Originally Posted by
Robert A
So I'm curious what higher-end frames offer the cyclist. I have a CAAD12 and love the bike. It weights 17.5 pounds without pedals and with stock wheels (which I changed).
Higher end frames from manufacturers such as Cervello and Specialized cost $4k and up. Controlling for the fact that those frames are carbon and mine is aluminum, what benefits do you achieve by stepping up to more expensive frames? Is it only weight savings, or do you get other improvements, such as better handling and increased stiffness? Are those characteristics noticeable enough to the experienced road cyclist?
As long as the "medium-priced" frameset is well designed, the answer is very small gains for a lot of extra money. In your case, you are extremely high on the frame-goodness-per-dollar scale, which means you would pay a lot for very small improvements that might not be perceptible to some riders. The CAAD12 is a nice riding, great handling race bike that is relatively lightweight. There are small gains to be made with a super-high-end frame, but yeah, nothing major. A few hundred grams of weight savings. Maybe some marginally improved aerodynamics. Maybe some slightly better vibration dampening (or not -- depending on the goal of the frame designers).
That said, maybe some really beautiful paint work, a perfect fit, and the enjoyment of a bike that looks-fast-while-standing-still would come with that new frameset, and give you great joy, and be totally worth it to you. But yeah, if you are talking about significant and measurable performance improvements, you might be disappointed.