Budget £9k, choose me a bike.

gweeds

It would be a very boring world if everyone rode around on £1k bikes

Wheelspinner

This: http://hollandcycles.com/holland-exojet/

What's not to like? Carbon, titanium, packable into a travel box...

ugo.santalucia

Gweeds wrote:

It would be a very boring world if everyone rode around on £1k bikes

First world statement of the year?

gweeds

Nope. Just true.

I assume you just have one pair of shoes. No-one needs more.

ugo.santalucia

Gweeds wrote:

Nope. Just true.

I assume you just have one pair of shoes. No-one needs more.

Two... I leave one pair at work, as I cycle in and I keep one pair at home. Then I have one pair of cycling shoes too, so three... I also have a pair of walking boots, so four, unless you want to count even a pair of Birrckenstock type sandals that have seen better days, which would make five, probably even so in the top 10% of the world.

I know what you mean, but the way you said it did sound terribly snobbish and needed to be challenged... it's a bit like saying "I try to avoid hotels that don't serve caviar for breakfast"

gweeds

It didn't really though did it.

And snobbish? Please.

The thread is about someone buying a dream bike. Not the economics of need vs want.

ugo.santalucia

Gweeds wrote:

The thread is about someone buying a dream bike. Not the economics of need vs want.

I know, but what you said and even more the way you said it, was very wrong on so many levels... it endorses some kind of class divide, where those who can only afford to spend 1 K on a bike are somehow boring and lesser people... while the beauty is in diversity, where diversity is intended as the inequal spread of wealth, which allow some to spend ridiculous sums of money on a bicycle and therefore elevate themselves from the dullness and boredom...

Maybe it's just me...

gweeds

Jesus man. Talk about reading more into it.

My point was nothing more than enforcing some sort of arbitrary £1k price point makes no sense. To some that's a pittance and to others a fortune. 'twas ever thus. The OP has the money. You somehow decide that he should only spend 10% of that.

To see that comment as some sort of class divide.....

marcusjb

Guernsey Donkey wrote:

Finally, I have to say that I really really like marcusjb's suggestion of a tandem but I'm damn sure that I would be stokerless (and probably divorced!)!

Well, the saying goes, whatever direction your relationship is heading in, a tandem will get you there quicker.

But, seriously, try it. Go away for a weekend and go and see someone like Pete in Ironbridge to give you a lesson in riding a tandem.

Tandems are really the only way my wife and I can ride together without getting pissed off at each other. No waiting at the top of hills etc., we can ride along chatting, my wife can look around, take photos etc. Riding tandems relies on really good communication - the rear rider is generally dealing with all the navigating and then signalling etc. (Up front, I never look behind at junctions, I move lanes when told to do so and put my total trust in my wife to make sure it is safe to do so in much the same way she has to put her total trust in me that I am going to steer the bike properly etc!).

Tandems force you to meet in the middle, and neither rider can (should) force a pace slower/faster than the other rider can deliver. They are ferociously fast on the flat stuff and can go down hill at terrifying speed. Generally climb at a fairly sedate pace than solos (it takes quite some skill to ride out of the saddle on tandems, so most of us rely on low gears and plodding away).

We have done a few tours on our tandem, and now we have one that can fly easily, we have more planned.

Tandems fascinate people, and you have to get used to being the centre of attention whenever you roll into a cafe, camp site etc.; the whole thing of two people working together really appeals to people and so many questions are asked.

They are expensive rare bikes though (a decent tandem can easily be £3-4K without thinking about S&S couplings etc). Particularly if you want anything that can fly, it is easy to spend your budget and more. There's plenty of racing exotica at £10k + (not that I would recommend that for a first tandem!).

I would recommend trying a tandem for anyone! But it is worth going to somewhere like JD or Ironbridge and getting a proper lesson, as there is quite a bit of counter intuitive stuff when riding them.

ugo.santalucia

marcusjb wrote:

Guernsey Donkey wrote:

Finally, I have to say that I really really like marcusjb's suggestion of a tandem but I'm damn sure that I would be stokerless (and probably divorced!)!

Well, the saying goes, whatever direction your relationship is heading in, a tandem will get you there quicker.

