Which Would You Choose?

I have a 2013 Cannondale Synapse, not exactly the same,but close enough. Its my first bike and its very comfortable and has been great for 800+ miles so far. I was told its better suited for climbing/endurance rather than all out speed,but it does fine in that department as well. Since its the only bike I've ridden, I'd never recommend it over something i've never used. The only real suggestion I can give is, give both a test ride and see which one works the best. Also, don't be afraid to buy used, my bike had a msrp of 1200+ and I was able to buy it for 800. The original owner had owned it for a year and I bought it from my LBS. He put it in the system as a "new" purchase so I have the same type of warranty with it, not that i've needed it!

Of the two listed I would go for the Ridley simply because I like the looks of it more than the Cannondale Synapse.

From what I've read though, Cannondale seem to be the better brand.

I am so indecisive at the moment!! I am now considering to throw a Cannondale Super Six Evo 105 2015 into the mix as they are in the Sale at the moment at (dare I say it) Evans Cycles.

It seems incredible value at 1080.00 GBP reduced from 1349.00 GBP.

I am going to have to try and get a ride on them I think.

Is that an endurance geometry Ridley?

I'm very impressed with their cyclocross stuff but I haven't checked their road frames much.

Where are Ridleys made? Belgium or Taiwan?

Both 1000 huh? What Groupset and wheels do they have?

So the Ridley is an endurance geometry one and they are made in Belgium.

I can't seem to find the groupset and wheel types listed anywhere?

Shimano 105 stuff for 2015 is pretty sophisticated, as crappy as they are when it comes to service... (Shimano don't do parts... 🙁 Maybe a nice Campagnolo equipped bike might not be as annoying when you lose a Shimano only screw or something unservicable like that. 😉 )

If the Ridley is made in Belgium you might be on to something good... Probably better then Taiwan Mill aluminium...

Super Six... If you are after a Carbon bike check Guru (Made in Canada, owned by Cannondale which might be good for warranty claims, very good end of season sales for their non-custom frames, yeah they do custom 😉 ), and BMC ("handmade by robots in Switzerland 😄 " )

The group set and wheels should be under the Specifications tab...

Maybe better not to bother with anything less then 10 speed for new models... 😉

PS: Just noticed that the Cannondale is a disk road bike... Just two words about that:

"Ninja Dont!!!" 😄

Is the groupsetthe gears?

Wheels for the Super Six

Wheelset:Shimano WHRS010
Tyres: Schwalbe Lugano, 700×25c, folding

Wheels for Ridley A20

Wheelset: 4ZA RC30
Tires: Continental Ultra Sport II 700x25c

Cannondale Synapse 2015

Wheelset: Maddux RD 3.0 Disc, 28-hole
Tyres: Schwalbe Lugano, 700×25c

I noticed most road bikes don't have disk brakes is there a reason for that??

The Super Six doesn't nor does the Ridley A20.

Disk brakes on road bikes are around for like 2 years now. It took them 20 years to make some decent calipers (Shimano still sucks A on pads IMHO) and disk brakes already got recalled on higher end solutions like hydraulic "brifters". (Noobs get stitches 😉 )

Road bike wheels are either light, aero, training, who the f@ck buys carbon clinchers etc... Maybe not get carbon wheels yet...

Are you... Kinda... "Crashy"? 😄 Get an Aluminium frame... Just for epic rides? Go Carbon. 🙂 (Epic rides don't involve crashing 😉 )

Racing? Sponsored? 🙂

Btw
...

Since you pay in GBP and everything... if you have to use Sodding Disk Brakes get something with a front suspension... If you dont have Romanian Vampire Pianist fingers you might live longer... 😉 😄 Otherwise just get some rain brake pads like Swissstop Blue (BXP) and smudge some eurozzz on your rims on descents.

With a descent pair of Calipers, rims and levers, they are fine...

Wheels are expensive and make a huge difference... Maybe check these for:

-Need of frequent truing.
-Material. (Fatigue strength).
-Depth. (Aero, weight).
Etc...

PS: They say that Disko brakes are the "Future", not the "Present" 😄 ...

