Buying new road bike, which options to take?

chrispower80

I have been looking at road bikes and the guy in my local bike shop has been talking about an Olympia bike either the Khers or the Karbo. As I am a relative beginner on the bike scene I am unsure of the various options am now face with and was hoping to canvas opinion. Questions I have are as follows:

1. Groupset, what is the differences? does it matter? i have the option of Campagnolo Veloce or Campagnolo Xenon Mix

2. Chainset, what is the difference? Does it matter? Options are Campagnolo Veloce, Fsa Omega and Fsa Tempo

3. Wheels, options are Miche Reflex, Miche Race 707, Mavic Aksyum S or Ors Wing White

Additionally, if anyone owns an Olympia or has owned one or anyone could give any feedback on them it would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

petemadoc

Never heard of Olympia until you mentioned them so can't comment on the frame.

1. Groupsets don't matter too much, Veloce, Shimano 105/tiagra, Sram rival are all good so try and test ride them all and see which one you like the feel of best.

2. If you're a beginner then get a compact chainset 50/34 doesn't matter which brand really although I'm not keen on the design of my FSA cranks (personal thing)

3. Mavic Aksium are probably the best of wheels you listed above but it's marginal. I have some Miche race wheels which are flexy as fook, I put them on the wife's bike

look565wong

Hi Chrispower,

1. The Veloce groupset is suppose to be a higher grade groupset than Xenon with better wearing parts which should last longer & probably lighter in weight. I believe there are both 10 speed but I think the levers on the Xenon is plastic as oppose to alloy on the Veloce (if it's new Veloce then it should be the new shape levers too)

2. As PeteMadoc said, compact 34/50 is better suited to someone new to road cycling. Again agree with PeteMadoc point of FSA regarding personally preference. But if it's Veloce Power Torque, then I'm told that they are a bit of a pain to install & remove (ideally requiring Campagnolo tools) but I might be wrong. Of course it always looks neater if you have the whole groupset complete on a bike.

3. Mavic - I would choose over the others.

I believe Olympia is an Italian branch relatively new on these shores, so can't say much about it apart from get a bike that fits you, that's really important!

Where abouts are you in Glasgow, ChrisPower if you don't mind me asking? I'm from the Southside.
Which local bike shop stock Olympia? I wasn't aware there was one, just curious.

Hope that helps!

Cheers

Chung

muzzan

I would guess its solid rock cycles near torrance? They are nearest to me. Had a look at some bikes but was put off when they wouldnt let me ride the actual bikes I was interested in. They claim to be the only uk stockist of olympia, but hard to find out anything about the bikes, so didnt really consider them.

chrispower80

Chung, it was indeed Solid Rock Cycles!!

I went in originally looking at Bianchi's and the guy was telling me about the Olympia range and that there were only two UK stockists. Think he was going down the angle of was i wanting something more original etc etc. Anyway I know very little about the make up of road bikes but looking for a bike that will be used mainly as a commuting ride during the week but for longer rides at the weekends. Just find there are too many choices out there!!

Thanks all for input

chrispower80

Chung,

Thanks for the PM, some intersting stuff in there! I'm looking for that summer bike you referred to, something lighter and faster than what I currently have as that will be relegated to the winter bike!! Don't suppose you track your rides on strava? Just interested to see what guys like yourself in a club average in terms of ride distances and pace etc. Last year was the first year I did 1000+ miles so got the bug and want to do more miles and maximise my performance.

cheers

look565wong

Chris, you have PM!

Cheers

g00se

About the groupsets, Veloce is the modern Campag entry level group. I say entry level, but it's probably equivalent to Ultegra/105. Xenon was their entry level from about 2005-2009 when they tried to compete with Shimano at the Sora level but they stopped supplying them officially when the new shaped levers came out. However, they still supply a few Italian brands with them as OEM budget kit so they don't have to look to Shimano and SRAM and keep the Italian theme (Wilier, Bianchi etc).

Go with Veloce over Xenon (and Mirage which was one above Xenon - and one below Veloce - but suffered the same fate).

Xenon:



Veloce: