Mdavis5011

I've recently found that I really enjoy road cycling. I find that it gives me a mental high. I'm over 60 and don't care to race, but do enjoy 30 and 40 mile rides. Maybe would enjoy events that are up to 50 miles.
Have been riding an older bike that is slightly too big for me so I'm looking for a new bike or a good used one. Have been looking at (and now have scheduled test rides) the roubaix expert, domane sl 7, and trek advanced pro 0.

My question is this -- at distances of 25-50 miles (my time for 30 miles is roughly 2 hours) should I also be looking at some of the similar race geometries. I have stayed away from considering these bikes because of the thought that I would find the bike uncomfortable at those distances. However, I've read some posts that say one could configure a bike such as the giant TCR or Madone to be just as comfortable as the bike company's corresponding "endurance" bike. I generally ride on paved bike paths or paved car roads, so not doing gravel.

I ask this question, because I often see riders of " team" bikes (usually race type geometry) being sold used after 1 or 1.5 seasons for nearly half msrp due to changed team or changed sponsorship. These would be good guys, but I have not considered them because of the "comfort" factor.

Thoughts?

SethAZ 

If you go with one of the new more comfortable geometries you'll have a better chance of being able to ride wider tires, but actually look into just how wide of tires the bike you want can support. You won't lose any speed but you'll definitely gain comfort and probably some handling benefits as well from them.

It'll all be up to you and what your priorities are. I'd say ride what will make you happiest. There are some for whom having the potentially fastest, most nimble bike makes them happy. Some want to ride long distances with reasonable speed and while more comfortable than they'd be on a pure racing bike.

I guess my opinion on this is thus: if you're not a racer, then why make the concessions that a pure racing bike brings with it? If you're averaging 15 mph, say, why would you want to trade perhaps a more comfortable bike for a more aerodynamic one, especially given the aerodynamic advantages at that speed will be very slight?

If you would maybe enjoy events up to 50 miles, I'll predict that at some point you'll want to do a century ride, or other such long events. What bike would you rather ride for 100 miles?

Kontact

There is no specific "endurance geometry". Many bikes sold as such have the same geometry as other brands do for "racing" bikes, and almost no racing bike sold today has twitchy handling.

In the '80s some race bikes had really short wheelbases and fairly long top tubes so it was possible to lower the bars further, but that isn't true anymore - all the race bikes have comfortably predictable Lemond-style stage racing geometry.

So I would certainly not pass up a "race" bike without a test ride or looking at reviews - many of them allow for fairly upright positions and they don't ride like a criterium bike.

DiabloScott

50 miles is not really enough for the comfort of an endurance bike to be a big factor for most people. BUT - you're over 60, it's going to get harder to keep comfortable in the coming years... you've earned the bike you really want, not the good deal on the one that might not be right. Buy the one that makes you want to ride it.

Seattle Forrest

Bike shops want to sell bikes, it's what they do. They know that people aren't going to spend thousands on a bike without knowing that it's really for them. So they allow test rides. Some shops allow long ones. The place I bought my RS and R3 from would allow a 50 mile test ride, although they would prefer for you to do it on a week day so they can show the bike to other people who might also want to buy one, when they're busy. One good test is worth a thousand expert opinions.

berner

In my opinion, you would likely be comfortable on a racy geometry but you would certainly be on the endurance type geometry. I also think you are likely to find an endurance type bike more versatile for different type riding. My endurance type bike will take slightly wider tires for riding off pavement and is also useful, with a rear rack, for shopping and errands around town. The bike is so useful I ride all over town.

twodownzero

A race bike with a riser stem is now an "endurance" bike.

Ultimately, fit is an adjustment that you make to find where you want to be on a bike. Maybe you find yourself "closer" on a higher head tube bike, but the idea isn't that every bike in the bike shop will just fit you right out of the box. A good fitting is a complex series of adjustments. Once you find yourself in the position that you prefer and can stand to be in for 50+ miles, that is the bike that "fits."

I'm confident that if the frame was the right size, you can find a fit that you like on a race or endurance type frame.

If you take a test ride on the used/team bikes and they're painful after 10 miles, maybe they're too far away from what you want to be.

My road bike is a more "race" oriented geometry and even though I "can" ride it for 30 miles, I don't really "want" to. Perhaps if I showed up to a fast group ride, I'd look at it differently and I'd be glad to be on my faster/more aero bike.

Moving the contact points is really all that matters.

JohnDThompson 

If you're not racing, there's no compelling reason to compromise comfort for performance. You'll likely ride more, and better, if you're comfortable on the bike.

memebag

I'm 52. I'm more comfortable on long rides on my CAAD12 (race geometry) than I was on my Trek Pilot (touring geometry). Why? I'm not really sure. I think my core muscles are strong enough that leaning over a bit more doesn't make a big difference in my comfort. Other factors seem to have a bigger impact on my comfort. I'm more aerodynamic on the CAAD, which reduces the effort to ride long distances.

Stratocaster

I'm 55 and have a CAAD 10 (racing bike) and a Felt Z85 (endurance geometry).
I don't decide which one to ride based on the distance of the ride.
I select the CAAD 10 for flatter rides because of the gearing.
Likewise, I select the Felt when there's a lot of climbing because of the compact crank.
I'd say I'm equally comfortable on both...maybe a little more comfortable on the CAAD 10 (both bikes have the same seat, btw).
...but that's me.

shelbyfv

I never see deals like that. Jealous! What you generally have when someone has made a race geometry bike fit a more relaxed position is some kludge erection of a riser stem and/or huge stack of spacers. Not a place you want to go if you have a choice. Find out what fit you prefer and buy the appropriate bike.

shelbyfv

Wow, that sounds like a bike for some very specific purpose. Do you use it to race crits or chase Strava KOMs? I wouldn't have a use for a bike with such a short distance limitation.

caloso

I had a Cervelo Soloist that was an awesome crit bike: very tight geometry made for super quick handling, aero tubing, and super stiff. But I couldn't ride it for much more than 2 hours. It just beat me up too much. