My intended spring road bike upgrade to a Canyon Aeroad has been scuppered by the weak £ and lack of mid level offerings in the line up, so I’ve started looking elsewhere.
Luckily for me, the value elsewhere is better than I remember so I don’t have to spend all that much to get something that I’ll be happy with. I’m fine with a 105 build, although would prefer Ultegra.
I’ve seen good deals on the:
Felt AR 5 & 3
Cervelo S2
Boardman AiR 9.0 & 9.2
Price differences are pretty small between them. Although the Boardmans have got the best groupset value easily, with Ultegra and DA respectively.
The biggest thing holding me back from settling on the Boardman and making it the new object of my desire is just how little data or anecdotal experience there is out there. Yeah, the Brownlees go well on it but something tells me that they’d be fine riding anything.
Any input from testers or owners of any of the above would be appreciated
I have a Cervelo S3. I have a lot of bikes and I’ve also owned an S5 and a Venge. The S2 is the same frame (aerodynamically) as the S3 with a slightly different fork. Cervelo has done aero testing on the forks and there’s no appreciable aero difference between the two. Differences between the S3 and S2 boil down to carbon layup and component spec.
I’ve had the S3 for a little over a year and have a lot of miles on it. It was supposed to be close to the S5 in aerodynamics, but much more like the R5 in terms of ride quality. (I also have an R5, which I love, but it’s not at all an aero bike.) The S3 does, in fact, split the difference between the two bikes quite nicely. It’s an easy bike to ride all day, but also a very fast bike when you’re riding at the pointy end of things. Frankly, I’ve been surprised that the S3 hasn’t been more popular. I almost never see them when I’m at rides or races. Even the S3 is a relatively good value when compared with either an S5 or R5 (or Venge), so the S2 is probably a pretty awesome value. I think the S3 is the best all-around road bike I’ve owned.
I don’t suspect that you’ll find the S2 is much different.
Differences between the S3 and S2 boil down to carbon layup and component spec.
I belive that the only difference between the S3 and the S2 frame is the paint, same carbon underneath. You are correct that the forks are different, but the forks are the same weight and turns out to Cervelo’s surprise have the same drag.
Add in Fuji Transonic, Kestrel and Giant propel (or maybe their TCR got aero upgrades too) might be good brands/models to look for since they normally are priced less than the other brands.
I will second the S3 of which the S2 is the same frame and different fork. In fact my now dead S3 was an S2 build kit on the S3 frame. My vote is the S2 from your list.
If you really want the Best value, buy used, and this is a good time of year to do it.
I see 2-3 year old high end road bikes for 50-70%+ off retail price for sale all the time.
Last year I picked up a nice BMC TMR01 with Di2 for $2000, that sold new for $9000, and never looked back. Its only real fault is its not as comfortable as some of the 2016 + Aero road bikes, I fixed this by adding carbon handle bars and wider tires, 27 rear and 25 front, it rides real nice now.
I got my S3 from the Garmin team when they transitioned to Cannondale. It was used by Thomas Jelte Slagter when he finished something like 9th at Liege. It had a bit of wear and tear, obviously. But it was a smokin’ deal. I swapped out the headset and BB and it was like new.
Just bought an S2 two weeks ago. Was shocked at how well the 105 worked. I’ve been on SRAM for 3 years and before that Ultegra for 7 or 8, so I wasn’t sure what to expect. It’s fantastic. Plus, the S2 was cheap enough that I bought a power2max for it as well. Next year I may go Di2, but in the meantime, I’m very pleased. I feel like it was a steal.
I’ve had a Felt AR5 for a number of years now. It’s a pretty nice bike, handles well, stiff and bites when you put the power down. I upgraded it quite a bit but I’ll be keeping it until I move over to a disc brake equipped bike in the next couple of years.
I have done wind tunnel testing of disc vrs rim on my Culprit Croz Blade frames. I however did not test against others.
