My first Road Bike

ndwgolf

Guys
for the last two years I have been riding my mountain bike and have thoroughly enjoyed it........I would say the last 6 months most of that time has been spent riding on the road rather than off road with my last 4 rides being well over 50 kilometres. My current and only bike is the Santa Cruz Highball CC, I was initially thinking of modifying my Santa Cruz bike so that it would be easier and faster on the road but my riding mates say that I should invest in a Road Bike. I have been looking online and also in a few shops and have come down to these two bikes:
Trek Madone 6 SLR
Specialised Roubaix Comp

I really love the look of the Trek bike but I see it comes with the Shamno mechanical gear set not like the Specialized bike which has the Di2 gear set........ Is it that of a big deal to have electronic over mechanical gear changers??

Any feed back would be much appreciated

Neil

ndwgolf

Regarding size I'm in the middle of 58/61.........should I opt for the bigger or smaller frame??

Neil

dstev55

For your first road bike I really wouldn't be worrying about a choice between mechanical and electronic shifting. Shimano 105 or SRAM Rival would do you fine. I'd also consider a fairly upright bike (the Roubaix falls in to this category) as you may find it a bit of a shock going from a MTB to an aggresive road bike.

The Trek Madone 6 SLR really is a bike towards the top end of the spectrum, sonething you should build up to not buy as a first bike in my opinion. If you like Trek something like this would make a great first road bike:


https://www.allterraincycles.co.uk/trek ... 1YQAvD_BwE

ndwgolf

dstev55 wrote:

For your first road bike I really wouldn't be worrying about a choice between mechanical and electronic shifting. Shimano 105 or SRAM Rival would do you fine. I'd also consider a fairly upright bike (the Roubaix falls in to this category) as you may find it a bit of a shock going from a MTB to an aggresive road bike.

The Trek Madone 6 SLR really is a bike towards the top end of the spectrum, sonething you should build up to not buy as a first bike in my opinion. If you like Trek something like this would make a great first road bike:


https://www.allterraincycles.co.uk/trek ... 1YQAvD_BwE

Thanks for the feedback. On Friday I will go and see both bikes in the flesh and make my mind up then........I do love the look of the Trek Madone 7 STR with the Di2 shifters
Neil

Bottom briquettes

ndwgolf wrote:

Regarding size I'm in the middle of 58/61.........should I opt for the bigger or smaller frame??

Neil

If you find yourself in the middle of a manufacturers frame sizes, generally you’ll find the smaller frame will feel more responsive, than the larger frame. You can change certain key components to fine tune either side of the frame size divide, but left ‘as is’ most people will find the smaller frame gives a more responsive ride.