Carbon Road Bike Upgrade

jfrankland1991

I'm looking to upgrade to a carbon road bike for the summer. I currently ride a Defy 1 but have been looking at endurance carbon road bike options.

I've come down to two options - Trek Domane 4.5 or Cube Attain GTC Race.

I love the look of the Domane and the isospeed decoupler seems neat but I am put off by not having full ultegra which the Attain does.

I've heard mixed reviews of the Domane but haven't seen a full review of the Attain as yet. Given the spec and what seems to be a very good price I'm leaning towards the Cube but I would appreciate a bit of advice.

Has anyone ridden or own either of the bikes?

Thanks in advance!

rando

I own 2 Trek Domanes - 2.3 as my winter bike and 5.2 as my summer bike.
I havn't ridden the Cube Attain so cannot make any comment on that bike.
My Domanes are great and the isospeed decoupler does seem to smooth out the bumps on our crap UK roads. I do find the 5.2 carbon slightly more foregiving than the 2.3 alu. I have done century rides on both and wouldn't hesitate in recommending the Domane but I know Trek bikes do divide opinion due to their past history of a certain Lance bloke !!
I went for the 5.2 rather than the 4.5 as i wanted full ultegra and internal cabling - maybe you can ask the shop to upgrade the 4.5 to full ultegra for a small price. When i purchased my 2.3 it wasn't full 105 but as part of the deal i got it upgraded to the full 105 package.
I would certainly try and get a decent test ride on both Trek and Cube though before spending that sort of cash. One of them may suit you better than the other.
Good luck.

jfrankland1991

Thanks for your help. Haha, even the connection with him wouldn't put me off the bike I want! Yeah that's the only thing that's putting me off the Domane, by the sounds of the guy in the shop I went into have a look at your looking at least another £200 to upgrade to full ultegra and £1800 for the 4.5 is at the top of my budget anyway.

What are the bontrager wheels like on the trek by the way?

I'm definitely going to test ride them both to see what it's like, the £50 deposit for a test ride on the trek is refundable sounds like a no brainer, going to have a look at the cube later this week.

rando

I have only ever owned Trek road bikes so have only had Bontrager wheels so nothing to compare them against. On my 5.2 i had the rear wheel replaced after 18 months due to the rim cracking around the spokes. It was all done under warranty so was happy with that.
What size bike are you in a Trek as i notice that Evans cycles have the 2015 5.2 at £1800 in a 58cm (it the orange colour so you may not like it anyway).
I would try and negotiate with the bike shop on a 4.5 to get the full ultegra thrown in.

jfrankland1991

Okay fair enough, I guess those things can happen, good that it was sorted through the warranty. I am actually a 58cm so could consider that one and I would go through evans if I bought the trek, like you say I'm not a massive fan of the colour, I'll see what they say about the full ultegra and what price they can do it for. The 5.2 does sound like a good deal though, is it the 2015 5.2 that you have?

rando

I have the 2014 5.2 which is all black. My 2.3 is all white which really for my winter bike is not the best colour !

jfrankland1991

I bet! I used to have a white bike and it was a nightmare to keep clean! How do you find the Domane climbing wise?

daniel_b

Personally I think that looks really nice, I get a bit bored with all the plain colours that have proliferated over the last 7 years or so.


If you go Evans, check your employer to see if they have a discount scheme - mine does, and it means you can buy a voucher at 10% below actual value - have used it to save over £200 on both mine and my gf's winter bikes.

rando

jfrankland1991 wrote:

I bet! I used to have a white bike and it was a nightmare to keep clean! How do you find the Domane climbing wise?

Only having owned Domane's then I can't really compare for climbing but it gets me up the hills ! Only hill that has ever beat me was Hardknott on the coast to coast last year and this wasn't the bikes fault but more my technique. I just couldn't keep the front wheel on the tarmac on the really steep section and just fell off !! Unfortunately I believe climbing hills is all about the legs and lungs rather than the bike.

penski

Did you end up buying a bike?

I'm interested in the new Cube Agree too, but like yourself can't find much in the way of reviews or experiences for it.