Tall, Heavy, Rider

Yoz

Hi All

I am relatively new to road cycling having picked up the bug last year following couple of sportives

I am in the market for a new road bike and would really like a carbon frame. I have a £1000 budget.

I've narrowed this down to:-

http://www.planet-x-bikes.co.uk/i/q/CBP ... sram-rival

http://www.wiggle.co.uk/focus-cayo-105-ltd-2011/

I am 6' 4" tall and 16 stone in weight.

I suppose my question is. Am I looking at the correct bikes for my height and weight or should I be looking elsewhere

I'd appreciate any thoughts or advice.

arlowood

Hi there

Don't think the question is really about whether the carbon frame will be suitable for "heavier" cyclists. Most important part of the set up will be the wheels and how robust they are. Can't really comment on the merits of the wheelsets on the 2 bikes you have highlighted - perhaps others on this forum can add their thoughts.

Just to confuse matters I would throw in a third option - the new Ribble Sportive Bianco. It gets great reviews, costs around the £1K mark plus you have the ability to choose a better quality wheelset in their Bikebuilder page if you are worried about the quality of the basic wheels - see link below

http://www.ribblecycles.co.uk/bikebuild ... BRC&bike=1

Yoz

Thanks, just read both Cycle Weekly and Cycle Active review of the Ribble. Nice bike!

Like you, both comment that the wheels should be the first upgrade consideration.

Also dilemma now with group set, Ribble has shimano sora (upgrades available) Planet x has Sram rival. From my limited research, no contest, Sram far better.

Monkeypump

Test ride, test ride, test ride!

I'm 6' 5" and found that my shortlist evaporated as soon as I started test riding. Sizing and fit is always important, but especially at the extremes of frame sizes.

This will be difficult for the bikes you mention, but the size I thought I needed (for example) on a Planet X turned out to be too small.

Try some aluminium frames from bands that make bigger exes if you can.

arlowood

Yoz wrote:

Also dilemma now with group set, Ribble has shimano sora (upgrades available) Planet x has Sram rival. From my limited research, no contest, Sram far better.

Hi Yoz

You could still elect to have SRAM Rival as an option on the Ribble Sportive Bianco - brings the price up to a tad over the £1K mark. For the same money you could opt for Shimano 105 which is way better than the Sora offered as a basic spec..

To get a test ride as suggested by the other poster you might want to take a trip to their showroom at Bamber Bridge , near Preston - particularly since at your height, sizing can be quite critical as mentioned above.

Yoz

I think it is a road trip to Ribble. I'm also planning a trip to Planet X.

Appreciate advice

rake

dont get too hung up on carbon over a large enough bike. good alloy frames are comparable and not quite as sensitive to being knocked.

Yoz

Thanks Rake.

Think i'll take advice and go and test ride a number of bikes. I'm in North West so have easy access to a number of the bigger bike stores.

As a result of yours and other comments I'm now looking at aluminium frames.

The search goes on.........

A colleague mentioned the Cube attempt, just under £1000 and came out top in recent cycle mag tests.

Welcome thoughts?

Kiwi_rich

I'm 6'5" and weigh a bit more than you. I got back into cycling with a cannondale caad 8 and it's done me really well over the past 5 years. Great bike. I have found mavic wheels to be pretty robust - use a set of equipes for the daily commute and SLs for the weekend run.

The one early change I made was to add a carbon seat post which controlled some of the vibration.

Just taking the plunge and about to purchase a high end carbon bike.

Good luck.

Yoz

Thanks Rich

Just had a trawl. The 2011 Cannondale caad 8 boast a great spec at £999.

Cheers for the heads up