But all our customers love the ride quality of the frame and since we are moving into components next year. we are offering our last stock at our cost to customers.
so, a frameset , frame, fork, seatpost, painted to order including shipping is selling for 950 shipped. Can be run rim or disc brakes. So its future proofed. Unfortunately, I no longer have groupsets in stock, but with wiggle being so cheap. A good quality build won’t be unreasonable.
If you really want the Best value, buy used, and this is a good time of year to do it.
I see 2-3 year old high end road bikes for 50-70%+ off retail price for sale all the time.
Last year I picked up a nice BMC TMR01 with Di2 for $2000, that sold new for $9000, and never looked back. Its only real fault is its not as comfortable as some of the 2016 + Aero road bikes, I fixed this by adding carbon handle bars and wider tires, 27 rear and 25 front, it rides real nice now.
Where are you looking to find these deals? Bike shops or online?
Been thinking of getting a similar bike as well.
Questions for anyone, how much slower would an aero road bike be vs an equivalent tri bike in a full IM, average rider, not competitive AGer? and would the aero road bike be more comfortable for the full IM?
My Felt AR5 is by far the best handling bike I’ve ever thrown a leg over. It absolutely carves hard turns.
Stiffness seems fine, comfort seems fine, only gripe is it’s heavy. About 18.5 lbs or so.
I’m not sure the “aeroness” is really noticeable, actually, I’d say it’s not to the point that I’d probably go with an F1 or F2 on another go around (same geometry, much lighter) if I had extra cash. Maybe an AR 1 since they’re quite a bit lighter, too.
As it stands, though, I bought mine on ebay brand new at a closeout price (1500) so it does what it does well enough for that price point.
If you really want the Best value, buy used, and this is a good time of year to do it.
I see 2-3 year old high end road bikes for 50-70%+ off retail price for sale all the time.
Last year I picked up a nice BMC TMR01 with Di2 for $2000, that sold new for $9000, and never looked back. Its only real fault is its not as comfortable as some of the 2016 + Aero road bikes, I fixed this by adding carbon handle bars and wider tires, 27 rear and 25 front, it rides real nice now.
Where are you looking to find these deals? Bike shops or online?
I enjoy hunting on Craig’s List but Ebay has great deals also.
This years I also picked up an beautiful Colnago Master with Dura Ace 25th Anniversary group set for $1200, some pix for you …
Very nice. I’ll have to do some hunting of my own.
If you really want the Best value, buy used, and this is a good time of year to do it.
I see 2-3 year old high end road bikes for 50-70%+ off retail price for sale all the time.
Last year I picked up a nice BMC TMR01 with Di2 for $2000, that sold new for $9000, and never looked back. Its only real fault is its not as comfortable as some of the 2016 + Aero road bikes, I fixed this by adding carbon handle bars and wider tires, 27 rear and 25 front, it rides real nice now.
Where are you looking to find these deals? Bike shops or online?
I enjoy hunting on Craig’s List but Ebay has great deals also.
This years I also picked up an beautiful Colnago Master with Dura Ace 25th Anniversary group set for $1200, some pix for you …
One of the reasons I’m looking at aero road is because I’ll likely be doing the occasional TT on it too, and don’t want to feel as if I’m giving much up to those on TT bikes - although I accept that I will be. I’m looking more and more closely at the AR5. The flippable seat post looks as though I can push the effective seat tube angle up in to the 76-77deg range (one source said 78+deg, but I’m skeptical), combine that with the newer generation tube shaping and same wheels, and I’d bet it puts me in the same ball park as my current TT bike (Planet X Stealth) which I’ve never felt slow on and will be selling shortly to part fund this one.
I’ve discounted the Cervelo on these grounds, as the seat angle doesn’t have enough steepness potential as far as I can tell.
To the guy who asked about time loss over an IM compared to a TT build - assuming otherwise similar set up (helmet etc), I reckon you could cut your losses to a few/handful of minutes if you were reasonably smart about it.
