Roubaix vs Secteur

jpower

First time poster here, so I have always enjoyed cyclying, but very on/off (on in the summer and off the rest of the year), I'd like to change that too. So started biking again about 2 months back on my Specialized MTB Hardrock Sport, all was well, then I signed up to do the Palace to Palace ride with some friends and quickly realised that I would be left behind on my MTB (they have Road bikes). I tried using my wives Sirus Sport and to be fair the times were much quicker but the bike frame is just too small for me.

So now I'm toying between making do, or using the Bike to Work scheme and pick up a road bike, first I looking at the Allenz, however this seems geared to a pure racer and I really would like some confort as I plan to do longer rides too. So this lead me onto the Roubaix and Secteur, in my budget it would SL4 (knocked down to 1150) vs Secteur Sport Disk (1000 my real budget).

Was wondering if anyone could share some advice or thoughts, and the main differences between those two bikes, my thinking is SL4 is carbon but base model, the sport disk is almost top and gear on there will be better, I lose the full carbon frame, but wondering if that really makes that much difference in my suitation?

Thanks.

markhewitt1978

Go with the carbon frame if you can. Others will tell you later it makes no difference however all me to tell you that it does.

Also consider Trek Domane and Scott CR1

lancew

Recomendation:

If the Roubaix is a Sora setup as the Secteur unless you're a heavy lad who wants lots of stopping power the disc brakes will give you I'd get the Routbaix personally. Especially as you're off to Paris you'll probably find that the extra weight saved will help you.

If you need to carry your gear to Paris however I would go with the Secteur as it has mounts for panniers which will be invaluable over such a distance. In this case also try riding the Fuji Sportive range.

jpower

So I'm wondering now if I just got an urge to buy a bike. I looked up the Sirus Sport and the frame size should be okay for me, it's top end for height but should be okay. I noticed it's got the same cushion technology, it's very light, gear change not exactly smooth but can live with it, it's a flat bar being one of the biggest differences I find it comfortable. So confused now. Few different thoughts if I don't require disk brakes, the Secteur base model is a very alot less £650

I'm also thinking should I use the hybrid and see if I continue biking before spending money.

jpower

It's got front forks too, this sounds like a loosing battle.

Any gain on a road bike over a sports hybrid? Aero position I guess.

kingstonian

You mean the Palace to Palace ride that is London to Windsor, right? Just want to check.

jpower

Yes Palace one, however my mind must have been read as I am looking at Paris for next year.

So my wife who is the legal owner of the hybrid told me to stop changing her settings and get my own bike :-)

Problem is now got a wide gap in price if disc brake option is really not required then I could get the Secteur Teiple at £650 or Roubaix SL4 at £1150 that's a huge difference.

Also hear the 2015's are due out.

rodgers73

I have the Secteur Sport triple. Got it for £580 in the Evans sale back in 2010. I've done shed loads on it since then, including London Paris twice. It'll be fine for you.

You don't need disc brakes and the Roubaix is far too much to spend on a first bike!

Jahmoo

I have just demo'd a Roubaix SL4 Disc.

I have been riding a Flat Bar Hybrid for many year due to back injury but have found it sooooooo Booooooring!!!

I have been out for 2x 13ml rides and a 20mler over this weekend and I have to say the Roubaix is AWESOME!!! I was not too fussed with the disc, but as a big fella I may consider it.

I had 6-700 to spend, but the S Works Carbon Frame comes with a lifetime warranty, so means upgrades over the years is a must. Little bit more expensive, but worth it

Ordering mine tomorrow

jpower

Jahmoo wrote:

I have just demo'd a Roubaix SL4 Disc.

I have been riding a Flat Bar Hybrid for many year due to back injury but have found it sooooooo Booooooring!!!

I have been out for 2x 13ml rides and a 20mler over this weekend and I have to say the Roubaix is AWESOME!!! I was not too fussed with the disc, but as a big fella I may consider it.

