New bike for £3000 - recommendations?

Pretre

I've decided to treat myself to a new bike in the next month or so & I have about £3000 to spend (maybe a few hundred extra, if pushed) & I'm interested to know what people recommend.
Bit of background on me - 42, don't race & not hugely flexible (although that's slowly improving..).

Bikes I've looked at & don't want - Titanium (I just don't think any I've ever seen look good), Specialised,Trek, Giant.

I've been looking at the Look 585 (top of the list), Merck EMX3 (lovely looking in white & red), Cervelo R3 (a bit too white, to be honest) - any others?

bikerZA

Have you looked at any of the Italian brands? Colnago, Pinarello, De Rosa?

Pretre

Not really - any faves?

owenlars

At the risk of sounding controversial I would have thought that if you are going to spend £3k on a bike you might be in a position to make your own judgement. What do you want? Carbon, ally, bespoke steel, titanium? What are you going to do with it race, sportive, time trial, audax, touring?
Difficult question really.

sub55

BMC

hewg

Don't think you'd go wrong with the 585. If flexibility is an issue then the Optimum version might be a good choice, I've been really pleased with mine. I saw the 2010 versions the other day which to my eye look much better than this year's but be warned, they're as white as a Cervelo R3.I expect they'll be available in an alternative colour too though.

Mettan

If I had £3000, I'd get a cheaper bike with say Kysrium Elites or RS80's as day-to-day wheels, and a pair of deep carbon wheels (for racing), or maybe sunny weekend rides etc (if you don't compete).

majormantra

For that kind of money you can have almost anything. Buy the one that looks coolest to you! I think I'd go with something Italian and dripping with carbon...

Matthew

cal_stewart

if you can do 3300 the top of the line boardmans got zipp 404's on.

rogerthecat

owenlars wrote:

At the risk of sounding controversial I would have thought that if you are going to spend £3k on a bike you might be in a position to make your own judgement. What do you want? Carbon, ally, bespoke steel, titanium? What are you going to do with it race, sportive, time trial, audax, touring?
Difficult question really.

M8 I think Pretre wants a starting point perhaps? Look here

.

andy162

Hi,

Have you considered a Scott Addict? Very very light and reasonably comfortable. Westbrook Cycles have some cracking deals on Scott and they are a great shop to deal with.

Andy

BE1

Or, you could go bespoke and have something truly unique.

cjw

I had same delima and in the end bought a Focus :shock:

Team Izalco is £2700 with beautiful kit and wheels and rides like a dream.

I had a bit of a dilema going for a Focus, but after watching TdF, the Focus team (Milram) were riding this bike (only with lightweight wheels instead of Mavic Carbone SLRs) and the team finished about half way. So I felt comfortable with the choice.

Wasn't keen on the Italian brands as they seemed incredibly overpriced (too me).

stevenmh

For that money you could probably get a good quality Viner, fitted to your exact size.

nferrar

I'm a bit confused why people are recommending bikes with deep section carbon wheels - did you read the OPs post?
As for recommendations - with that budget there's a huge amount of good bikes so I'd start with demoing what your LBS has in and going from there (plus reading reviews on bikes you shortlist).
Personally though I'd get a £2k-ish bike and another £1k-ish bike for winter...

Chip \'oyler

stevenmh wrote:

For that money you could probably get a good quality Viner, fitted to your exact size.

Good call

http://www.bikeradar.com/road/gear/cate ... a-08-32013

maddog 2

I'm a little surprised you haven't seen a good looking ti bike.

For £3k you could get a well specced , say, Enigma, with trick handbuilts and Ultegra. Perfect for general riding.

Personally, I think you need to have a go on carbon before you spend £3k. For non-racing duities it's not the automatic choice in my book.

redddraggon

cjw wrote:

I had a bit of a dilema going for a Focus, but after watching TdF, the Focus team (Milram) were riding this bike (only with lightweight wheels instead of Mavic Carbone SLRs) and the team finished about half way. So I felt comfortable with the choice.

Milram were absolutely pathetic in the Tour, they might aswell have not been there.

Harry182

maddog 2 wrote:

I'm a little surprised you haven't seen a good looking ti bike.

For £3k you could get a well specced , say, Enigma, with trick handbuilts and Ultegra. Perfect for general riding.

Personally, I think you need to have a go on carbon before you spend £3k. For non-racing duities it's not the automatic choice in my book.

