Originally Posted by
Imperatore
I'm reading you can get a very good bang for your buck with Giant. What would be the Giant equivalent of the Émonda? I wouldn't mind checking those out either. I've exclusively been looking at Trek and Specialized.
The Giant TCR would be the equivalent of the Emonda/Tarmac. And yes, Giant is great value for money - and it is typically easier to get discounts on their bikes as well (around these parts of Asia, 20% off is pretty standard). You should be able to get 105 at or within sniffing range of $2500 - and pretty much everyone i know who has a Giant loves their bikes (a Giant is the leading candidate for my next bike too)
Oh,
Iride01 makes a good point above - have you consider an all-road bike, instead of a pure road bike? Something like a Giant Revolt or Trek Domane? These will be slightly heavier than the corresponding road bike (although the bulk of that difference is in wheels and tires), but will give you more freedom to explore gravel and dirt roads - and if the need for speed kicks in, you can put on skinny tires and not lose much over a pure road bike (the main differences will be in agility, cornering, etc - which may matter if you are racing in a pack, but not so much to riding alone). These bikes are probably better "single, do-it-all bikes", actually.