I had 6-700 to spend, but the S Works Carbon Frame comes with a lifetime warranty, so means upgrades over the years is a must. Little bit more expensive, but worth it

Ordering mine tomorrow

So you doubled your budget? Lifetime warranty? Upgrades like?

Did you test drive any others to compare?

jpower

So went to shops, and straight away he points me at the Roubaix SL4 like there is no other possible option, and to be fair it felt great on the test drive, left a deposit as its on sale, so I can think about it some more. Not sure what I am suppose to think about though. It's £150 over budget.

Found a site showing the 2015 model: http://www.hibike.de/shop/product/p8216 ... r_12789348 and it seems its just the seatpost that got upgraded, plus I am not a fan of the paintwork.

Jahmoo

No one else has a bike to give me for a Demo ride, so no, I feel that a pedal round the car park is like a trial of a hairdresser that Combes your hair and pretends to cut it, waste of time.

I have put 43mls on the Roubaix and no one else has this to offer, so my LBS is offering me a great service for a great bike, one which I am comfy on and can ride.

I am not liking the Sora groupset, I have been advised by some it needs setting up correctly, also I will be looking at changing the wheelset in spring next year as well. So upgrades include Wheelset and maybe groupset!

I have doubled my budget as this bike will give me much fun on the road. I have been riding a Hybrid since 2008 due to back issue and now at a point of complete boredom. Carbon frame is so much better to ride, it just feels so good.

If someone wants to give me a Felt or Giant to demo over the weekend then I may consider another, if not I will go with what works

Anonymous

rodgers73 wrote:

I have the Secteur Sport triple. Got it for £580 in the Evans sale back in 2010. I've done shed loads on it since then, including London Paris twice. It'll be fine for you.

You don't need disc brakes and the Roubaix is far too much to spend on a first bike!

How do you work that out? OP is paying 30-40% less than ticket price (interest free over a year) anyway, so hardly any more than you spent.

So you have had your bike 4 years? When are you saying the OP should get his second bike if you are saying he should get a secteur as his first?

Are you really saying that the OP should suffer on a Secteur until about 2020 when he could have a nicer bike now to do all those miles on?

Get a better bike now and change the word 'fine' in the text above to 'great'.

jpower

Thanks for the replies. I'm almost there about 80% sold.

I agree test ride is not long enough, but even in that short distance I can tell it's a hell of a lot better then what I have. But a proper ride would have been much better.

Does it count as my first bike, yes first road bike but I have had specialized MTB and hybrid for quite a few years, FairPlay not racked up as much mileage as I should or have done this year.

So only bugger was that I could not try the Secteur Triple £650 which I hope would have set my mind to rest once and for all. However this is the same shop and sales guy that helped me buy the other two, albeit on much smaller budgets but been happy with them and still love my MTB. I think I just wanted to be sure that extra money is really getting me a better bike because in RRP it's double the price so I would assume it is. Anyone can confirm?

Onto spending more money, so I plan to get them to swap the

1. tyres out for Armadillo Elite, heard there harsh ride but I don't want punctures rumour has it I can lower the PSI to compensate for the ride a little.
2. Swap seat post for the COBL GOBL-R CARBON SEATPOST one with the damping in it. (Anyone with experience?)
3. Water Cage
4. High pressure pump
5. Spare tube
Future would consider cleats.

Anything else accessories wise to consider as I figure my bargaining power is at best on bike purchase.

Gaz777

There's quite a few Armadillo tyres in the range now; I use the all condition ones during winter, but the Roubaix Elite ones in the summer, on my Roubaix. They're the dearest ones in the range, and apparently have decent rolling resistance as well as the puncture protection. I've not found them harsh, grip is good, and I have had no punctures in 3,000 miles. I do a lot of late night miles so that's important to me.

I also recently changed to the CG-R seat post. Over normal ground, I couldn't notice any difference, but over rough tarmac it's impressive, and you can feel the deflection take the hit out of the bumps. When I first started using it, I thought I hadn't done the clamp up enough and the post was moving down, but it was just the damping!