But, seriously, try it. Go away for a weekend and go and see someone like Pete in Ironbridge to give you a lesson in riding a tandem.

Tandems are really the only way my wife and I can ride together without getting pissed off at each other. No waiting at the top of hills etc., we can ride along chatting, my wife can look around, take photos etc. Riding tandems relies on really good communication - the rear rider is generally dealing with all the navigating and then signalling etc. (Up front, I never look behind at junctions, I move lanes when told to do so and put my total trust in my wife to make sure it is safe to do so in much the same way she has to put her total trust in me that I am going to steer the bike properly etc!).

Tandems force you to meet in the middle, and neither rider can (should) force a pace slower/faster than the other rider can deliver. They are ferociously fast on the flat stuff and can go down hill at terrifying speed. Generally climb at a fairly sedate pace than solos (it takes quite some skill to ride out of the saddle on tandems, so most of us rely on low gears and plodding away).

We have done a few tours on our tandem, and now we have one that can fly easily, we have more planned.

Tandems fascinate people, and you have to get used to being the centre of attention whenever you roll into a cafe, camp site etc.; the whole thing of two people working together really appeals to people and so many questions are asked.

They are expensive rare bikes though (a decent tandem can easily be £3-4K without thinking about S&S couplings etc). Particularly if you want anything that can fly, it is easy to spend your budget and more. There's plenty of racing exotica at £10k + (not that I would recommend that for a first tandem!).

I would recommend trying a tandem for anyone! But it is worth going to somewhere like JD or Ironbridge and getting a proper lesson, as there is quite a bit of counter intuitive stuff when riding them.

It's very good advice, the OP could split the 9K between a road bike (say 4K) and a tandem (5K), getting two top of the range bikes instead of one overpriced one.
I have looked at tandems myself, but decent ones are too expensive for my pockets.... so far I got a 40 quid frame to build up, but I haven't progressed since... :?

fenix

With 9k budget it'd be nice to buy one of those bikes for Africa. A small donation like that would make a huge difference over there.

ugo.santalucia

coriordan wrote:

Why would you have to necessarily be old and fat? There are plenty of fit young and healthy people who have money to spend on bikes?

But the OP does not belong to the age group you describe...

Elfed

ugo.santalucia wrote:

coriordan wrote:

Why would you have to necessarily be old and fat? There are plenty of fit young and healthy people who have money to spend on bikes?

But the OP does not belong to the age group you describe...

If you've no meaningful comments to contribute towards this thread's topic, which is a man wanting to spend £9000 on a bike, why bother?

What's with all the bitterness?

ugo.santalucia

Elfed wrote:

ugo.santalucia wrote:

coriordan wrote:

Why would you have to necessarily be old and fat? There are plenty of fit young and healthy people who have money to spend on bikes?

But the OP does not belong to the age group you describe...

If you've no meaningful comments to contribute towards this thread's topic, which is a man wanting to spend £9000 on a bike, why bother?

What's with all the bitterness?

No bitterness... you must have gathered that my advice is not to bother with a 9K bike. The top of the range sits somewhere around 4 to 5K, depending how much you care about the logo on the downtube, anything more buys virtually nothing more, unless you add a motor or something extra.
The OP is seeking advice, not endorsement... had he asked whether he should buy a Venge, I would have probably stayed out of it, as I ain't got one to speak for or against.

MikeBrew

In truth, very few riders are going to get fit enough to be able to honestly say that a £1K bike is significantly holding them back, performance wise.. It's variously been said that cycling is the new golf, and in respect of equipment bragging rights, I can see that ....To be fair, bragging may be the wrong term as some folk get a nice feeling from simply owning "the best" of what ever particular consumer item they are after..... they aren't necessarily prone to shouting about it.
I get a very real sense that to many, it's* now a hobby that is almost as much to do with choosing gear, as it is to do with actually using that gear. Clearly, there is a certain pleasure to be derived from doing just that, so why not !
But 9K worth of buying satisfaction - really ..? How about 2 grand on a bike, and a 7 grand budget to take rider around some really interesting places in the world to ride said bike ? A 7k camper to tour the continent with your bike sounds like more fun a plan than a 9k bike that would, in reality, probably rarely even go outside, due to imperfect weather..



