bianchi via nirone xenon 2011 v Canondale CAAD 8 Tiagra

saltydog

I am in the process of updating from a Spesh but to be honest following weeks of research I am down to two yet still cant make my mind up any thoughts , all help will be much appreciated

Thanks

lostboysaint

Heart says Italian on Italian.

Head says the CAAD will have the better groupset, Xenon is a tad clunky and plasticky.

saltydog

Thanks I have looked at so many bikes and if |i dont get to a decision soon the summer will be here and gone , agree re the group set though

titch124

personally would go for the bianchi as i think the frame looks much better.

but i am biased as i own a bianchi , and i don't like a lot of the cannondale frames

agree on the groupset though

unixnerd

My advice would be to go somewhere that you can see the Xenon levers for yourself, see how you get on with them compared to Tiagra. Personally I'd have the 'dale but a bit of my soul would leave the shop crying in garbled Italian that I'd done a terrible thing :-)

saltydog

Good point off to Hargroves tomorrow to have another go

unixnerd

One other wee thing. Something I love about my CAAD5 is that it has a very low bottom bracket compared to other bikes, so it's easy to put a foot down in traffic without getting off the saddle.

rolf_f

unixnerd wrote:

One other wee thing. Something I love about my CAAD5 is that it has a very low bottom bracket compared to other bikes, so it's easy to put a foot down in traffic without getting off the saddle.

If it's that low, surely the negative effect it will have on cornering performance will be far more annoying than the benefit of being able to be stationary more comfortably!

saltydog

Changed my mind at the 11th hour gone for this instead Cannondale Cipollini Ltd Edition thanks for your comments though

joshvoulters

Cool- where did you find one of those?