Choosing a Road Bike...
There is a voluminous amount of information on the 'net regarding this
subject, most of which will leave you even more confused than you might have
been before you decided to research this topic. With this in mind I'd like to
share with you my experiences of buying my most recent bike.
Up to recently I've quite happily cycled a Trek
7200fx Hybrid bike. For those who are unsure, a hybrid bike is neither a
mountain bike nor a road bike (a road bike being a racing type frame, usually with
dropped handlebars) but lies somewhere in between. It's a compromise between
comfort and speed and does this very well. This bike, at the time of purchase
(nearly three years ago), was fairly expensive at €650 but in the 3,500 miles
I've covered on it it has been near faultless. The weakest point of this bike
was the standard Matrix rim on the rear wheel. It just wasn't made for Irish
road surfaces and I'd usually break a spoke every month or so. A 'meeting' with
an unobservant motorist one morning solved this! The resultant buckled/twisted
rear wheel was replaced with a 36 hole Mavic rim built on a Shimano 105 hub,
both tyres were then replaced with the standard 700x37c tyres 'slimmed' to
700x32c. The reduction in rolling resistance immediately made the bike feel
faster but the slight downside was the noticeably harsher ride.
So, if all was so perfect, why did I change this bike? Well, in October 2004
a plan was 'hatched' for a group cycle from Ireland's most southerly point
(Mizen Head) to its most northerly point (Malin Head). Training for this event
started immediately and in the main consisted of long one-day rides each
weekend. Initially we would cover 30 to 40 miles but this rapidly increased to
60 miles or more a day. Chris O'Donoghue and I were the main participants in
these initial-training spins. During this time bike shops were visited,
supposedly just for a 'look', but inevitably some new piece of cycling
paraphernalia would be purchased. Clothes, shoes, lamps, tools, tyres and
various accessories were bought during each of these visits but more
importantly some new piece of cycling knowledge would be gleaned from the shop
assistant. The one common nugget from all of these sources was that if you were
intent on cycling distances greater than 30 miles on a regular basis then a
road bike was the machine to use. As one assistant put it to me, you can
certainly cycle from Mizen to Malin on a hybrid, but if you are in a mixed
group where some are riding road bikes then you'll be the one in bed that night
while they're down in the pub enjoying the ‘crack’. Further studies of
magazines, books and cycling forums on the 'net all suggested the same.
So, Chris bought an old but fast 10 speed Falcon racing bike. On our first
100-mile trip he used this bike while I used the Trek. All I can say is that
this was the trip that convinced me of the difference in performance and
efficiency between the two bike types. I really struggled to 'stay' with him
all day, particularly on the flat stretches where I just couldn't keep him in
sight. Previously, when we both used hybrids this was not the case. I needed to
buy a road bike.
A really useful piece of advice given to me by a veteran cyclist was to
always buy your first road bike second hand. Only then will you really know
what you want from the bike. I adopted this advice and purchased a 4-year-old,
aluminium framed, full carbon fork road bike made by a Belgian company called 'Diamant'. This bike had a Campagnolo Centaur 27-speed
group set and was in immaculate condition. The previous owner is a cycling
enthusiast and used this bike as his summer training bike. He had also upgraded
the rims to Mavic CXP33 with stainless steel spokes, tough but still light.
This was a fantastic introduction to road bikes and I was really lucky to spot
it for sale. I bought it for €640 but it would have cost over €2000 when new.
This bike proved to me the merits of a road bike over a hybrid for long
distance cycling. There's just no question about it but to cover long distances
rapidly, efficiently and at the same time not over exerting yourself, a road
bike is the way to go. The aerodynamic 'crouch' adopted, particularly when
hands are on the dropped bars is a godsend when cycling into a head wind. The
cost though is the initial sense of loss of comfort. Gone is the front
suspension of the hybrid and the gel saddle sitting on a suspension seat post
all insulated from the road by relatively wide 700x32c 'mushy' tyres. Instead
the saddle is a hard, narrow affair, the frame particularly rigid, the tyres
extremely narrow, in my case 700x23c and inflated to 120psi (they may as well
be solid). The only element of the bike that took comfort into consideration
was the carbon fork, which absorbs some of the road 'buzz'. I say 'initial loss
of comfort' because this is a relative issue. You'll soon realise that over a
long distance cycle, suspensions and big tyres are sapping the power applied to
the pedals rather than applying it straight to the back wheel, which is far
more desirable than a temporarily tender rear end.
However, I had two issues with this bike. Firstly, the thorny question of
correct frame sizes. You can apply all sorts of formulae etc. to determine the
correct size frame but in the end I think this is a subjective issue. However,
I decided that this frame was too big for me. Even looking at the bike would
suggest this, as I had to drop the saddle so far that there was only about
1" of seat post showing, not even enough to attach a rear light! I also
had to shorten the stem quite a bit to prevent over stretching my arms to reach
the handlebars. Ideally there should be enough seat post showing so as that
there’s up to 7" measurable between the top of the seat tube and the top
of the saddle. The seat post itself is actually a form of shock absorber so the
more of it that's exposed the better. The other drawback with this bike was
that it was an out and out racing frame with not enough of clearance to attach
mudguards or a rack to carry panniers. As I intended to commute and to do some
lightweight touring this was a problem. So all things considered I went back to
do some more research and as a result a new bike was bought!
What I needed was a fast
touring bike that retained the response and speed of a racer and was practical
enough to carry a rear rack with 2 lightly loaded panniers as well as having
clearance to fit mudguards to it. Such a bike in England is known as an Audax
bike. Audax is the Latin for ‘bold’ and was first used in the context of
endurance sport towards the end of the 19th century. Take note that
I didn’t want a touring bike. Such a bike tends to be of a long wheelbase and
made of stronger, heavier metal. They are at there best when fully loaded,
front and back, typically for camping type cycle holidays. I’m more of a nice hotel,
room with a view type-touring cyclist. I then made contact with two hugely
knowledgeable and helpful cycling enthusiasts, Tony O’Neill and his son Dara,
who between them run ‘Tony O’Neills cycles Tuam’. Their contact details are to
be found on their web site: http://www.oneillcycles.com/. From
them I bought a new, correctly sized, Tifosi CK7 frame and carbon fork. I then
spent an enjoyable Saturday in Tuam while Dara transferred anything that could
be used from the Diamant to the Tifosi. New long reach brakes were fitted and a
set of mudguards and I was ‘ready for road’ again.
Now that you’ve decided to buy a ‘road bike’ there are 5
considerations to keep in mind. They are:
- The
Frame
- The
Fork (Link to bike diagram)
- The
GroupSet (Link to Article on GroupSets)
- Hubs
and artisan built wheels or factory built wheels
- Finishing
Kit
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