*(cycling)

ugo.santalucia

MikeBrew wrote:

In truth, very few riders are going to get fit enough to be able to honestly say that a £1K bike is significantly holding them back, performance wise.. It's variously been said that cycling is the new golf, and in respect of equipment bragging rights, I can see that ....To be fair, bragging may be the wrong term as some folk get a nice feeling from simply owning "the best" of what ever particular consumer item they are after..... they aren't necessarily prone to shouting about it.
I get a very real sense that to many, it's* now a hobby that is almost as much to do with choosing gear, as it is to do with actually using that gear. Clearly, there is a certain pleasure to be derived from doing just that, so why not !
But 9K worth of buying satisfaction - really ..? How about 2 grand on a bike, and a 7 grand budget to take rider around some really interesting places in the world to ride said bike ? A 7k camper to tour the continent with your bike sounds like more fun a plan than a 9k bike that would, in reality, probably rarely even go outside, due to imperfect weather..



*(cycling)

There should be a way to put a golden frame on a comment, so that it stands out!

gweeds

Going out on a limb here, but I'm guessing someone who's got 9k to spend and who rides an Infinito now isn't going to be shopping at the £2k market.

There's a discussion to be had around the relatives merits of pricing, but this thread probably ain't it.

Elfed

Gweeds wrote:

Going out on a limb here, but I'm guessing someone who's got 9k to spend and who rides an Infinito now isn't going to be shopping at the £2k market.

There's a discussion to be had around the relatives merits of pricing, but this thread probably ain't it.

I agree, the guy who spends £9000 on a bike and a diamond ring for his wife doesn't need financial advice.
Can't this thread get back on topic or does he have to go to the Weightweenies forum for advice!

bmxboy10

How can you give advice if you don't have a £9k bike yourself? All most people are doing is suggesting what they would do mostly not based on actual experience.

newton98

I bought a >9k bike, so satisfy your minimum requirements. In fact my purchase has already been referred to up thread. If you've bought much custom stuff then you'll know the people have a lot to do with it. I love my bike but wouldn't go back to the people who imported/acted as intermediary. Also consider ongoing insurance costs, I keep >>£10k of bikes in the house and the annual premiums would buy you a reasonable set of wheels. That said, buy something you'd ride every day, originally I bought this custom carbon bike for special days, then realised it brings me much more pleasure riding it the whole time: January 100 mile salty rides, summer, wherever (even crit raced it when other bikes are broken). I think I also agree with those that suggest crowd-sourcing such a decision is missing the point.

Go work out what would bring you most pleasure and enable the most riding. Also custom bikes basically fix the compromises of off the shelf bikes. So you can have stiff race pace combined with comfort. Think hard about these sorts of attributes as most people don't .

wishitwasallflat

solboy10 wrote:

How can you give advice if you don't have a £9k bike yourself?

If I followed that line of reasoning I'd hardly ever say anything. It's just fun to speculate and dream.

DeVlaeminck

I think it's legitimate to express an opinion along the lines of why would anyone want to spend 9k on a bike - I'm sure the OP was prepared for the inevitable. 9k has to be a heart over head purchase because there is absolutely no reason to spend 9k in terms of performance - going custom is just a way to spend more money you can get as much in terms of performance and comfort in an off the peg bike by choosing the finishing kit.

Sometimes we do need someone to tell us we are being silly - it's like when my kids tell me they need the latest iphone - I'm sure we've all blown money on something we were drawn into thinking we really wanted and regretted it later - a 9k bike seems like a prime candidate to become that kind of purchase.

paulwood

I had some spare money last year so choose to buy an expensive bike, not as much as 9K but more than I would spend on a car so a significant purchase.

I went for local custom build. WyndyMilla.I know i could have got better "value" elsewhere but I loved the whole buying experience. Having a proper bike fit with the bike built from that, choosing all the components and the paint scheme, really fun. It made the bike personal to me.

Now it gets ridden whatever. OK, not in the ice and snow but pretty much for everything else. Life is too short and I smile every time it comes out of the garage. Absolutely worth it to me.

So the advice to the OP would be to get something that YOU love rather than something a reviewer considers to be the absolute best.

marcusjb

solboy10 wrote:

How can you give advice if you don't have a £9k bike yourself? All most people are doing is suggesting what they would do mostly not based on actual experience.

