Cannondale or Bianchi ?

Branimir Putnikovic said:

Hello,
I intend to buy a new hybrid road bike and I can't decide
between these two:

Cannondale Road Warrior 600
http://www.cannondale.com/bikes/05/ce/model-5HR6Y.html
and
Bianchi Camaleonte II

http://www.bianchi.it/en/products/productsDetail.aspx?category=rc_sportrange&idmaster=86

I ride 30-40 km every 2-3 days,
during weekends more (40-60 km), mostly out of town.
From time to time I ride in town but on road only.
Are this bikes a good choice for me (if you look equipment and materials
used)?

I am a little worried because of that strange spokes on Cannondale (
Gipiemme T3-30S ),
how they behave of local (rural) roads?

Does anybody have some experience with suspension seat post?

Thanks,
Branimir

Seems to me that the Bianchi has two advantages: the adjustable stem and
more robust wheels (but I don't know anything particular about either wheel)

Francesco

Branimir Putnikovic said:

Hello,
I intend to buy a new hybrid road bike and I can't decide
between these two:

Cannondale Road Warrior 600
http://www.cannondale.com/bikes/05/ce/model-5HR6Y.html
and
Bianchi Camaleonte II

http://www.bianchi.it/en/products/productsDetail.aspx?category=rc_sportrange&idmaster=86

I ride 30-40 km every 2-3 days,
during weekends more (40-60 km), mostly out of town.
From time to time I ride in town but on road only.
Are this bikes a good choice for me (if you look equipment and materials
used)?

I am a little worried because of that strange spokes on Cannondale (
Gipiemme T3-30S ),
how they behave of local (rural) roads?

not a great design. the 3-grouped rear addresses the tension
differential of a dished wheel [but not lateral elasticity], the
3-grouped front is purely cosmetic - and pointless.

Quoted message said:

Does anybody have some experience with suspension seat post?

Thanks,
Branimir

I prefer the Bianchi. The manufacturer's description is much more
colorful.

"You are certain to have fun while you.re pedalling.
School, work, leisure, family: your cycle is an integral part of your
everyday life, because it changes skin without being noticed, and it is
always ready for a new adventure. The sloping design created by
Bianchi.s R&D, the 27-speed transmission, the wide tyres and the .flat.
handlebars guarantee full comfort and a smooth ride on bumpy terrain.
You are already inseparable."

On the other hand, it appears as if the Cannondale is equipped with a
bottle and bottle holder, which the Bianchi doesn't have.

"Branimir Putnikovic" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Hello,
I intend to buy a new hybrid road bike and I can't decide
between these two:

Cannondale Road Warrior 600
http://www.cannondale.com/bikes/05/ce/model-5HR6Y.html
and
Bianchi Camaleonte II

http://www.bianchi.it/en/products/productsDetail.aspx?category=rc_sportrange
&idmaster=86

Quoted message said:

I ride 30-40 km every 2-3 days,
during weekends more (40-60 km), mostly out of town.
From time to time I ride in town but on road only.
Are this bikes a good choice for me (if you look equipment and materials
used)?

Not really.

Look for something like the Motobecane Cafe Noir
http://www.bikesdirect.com/products/motobecane/cafe_noir.htm

or Motobecane Cafe Latte
http://www.bikesdirect.com/products/motobecane/cafe_latte.htm

Try to stay away from aluminum frames for the usage you described.

Steven M. Scharf said:

"Branimir Putnikovic" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Hello,
I intend to buy a new hybrid road bike and I can't decide
between these two:

I ride 30-40 km every 2-3 days,
during weekends more (40-60 km), mostly out of town.
From time to time I ride in town but on road only.
Are this bikes a good choice for me (if you look equipment and

materials

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

used)?

Not really.

Look for something like the Motobecane Cafe Noir
http://www.bikesdirect.com/products/motobecane/cafe_noir.htm

or Motobecane Cafe Latte
http://www.bikesdirect.com/products/motobecane/cafe_latte.htm

Try to stay away from aluminum frames for the usage you described.

