Secteur Sport or other bikes with triple chain ring?!HELP!?!

Hey
I've recently done the London to Brighton on my Giant XTC mountain bike and really enjoyed it, but i know if i had a road bike then i'd be able to do it faster and i'd like to do some more similar rides, me and my friends are thinking about the Coast to Coast in the summer and London to Paris next year.
I've been looking and saw the Specialized Secteur Sport and liked it with the triple chain ring giving me 27 gears so i have more ammunition to be able to hit the hills with (next time i do the London to Brighton i don't want to have to walk the last bit of Ditchling Beacon!)
I was wondering if there are any other road bikes which are in the £500-£1000 bracket which would be good for this?
Thanks very much
Chris
I've recently done the London to Brighton on my Giant XTC mountain bike and really enjoyed it, but i know if i had a road bike then i'd be able to do it faster and i'd like to do some more similar rides, me and my friends are thinking about the Coast to Coast in the summer and London to Paris next year.
I've been looking and saw the Specialized Secteur Sport and liked it with the triple chain ring giving me 27 gears so i have more ammunition to be able to hit the hills with (next time i do the London to Brighton i don't want to have to walk the last bit of Ditchling Beacon!)
I was wondering if there are any other road bikes which are in the £500-£1000 bracket which would be good for this?
Thanks very much
Chris
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Posts
Specialized do the slightly racier Allez with a triple at various price points, there's the Trek 1.2 or 1.5, the Scott Speedsters also come with a triple option as does the Cannondale Synapse.
Have a look on Evans' website. 2011 Specialized bikes have already been discounted
You'd be very happy with that bike I can tell you - it does me fine and I'm commuting to work on it twice a week (46 miles round trip) and doing sportives etc (100 miles+).
I've had no bother with any discomfort, stiff back, sore censored etc and the components are working nicely (Sora front, Tiagra rear mech, Sora levers and no-name brakes) if not as slick as a 105 or other more pricey groupsets.
The triple is very handy for my level of cycling (still in my first year) although some will say it adds unecessary weight. My reply would be - dont worry about that at this stage, save the ultra light bike for when you genuinely "need" that level of quality. While you're getting your fitness up to scratch and your own weight down a kilo up or down on the bike's weight isnt going to make much of a difference to you.
I'm sure there are other good deals out there but I'm a happy customer!
However, only having a double on my Trek 1.1 is driving me to put some effort into climbs like the Beacon (and the equally steep King George V Drive over the side of town).
Depends also on where you live - it's only on the 15% plus hills that I miss the granny gear - most of the time a compact/double is plenty low enough
Thanks for saying these various other bikes, has anyone had any experience with these bikes??
possibly another stupid question coming up here, are all road bikes with triple chain rings more likely to be sportive kind of bikes or do you just get triple's on all styles?
and another silly question, i don't fully understand what a compact set is? could someone relieve me of my ignorance.
http://www.wiggle.co.uk/focus-cayo-105- ... 5360059957
The Allez is basically the more aggressive version of the Secteur. My workmate has just gone from my old Secteur (got nicked - bastards...) to a colleague's Allez. Likes both, but the Allez is definitely built for speed, not comfort.
A compact has two chainrings, but a wider spread of gears than you'd get with a standard double. With a compact, you've got almost as wide a range of gears as you'd have with a triple.
Downside is that the difference between the chainrings is much bigger than you'd have with a triple, so there's more chance that you'll have to double shift. (Change gears at the back as well as at the front.)
I've just shifted from a triple to a compact. I'm not used to it yet. You've got to think about things more, and I'm finding that sometimes the bike really, really doesn't want to go from the smaller ring to the larger one - you've got to be in the right spot on the rear cogs. Annoying, and I've lost the chain a couple of times. Might partly be that I need to tweak the setup as the gear cables stretch a bit, might just be that it's something you learn to live with.
It's the first time I've had a compact, so I don't really know if it's my fault, the way the bike is set up, or just an inevitable part of running a compact. At the moment, I'd probably rather have stuck with my triple, though, even though I hardly ever used the smallest chainring.
Good shout - as is this from Decathlon, Carbon frame & fork, Shimano 105 5700 triple for £900:
http://www.decathlon.co.uk/EN/btwin-facet-3-175387571/
Frame was ridden to victory by Christophe Moreau in the 2007 Dauphiné Libéré and French Road race championship - pretty good pedigree for £900!:
http://team.cyclingnews.com/tech.php?id ... eaus_BTwin
Boardman CX Team
Trek 8000
Sirrus framed 'special'
Prev: Avanti Corsa, Routens, MBK TT, homemade TT bike, Trek 990, Vitus 979 x 2, Peugeot Roubaix & er..Raleigh Arena!