"Comfort Orientated" Z85 or Specialized Allez Elite...Help!

Oddjob87
Oddjob87 Posts: 2
edited September 2012 in Road buying advice
First....my life story...

I've ridden a carbon forked Dawes hybrid for about 5 years and have loved it. Ragged it all over London and clocked up a few thousand miles. Now I've moved out to the Suffolk countryside where the roads are a little less pot-holed and a bit more road bike friendly and want to make the jump across. A few of my friends have gone out and bought bikes in recent weeks on the back of a summer watching too much cycling on the telly, but I'm still waiting for my 1000pounds of cycle scheme vouchers to hit the doormat. Life story over, on to the questions...

I had settled in my head on the specialized allez elite after weeks of website trawling, because it's advertised as a little bit more as an aggresive sprinters type bike and this matches my personality (and ego) and my burning desire to clock some KOM's on strava. It felt pretty good on the test ride too. As my rides are mostly going to consist of my 7 mile commute and 20/30 mile weekend and summer evening rides, the lack of mention of that word "comfort" hadn't phased me as I won't be in the saddle for hours and hours.

But then I saw the 2013 felt z85 in black and red. I fell in love with the look of it and an upgrade to 105's from the tiagras on the Spez allez for only 25 squid seemed like too good an opportunity to miss. I guess my real concern is every review or press release I read about this bike mentions that c word..."comfort" and how its comfort orientated and not as stiff as the F range (although this year's Z range is supposed to be stiffer and lighter than last). Test riding a bike I guess is the only way to know for sure for me which I should go for but unfortunately I cannot find a local shop that stocks both for me to ride side by side on the same stretch of road. I've test ridden a defy (which I didn't like the ride of) and a trek 1.2 which I loved the ride of actually slightly more than the allez but it just didn't have the appeal looks wise (this bike isn't outlaid as a sprinters type bike either). The Z85 I am testing next weekend. I'm just concerned that by the use of that word "comfort" that it's actually just code for "heavy and slow" and I'm going to be losing out in the saddle and my mates are going to leave me miles behind on our inevitable evenings spent trying to smash strava records. Do you think the differences in performance will be quantifiable (e.g. my top/average speed will be much slower or rate of acceleration poorer or hill climbs tougher if I chose the felt over the allez) or do you think they will be much the same in that respect but instead just have a different feel when you're riding? A ridiculous question I know but I guess I'm looking to be reassured that going for the 105's with comfort is not going to leave me longing for the allez in a few weeks time when my head tells me I could be enjoying another bike more and squeezing more seconds off my times...

Budget is £1000 if anybody has any recommendations otherwise. I had also toyed with a Team Boardman at 999 but unable to get on cyclescheme. Had tried to track down a cube peloton sl in a 61 to no avail either

First post. Thanks in advance

Ollie

Comments

  • A Specialized Secteur is effectively a more comfort orientated Allez for very similar money, spec etc so may give you the ideal combination. I expect you can get a Tiagra 2013 or a 105 spec 2012 for your price.

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