Cannondale CAAD 9 105?

320DMsport

Hi all,

I'm still on the quest for a road bike, i'm using a borrowed one at the mo so hven't been in a hurry.

I was looking at the Trek 1.7 but i got CW this week and they were testing 3 1k bikes and the Cannondale looked and sounded good.

Anyone got one of these?

Anonymous

No but they look bloody ace in the liquigas colours...

I think you can't go wrong with either (I also love the Astanaified 1.7...)

If I was looking at an aluminium frame the Caad9 has a rather well proven track record.

morrisje

Cycling weekly did a review of bikes at £1000 this week. The CAAD 9 came out well, 9 out of 10.

Anonymous

Reviews are good for looking at pictures and getting another persons overview, but you really need to have a go yourself...

akcc05

wiggle has an alu frame wilier in team lampre colour:

http://www.wiggle.co.uk/p/Cycle/7/Wilier_La_Triestina-Lampre_Road_Bike/5360040042/

but it is tiagra which is kind of sh!t. the frame quality deserves at least 105/centaur/rival in my opinion. if you want something more niche, wiggle has some BMC roadracer framesets too, with the cool skeletal top tube/seat tube/seat stays joints.

http://www.wiggle.co.uk/p/Cycle/7/BMC_Road_Racer_SL_01_Frameset/5360040002/

but you will have to build it up yourself, which in my opinion is not a bad thing as you can choose individual components/size.

and last but not least, you have the highly rated (on here) scandium framed kiron:
http://www.wiggle.co.uk/p/Cycle/7/Kiron_Scandium_2009_Road_Bike/5360037396/

320DMsport

Yeah the Kiron got a good report in the CW test this week, as a complete bike it has some good spec for 1k, they said it wasn't a out and out racer but more comfortable which could work for me as i'd be using it for training on and long winter miles and the odd sportive.

How does price compare to building these things yourself?

Haven't seen the Astanafied 1.7? only seen the black and red ones?

The Cannondale i've seen is green and white, i'll have to see if LBS has one to try compared to the 1.7.

Cheers for the links

akcc05

building bikes from framesets usually works out more expensive, but only marginally if you search around for good deals. the upside is that you can get a greater understanding of each individual component and how they all fit together, a great way of learning in my opinion. and isn't building/maintaining just as fun as riding? if the answer to this question is yes than you will need the tools more than once anyway so it's like an investment. the down side is you don't have the oppotunity to build a relationship with your lbs, which can be useful every so often.

although more expensive, you do get to choose your own combination of components, say if you prefer an alloy chainset (e.g. dura ace) to run with the double tap of sram force (rather than the force carbon chainset) and with the addition of a red rear mech. there are many other things as well like: specific handlebar shapes (width, depth of drop and reach, ergo or anatomic, carbon or alloy etc) you might prefer, and saddle, stem length/angle, compact/double/triple chainrings, seat post setback...all these things, rather than replacing them on a stock bike after a few rides, you just get it right the first time with a frameset. some may argue that you can swap things out when buying at your lbs, but i'm sure they will have a limit on what you can or cannot swap out.

i have always been a roadie but i recently bought a full sus MTB frame to slowly build up myslef, i'm learning a lot and am enjoying every bit of it. hope this helps.

320DMsport

Cheers for the tips, i'll start pricong things up out of interest and see what i can come up with.

As i could buy a few bits at a time!

Ricardo H

If you can strech to £1100, you would'nt go far wrong with a Deda nero corsa

320DMsport

Not heard of one of those?

I'll do a search now and see!

Anygood?

How would it compare to a Ribble carbon corsa at £1099?

gkerr4

it's the same bike - the rible nero corsa is also a deda nero corsa frame - there are a few places that sell the deda frames (ribble, condor, dolan and now the wiggle 'kiron' brand to name a few)

as for self builds - you can put together a pretty good package at a decent price but what tends to happen is that you buy the parts you 'want' rather than 'need' - so it quickly becomes a higher spec bike than one you would buy off the shelf. the upside is that you have all the parts you like and specific to you - the downside is that you can often exceed your budget.

reddraggon put together a good winter bike which came out at much less than you would pay for an off-the-shelf i seem to remember.

I did a self build earlier this year too - an S-Works Roiubaix with campag centaur carbon groupset, campag eurus wheels and ITM finishing kit. the build came out at £1800 (against my original budget of £1500) but I reckon if it was in the shops it's price tag would have been over £2500 so it worked out well. I spent a good 6-8 weeks getting the parts for it though and got various bits from here and there (all 2008 groupset mind) to ensure best prices. I love it and the build process was deeply satisfying.

Ricardo H

The ribble bike is a deda.

For £1100 your getting alot for your money. Complete ultegra on a full carbon frame. Most of the £1000 bikes in CW this week were only part carbon frames and 105.