jnrcopeland

Hi all, I'm in the market for a used bike and I came across two ads, one for a Look KG386 with an UItegra groupset and the other for a Cervelo RS Rival with the following upgrades: Williams 30x ceramic bearing wheelset, SRAM Red 11-26 cassette, FSA SB25 carbon setback seatpost, Vredestein Fortezza comp tires, Look pedals, Richey comp bars and Richey 4XS stem with Look carbon spacers. They are both priced around the same, hence the debate, and I'm just wondering what more experienced riders may have to say on this topic.

Thank you in advance.

Seattle Forrest

I love the way Cervelos ride. Ultegra is better than Rival though.

The most important things are how the two bikes fit you, and which you enjoy riding more. Hopefully you can get a test ride in on both, but that's maybe a challenge with the used market.

rubiksoval

It's a fact that it's the consensus...

shelbyfv

OP, you need to figure a way to post specifics about each bike.

znomit

If in doubt, get the bike that's closest to stock, because "upgrades" often mean "wore stuff out".

Welcome to BF.

shelbyfv

I think we can agree that most folks prefer Ultegra to Rival. They could be wrong in their preference. Anyway, may or may not be useful info for OP. There may be more significant differences in the bikes.

DaveSSS 

Look frames are high quality, but that model has to be quite old. I recently sold a kg461 frame only for $250 on Ebay, but it was 16 years old. It sat in my basement for 8 years, so it was in very good shape, but I'd want something newer. I sold it because I found a source for brand new Colnago c-rs frames for only $700.

Used bikes in general can be a big pain, unless you're a competent mechanic like me. If you have to take a bike to a shop for every little thing, it can get expensive.

I bought an early model cervelo r3, when it was the latest hot item. I rode it twice, hated it, tore it back down and sold the frame.

Seattle Forrest

It's funny that SRAM would make and promote a 1x group, that's a way around not being able to make a 2x that works well.

I thought Rival was as good as Ultegra, when you look at the product lines from both companies, they line up. But Rival isn't as good as Ultegra at all. The front shifting is especially poor. With any Shimano group I've used, it just works. Ultegra is basically instant, and buttery smooth. This is my experience with lots of thousands of miles on both.

cb400bill

Bickering is not helpful to the OP. Cut it out. You all know better.

Barry2 

I can help the OP....
The RS sold.

The old Craigslist story...
Sounds like a bit of a bidding war. The seller held a higher bid over the buyers head, and he had to match it.

Barry

alcjphil

The Look KG 386 was a state of the art monocoque frame at the time manufactured at Look's factory in France. I looked at buying one as a retirement present to myself when I left my job 15 years ago. I knew a guy who worked for the Canadian Look distributor. They had a fleet of demo bikes that they would lend out. I took out a KG 386 for a test ride and loved it, very responsive and it felt very light. However, I also tried out a KG 381 and liked it even better, so that is what I bought. Either way I couldn't go wrong. My brother is still riding that KG 381, I was later gifted with a 481 SL frame that I still have, rides the same but is about a half a pound lighter including the fork. Very few frame manufacturers know more about building carbon fibre bicycle frames than Look