Old 04-10-20, 09:10 AM
  #6  
UsedToBeFaster
Senior Member
 
Join Date: Aug 2019
Posts: 165
Mentioned: 0 Post(s)
Tagged: 0 Thread(s)
Quoted: 125 Post(s)
Liked 18 Times in 14 Posts
Originally Posted by Tacoenthusiast
Now if only someone would stop all the stop all the best beginner bike under $1000 threads
That's what I'm trying to do. If someone ask we just all respond Spec Allez and be done.

Originally Posted by NumbersGuy
The Giant Contend is similarly specced with a lower price or Cannondale CAAD Optimo is a more racy option
You refer to the Giant Contend 3. Have you ridden that bike? It has an ALU fork which is extremely harsh and it weights closer to 23 pounds. The tried to soften the ride by putting on folding tires but a beginner will spend the price difference on dental work if they ride even vaguely rougher roads.

Originally Posted by Cypress
Giant Contend 1 has an upgraded groupset over the Specialized, weighs less, and comes in at the same price.
You refer to the Giant Contend 1. Firstly, it costs about $100 more which to a beginner is a bit of money. But the real issue I had with the Contend's is that the geometry is not relaxed enough. Giant messed up the Contend in my opinion. If you compare the 2018 Geo with the 2020 Geo you'll see they actually made it more racier. The size Large had a S/R of 605/390 but its now 596/393. I found I was quite stretched out in it so they didn't make it nice and upright like the Allez or even more racier like the CAAD.

Besides the name "Contend" is a really bad name. I could see people stopping you only to paraphrase Marlon Brando, "You could have been someone, you could have been a ContendER but instead your a Bum" :-)
UsedToBeFaster is offline