Which best value carbon road bike.

Jamesrh

I'm looking at my first carbon road bike.
I have a 7005 training bike and a half alloy racing bike with a cracked head tube.
Since its the end of the season i thought i might buy a discount carbon bike to replace the half alloy racing bike.

I have 4)6 contenders
1) Felt f7 £680
2) wiggle veranti insight o4 £680
3) Forme axe edge £600
4) Giant carbon tcr
5) plant x £699
6) mekk poggio 1.5

Specs are all around same sora and basic wheels so my question is which has best frame?
If the veranti same as on higher spec bike ie the 24t high mod spec.
Forms doesn't seem to be same as high spec as higher bikes nor does felt. Planet x / Ribble seems like older frame design
James

ayjaycee

Why the carbon hang up? For that sort of money, you might be better off buying an aluminium bike with carbon forks and a better group set.

dowtcha

Why is there this BR hang up that when anyone asks which carbon frame some one chimes in about a aluminum frame. With end of season discounts nows a great time to buy, You can get a TCR 3 with tiagra for 829 from paulscycles. I would take a bike with a good frame and lesser group set than a cheap frame with a higher groupset every time.

ayjaycee

I have no problem with carbon per se, indeed I have one as my main bike. My comment was more about whether cheap carbon is any better than aly at the £700 budget that the OP seems to be working on and I suspect not! It's been a while since I did maths at school but If £700 is indeed the budget, the last time I looked that was significantly less than £829 you mention.

StillGoing

ayjaycee wrote:

I have no problem with carbon per se, indeed I have one as my main bike. My comment was more about whether cheap carbon is any better than aly at the £700 budget that the OP seems to be working on and I suspect not! It's been a while since I did maths at school but If £700 is indeed the budget, the last time I looked that was significantly less than £829 you mention.

Dowtcha wrote:

Why is there this BR hang up that when anyone asks which carbon frame some one chimes in about a aluminum frame. With end of season discounts nows a great time to buy, You can get a TCR 3 with tiagra for 829 from paulscycles. I would take a bike with a good frame and lesser group set than a cheap frame with a higher groupset every time.

I agree about the buying the best frameset you can, but I also agree that at the price being discussed, an aluminium frame is probably going to be better quality than a carbon one.

dowtcha

Ooops thought the budget was 800.

Jamesrh

For me the frame is the very heart of the bike.
So getting a good frame is important.
Why carbon? Well i have done steel 531 and alloy / carbon so wanted to try all carbon.
Willing to pay more if spec warrents it. So a £800 105 bike would def be on the cards!!
There seens little info as to frame ingredients the veranti looks a bargin in that light.
Felt and forme have little info.
James

singleton

A carbon frame is not better than an aluminium frame per se.

Carbon is a material and Aluminium is a material - the significant issue is how the material is used to design and build a bike frame - some carbon frames are heavier and weaker than similarly priced aluminium frames.

If you can stretch a bit, you may find a SuperSix 105 and that would be a great option.

timothyw

[url=http://www.bikeradar.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=19728302#p19728302]Dowtcha[/url] wrote:

Why is there this BR hang up that when anyone asks which carbon frame some one chimes in about a aluminum frame. With end of season discounts nows a great time to buy, You can get a TCR 3 with tiagra for 829 from paulscycles. I would take a bike with a good frame and lesser group set than a cheap frame with a higher groupset every time.

Yep, that's what I did - TCR Advanced 3 - Lovely bike. Sooner or later I'll pop an ultegra/105 group on it, but the Tiagra runs really nicely too.

I was able to get it on cyclescheme, making it even cheaper - in time, with a newer group and new wheels it'll feel like a new bike all over again.

I wouldn't rule out another alu frame, but I already own a black aluminium crosslight which I like a lot, so a white carbon fibre bike to complement it appealed to me.

It's not particularly light, but it is very stiff, which I wanted.

darkhairedlord

if you read the OP there was no budget mentioned.
I would pay a bit more than those on the list and get a discounted supersix.
Never met anyone ever that has regretted buying one. (other than those complaining about BB30).

redvision

What i think people are trying to say is for the average price of a cheaper end carbon bike you could get an excellent aluminium frame with a far better groupset. This said, in the sales you can get some cracking deals.

My advice to the OP is not to get hung up on the idea of having a carbon frame just because it is carbon. Find a few and test ride as many of them as you can. Its more important to get a correct frame size than a bike which has nicer looks or better components but is too big or small.

Fisherprice

Looking at the recommendation of the Super Six evo 105 I can see it on sale for £999.

a) is that a good price?

b) during search I found it being called a super six evo 105 5 and also a 6 but it appears to be the same bike - what is the difference?

c) is this better option than canyon cf endurace 7.0?

hypster

In my experience a budget carbon frame is more likely to ride better than a budget aluminium one, especially from big name manufacturers.

JesseD

[url=http://www.bikeradar.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=19728683#p19728683]hypster[/url] wrote:

In my experience a budget carbon frame is more likely to ride better than a budget aluminium one, especially from big name manufacturers.

