bigcicero

I had another thread going in which I was saying that I wanted to trade my first bike, a 2013 Caad 10 54, b/c it's too small and I couldn't get the fit quite right. I wanted something slightly less aggressive than the Caad, but maybe not like Domane or a Roubaix (even though they're great bikes), and mostly I just wanted to try out some different fits. So I went to an LBS yesterday and tested out a few bikes: Synapse in a couple sizes (56, 58), Tarmac, and an unexpected contender: Cervelo R2. I wasn't looking for Cervelos, but the winner for me was the R2 based on fit.

The Synapse felt a surprisingly snappy, nimble ride, but for some reason I couldn't get the fit quite right and I kept dropping the stem to flatten my back. Thus, it wasn't quite for me, and 'endurance' bikes in general probably aren't right for me, but I can see that it would be an awesome bike for someone who can make the fit work or who wants a slightly more upright ride. It was very nimble, light, and compliant.

The Tarmac was a cool bike but a through and through race bike... it too would be awesome for someone who wants to ride their entire ride in a race position. Also more compliant than my Caad. But I'm not sure it was quite what I was looking for.

The Cervelo was truly an excellent middle ground between endurance and race, with slightly more reach / less stack than the Syanpse, but fit me better than the Tarmac. Still very much a race-bred bike. But clearly compliant in the right places. This is the first bike I've tried in a while that really fit me well, with room to move the stem down to get a little more aero. I don't know why such small differences in geometry can make such a large difference in feel, but this one just felt better. Like the difference between a nice shoe with an annoying rub in it, and a similar nice shoe that fits great without that annoying rub.

I've learned that, at least to me, fit is more important than components, colors, etc. All those things are good to examine after the fit is secured.

I wanted to ride the Treks (I might like the Emonda h2 fit) but didn't have time and this place didn't have the Bianchi that I wanted to test.

Part of me wants to ride way more bikes to get a feel for all of them, but part of me wants to take advantage of the available R2 that I know fits well. Think I'm going to see if I can ride an Emonda somewhere, will ponder for a while...