I’ve thought about switching over to an aluminum frame with a threadless fork for the race season (primarily crits since I’m having running trouble). Any opinions on a GT ZR frame vs a CAAD3? I know they are both quite stiff which is basically all I care about, but has anybody ridden either/or both? The closest I’ve gotten is CAAD5 and 9 road bikes + a GT hardtail, all of which I liked.
Never rode a Cannondale, but my first “real” bike was a GT ZR4000. It definitely was stiff. Beat me up pretty good. The ride quality difference between that and my first alum tri bike was pretty amazing. I could see using it as a crit bike. You can pick one up pretty cheap now.
I found one of the GTs for $90 or something ridiculous, checking it out later this week. As much as I want an S1 (which is slightly stiffer forward and slightly less in the back), I can’t justify paying 6x what I’d pay for the GT or an old ass Cannondale.
back in the early-mid 90’s i had to loan my kestrel KM40 to a girlfriend for a race. i had a long ride planned for the same weekend so she traded me for cannondale. it was their multisport series, so probably an R-something with 650 wheels. anyway, i remember 100 excruciating KMs on that thing - it was stiff as a freakin’ board. even at the time i remember thinking it would be a cool sprinting/crit bike.
-mike
For the price of a S1, you could have a stable of GTs. Trick em out with Chris King headsets, Dura Ace hubs, etc. Retro rockets!
A CAAD5 is what I ride and I love the stiffness - don’t want to ride anyone else’s bike, ever 
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Hmmm, I have an old dura ace/mavic front wheel…
The retro frames are just too cool. The Allez frameset is really a throwback to badass super stiff aluminum race frames, it’s too bad the CAAD frames are 2-3x more expensive and have a worse fork setup. If I were buying a new frame it’d be the Allez, no question, unless Canyon gets their distribution in the US sorted out.