And the reason to stay away from aluminum frames is what?

The two Motobecane bikes you cite look pretty good. But what the frame
is made of makes no difference.

Branimir Putnikovic said:

Hello,
I intend to buy a new hybrid road bike and I can't decide
between these two:

Cannondale Road Warrior 600
http://www.cannondale.com/bikes/05/ce/model-5HR6Y.html
and
Bianchi Camaleonte II

http://www.bianchi.it/en/products/productsDetail.aspx?category=rc_sportrange&idmaster=86

I ride 30-40 km every 2-3 days,
during weekends more (40-60 km), mostly out of town.
From time to time I ride in town but on road only.
Are this bikes a good choice for me (if you look equipment and materials
used)?

The only part of either bike that I would look at with disfavor for
recreational riding would be the wheels. In both cases, those are a
potential trouble spot.

Quoted message said:

I am a little worried because of that strange spokes on Cannondale (
Gipiemme T3-30S ),
how they behave of local (rural) roads?

Until a spoke breaks, the wheels work just fine. Break a spoke, and
you're likely to be reduced to walking. The same is true of the
wheels on the Bianchi, however.

Quoted message said:

Does anybody have some experience with suspension seat post?

A suspension seat post's virtues are a matter of taste and
acclimation. I have one on a bike that I ride occasionally. Some
people find them very useful for making long rides more comfortable,
while others are bothered by the inconstant saddle height. My
experience has been that for those few instances where I don't see a
bump coming in time to lift off the saddle, the suspension post helps.
It is neither essential for street and smooth-road riding in my
opinion, nor is it an adequate substitute for rear suspension in
bumpier off-road venues. .
--
Typoes are a feature, not a bug.
Some gardening required to reply via email.
Words processed in a facility that contains nuts.

Find a STEEL bike with carbon fork!!!!! Any brand will do. Aluminum
will beat you up! Dont even consider an AL bike w/o carbon fork.
You'll be sorry.

Quoted message said:

Find a STEEL bike with carbon fork!!!!! Any brand will do. Aluminum
will beat you up! Dont even consider an AL bike w/o carbon fork.
You'll be sorry.

.... unless you manage to find one of those rare bikes with pneumatic tires.

--
Benjamin Lewis

Evelyn the dog, having undergone further modification, pondered the
significance of short-person behavior in pedal-depressed panchromatic
resonance and other highly ambient domains... "Arf", she said.

"Aluminum will beat you up!"

It's true! I got mugged by a pepsi can the other day.

Honestly now, this is rubbish. My bikes have ranged from OK lugged
Direct Drive (whoever made Specialized's tubes) steel/Steel fork to
nice lugged 531 steel/Steel fork to C-Dale Alu/Alu fork and then carbon
fork, to Trek 3 tube carbon/scary ass Icon carbon fork to Schwinn
Fastback Alu (sloping)/oversized carbon fork. I can honestly say that
the Schwinn has been the most comfortable ride, even though the fork is
stiffer than all but that of the 531 bike, but only because it fit me
the best, and because the long seat post flexes enough to absorb most
of the road imperfections. While riding the C-dale, I experimented
with 25mm tires, and found that the ride was more comfortable than
either of my steel bikes (unfortunately, because I'm short & Cannondale
doesn't make correcting toe overlap a priority, I went back to smaller
tires). The Trek Carbon was also a really nice ride, but the fork was
scary flexy (watch it move 3+ cm under hard braking) and I built it
with an old Vetta TT saddle instead of my usual Flite, so I can't make
an apples-apples comparison (it's a saddle that I took off of my MTB
ages ago because it was too flexy in the middle).

The moral of the story, the biggest difference between frame materials
will be in looks, weight, flexiness out of the saddle (the steel bikes
all had major FD rub, the carbon less so, the fastback even less, and
the C-Dale had almost none), and possibly durability. Any claims of
being "beaten up" by one material or another are IMHO, hogwash. Of
course, YMMV.

