I have been really happy with my current Allez Comp (both performance and quality wise) and have knocked up many thousands of km's on it over past year. Been thinking about staying with the Specialized range and going either to a Roubaix or Tarmac, maybe up to the Expert level or perhaps dropping back a notch. Riding is more recreational than racing but enjoying the longer rides (90km plus). Trying to improve my riding all of the time and starting to work on specific training programs to improve my performance, particularly on hills.
I'm trying to get a feel for what I am going to experience if I make this upgrade and specifically, what the difference will be like between the two. Have now been to three Specialized shops - none of them have models I can try out (riding 61 cm) and did not know whether they might be able to get one and only one of them was close to being helpful about the questions I have had, and had a reasonable knowledge of the bikes and their specs. Really surprised me that when looking at spending up to $4k and asking "please sell me" there is a general level of almost indifference? In each case, they got me to look at the website and walked me through the specs, and sometimes could not even answer basic questions like "what are those wheels like". I go along to the LBS to find out the information that the website does NOT tell me, but frankly, this did not prove to be the case.
Would really be grateful for any thoughts first on the differences in taking a step up (am I better to just keep pushing out the k's on the Allez) and if so, thoughts about whether to go the Roubaix or Tarmac? Thanks
I'm trying to get a feel for what I am going to experience if I make this upgrade and specifically, what the difference will be like between the two. Have now been to three Specialized shops - none of them have models I can try out (riding 61 cm) and did not know whether they might be able to get one and only one of them was close to being helpful about the questions I have had, and had a reasonable knowledge of the bikes and their specs. Really surprised me that when looking at spending up to $4k and asking "please sell me" there is a general level of almost indifference? In each case, they got me to look at the website and walked me through the specs, and sometimes could not even answer basic questions like "what are those wheels like". I go along to the LBS to find out the information that the website does NOT tell me, but frankly, this did not prove to be the case.
Would really be grateful for any thoughts first on the differences in taking a step up (am I better to just keep pushing out the k's on the Allez) and if so, thoughts about whether to go the Roubaix or Tarmac? Thanks