I know this doesn't help much, but if you're tempted by the bike, I really like mine and would happily recommend it.

HTH,

Gareth

jpower

Gaz777 wrote:

There's quite a few Armadillo tyres in the range now; I use the all condition ones during winter, but the Roubaix Elite ones in the summer, on my Roubaix. They're the dearest ones in the range, and apparently have decent rolling resistance as well as the puncture protection. I've not found them harsh, grip is good, and I have had no punctures in 3,000 miles. I do a lot of late night miles so that's important to me.

I also recently changed to the CG-R seat post. Over normal ground, I couldn't notice any difference, but over rough tarmac it's impressive, and you can feel the deflection take the hit out of the bumps. When I first started using it, I thought I hadn't done the clamp up enough and the post was moving down, but it was just the damping!

I know this doesn't help much, but if you're tempted by the bike, I really like mine and would happily recommend it.

HTH,

Gareth

Trust me it helps a lot, its that kind of reassurance I am looking for, especially as I go further and further over budget, but I got some birthday money that I've kept aside for sometime that could go towards the extras.

Gaz777

Well, I use the bike as my summer bike and it was a pleasure starting to use it again in the spring after using my winter bike so that's a good thing! I don't have sora, but a guy I ride with does on his bike and hasn't had any issues.

Not everyone uses them, but you might want to get a saddlebag/seat pack when you're negotiating for accessories. I don't like keeping everything in my jersey so the spare tube etc are in this. Go for the bike and hopefully you'll enjoy it as much as me, as I still look forward to using mine every time I take it out

Initialised

I've owned the Secteur Sport Disc for about 15 months.

A 56cm bike weighs in at just over 11kg so not light and you feel it in the climbs, that said I'd be faster if I could shake off the last 10kg or so of gut. It is stiff and with 28mm tyres on it handles like a hardtail on rough tarmac and light off road paths and wet grip is really good.

The standard 28mm Espoir Sport tyres are good and very puncture resistant, the rear lasted about 4000 miles, I switched to Espoir Elite 23mm, similarly good but the odd pinch puncture. Wet grip was good but not as good as the 28mm but better than the Vredstein Fortezza Duocomps I'm using now. TBH it's a bit harsh on 23mms but that doesn't stop me taking it on gravel and the odd bit of dry single track.

I'm doing about 22 miles a day on it at the moment and am enjoying every ride.

After about a year and maybe 8000 miles both brake calipers (BB5) seized, the rear went first. You may be able to prevent this by applying copperslip to the threads and the back of the inboard brake pads. Anyway, I replaced these with TRP Parabox Hydraulics. Last year I was the only guy at most of the events I attended on a road bike with discs this year I suspect that I'll be less of a minority. By 2016 the pros will be ringing discs on mountain and cobbled stages and races. No, you don't need disc brakes most of the time, but those times when they are the difference between a controlable skid and a crash you'll be glad you've got them.

Mechanicals I've suffered have been a snapped rear hangar (I may have weakened this by running a chain that was too short), this destroyed the rear mech so I have a 105 on there now. The freewheel failed, this was a warranty repair. I snapped the rear gear cable at the shifter. Then there's the brakes which I'd planned on upgrading anyway.

The new Secteur has Zertz inserts which may reduce the harshness on smaller rubber. Basically the Roubaix is the Secteur with a carbon fibre frame. Of course if you can afford and justify it go for the Roubaix, I would.

jpower

All very positive. To throw a spanner in the works I've gone bananas tonight, I only ever looked at the SL4 because it was slightly over my budget and now I'm getting comfortable with it I starting looking up the range and the Sport paintwork is killing me, yes better components too but the red is reflecting in my eye.

So I came up with this daring plan if I drop the seatpost that about £150 and add that to the bike £1300 and try getting the dealer to drop the sport model to £1300 considering the 2015 are coming out.

