£3k bike recommendations

pedalbasher

A good friend of mine has £3k budget for a new road bike.

Should be racey and light enough for trips to the mountains, but comfortable enough to deal with long weekend rides on potholed UK roads.

Any suggestions?

I have a Canyon CF SLX and can't recommend it highly enough, but what are the best non-direct sales options?

The latest Cycling Plus includes their Bike of the Year 2014 article, so there are a few options in there (Cannondale Synapse 5, Forcus Izalco Ergoride, Giant Defy Advanced 2 to name a few) but these are all capped out at £2k - what decent alternatives are there for a little more money that would offer value for the extra cash?

Cheers

curto80

Beacon bikes might be worth a look if you want top end customer service and to steer clear of the direct sales model. Question whether their "BF100"
3k bike is any better than Canyon's 2k bike though, to be honest. Otherwise one of the high end Felts.

mfin

http://www.paulscycles.co.uk/m7b65s6p5166/CANNONDALE-SUPERSIX-EVO-HI-MOD-RED-RACING-2013

Seeing as I just posted a Cannondale on another thread a minute ago, here's another one relevant here, things like this are surely worth considering for a moment? You could dump the wheels after a bit and get some that it deserves (or follow the herd and put some 50mm ones on and enjoy the aero benefits as you slam through the potholes you mentioned).

ic.

For £3k I'd buy the Synapse 5, then I'd spend the spare 1k on a decent set of wheels and a Rotor 3D+ chainset. Job done.

jameses

IC. wrote:

For £3k I'd buy the Synapse 5, then I'd spend the spare 1k on a decent set of wheels and a Rotor 3D+ chainset. Job done.

This seems like good advice to me. The only place where a 2k bike might be let down would be the wheels - most of the Bike of the Year contenders come with Mavic Aksium / Shimano R500, which would still make for decent winter/training wheels. The rest of the gear is as good as your friend is likely to need. 2k bike + decent wheelset + good kit + bike fit is where my money would go.

mikenetic

You could buy a full custom like a Rourke for that sort of money if you wanted something tailored to your requirements, and can wait a bit. That's what I did.

meanredspider

Volagi Liscio - fab bike: quick but comfortable and with disc brakes which are awesome. Looks great too and you're unlikely ever to see another. I love mine and I'm quicker on it than I am on my Scott Foil HMX

gsvbagpuss

Are there any "bad" 3k bikes?!

mfin

GSVBagpuss wrote:

Are there any "bad" 3k bikes?!

There are certainly "bad value" ones, particularly when you factor in where you might buy if you pay more than you would somewhere else. There are also certainly "quite dull and uninspiring to ride" ones too when compared to other offerings.

kevinr24

I like the thinking of the poster who said Synapse 105 and upgrade the wheels. I took it a bit further. Got the Ultegra model and upgraded the wheels to Mavic Ksyrium Elites. That would take you to 3k (mine didn't as the reward points offered by the LBS meant I got £200 off and that may be the case for your friend). It weighed in at 16.9lbs with pedals and is an incredibly smooth yet rapid ride. There are some pics and a video on my blog - richardson.kevin@wordpress.com

Miles253

If you go the synapse route, is it worth getting the 105 version, selling the group and the wheels leaving you maybe £1500 or more, grab Ultegra, then £1000 for wheels alone? I would go DA C50. Badass ride