The new forums will be named Coin Return (based on the most recent vote)! You can check on the status and timeline of the transition to the new forums here.
The Guiding Principles and New Rules document is now in effect.
Help me choose a new bike
psyck0
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
Hello,
I'm in the market for a new bike. It will primarIly be used for city commuting of 15-45 minute rides with panniers, but I would like the option to go on rougher terrain if needed. My budget is $2000-3000 CDN. I have had my eye on one at MEC. I think I would need to get different wheels and tires for city riding, though. Does anyone have suggestions?
Thanks
I'm in the market for a new bike. It will primarIly be used for city commuting of 15-45 minute rides with panniers, but I would like the option to go on rougher terrain if needed. My budget is $2000-3000 CDN. I have had my eye on one at MEC. I think I would need to get different wheels and tires for city riding, though. Does anyone have suggestions?
Thanks
Play Smash Bros 3DS with me! 4399-1034-5444
0
Posts
That seems incredibly expensive for what you get. Typically I expect bikes in Australia to be far more expensive than Canada but I am telling you that would be a total ripoff bike in Australia.
Part of this is the brand. I personally wouldn't consider MEC gear to be 'high end'. It's usually decent quality at a decent price. But you're paying a decent chunk of cash here. It might be worth going to a dedicated bike shop and asking their opinion, whether it be a random bike shop or whether it be a dedicated dealer of Specialised, Giant, Trek, etc. I'm just thinking of when I went bike shopping here about 4 months ago and I found far better Specialised and Trek bikes at similar price points, and specialised and trek are not cheap brands.
In my experience Giant give you some of the best bang for your buck from a brand perspective, as they're the biggest manufacturer of bikes in the world and even manufacture bikes for some of the other big brands.
Other than that, I think you've got your eye on the right idea. 105 groupset is very good and probably the right 'minimum' with that budget.
Disc brakes are the way to go espescially with inclement weather. I think though at that price point you could get a better brand and potentially fully carbon. I also think if you're doing almost purely city riding I think you'd be better off getting a real road bike rather than a gravel bike. You'll be compromising 90% of your riding just for a bit of flexibility.
I should add I will frequently be pulling my two kids in a chariot behind me on weekends.
The issue is that this is priced like a fully carbon bike to my wrong country, wrong currency eye. Alloy is typically cheaper except for the very few brands that still produce high end alloy bikes.
https://giant-bicycles.com/ca/bikes-anyroad-advanced-2019
Similar price, much bigger brand, fully carbon, same groupset, disc brakes. I haven't tested this bike, don't own it, and haven't researched it -- but it's probably where I would start.
You should be able to fit panniers to it, they'll just be the style that clamps on to the bottom of the seat stay instead of bolting into the dropout.
It's got 28mm 700c tubeless tyres, so riding on pavement will be noticeably easier and faster than on 650x42 off-road tyres, but sand and loose gravel would be a no-go.
Agreed with all the other suggestions to look beyond MEC, though -- that much money will get you quite a lot of bike, and at that price point you probably want to make sure it fits the way you expect. I'm on the no-to-carbon front myself, but that's because I lock my bike up/drop it on to all sorts of things so it's always getting dinged up, and I don't want to have to worry about unexpected failure because of scuffs/scrapes.
(oh, and SE++ has a bike thread that you could ask in, as well.)
The opus is 1.5 kg lighter too.
Or make the whole bike camo.
As was mentioned earlier, I'd look at a steel Salsa, Surly or All-City. Surlys are heavy, but there's a lot of very light Salsa frames out there that would fit you. A lot steel frames are within a 1 or 2 lbs of carbon frames these days. Don't pay so much attention to the weight of the frame, the components and wheels are where most of your weight is coming from. I dare someone to tell me they feel a significant difference between an 18lb full carbon bike and a 20lb All-City. (For full reference, I own a full carbon Spesh Roubaix, but I bought it less for the weight and more for the frame stiffness/flex performance since it's only used for riding fast during workouts, not as applicable to commuting).
Seriously, commuting bikes get beat to shit, don't spend that much on one, you want a tank, not a Ferrari.
I'd agree with this - i'd suggest getting a cheaper more expendible commuter bike and then go carbon and fancy for a weekender. for 15-45 minute city rides you don't need max performance and won't be heartbroken if it gets stolen.
It's worth bearing in mind that the Opus has a rear 12mm through axle, which means that you'll have to get some sort of adapter to hook up a trailer to it; the MEC bike has a regular QR, and as far as I can tell Chariot (Thule nowadays)'s bike attachment kit still just comes with a long skewer -- so you'd have to get extra parts to get a trailer attached to the Opus.
(and later on, both of those have carbon seatposts, so you'll want to replace that before fixing a trail-a-bike to it. As far as I can tell, the extra load from pulling a trailer isn't a problem with carbon frames in general, though I'd suggest trying to double-check with Opus first just to be on the safe side, if they have some sort of contact address)
Just to dive back into the frame material question, the main reason people go carbon, as I did for my weekender, is more about feel of the frame. Steel frames are very forgiving. They smooth out a ride really well, but they are heavier and can have some frame flex under acceleration. Aluminum bikes are lighter and stiffer than steel, don't have that frame flex, but often have a harsh ride quality, which is why they are often paired with a carbon fork. Full carbon frames are the best of both worlds in that they are incredibly lightweight, stiff under acceleration (they feel like they just go when you jump on the pedals), but also really dampen road noise to create a ride that's not as harsh as aluminum frames. The downside is their expense and relative fragility. Carbon is incredibly strong, until it's not. One unseen crack can catastrophically fail mid-ride. This isn't common, but it happens enough that there's an entire subreddit designated just for carbon fails. This is why carbon bikes are usually reserved for weekend bikes that you baby, not a commuter.