Hello!

[fishboy316]

Hello all,
I am new to the forum here. I wanted to introduce myself and show my new bike! I am 56 and started to ride mtb in Jan 2014. Well I now have the bug! Went out and found a new 2013 Cannondale f29 1 alloy for $1100 off. Bought it!(no brainer). I am also looking for a road bike for the bad days here as I don't want to mess up the trails in the woods! I live about .5 miles from the b&a trail in Arnold md so another no brainer!
This is my new baby! Trying to post pics, see what happens!

[Joe_W]

Welcome, sweet ride you got there! But Lefties surely do look weird, always did, always will

For me it is off road (well, cyclocross, but not technical) in the rain and road cycling in the sun, I cannot stand road grime... but I get your point.

[fishboy316]

(02-17-2014, 07:13 AM)Joe_W Wrote:  Welcome, sweet ride you got there! But Lefties surely do look weird, always did, always will

For me it is off road (well, cyclocross, but not technical) in the rain and road cycling in the sun, I cannot stand road grime... but I get your point.

Hi Joe, I really do wonder who sat around and said "Hey I got an idea lets cut this fork in half and see what happens!" They do look Weird! Almost didn't buy it because of that. I have foud out that they did that to offset the crank and gears to give it a truer ride. To me a newbie it doesn't make a hill of beans!What concerned me was the price was right!The thing is 24lbs stock. Right after purchase the mechanic said hey we can make it lighter!=/Really! The bike is really fast and nimble! It is better than I am and will be for a long time! I do want to get a road bike also, been looking at a couple at a lbs and like the Cannondale caad 10 4 and the trek damone 1.0. Both are 2013 models and marked down $700 and $900. Cant ride em yet as we still have ice and snow here in Maryland.

[cny-man]

Looks nice even though I'm a pure roadie. My view on weight is that unless you want to trim it for bragging rights or to make going up 3 flights of stairs easier don't worry about it. Add your weight to the bike's and you'll find that shaving a pound will trim not even 1/2 of 1% off the weight, and the effect on riding is even less than that.

[Joe_W]

Plus adding in that for me eating less would result in an even lighter combined system weight on all bikes at once at "negative costs" = eating less cake, chocolate etc. means I save money...
Add in two full bidons brings teh weight of the bike up by 1.5 kg again, too.

[Painkiller]

Hows it going lefty? nice ride Bill and welcome to the tutor

[fishboy316]

Hi guys, thanks for the welcome! I got to ride a couple bikes today. 1. Raleigh Ravenio 1. Liked the bike but seemed a bit small. Was a leftover 2013 and was $850. 2.Giant Defy 5. Fit much better but wasn't as smooth as the raleigh. Had sora grouping. 3. Giant Defy 1. XL frame fit real nice and was a very smooth shifting and pretty fast bike. 105 grouping.Nice bike! Fast and responsive! $1300. 4. Giant anyroad 1. Pretty cool ride. Not as fast as the defy line but felt good. Has tiagra grouping. Wasn't bad at all. 5. Defy composite 2.$1850. Has 105 grouping.Very smooth and fast. Really liked this bike! Was hard to walk out the door and leave it! Told myself "you just started riding these bikes now keep looking and testing!"That being said I really liked the bike! The ride was NICE! Fit like a glove. Will be riding this when all is narrowed down!

Was fun to try these out and I hope that others out there will fit as well or better. Lots of em out there. Anybody have any experience with the giant composite line or the defy line?

Thanks
Bill

[Joe_W]

The Defy (standard) bikes are nice. My wife rented one (Defy 1) when we were on holidays. It looked slick and has nice components. You cannot go wrong with the Shimano 105, although some people say the 11th sprocket in the rear is a great thing (then you have to go up to Ultegra at least). The Tiagra groupset is also ok, the finish is not as good and I am not sure if I really like the bigger brake lever hoods. I have that on my Cyclocross, so far no problems with it. I do not know the current version of the Sora, but the one I tired a couple of years back was... scary.
More important than the components is how the bike fits you and your style of riding. For example: last spring I spent a couple of weeks in Boulder, CO and took my road bike with me. I was so glad a had a triple crank set, although many people say it looks stupid etc... so keep things like that in mind.

[fishboy316]

Hi guys, Rode a Cannondale Synapse Carbon 6 105. Real sweet ride. Real smooth and fast. Felt like it was a nicer ride than the Giant was. But the Giant felt faster. The place I rode the Synapse was a tighter area so maybe just didn't have room to get up to speed. The Synapse was a better ride as far as comfort goes. Went to another lbs and looked at the Felt F5 and Z5. They seemed nice. They didn't have any over 54cm put together. They are also picking up Giant and they also have the BMC line. Will ride them next week. Also looked at a trek they have on special. Tried to look at some FUJI bikes but the bike guy at HTO was to busy to speak with me so I kinda have discounted them.
Bike dr also includes Dynamic GURU Experience fitting free. Free tune up as long as you own the bike.They also have a 2013 demane 4.5c for $2079.00,$700 off. Could go that route. Have plenty of time to try em out and the Bike Doctor has a Big sale end of March. Some real nice bikes out there and hope to ride em all!LOL
Bill

[Joe_W]

You got the flu, man, seriously.
Bike fitting is a good thing, especially pedals and cleats. Did the latter at University Cycles in Boulder CO last spring. Helped me a lot!
Basically when deciding for a bike it boils down to sorting through the priorities of
- money
- sevice (like, free tune ups)
- service quality (do they know what they are doing?)
- bike weight
- components (quality)
- bike fit
- does it suit your style of riding (I'd probably go for a more comfy frame today...)
and others I might have forgotten. For me money was a hard limit (PhD student at that time and broke), then came how well the shop seemed to take care of customers and products. Ditched one shop: when I bought winter shoes there and let them attach cleats they did not look at the feet (ok, you can set them to a neutral position) and completely screwed up that job (both feet completely... strange. in different directions). Idiots = no deal. And they _knew_ I was looking for a new bike.

Regarding "felt fast": This also heavily depends on the wheels and the tyres (to a lesser extent). Some bikes have heavy stock wheels, others put more money into that - but then other things are usually a bit cheaper (though at 2k$ you cannot say "cheap" to anything...)

[fishboy316]

Any of you guy ride a Jamis road bike? Went to the local Jamis dealer and he can get a 2012 Xenith race with Caqrbon frame and altegra group for $1800. Don't know if i want to go with Jamis. Don't know much about em. I was hoping to ride some bikes this weekend but feeling really bad. Guess I will see what happens!
Bill

[cny-man]

It's not an effective strategy to post an unrelated request in someone else's thread. On top of that the odds of someone seeing your post who is familiar with a particular model of bike is low. I would suggest you simply do a Google search for "Jamis Xenith Race (review)"

[cny-man]

It's not an effective strategy to post an unrelated request in someone else's thread. On top of that the odds of someone seeing your post who is familiar with a particular model of bike is low. I would suggest you simply do a Google search for "Jamis Xenith Race (review)"

[RBurrelli]

(02-22-2014, 04:25 PM)cny-man Wrote:  It's not an effective strategy to post an unrelated request in someone else's thread. On top of that the odds of someone seeing your post who is familiar with a particular model of bike is low. I would suggest you simply do a Google search for "Jamis Xenith Race (review)"

Fishboy is the original poster on this post. He is keeping us updated on bikes he has ridden and is interested in.

[cny-man]

Well, my error - sorry. Advice of a Google search still applies.

[fishboy316]

Well I have searched this topic on google. Just get the same old review from guys who had the bike for a week. Was just hoping to get some feedback from someone here who has had the bike for a while. thanks.