Random Music Video: 😄

Well I've never ridden a road bike before. Going for my first trial tomorrow but I'm determined that I am going to succeed/persevere with it so hopefully all my rides will be epic! 😉

I just cycle for fun and on occassion Charity. I've cycled the Capital to Coast (London to Brighton) the last two years and in November I am flying to Nevada to cycle 261 miles over 5 days through Death Valley for the Charity I work for. I'll be k a Tandem with one of the guys I support who has learning and physical disabilities so it's going to be tough going. I'm yet to come off when in races/events however I have come a cropped once last year on a commuting ride and boy did it hurt!

Hoping to do a load of 50-100 mile cycles over the next few months starting with 150 miles over two days (Sun/Mon) from Reading to Bath and back again.

[FONT=arial]Ok so I tried a road bike today and loved it! Completely changed my thought process on what I wanted whilst in the shop and the guys I spoke to seemed very knowledgeable. In light of the visit I am now looking at a Trek Mondane 2.3. Same price as the others however has a IsoSpeed Decoupler which provides a suspension like feel to rough/bumpy roads without taking away any of the pace.[/FONT]

[FONT=arial]It does have the Shimano 105 set, which I know people have mentioned being difficult for parts, however it seems to be THE set to get at the moment with most of the bikes in my price range. It doesn't hurt any either that it looks amazing! (cant seem to attach a photo? So the link I think is below),. Now I just have to wait for it to arrive![/FONT]

[FONT=arial]Rims -[/FONT]Bontrager Tubeless Ready
[FONT=arial]Tyres - [/FONT][FONT=arial]Bontrager R1 Hard-Case Lite, 700x25c[/FONT]

s7d4.scene7.comAsset 336342Open ↗

That's a pretty solid choice... 🙂 The Cannondale Synapse also has something similar on the seat stays
(I think Cannondale calls it S.A.V.E. or something.)

These Endurance type road bikes have been created from races like the Paris Roubaix which happen on paved, but rough surfaces. Specialized has some bikes like these too like The Secteur, which might also be a choice to check... I think that Evans is a Specialized dealer.

Shimano 105 5800 is gonna be just fine. The only brand that comes to mind that might be equipped with Campagnolo is Bianchi, or maybe Bottechia. They both make Aluminium racers like that Trek. Maybe check those too.

That new 105 stuff is 11 speed so you are gonna have access to all the latest in Cassettes etc.

Anyways, Le Me thinks that this Trek is gonna be a pretty safe choice, but if you ever need something serviced on the brifters you might find it hard to get parts and might need to change the whole brifter and they are not cheap... They might be around 150 EUR each!!!

Good luck on the events you'll be participating! They sound pretty cool! 🙂

Btw, you might also want to check some Audax - Randoneuring events like the London - Scotland - London event in the UK too... 😉 They are not charity but they are usually very scenic and do require some training without being competitive. 🙂

Not trying to be rude, but exact specifications and parts aren't going to "make or break" your enjoyment. Especially this being your first road bike. My advice, just pick a dang bike, pedal hard and enjoy!

Uawadall said:

Not trying to be rude, but exact specifications and parts aren't going to "make or break" your enjoyment. Especially this being your first road bike. My advice, just pick a dang bike, pedal hard and enjoy!

Unless you get a 50 EUR Conti tire only to have the sidewalls getting torn at 2000 km... 😄

That sucked pretty hard for me last year. 😄

Are all Ridleys made in Belgium, or only the better grade models?

mpre53 said:

Are all Ridleys made in Belgium, or only the better grade models?

Not sure... But I just checked them and they do have Campy equipped bikez...

My Ridley Scandium bike was made in Belgium if I remember correctly, and after around 4500 miles a crack formed at the front top of the headtube which extended about 1/2 an inch below the headset. Ridley refused to honor their warranty on it because at first they said I crashed it but all the original wheels and components were not scratched or bent and once the LBS mentioned that little fact Ridley changed their tune saying they don't warranty fatigue. So I was screwed. But to say it's made in Belgium which is better than some Asian mill...mine wasn't better, maybe someone's else's was better, but scandium was suppose to be tougher than regular aluminium, not evidenced by me.

Thus speaking from my experiences I would go with the Cannondale, but remember I said from my experiences.