+1 for ti

As you seem (overly IMO) concerned with the looks/colour of the bike you could have it supplied painted. I reckon for £3000 you could get a ti bike custom fit and painted any colour you'd want.

cjw

redddraggon wrote:

cjw wrote:

I had a bit of a dilema going for a Focus, but after watching TdF, the Focus team (Milram) were riding this bike (only with lightweight wheels instead of Mavic Carbone SLRs) and the team finished about half way. So I felt comfortable with the choice.

Milram were absolutely pathetic in the Tour, they might aswell have not been there.

Pretty much agree - as individuals, they had a few runs at / near the front and always blew it (Knees ended up 21st overall with Gerdemann at 24th). As a team they finished 12th;

Rank Code Team Time Gap
1 AST ASTANA 256h02'58'' 00''
2 GRM GARMIN - SLIPSTREAM 256h25'33'' 22'35''
3 SAX TEAM SAXO BANK 256h31'32'' 28'34''
4 ALM AG2R LA MONDIALE 256h34'45'' 31'47''
5 LIQ LIQUIGAS 256h46'29'' 43'31''
6 EUS EUSKALTEL - EUSKADI 257h01'03'' 58'05''
7 FDJ FRANCAISE DES JEUX 257h04'46'' 1h01'48''
8 COF COFIDIS LE CREDIT EN LIGNE 257h08'32'' 1h05'34''
9 KAT TEAM KATUSHA 257h16'55'' 1h13'57''
10 AGR AGRITUBEL 257h23'36'' 1h20'38''
11 GCE CAISSE DEPARGNE 257h26'03'' 1h23'05''
12 MRM TEAM MILRAM 257h27'08'' 1h24'10''
13 SIL SILENCE - LOTTO 257h27'36'' 1h24'38''
14 THR TEAM COLUMBIA - HTC 257h32'52'' 1h29'54''
15 BBO BBOX BOUYGUES TELECOM 257h35'57'' 1h32'59''
16 CTT CERVELO TEST TEAM 257h43'06'' 1h40'08''
17 RAB RABOBANK 258h02'43'' 1h59'45''
18 QST QUICK STEP 258h42'59'' 2h40'01''
19 LAM LAMPRE - N.G.C 260h02'01'' 3h59'03''
20 SKS SKIL-SHIMANO 263h05'50'' 7h02'52''

Only real point I was making is that the bike has been riden to average performance in the TdF

cjw

Come to think of it no one was really there apart from Saxo Bank, Garmin and Astana :roll:

Chip \'oyler

Harry182 wrote:

maddog 2 wrote:

I'm a little surprised you haven't seen a good looking ti bike.

For £3k you could get a well specced , say, Enigma, with trick handbuilts and Ultegra. Perfect for general riding.

Personally, I think you need to have a go on carbon before you spend £3k. For non-racing duities it's not the automatic choice in my book.

+1 for ti

As you seem (overly IMO) concerned with the looks/colour of the bike you could have it supplied painted. I reckon for £3000 you could get a ti bike custom fit and painted any colour you'd want.

you can get that done with a handbuilt Viner

gabriel959

problem with Viner is that their paintjobs look rubbish IMO

Chip \'oyler

gabriel959 wrote:

problem with Viner is that their paintjobs look rubbish IMO

I agree - but you can change them and get a custom one if you want.

softlad

cjw wrote:

Only real point I was making is that the bike has been riden to average performance in the TdF

congratulations on owning an 'average' bike.....

cjw

softlad wrote:

cjw wrote:

Only real point I was making is that the bike has been riden to average performance in the TdF

congratulations on owning an 'average' bike.....

Thanks. I didn't go for Cervelo as they were well below average you see as were Scott

El Imbatido

Parlee or a Baum

giant_man

El Imbatido wrote:

Parlee or a Baum

I don't get it with Baum. Just another ti builder who polish/paint their frames. What am I missing here? Certainly no better than Serotta or IF surely.

Just cos they're australian, is that it?

Pretre

Thanks for the suggestions.
I hadn't thought about a Viner but Cycledoctor are round the corner from work so I'll pop in & have a look

swissj

Felt AR4 for £2400

Looks great

Rides great

Is great

and Team Garmin (riders of Felt) were great in the TdF.

The team were 2nd overall and Wiggins rode in 4th place (in case you didn't already know!) lol