Quoted message said:

Find a STEEL bike with carbon fork!!!!! Any brand will do. Aluminum
will beat you up! Dont even consider an AL bike w/o carbon fork.
You'll be sorry.

Total and utter [censored]. Materials per se have very little to do with it.
It is what is done with them, as well as tyres and seat tube, that
determine whether or not the ride will be comfortable or not.

I'm doing up to 300km rides on our mediocre Swedish roads (coarse
bitumen) on an aluminium Colnago with steel fork, steel steerer tube, 20
mm wide tyres pumped to 8 bar. Only concession I've had to make is
installing a Campag CF seatpost, to smooth things out a bit. It's as
comfortable as any touring bike I've ever owned.

Don't judge a frame solely by the materials used.

/Robert

A frame IS the materials used. A carbon fork has made my AL c'dale
cross bike nice and comfy on the road. But mt 853 lemond w/carbon fork
and 120 psi tires still just glides over irregularities. Anyone who
thinks AL frames are smooth is just deluding himself and justifying not
buying the right bike to begin with.

() said:

A frame IS the materials used.

I think I'll side with Robert on this. If what you say were true, there
would be an awful lot of unemployed Materials Engineers, not just in the
bike industry but in aerospace and others.

You would be correct to say that frame material imposes certain limitations
or requirements on engineers. You would be correct to say that you can't
build an aluminum frame with precisely the same measurements as a steel
frame and expect it to behave the same. Different metals have different
physical properties, and no one here will dispute that.

But people who understand the physical properties of a metal (which I
make no pretense of doing, and suggest that you do likewise) are able
to engineer designs that deliver the sort of ride they - or we - are
looking for, whether the metal in question is steel, aluminum, titanium,
unobtainium or whatever.

Oh, and in a pointless attempt to maintain some modicum of topicality,
I'd probably pick the c'dale over the bianchi in the original topic,
partly because I've had good luck with c'dales, and partly because I
don't look good in Bianchi green. 😉

--
Dan Birchall - http://danbirchall.multiply.com/ - images, words, technology

Quoted message said:

A frame IS the materials used. A carbon fork has made my AL c'dale
cross bike nice and comfy on the road. But mt 853 lemond w/carbon fork
and 120 psi tires still just glides over irregularities. Anyone who
thinks AL frames are smooth is just deluding himself and justifying not
buying the right bike to begin with.

So your AL bike with a carbon fork is "nice and comfy on the road", but
it is not "smooth"?

I'll throw in my two-bits. When I test rode road bikes two years ago, I
rode four bikes in this order:

- Specialized Sequoia Sport (AL w/ carbon fork and suspension seat
post), which I ended up buying

- Specialized Allez (AL w/ AL fork)

- Lemond Nevada City (Steel w/ steel fork)

- Trek 5200 (carbon)

The first three were about the same price range +/- $150 or so (with the
Sequoia being the most expensive, the Nevada City next, then the Allez
being cheapest), all with similar components, while the 5200 was like 3
or 4x the price of the others with high end stuff everywhere.

Although the test was very un-blind, and I did not note the tire sizes
of each bike (the Sequoia had 26-622 tires), they were all stock and
pumped up to ~100psi, and I think it was pretty obvious to me that in
descending order of "smoothness", I'd rank them:

1 - Trek 5200
2 - Specialized Sequoia Sport
3 - Lemond Nevada City
4 - Specialized Allez

I suppose the suspension seat post and carbon fork gave the Sequoia the
edge over the Nevada City, despite the latter's steel frame?

I would have been glad to have saved $100 or so buying the Nevada City,
but I found it to be a harsher ride than I wanted.

The 5200, I didn't want to bring back to the shop, but I didn't want to
spend whatever the price was (like $2500???) either.

The Allez, I couldn't wait to ride it back to the shop and get off the
darned thing. Maybe it's "standard" AL bikes like this one that are
what people have tried when they get a negative impression of AL
frame/fork bikes?