There are alot of Track Ridleys on the local aleycat rides... They seem to hold pretty well.

I'm not saying that they might be better quality wise. But I heard before that some Asian facrories work on a "percentage failure" way.

That means... If the company wants a quality that fails only at 15% of the stock instead of the 50% of the lower grade they need to pay more.

This makes sense as alot of bad quality stuff that is bought doesn't get used much and there is no need to replace them via warranty, resulting in higher profits.

I don't know what "manufacturing grade" Trek buys, but Trek at least is US based. This makes it a bit cheaper for you guys but in EU this means 800 Euro for a 800 Usd bike... same goes for Giant etc.

Local EU company bikes seem to be cheaper around here. Cube has some Ul tegra bikes for the price of a Sora Trek and they are both made in Taiwan.

Ofcourse some models might be crappier, maybe the older stuff especially.

...and I also hate trucks. 😄 I prefer to shop stuff made locally instead of hauling them for 1500km and still be cheap...

Quoted post said:

My Ridley Scandium bike was made in Belgium if I remember correctly, and after around 4500 miles a crack formed at the front top of the headtube which extended about 1/2 an inch below the headset. Ridley refused to honor their warranty on it because at first they said I crashed it but all the original wheels and components were not scratched or bent and once the LBS mentioned that little fact Ridley changed their tune saying they don't warranty fatigue. So I was screwed. But to say it's made in Belgium which is better than some Asian mill...mine wasn't better, maybe someone's else's was better, but scandium was suppose to be tougher than regular aluminium, not evidenced by me.

Thus speaking from my experiences I would go with the Cannondale, but remember I said from my experiences.

All the big-brand bike warranties I've read exclude fatigue, sometimes calling it "wearout", "wear and tear" or "due to normal usage", etc. I like the fact that Cannondale makes it clear in their warranty and manuals that all lightweight frames are subject to fatigue, and all are expected to wear out, in fact it could be as little as a few seasons of hard racing.

At any rate, your failure in the Ridley headtube at just 4500 miles sounds like a manufacturing defect to me. My guess is that the headset cup was fit too tightly, setting up a hoop stress in the headtube, eg, it would have cracked after X months regardless of the miles you rode. The fact that the frame was made in Belgium doesn't say anything about the quality to me....maybe it means a big guy with a heavy mallet was there to pound in your too-tight top cup?

dhk2 said:

All the big-brand bike warranties I've read exclude fatigue, sometimes calling it "wearout", "wear and tear" or "due to normal usage", etc. I like the fact that Cannondale makes it clear in their warranty and manuals that all lightweight frames are subject to fatigue, and all are expected to wear out, in fact it could be as little as a few seasons of hard racing.

At any rate, your failure in the Ridley headtube at just 4500 miles sounds like a manufacturing defect to me. My guess is that the headset cup was fit too tightly, setting up a hoop stress in the headtube, eg, it would have cracked after X months regardless of the miles you rode. The fact that the frame was made in Belgium doesn't say anything about the quality to me....maybe it means a big guy with a heavy mallet was there to pound in your too-tight top cup?

The LBS did check the headset because Ridley suggested it but found nothing unusual in that area even after they completely disassembled it. The Ridley factory rep was at the LBS when I brought the bike in, but he was kind of stupid, initially saying I crashed it yet there was the bike in his hands looking at and no damage anywhere or a out of true wheel even the slightest, and he and the LBS mechanic both checked the headset before it was declared damaged in an accident. They sent the frame back to someplace and those people ruled it as fatigue.

Volnix; a lot of stuff made today is USA based, like Trek, but most if not all the stuff is made in Asia, Trek only makes their highest end bikes in America the rest is in Asia. We now see wording on boxes that say: "Engineered in the USA" with no reference as to where it was actually made because there are people in America who try not to buy stuff made in China, so some manufactures have gotten wise to that and put the Engineered in the USA to mislead people. China is contracted by US companies as well as other nations to build their product as cheap as possible which China is more than happy too, however because of a lot of disgruntled consumers who are getting sick and tired of buying junk and companies getting sick and tired of all the warranty issues, more and more American companies are starting to bring the production home, but it will be a long process.