New all-season Road Bike under £1k - Specialized Diverge?

cyclinghaggis

I'm looking for a new bike to replace my existing 2008 Specialized Allez. I'm after a bike with a slightly more relaxed geometry for longer rides and want something with fittings/clearance for full length Mudguards. It'll still be used pretty much exlusively on tarmac so would want to run slick tyres. This doesn't rule out cyclocross bikes but means I'd probably want to replace any knobblies straight away for smoother rubber.

As you might have guessed from the thread title I'm contemplating a Specialized Diverge (standard or sport)? Anyone else on here with one? Also, anything else in a similar price range from other manufacturers worth considering?

I'm also slightly unsure about whether to go for a 52cm or 54cm one. Most sizing charts suggest that at 5"9 I should be on a 54cm model but my current Allez is a 54cm and that was pretty uncomfortable until I replaced the 100mm stem with a 75mm one. That kind of suggests that a 54cm is too big for me? I'd probably want to try out both sizes before making a decision given that the geometry is different on the Diverge but I'd also be interested to hear if any riders are a similar height to myself and what size of Diverge they're riding.

Would appreciate hearing any thoughts, advice or recommendations for my current predicament?

cyclinghaggis

I should probably add that I'm not racing competitively or anything so a touring style bike might also be an option? I just liked the idea of something like a Diverge as was worried a tourer might be unnecessarily heavy as I wouldn't really need a rack/panniers for most of the time.

Is there much difference in speed between a light alloy road bike and a steel tourer? I'm currently averaging about 16 mph on my Allez on most of my runs.

keef66

Kinesis Racelight 4S. (stands for four seasons) Sprightly alloy frame, clearance / mounting points for full mudguards / rack.

I have it's ancestor the Racelight Tk, which was at the time called a winter trainer, but made a brilliant all year round bike. Since then it's evolved a slightly higher front end, a tapered headtube and a much better fork. Reviews are all good.

Bought mine from Epic Cycles and had it custom built with components of my choosing, but I'm sure you can find the 4S as a complete build somewhere.

My Tk is still going strong after 8 years, and despite the fact I have a carbon bike for drier weather, I still ride it a lot.

cyclinghaggis

[url=http://www.bikeradar.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=19631189#p19631189]keef66[/url] wrote:

Kinesis Racelight 4S. (stands for four seasons) Sprightly alloy frame, clearance / mounting points for full mudguards / rack.

It does look nice but glancing at a couple of reviews the geometry looks a bit aggressive for my liking. I'd prefer a road bike where the top of the hoods are going to be about level with the saddle. I probably need to try and compare the geometry with my Allez but I'd like something a bit more comfort orientated than it.

keef66

back when I bought my Tk it had a reputation for a long top tube / short head tube because it was designed as a winter trainer for those wanting similar geometry to their summer race bikes. Because I'm a bit of a shortarse I needed the 51cm frame for the reach, but have it with several spacers and a flipped stem so the saddle to bar drop isn't much at all. It is all day comfortable.

The later incarnations have seen it evolve into a more upright beast billed as a year round distance bike, so it should be possible to achieve a modest saddle to bar drop if that's what you want.

Another value option is the Planet X London Road; not as light but has disc brakes. And available in a rather jaunty glow-in-the-dark Sellafield green

bendertherobot

London Road, definitely

w00dster

Lots of choices, doubt there's much between and each owner will say how much they love there's....
I'm in the Genesis camp personally. I'd be looking at a Croix Der Fer, UK bikes depot have a 52 ex demo bike for £700. (You sound like a 52 to me, impossible to say over the inter web though).
I have a Genesis Cdf that I absolutely love. It's silky smooth. It can take full mud guards but not with the 34 or 35 wide tyres i use. Mine see's a lot of Tarmac and also forest trails. It's such a comfortable bike to ride. It's also used as the winter club bike, keeps up no problems on 60/70 mile club rides. It's obviously heavier and the wider tyres means slower than my summer bike, but it's still a great fun bike to ride.
Trek Crossrip also might be an option? I've had a play on a cross course last winter, nice bike and the one inrose had expensive tubular wheels so can't really give to much of an insight.

cyclinghaggis

[url=http://www.bikeradar.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=19631396#p19631396]w00dster[/url] wrote:

Lots of choices, doubt there's much between and each owner will say how much they love there's....
I'm in the Genesis camp personally. I'd be looking at a Croix Der Fer,

Trek Crossrip also might be an option? I've had a play on a cross course last winter, nice bike and the one inrose had expensive tubular wheels so can't really give to much of an insight.

Genesis Croix De Fer looks like an option but I'd definitely have to replace the standard tyres if it wont take mudguards with the 700x37 knobblies on it.

Never realised that Trek had a bike like the Crossrip which pretty much looks like their equivalent of the Diverge. The geometry on it looks right up my street. I'm gonna give my local Trek dealer a shout and see if they have any in stock I can check out.

Pricing does seem a bit steep though. Not to be an groupset snob but £850 for what's effectively an aluminium road bike with a lowest tier Shimano Claris groupset and Tektro mechanical disc brakes sounds a bit ridiculous. I'll check it out anyway though as I like the look of the bike and better components are available on the pricier models!

Speaking of pricing some cracking deals available on Planet X. I'm not sure about the London road though as I'm kind of between sizes. They do a small/52 for riders 5"3 to 5"7 which is almost certainly going to be too little for me whereas the medium/56 is pretty comparable to my 54cm Allez and has similar geometry so I suspect I'd find it too big. I think that kind of rules out the PlanetX especially given I can't test ride it.