--
I do not accept unsolicited commercial e-mail. Remove NO_UCE for
legitimate replies.

try a steel lemond, gunnar, bianchi etc w/ a carbon fork and then try
to say an AL bike has the same ride. You will see the difference. A
good steel frame is nicer than acarbon one

"Branimir Putnikovic" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Hello,
I intend to buy a new hybrid road bike and I can't decide
between these two:

Cannondale Road Warrior 600
http://www.cannondale.com/bikes/05/ce/model-5HR6Y.html
and
Bianchi Camaleonte II

http://www.bianchi.it/en/products/productsDetail.aspx?category=rc_sportrange&idmaster=86

Quoted message said:

I ride 30-40 km every 2-3 days,
during weekends more (40-60 km), mostly out of town.
From time to time I ride in town but on road only.
Are this bikes a good choice for me (if you look equipment and materials
used)?

I am a little worried because of that strange spokes on Cannondale (
Gipiemme T3-30S ),
how they behave of local (rural) roads?

Does anybody have some experience with suspension seat post?

Thanks,
Branimir

Thank you all for advices.
Yesterday I found out that Cannondale RW600
comes (in Croatia) with Mavic CXP-22 with 32 holes instead of
Gipiemme. 🙂)) (and Continental Top Touring 2000)
Seems to me that this is just fine solution for
various types of roads around me.

Motobecane Cafe Noir ->I live in Europe, Croatia, cannot get this...

I'll try suspension seat post, it's easy to change later...and
about frame, hm, carbon, steel...Bike in Croatia costs 1000?, and
in USA 750$ (55% of Croatian price!!!)
I just cannot find better bike of that type then cannondale RW600 in Croatia
& Slovenia.

Thanks,
Branimir

<[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

A frame IS the materials used. A carbon fork has made my AL c'dale
cross bike nice and comfy on the road. But mt 853 lemond w/carbon fork
and 120 psi tires still just glides over irregularities. Anyone who
thinks AL frames are smooth is just deluding himself and justifying not
buying the right bike to begin with.

That's a bit unfair. Not everyone can afford an 853 Lemond (or an 853
anything). We all make compromises in items we purchase, based on cost. Even
when someone can afford something better, it may not be the way they want to
spend their money.

Exactly. But if someone is willing to spend near $1000 on a bike they
should consider ponying up a bit more and try bikes that are slightly
more money. The Jamis quest is a great ride and lists for $1200 or so.
I would be riding one now if there was one available in my size. So I
shopped and found the Lemond BA for what the Jamis cost as an end of
season deal. IMO AL bikes are fine MTBs but as pure long distance raod
bikes steel is just better. I think newbies should hear all options
not just what the salesman at the lbs tells them. Not all are shysters
but many will gladly sel what they need to move rather than what will
move the customer.

On Wed, 27 Apr 2005 16:38:29 GMT, "Steven M. Scharf"
<[email hidden]> wrote:

Anyone who

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

thinks AL frames are smooth is just deluding himself and justifying not
buying the right bike to begin with.

Apparently you have never ridden a Vitus 979 or an Alan frame
......er.....maybe you are not old enough to have had the pleasure of
riding one of these Flexy French Fliers!

Guy A
Ripley, TN

Guy F. Anderson Sr. said:

Apparently you have never ridden a Vitus 979 or an Alan frame
.....er.....maybe you are not old enough to have had the pleasure of
riding one of these Flexy French Fliers!

Looks like the chance is still available to young and old alike, though
probably only for the taller among us:

http://www.nashbar.com/profile.cfm?category=&subcategory=&brand=1244&sku=13102&storetype=&estoreid=&pagename=

Nashbar seems to be dealing in lots of NOS (new, old stock) stuff these
days.

I recently got a 1990 vintage San Marco Rolls saddle from them and it's
been much more comfy than the Specialized Body Geometry Milano saddle
that came stock on my Sequoia.

--
I do not accept unsolicited commercial e-mail. Remove NO_UCE for
legitimate replies.