Best Carbon Road Bike for ~$1000.00?

I am embarking on a serious venture into road cycling with a close friend of mine, he bought a 2011 look 566 Carbon bike fully loaded with ultegra. I need a bike that can contend with his for ~$1000.00 any ideas?

 

It's not about the bike, you can 'contend' with him on a wide variety of affordable bikes if your fitness is comparable to his. If not, the bike aint gonna make the difference.

You could find some good deals on used race bikes on Craigslist or ebay if you know what you're looking for and know what size bike you need but I wouldn't recommend buying an expensive bike without a test ride of the same model if not the exact bike.

Some pretty good deals in your price range here: http://www.performancebike.com/bikes/TopCategory_10052_10551_400001_-1_400001_Y

or here:

http://www.bikesdirect.com/

But really you should try shopping locally so you can test ride bikes before laying down that kind of cash.

Good luck,
-Dave

 

Dave, I really appreciate the advice you gave me. I went to all of my local bike shop owners in the area, and tested several bikes in my price range, I then checked performancebike.com's closeout section. I test rode and ended up settling on the Fuji Roubaix ACR 3.0 with tiagra/105 mix which i ordered from perfomance and saved about $500 on the bike thanks to you.

Best,
Tommy

 

Congrats on the new bike. The Fuji looks like a great deal for the money through Performance. Enjoy it!

 

Ding, ding, ding - we have the correct answer. It's not about the bike, IOW don't put the cart before the horse...If you have the fitness you will wax your friend regardless of the bike either of you are riding, and if you don't, you could be riding Alberto Contador's bike and still get abused...

 

Take it from a guy who rides a steel frame and drops the occasional CF kitted out rider....you are the engine that makes the machine go. You don't have to have a featherweight bike. Just don't buy a heavyweight either and you'll do fine. Ride, ride, ride and you'll build yourself up to contend with your friend.

 

Bingo. I've been on some sort of bike all my life and stay in pretty decent shape, just never on a road bike. A friend of mine started road riding maybe 2 years ago and has done a few centurys. He's got a very light aluminum Cannondale that he found on CL with tons of high dollar parts. I beat him in my first metric century about 5 months after I started road riding on a much heavier, cheaper Allez. The two other guys we rode with were on a Madone and a Tarmac, both all CF bikes, and they were way behind both of us.

Congrats on the new bike. It's definitely not ALL about the equipment in this case, but its certainly great motivation to ride longer and faster.