Need Your Opinion. What bike would you buy??

Hey guys. I just discovered this forum and I thought I would get your opinions.

I'm looking to purchase a new bike. My budget is $3,000 to $4,500. I do a fair amount of riding in the mountains and want a light wieght bike that will be good for climbing. Something pretty stiff, but yet I want to be comfortable for 100 mile rides too.

These are the bikes that I will be test riding tomorrow:

Cannondale Six13
Cannondale R3000
Giant TCR Composite
Calfee Tetra
Co Motion Ristretto
(all equiped with dura ace 10)

Any opinions on any of these bikes? or do you all have any other suggestions? Thanks for the help!

 

You are spending that kind of loot and trolling for opinions? ...LOL.... I'd go with none of the above and Chorus 10. YMMV

 

What are you riding now?

 

I'd put more money into the frame and get a sweet titanium number. Perhaps a seven axiom or maybe a litespeed solano or the like. I'd be happier with a great Ti frame even if that meant scrapping the DA in favor of ultegra or the like to stay w/in budget. I wish I had the problem of trying how to decide to spend 4 grand on a bike.

 

Woah, those are all badass bikes. I'd go for any of them. Hmmm... let's see...

They each have a different flava.

The Six13 is the hot one, of course -- new, hyped, whispered about, gracing VeloNews every other issue, and so on... Cannondales are nice in general, but as road bikes go, a touch conservative in character. The Six13 breaks all of that with its nutty cutting-edge, Saeco-intended techno swagger. You'd be the envy of everyone, at least for a few years.

The R300 is solid and naturally sexy, if not particularly adventurous. On the upside, high-end Cannondales aren't the most common sight.

TCRs, on the other hand, are all over the place, but they're super cool in a mean, racy way. That there's always a frisky Euro pro-team on them helps. I'm kind of partial, having put a lot of time on a beloved TCR alloy over the past few years.

Ok, my vote is for Calfee. Calfees are luxurious and unique, if maybe yesterday's news. A co-worker of mine rode a dragonfly (lovely) in a deep blue fade, and it was her pride and joy...

But CoMotion is cool too -- sort of quirky, understated, burley cool. Another co-worker of mine has got his whole team riding on them, done up in team colors; you gotta love those funky, no-nonsense American companies, making bikes with the same pure soul that motivated the Italian and French makers before they fell in love with themselves.

Well crap; not much help. Good luck.

 

Thank you all for your responses!!

 

For what it's worth, I've been considering similar options recently...

I'd narrowed the list to a Carbon Bianchi (v. nice indeed), Time VX Elite (again, very nice, but the Bianchi edges it on price), or a titanium Merlin / Litespeed.

Went into the local shop yesterday intent on buying one of the above and ended up ordering a Cannondal six13. Compared to a Litespeed Vortex it felt quicker, more comfortable, just perfect... Alas I couldn't afford the Record laiden version in the shop, so I'm going to have a month long wait for my Centaur equipped one to arrive.

By the way, all the photos are of the red Saeco edition - it looks far cooler in grey.

 

I bet it does!

 

Think you can look at different colors at www.legalizemycannondale.com

 

How much Six13? Wich group?

 

The Centaur groupset - £2499...

That was right at the top of my budget and besides an extra £1100 for Chorus, SLs and the Hollowtech Cranks seemed a little excessive... Not to mention another £4,499 for Record, Ksyriums and lashings of carbon...

The grey on the site doesn't look quite right actually... in reality it's got a sort of powder coating, a bit like the Bianchi.

 

Where are you from?

 

Essex, England...