vilago

Sorry if this topic has been beat to death somewhere, but I recently broke the frame of my 2 year old Novara Strada from REI and seeing as how they gave me a full refund, I thought I'd use it to upgrade. Looking at an Endurance model at ~1500 to 2500 price range. My main requirements are, 105 or better and disc brakes since it looks like they are all but ubiquitous now, with hydraulic preferred. That's really it, don't really care if it's carbon or not since I'm a heavier rider anyway. Prefer maybe slightly on the more relaxed side of geometry but that's not a requirement, never been picky in that area. I have been eyeing the Canyon Endurace since they came out last year but there's so many options and brands on the market now it's difficult to find something with a good feature set and customer service history that I can trust. Also I would like a stronger wheel than the DT Swiss they currently have speced on the Canyon because of how heavy I am and how aggressively I ride, but you can't customize anything.... I'm also worried about the track history of Canyon in general and their customer service if I were to have a problem again in 2 years...

Seeing as how REI really took care of me on this, I was looking at the Co-Op ARD 1.4 as an option but seems expensive for what it is to me, but I do like the wheel set that is on it.

What are your thoughts?

noodle soup

How heavy are we talking about, and is your body evenly proportioned, or shorter/longer in the torso?

Lazyass

The DB Century 2 has Ultegra and hydro's and it's only $1100 if you sign up for a corporate account. So a search and you can find the corporate code to register with.

https://www.diamondback.com/road-bik...ance/century-2

jordanair45

Best bang for buck. Or FUJI

But you can get a lot in your price range.

Cannondale Synapse.

noodle soup

Go with the best fitting frame. At this price, you won’t get a crap frameset.

jordanair45

Agreed, man. Bike fit is everything. I know test rides suck, but ride all the bikes you can and get a feel for what you like.

The one you feel good on is the one you should buy.

Can't go wrong in your price range really. Lots of good bikes.

Maybe see if you can get a rental bike of one you wish to buy . Talk to you LBS and look on the website of the manufacturer to see if they have demo days/dealerships.

Also, endurance bike, why? unless you plan on going off road and putting 30cc tires on it, you can put a shorter/higher stem on a roadbike and make it more comfortable.

vilago

vilago

tungsten

There's a lot more going on with modern endurance bikes than just bar height!

Maelochs

I recommend getting one ... or more.

socalscalatore

IMO, past a certain price point, the exact brand/bike doesn't matter, they're all good. Get one that 1) excites you, 2) looks good, and 3) fits you.

Trek Domane/Spec Roubaix/Cannondale Synapse/Giant Defy/Canyon Endurace/blah blah. Seriously, take your pick.

vilago

This is what I suspected. I guess some anecdotal experiences with the brand's customer service would be helpful. After all, I did break the frame on this bike, would any of these brands have replaced it or told me to take a hike?

socalscalatore

since you had positive experience with REI, you could try the Cannondale Synapse, pretty sure REI carry them, and at year end I bet they can be had for great price.

ridingfool

not sure of ur budget after the bike purchase and like you I am a heavy rider at 230 could never. Keep rims true either until I bought a set of hed Ardennes stallion edition now 10000 miles later still true as day one pricy but well worth it

vilago

This is a good point, I will definitely try the Cannondale and perhaps bring my business to REI considering their good service. The only thing is that I don't have a backup right now so don't want to miss out on the whole season just to save a few $.

vilago

I don't really have an after purchase budget but if I want strong wheels I may have to consider that I can't exchange them when buying the bike and will have to eat that additional cost and try to dump the stock wheels. Thanks for the recommendation also.

JSCjr

You can check out some of the details of my similar journey here. As others have said, there are lots of nice bikes at this price point - get out and ride as many as you can and grab the one that moves you (figuratively and literally!).

vilago

Interesting. I didn't have as positive an experience with the Domane as you did but found the Checkpoint to be a better option. Also tried the CAAD12 and found it to be better than the synapse. So for me it's coming down to CAAD12 or Checkpoint, and most likely the canondale due to the Trek store not budging on price. I guess this is why there are so many options out there, as there's no such thing as one size fits all.

evan326

I went from a synapse to a caad12 and fell in love. It isn't at all an endurance geo, but I find it to not be any harsher of a ride than my synapse was.
Come on, join the cult of caad!

vilago

Think I might!
Issue I'm having is I can't decide between the 105 disk or rim brake version. the piece that protrudes on the bottom inside of the RS505 hood is a bit uncomfortable. Too bad they just announced the updated 105 set last month, if only I could wait til next year...

Harumph

This ^^^^^^^^
I have ridden lot's of bikes but the more I ride my new ride the more I'm falling in love with it. It's solid, fast, comfortable and forgiving, even on chip seal roads. I can't say enough good about this bike. BMC knocked it out of the park.

DomaneS5

I've been riding the Trek Domane S5 for about 2 years. I like it better than my first bike with "race" geometry.

vilago

Thanks everyone for the feedback. It's been extremely difficult but I think i'm going to give the Canyon Ultimate a shot. The CAAD12 is a fantastic beast but the overall Canyon package is hard to ignore for the price. Geometry is very similar so I would expect the fit to be just as good. If anyone is interested I can post some feedback on it after a few rides once I get it.

jitteringjr

Which specific one? And you decided you wanted to more race geometry of the Ultimate versus the Endurace?

vilago

The Ultimate CF SL Disc 8.0
Yes, I tried a couple endurance bikes, Synapse and Dumane, and actually didn't like the upright feel as much as the more aggressive positioning. It wasn't that the upright posture wasn't fine, it was just a bit too upright for me and the race geometry was still plenty comfortable. I didn't realize this until trying the Synapse then trying the CAAD12 back to back, which revealed a lot.