Am I mad or do I stand a chance? Sometimes I do hate red :-)

Gaz777

I don't wish to encourage you or anything but mine is a sport and all I'll say is that it looks much, much better in real life than it does in photos..... So if you like the pictures.....

jpower

Gaz777 wrote:

I don't wish to encourage you or anything but mine is a sport and all I'll say is that it looks much, much better in real life than it does in photos..... So if you like the pictures.....

You know for a second I thought ahh it's just a tiny spec of red, I could put some ketchup on it then I went to google images and saw it's got a lot more red then the specialized site is showing.

Any tips on how to approach the dealer? Without a hammer?

Gaz777

All the marketing pics barely show the red, but the bike actually has a lot! Really makes it with the subtle grey stickers.

I discussed what I wanted with my LBS (who are excellent) and he was willing to do a deal on the total price of everything I bought that day. I think I ended up with about £300 off my total bill, which made it far cheaper than I could find it for anywhere on the internet, but with the backup of a local shop, who I've now bought 3 bikes from and soon to be 4 (I have a problem!!). I reckon 10% off list for the bike shouldn't be too hard to achieve.

Gaz777

Here's mine a couple of months ago as it's ridden (hence it has bits on like light mounts which I guess you should take off for photos!), the only change from that pic until now is the CG-R post.

jpower

Oh man I think I don't like you anymore :-)

Will be making a call tomorrow, the dealers actually on my morning ride tomorrow, problem is I'm looking for more then 10% just under 20% else I may hold out and see if they mark them down.

Damn that RED, does look good :-)

Gaz777

Neither does my missus

I don't think 20% would be impossible, so well worth asking the question, especially as the dealers have had the 2015 range launch already so may be looking to run down stock they're holding.

The red was my favourite colour scheme, and this one was much more affordable than the s-works frame with the same paint!

Mikey23

Got a 2011 roubaix comp with 105 in 2012 in similar circumstances. Just went into the shop, was shown it as an option, knew it was right from first sight and fell in love with it. Two years on and many thousands of miles later, its still a cracking bike and im hugely impressed with it. Set up perfectly for me and i cant think of riding anything else. Enjoy!

jpower

So went into the dealer, but for the time being there not willing to do anything, said they got 34 in stock in my size and probably a month to shift them.

I think I'm gonna play the waiting game, deposit is down on the SL4 will wait it out a month, checking there site daily for some good fortune. Really frustrating as I am running out of gears on my hybrid and watch the racer stroll paste me with little effort, grrrrrrrr.

Fingers crossed for me.

Oh is it worth trying different dealers, or do they stick to the same line?

Jahmoo

Where are you based? What if we go in to my LBS and ask for 2x Roubaix Sports!!! Might get us some discount.

jpower

Jahmoo wrote:

Where are you based? What if we go in to my LBS and ask for 2x Roubaix Sports!!! Might get us some discount.

I right next to M25 J16, ub9 postcode. I go to Specialized Concept Store in Ruislip, I could ask them and see they do anything, but then collection would be an issue for yourself. Also I don't really want a little off, I got to get close to £1300 also you are welcome to try your local LBS see what they say.

Catch is I left a deposit on SL4 as it was sale price, I'm assuming it's refundable but not sure, as mentioned before am getting via b2w scheme and I missed my company cut off date by a day, so voucher won't come through till Aug 15th or shortly after, I know some places take card payment, then when you get voucher they take voucher and refund your card.

Only been a day and the wait seems too long

jpower

Forgot to mention, I tried 3-4 other places and all basically said no discount on Specialized RRP price only. NOTE that was for 1 only.

Jahmoo

Will speak with them tomorrow, need to see if I want to spend the extra money for the upgrade, but I am liking the colour and the Groupset of the Sport, but then the money I am saving on the Roubaix Disc Demo bike might be too good to miss at the moment...

Bugga, Bugga, Bugga...

I will message you tomorrow