£3-£4k bike

hodgesr285

Head says Canyon: Unbelievable value on Ultimate CF SLX (2012 with Mavic R-Sys & Campag Record for £3300.
Heart says buy a special frame-set, e.g. Cervelo R3, or similar.
Wild card: Canondale Super-Six Evo (but it needs a good set of wheels & already costs £4k).
Anybody ridden these bikes or similar and have feedback.
Also - I'm not into aereoad frames: gimmick!
Thanks.

wildmoustache

R3 is not special vs. Canyon unless it's just how the brand will make you feel. I'd rather ride the Canyon. The highest performance option of the ones you listed is the cheaper frame and better equipment/wheels.

thegreatdivide

If it was my money I'd buy an R3 hands down. 2012 models are now £1999, so with my virtual £4k I’d buy one of those, SRAM Red and pair of nice Mavic wheels.

napoleond

thegreatdivide wrote:

If it was my money I'd buy an R3 hands down. 2012 models are now £1999, so with my virtual £4k I’d buy one of those, SRAM Red and pair of nice Mavic wheels.

Good choice

sloppyschleckonds

thegreatdivide wrote:

If it was my money I'd buy an R3 hands down. 2012 models are now £1999, so with my virtual £4k I’d buy one of those, SRAM Red and pair of nice Mavic wheels.

Do you know if its only the white frame for £1999? I see Probikekit are selling them.

joshvoulters

Yep- the white frame is the R3 'Base' - £2k. The black and red is the 'Team', which is a couple of hundred more- it's supposed to be a bit lighter, but ride the same.

If you do go for a frame and build it up, make sure you do the maths first- it's a much more expensive option than simply buying a complete bike, and it's easy to forget things that add up. For example, my R3 with SRAM Force, Rotor 3D+, modest wheels and fancy contact points (bar/ seatpost) is coming in at £4k, give or take. For me, it's worth that to have everything exactly as I would want, but as a previous poster said, if you give that £4k to somebody like Canyon, you're getting a phenomenal amount of bike.

I'd also say: forget logic- get the bike that you feel excited about!

Mccaria

Have to agree with Wildmoustache - I am not sure there is that much difference between a Canyon and a Cervelo. It is not as those one frame is lovingly hand crafted by a gnarl handed artisan and the other is an anonymous machined product, both are Chinese manafactured. Ironically there is probably more in common between the Canyon and the Cervelo than most carbon frames according to recent breach of patent suits !

I have the Canyon SLX and if the size works for you (check carefully the TT length - the Canyon 60cm frame has a 57.5cm TT whereas the 58cm Cervelo has a 58cm TT and the Canyon head tubes tend to be quite high) then as a frame it stands comparison with some much more expensive frames. I just bought the frame since I was transferring kit over, but for the spec that Canyon do their full bikes, it is a heck of a lot of bike for the price.

There are some frustrations that you need to be aware of with the Canyon - limited choice on stem is the obvious issue and being mail order there can be niggles (my frame arrived with a bent rear hanger which needed to be replaced, although this only took a week)

The Canyon SLX is light and very stiff and in the black carbon fibre finish it has a very utilitarian look about it.

tim_wand

This months C plus had a lot of the 2012 gear in it and the 3-4K Mark looked like some very special stuff and the price point that most manufacturers were putting UI2 groupset on goot framesets Scapin EYS and Colnago CLX 3.0 stood out for me.

There was also mention of a Cannondale Super six evo with Ultegra Di2 and Mavic Kysiriums for £3599

dandrew

i went for the Canyon CF SLX 9.0. I have not been disappointed, It's great! Great value as well, I bought about a week before the sale. I e-mailed Canyon and asked them to consider repricing my order to the sale price. They did without quibble and sent me a bank transfer in the sum of £450! That's efficiency for you!

speshsteve

how do people rate the change in chainsets for the 2012 model year? Is this an upgrade or a slight downgrade on full red groupo for example?

sloppyschleckonds

speshsteve wrote:

how do people rate the change in chainsets for the 2012 model year? Is this an upgrade or a slight downgrade on full red groupo for example?

Its described as an upgrade, i'd prefer full gruppo chainset over weight loss

I wonder what the OP has decided upon :?

hodgesr285

Thanks for the comments. I'm still changing my mind daily. I won't be buying until February, but won't be in a position to spend this amount for many years, so want to be sure.
The Canyon seems heavy(ish) compared to the others, esp the Supersix Evo, but I suppose most bikes would.
The R3 would, as was pointed out, come in at at least the £4k point, so the Supersix doesn't seem as overpriced as I first thought.
Is it possible to view the Canyons anywhere?
At least there should be some more reviews where the Supersix has been ridden longer term by February.

sloppyschleckonds

Seems as though sourcing a Cervelo from the states if you don't pay any import tax could bring the cost down considerably.

Also, Canyon are selling off some of the Team replica frames at the moment with £300 off.

thegreatdivide

Garmin Cervelo put all their team bikes up for sale this week. Not many left, but if you're a 56cm or a 51cm there are still bargains to be had.

http://www.shopslipstreamsports.com/

There are still a few 2011 R3's kicking about online at the £2k mark in the UK.

phazon

I have exactly the same decision to make. I was originally looking at Ti, but have (I think) ruled that out for now. I've also ruled out the Cervelo, as I think the Canyon offers everything the Cervelo does but is much better value, and also I really dislike the white/blue colour scheme of the 2012 R3 - minor point but important nonetheless.

