wballany82

Hi, I’m 37 year old, 6,1 male, looking to buy a flat bar road bike, budget around $1200,
I looked into the Trek Fx 4 sport ($1199) and the specialized Sirrus carbon elite ( on sale for $1190), the later looked great, carbon fiber frame and fork, buy component are not all shimano (cassette and rear derailleur is Tiagra, but front derailer, and shifters are Microshift, crankset is Praxis Alba). The Fx is aluminum frame/carbon fork but all shimano component (Tiagra). Weight is similar for both.
shall I go with all carbon and nicer look or better components?

Ross520

Why not drop bars? You get two more hand positions. Plus, as a tall person myself, I find riding on the hoods of drop bars far more comfortable than flats.

Gconan

Fuji has a 105 model for 1200$ I believe. Fuji

livedarklions

Can you test ride? Differences might be negligence as a practical matter if they feel about the same, in which case go with the esthetics, but if you find one feels, handles and shifts better, go with the performance.

You're likely getting a great bike either way, these fast uprights are a blast on roads.

Milton Keynes

I agree with drop bars, but if you insist on getting a flat bar bike, get a good quality set of bar ends. You'll enjoy having the extra hand positions.

sheaffer

Hey, I was also looking at the Specialized Sirrus model...but ended up buying Trek FX S 5 2019 model for $1600 (carbon frame). Test rode the FX 4 too. Rode great but I spent a bit more for the FX 5 model. Been riding 20 miles 3-4 times a week and put about 400 miles on it already. Love the bike. I'm partial to Trek so I say buy the Trek FX. As far as the dropped bars...eeehhh don't really care for those, I enjoy more upright position. Previous bike was Trek DS 2. I noticed on these bike forums, it's either dropped bars or no bars. :-)

Ross520

You can achieve an up-right position with drops, and have the luxury of more hand positions. There's a reason so many people recommend them over flats.

Personally, my wrists start to ache after a while riding flats. I find the neutral position achieved by riding on the hoods far more comfortable. Also, I like the ability to get into a more aero position during descents and heavy head-winds.

robnol

buy one on ebay ….you can get way more bike for 1200 dollars than you can buy brand new...

Ross520

I wouldn't recommend that for a newbie. It's hard enough for an inexperienced cyclist to know what he's looking at in-person, let alone online.

Worse cause scenario, he ends up with a bike that is unsafe. No amount of savings is worth that.

I'd suggest finding a good sale and purchasing a brand-new bike.

livedarklions

I ride both types for distance, and just rode my FX3 186 hilly miles weekend before last. With bar ends, you can vary your hand positions. These fitness bikes have a riding position that is a bit more aero than a typical upright, and I can sustain a pretty good running speed in the 20s on mine. Obviously, I can't do a full tuck on it like I do on the Allez, but I'm certainly as aero as someone riding the hoods.

Ross520

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I'd have to disagree with bar-ends being as comfortable as drop bars. You also don't have the safety advantage of having the brake lever immediately accessible. Control on descents is also hampered with flats. They're really more tailored for low-speed commuting...

But to each his own.

livedarklions

Funny, because I'm using them for some pretty high speed long distance, and they work fine. Access to the brakes is no worse than shifting my hand from riding the drops (as opposed to riding the hooks, btw), so that's kind of nonsensical, and I've descended at least 9% grade for several miles on flats and never had any issues whatsoever with control. I just did 10.000 feet of descending over 2 days two weeks ago on roads of varying levels of quality with my FX3, and it was just fine.

Comfort is somewhat subjective, and definitely varies both with rider and bike. In my experience some bar ends are more comfortable than some hoods and not as comfortable as others. There's variation in shapes of hands and shapes of hoods (as well as bar ends), so generalizations from one's own experience is probably not worth much for other people.

Don't get me wrong, I generally prefer riding my drop bars, but I just find that people trying to convince others to adopt this preference say a bunch of silly stuff that amounts to "you should like what works for me."

I'm really fond of posts that tell me what I'm doing doesn't work. I'll add yours to the collection.

subgrade

Right, that's why none of downhill riders use flat bars.

Sal Bandini

What makes you think Tiagra is better than Microshift? Based solely on company name?


I have the same Microshift front derailleur and shifters on my Sirrus. I have over 3500 miles on them , zero problems.

But the bike that fits better and has the color you want.

KyTrek2019

Just curious has to what bar ends do you have? I've been looking for bar ends, but seems very limited do to the Trek handlebar design. Thanks.

livedarklions

Trek has an adapter you can install to fit standard bar ends, but you can't mount anything inboard. Nothing fancy, just put these on my FX3 last year.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...?ie=UTF8&psc=1

wolfchild

Everything in this post is completely false.