No one can give an opinion without personal experience?

The whole internet would be like a ghost town. All those people working in data centres redundant. Cisco employees walking the streets babbling on about the glory days. Daily mail readers slowly realising that the world is not the terrifying place they had been told it was where migrants/gay people/Islamists/paedophiles/people that are basically different to them are not lurking around every corner waiting to kill them.

Hmmm. Sounds pretty good really. But, as ever, like arseholes, we all have opinions. Some people will have direct experiences, which anyone reading should have the smarts to see the value in those. But, equally, when coming to discuss purchases of high value, there may well be some justification that skews the narrative. No one likes to admit they were wrong "I spent 9K on a bike and it rode worse than my B Twin Triban".

I do hear you, but all suggestions are just that and it is down to the OP to go do with them what they want.

secretsam

solboy10 wrote:

How can you give advice if you don't have a £9k bike yourself? All most people are doing is suggesting what they would do mostly not based on actual experience.

Seriously - that's a bit of a stone-age approach. The world is full of people taking and giving advice without the actual experience of the exact situation to back it up. For example: Doctors have not experienced all the illnesses on which they advise patients and provide care.

Anyway, back to the OP's question: £9k would be nice but actually, I'd probably buy 2-3 bikes instead. Keep the CdF for winter/hacking/soft roading, a nice road bike, a Sunday best bike, a commuting bike for the new job...I'd be scared shi7less of wiping out something costing £9k!!!! Use some of the money for nice clothes, bike fit, entry to great events, coaching, GPS, etc etc etc

PTestTeam

marcusjb wrote:

solboy10 wrote:

How can you give advice if you don't have a £9k bike yourself? All most people are doing is suggesting what they would do mostly not based on actual experience.

No one can give an opinion without personal experience?

The whole internet would be like a ghost town. All those people working in data centres redundant. Cisco employees walking the streets babbling on about the glory days. Daily mail readers slowly realising that the world is not the terrifying place they had been told it was where migrants/gay people/Islamists/paedophiles/people that are basically different to them are not lurking around every corner waiting to kill them.

Hmmm. Sounds pretty good really. But, as ever, like arseholes, we all have opinions. Some people will have direct experiences, which anyone reading should have the smarts to see the value in those. But, equally, when coming to discuss purchases of high value, there may well be some justification that skews the narrative. No one likes to admit they were wrong "I spent 9K on a bike and it rode worse than my B Twin Triban".

I do hear you, but all suggestions are just that and it is down to the OP to go do with them what they want.

If you go custom, made-to-measure you shouldn't really experience this.

And although I didn't spend £9k my experience is justified being the owner of a custom, made-to-measure hand made carbon frame

matt_n-2

For me:

Pegoretti Responsorium - made to measure with Ciavete paint
SR mechanical
Bora 35 tubs
Fizik carbon finishing kit

Trip to Italy to spec it, eat good food and drink wine.

meesterbond

Matt_N wrote:

For me:

Pegoretti Responsorium - made to measure with custom paint
SR mechanical
Bora 35 tubs
Fizik carbon finishing kit

Trip to Italy to spec it, eat good food and drink wine.

Good plan - very nearly my next build.
Although I wouldn't book the holiday yet - some time in 2018 should suffice for a Responsorium!

matt_n-2

meesterbond wrote:

Matt_N wrote:

For me:

Pegoretti Responsorium - made to measure with custom paint
SR mechanical
Bora 35 tubs
Fizik carbon finishing kit

Trip to Italy to spec it, eat good food and drink wine.

Good plan - very nearly my next build.
Although I wouldn't book the holiday yet - some time in 2018 should suffice for a Responsorium!

Will be my 40th birthday present to myself, 6 years to go!

vinnymarsden

Hi matey..

My 2pennorth would be the Parlee range… and specced up to the max.. or a hand built frame..however that may eat into your budget and you still only have a frame…still needs a good, no GREAT group set on it for that dosh!!
Parlee or something from a high end titanium frame builder would be my idea…and a Dura Ace Di2 or Sram etap to finish it off..oh and those carbon wheels you clearly NEED!!! Good luck..and re the diamond.. don't scrimp…as the film says..Diamonds are forever!!!