual weight.