The alternative for me is custom - Viner make some beautiful bikes that range from £1700-£2400 for a full custom frameset. It's going to come in a bit more pricey than a Canyon SLX 8.0 or 9.0 at £2.5-3.5k, probably built with slightly lower spec parts, but custom is very appealing. And I could re-use my current Pro-Lite wheels on it.

My mate rides a 2011 Canyon SLX, and it is a fantastic bike no doubt. I can't believe it seems heavy to anything - they're all around 6.5kg, a few bikes might be a *little* lighter, but not by much. My mates SLX is silly light.

Decisions decisions

styxd

Why are you considering going custom? Do you know exactly what you want from a frame? Are you an odd size or shape? Whats wrong with any of the off the shelf frames?

I'd only go custom if I wanted something specific that I couldnt get on anything else, or if I had a huge budget. I

phazon

styxd wrote:

Why are you considering going custom? Do you know exactly what you want from a frame? Are you an odd size or shape? Whats wrong with any of the off the shelf frames?

I'd only go custom if I wanted something specific that I couldnt get on anything else, or if I had a huge budget. I

In short what I'm after is a fast & light bike that is a bit more comfortable than an out and out race bike, to deal with the abysmal roads in Surrey a little better than the average. Viner have been recommended to me by a couple of people as ticking these boxes, and the fact they are custom build is almost incidental. But I'm fairly convinced that the fact the bike fits the rider perfectly contributes to the outstanding feedback I've heard directly and reviews I've read on Viners.

Nothing wrong with off-the-shelf frames, hence I'm considering the Canyon. The SLX 8.0 is amazing value at 2.5k if I decide not to go silly, as is the 9.0 at 3.5k - but if I'm going to spend that much I could build up a custom Viner Perfecta with Force and decent finishing kit for 3.5k, or with OK wheels for 4k. Really stretching the budget a bit tho...

anto164

Parlee z5 frame for £3k then somehow build it up for a grand. Build now, upgrade components later.

stuaff

phazon wrote:

styxd wrote:

Why are you considering going custom? Do you know exactly what you want from a frame? Are you an odd size or shape? Whats wrong with any of the off the shelf frames?

I'd only go custom if I wanted something specific that I couldnt get on anything else, or if I had a huge budget. I

In short what I'm after is a fast & light bike that is a bit more comfortable than an out and out race bike, to deal with the abysmal roads in Surrey a little better than the average. Viner have been recommended to me by a couple of people as ticking these boxes, and the fact they are custom build is almost incidental. But I'm fairly convinced that the fact the bike fits the rider perfectly contributes to the outstanding feedback I've heard directly and reviews I've read on Viners.

Nothing wrong with off-the-shelf frames, hence I'm considering the Canyon. The SLX 8.0 is amazing value at 2.5k if I decide not to go silly, as is the 9.0 at 3.5k - but if I'm going to spend that much I could build up a custom Viner Perfecta with Force and decent finishing kit for 3.5k, or with OK wheels for 4k. Really stretching the budget a bit tho...

You could get a Gladium 2.0 for £700 less than the Perfecta. My Magnifica (equivalent model) was off-the-peg monocoque only and is excellent, Gladium has the option to go custom fit as well.

No bad choice here, though, really...R3s are lovely, so are the Canyons I've seen.

phazon

Yeah Gladium is an option, as is the Volata (last years Perfecta) at £2100

Like you say, no bad choices, which is making it a difficult one!

indysmith

http://www.rapha.cc/the-continental-fro ... ny-pereira
I'd get this.

siamon

I've just had this exact dilemma. The first problem I found was the lack of correlation between the reviews of the bikes and the my interpretation of the performance when I rode them. As a result of this I was unwilling to buy a bike I couldn't comprehensively test so Canyon and Stork were crossed of the list.

The second problem was how poorly set up some of the test bikes were. Always check the tyre pressures yourself and make sure headsets, seat posts, wheels etc are correctly tightened (I am not joking)!

I found the Cannondale required a lot of effort for little reward. The BMC pro and team machines were very stiff vertically, but, (like the Cannondale) didn't seem to transfer effort into forward motion very efficiently. I like bikes that hurl themselves forwards with the gentlest push on a pedal and yet have good vertical compliance. Directional stability is also high on my list of priorities. With this in mind the Specialized Tarmac 4 and the sadly discontinued Addict were good but the two that stood out were the Trek Madone 5.9 (panned by the press as uncomfortable) and my favourite the Giant TCR Advanced 1.

I ended up buying a Giant TCR Advanced 1 SL ISP (Dura Ace group and excellent Dura Ace C24 wheels) for a bargain price at the lower end of your budget and I absolutely love it. Although it's stiffer in every direction that the standard TCR, it is still very easy to ride and massively more comfortable than the BMC's, Cervelo's etc. I also had a situation previously when I had to speak directly to Giant UK and despite the fact they had no obligation to get involved they were incredibly helpful and feel confident they will not mess me about if there is a warranty issue.

I would advise you to try as many bikes as you can and hopefully the right one for you will stand out a mile. Also, if you like the prestige/mystique of Cervelo, why not try a Look and a Time?

Lastly, I could not agree more on the Aero frames, but I still think steel has a lot to offer! Have you seen the Condor Acciaio....