I would agree, however for the same price (£700 - £1000) I would get an aluminium frame over a carbon one any day of the week. As has previously been pointed out at this price point you are getting a high end aluminium frameset, whereas with carbon you would be getting something at the lower end of the range, so for me aluminium wins out every time.

The caveat to this is buying something heavily discounted in the sales which brings a higher end bike into the price bracket, either that or buy used/second-hand.

ayjaycee

[/quote] I would agree, however for the same price (£700 - £1000) I would get an aluminium frame over a carbon one any day of the week. As has previously been pointed out at this price point you are getting a high end aluminium frameset, whereas with carbon you would be getting something at the lower end of the range, so for me aluminium wins out every time.[/quote]

Exactly what I was trying to say in the first place - sorry if I wasn't clear.

ianbar

caad 8 tiagra 2016 is £800 but also seen 2015 caad 8 105 for £749!

i have a slightly older caad 8 tiagra which i have since mad up to 105. its a great bike for that price i don't think you can do much better.

Bozman

I'd go for a secondhand TCR or something similar.
I've been looking for a winter bike over the past month and I''ve noticed plenty of mint 6800 Ultegra equipped bikes around the £800 mark, folk seem to splash the cash on a decent bike and then realise that cycling isn't for them.

ayjaycee

Bozman, Out of interest, where are you looking for 2nd hand bikes? One never knows when the N+1 bug.

watfordduck

I've just got a Supersix Evo 105 for £999 and I love it. Have ridden Enigma titanium before (still love that) but the Cannondale is light and fast...definitely worth a thought.

hypster

[url=http://www.bikeradar.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=19728705#p19728705]JesseD[/url] wrote:

I would agree, however for the same price (£700 - £1000) I would get an aluminium frame over a carbon one any day of the week. As has previously been pointed out at this price point you are getting a high end aluminium frameset, whereas with carbon you would be getting something at the lower end of the range, so for me aluminium wins out every time.

The caveat to this is buying something heavily discounted in the sales which brings a higher end bike into the price bracket, either that or buy used/second-hand.

How are you getting high end aluminium at this price point? The groupset and wheels will be roughly equivalent so no way are you getting high end anything.

I would agree with getting something heavily discounted in the sales but that equally applies to whatever the frame material is.

MisterMuncher

Well, with the CAAD12 being released, CAAD10 prices are tumbling. It has, quite rightly, been a benchmark in Aluminium, and if the fit suits, you'll not do much better. A rare time to get stiff, light and cheap all at once.

rsilvers

This wasn't listed, but I like the Giant Propel Advanced-2. In the US they are on sale for around $1900. Also in the US, there is a local bike store that has Fuji carbon with partial 105 for $1400 USD or partial Ultegra for $1500 USD. I assume it has aluminum forks for that price.

iron-clover

I personally would go alloy with a budget less than around £1500, although if you can get a decent frame and put the components on I would go for that.

The Kinesis Aithin would make for a great racing machine, and you could just transfer your parts from your broken racer and you're good to go.

Caad10 and 12 will probably be good too.

If your budget can stretch to the BMC SLR03 then you'll get a good carbon frame with the same geometry as pros use which would be fine for racing on if the reviews are accurate. Unfortunately in the UK it's only available as a complete bike though.
You could also go for a Planet x frame- the Pro carbon frame is ludicrously cheap, but they do have mixed reviews so I probably wouldn't want to buy one for racing on before trying one out for myself.

Good luck!

Jamesrh

£1500 will buy a nice carbon specialized or cannondale. Good enough for most except the pros. I see brownlees training on boardman carbon bikes £1000.
I like the forme but it does seem a bit heavy could just be the wheels?
Jamws

ayjaycee

As usual when you ask for bike buying advice on BR, you will get 30 replies with 28 different potential solutions - to paraphrase, the French manager of a Premiershiship team from North London 'everybody thinks they have the prettiest wife at home'. FWIW, I would support the Jamesrh suggestion of a Cannondale Synapse Carbon105 if you are interested in a so called 'endurance frame' - that particular bike also got a very good write up in, I think, Cycling Active last month and you might even get one for less than the £1500 mentioned by James if you hunt around. I've got the Ultegra version which is a seriously good bike over distance. I think it has exactly the same frame as the 105 model and it just seems to soak up the lumps and bumps in the roads around my way . I've also got an aly Specialized Allez Elite with Tiagra. It's another very good bike but but a different ride and I just find the Synapse better all round (which it should be as it costs twice as much!).

James also mentioned the fact that the Brownlees rode Boardmans - I've got nothing against that make as I have never ridden one but I suspect that the Brownlees choice is dictated by the fact that they get given bikes to ride rather than having to pay from their own pockets.

Jamesrh

Late to the party
http://www.edinburghbicycle.com/products/revolution-wraith-14?bct=browse%2fbicycles%2froad-bikes
I like the look of the matt black. The frame is light.
Spec is similar to others wheels OK but I have a pair of r550.

James