bicycle upgrade advice
hammamoto
Posts: 24
Hi to all,
I'm looking to upgrade my 5 year old Bianchi Via Nirone Veloce-equipped bike, which has served me well during my initiation into road cycling. During the last few years I have i) done some cycling in the alps (riding Alpe d'Huez, the Glandon, the Furka pass amongst others), ii) raced some olympic and mid-distance triathlons, and iii) spent many hours cruising through the countryside.
I'm looking to stay with Campagnolo, since I have some nice campag wheels and love the shift mechanisms, and would prefer to keep a triple on the bike - a 30x29 is often required after 5 hours cycling in the mountains, and I like having a 52tooth big ring. As such, I've narrowed my choice of upgrade down to
1 - Ribble R872 - specced with Campag Veloce Triple and existing Bullet ultra 50mm wheels (cost ± 1200)
2 - Ribble New Sportive Racing - again Veloce/Triple/50mm wheels (cost ± 1200)
3 - S-works Roubaix Sl3 frame - specced with existing Veloce parts and 50mm wheels (cost ± 1600)
4 - Spec. Venge Comp - 2013 model, equipped with Shimano 105/Tiagra (cost ± 2000).
In the first two instances, I would buy an entire new setup (i.e. including groupset and wheels), and keep the existing Bianchi as a winter training/spare bike. The third option would require me to use my existing veloce parts in order to keep the total cost down, since the frameset is considerably more expensive even at its current discount. The fourth option would require me to sell the Campag wheels and then invest in a better Shimano wheel set, as the basic spec on the venge isn't great.
Questions.
a) How much "better" would the specialized frames be vs. the ribbles? I understand this is hard to quantify, but a general opinion from the readers of BR would be appreciated!
b) How difficult would it be to 'build' a bike from a basic frameset? I have no previous experience of this...
c) is having two bikes really that useful? In my mind, it would be "nice" to have a spare winter bike, but I know I'd end up riding the new bike 99.9% of the time in any case...
and d) Would the considerably higher cost of the specialized bikes be justifiable in any way? I have to be honest: I LOVE the Venge (!), but I do wish I could get my hands on the 2012 s-works frameset. That was a beauty!!
I'm looking to upgrade my 5 year old Bianchi Via Nirone Veloce-equipped bike, which has served me well during my initiation into road cycling. During the last few years I have i) done some cycling in the alps (riding Alpe d'Huez, the Glandon, the Furka pass amongst others), ii) raced some olympic and mid-distance triathlons, and iii) spent many hours cruising through the countryside.
I'm looking to stay with Campagnolo, since I have some nice campag wheels and love the shift mechanisms, and would prefer to keep a triple on the bike - a 30x29 is often required after 5 hours cycling in the mountains, and I like having a 52tooth big ring. As such, I've narrowed my choice of upgrade down to
1 - Ribble R872 - specced with Campag Veloce Triple and existing Bullet ultra 50mm wheels (cost ± 1200)
2 - Ribble New Sportive Racing - again Veloce/Triple/50mm wheels (cost ± 1200)
3 - S-works Roubaix Sl3 frame - specced with existing Veloce parts and 50mm wheels (cost ± 1600)
4 - Spec. Venge Comp - 2013 model, equipped with Shimano 105/Tiagra (cost ± 2000).
In the first two instances, I would buy an entire new setup (i.e. including groupset and wheels), and keep the existing Bianchi as a winter training/spare bike. The third option would require me to use my existing veloce parts in order to keep the total cost down, since the frameset is considerably more expensive even at its current discount. The fourth option would require me to sell the Campag wheels and then invest in a better Shimano wheel set, as the basic spec on the venge isn't great.
Questions.
a) How much "better" would the specialized frames be vs. the ribbles? I understand this is hard to quantify, but a general opinion from the readers of BR would be appreciated!
b) How difficult would it be to 'build' a bike from a basic frameset? I have no previous experience of this...
c) is having two bikes really that useful? In my mind, it would be "nice" to have a spare winter bike, but I know I'd end up riding the new bike 99.9% of the time in any case...
and d) Would the considerably higher cost of the specialized bikes be justifiable in any way? I have to be honest: I LOVE the Venge (!), but I do wish I could get my hands on the 2012 s-works frameset. That was a beauty!!
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Comments
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a) Cant comment as I haven't ridden the Spesh bikes. I've a Ribble Gran Fondo and love it.
b) Apart from tyhe bottom bracket I've done everything else required to build a bike. My latest purchase was almost done on a "I'll build it basis" in order to get costs down. However you'll need some tools and a decent understanding on nuts and bolts plus access to web based help videos if this is your first attempt.
c) Only two?
d) Always justifiable.... good luck.0 -
I'm going to completely ignore your 4 options and suggest this - Campagnolo galore!
http://www.canyon.com/_en/roadbikes/bike.html?b=33320 -
Its not a question of how much better an s-works is over a Ribble, its how much better it is in your hands!
Are you of a standard to get the best out of an s-works? I am not suggesting you are not, but you have to ask yourself the question if its worth the investment or get a Ribble for less and still have a bike that suites your ability.
No point having a top of the range bike if you can't do it justice.0 -
Just one other thing, you talk of putting your existing groupset on a roubaix s-works or a venge. Thats like buying a ferrari and putting a 2litre diesel engine in it. You are paying over the odds for a precision engineered light frame only to put heavy parts on it that nullify all that the frame brings. If you are going to build a bike, save up and do it properly and leave the old bits on the Bianchi0
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nammynake wrote:I'm going to completely ignore your 4 options and suggest this - Campagnolo galore!
http://www.canyon.com/_en/roadbikes/bike.html?b=3332
That is quite possibly one of the ugliest looking bikes I have ever seen.... ;-)0 -
SmoggySteve wrote:Just one other thing, you talk of putting your existing groupset on a roubaix s-works or a venge. Thats like buying a ferrari and putting a 2litre diesel engine in it. You are paying over the odds for a precision engineered light frame only to put heavy parts on it that nullify all that the frame brings. If you are going to build a bike, save up and do it properly and leave the old bits on the Bianchi
A decent point... but to some extent I find the differences in groupsets beyond 105/Veloce quality to be rather minimal. Yes, they progressively get lighter. But I could 'mimic' the same weight loss by chucking the extra water bottle... My feeling was that if I could manage to build up an S-works frameset, albeit with Veloce components, for not much more cost than the Ribble bike, then that might be a good deal, given the quality of the s-works frame.
However, with this thinking I should probable compare the cost of the S-works frame to the Ribble frame, and not the s-works frame to a fully-built Ribble bike! In the like-for-like case the its ± £500 vs. £1400...
What is the general opinion of the Venge Comp? Looks like it has a great frame - although not s-works quality - but the finishing kit and wheel set looks terrible. Is it really worth 2x the price of the ribble?0
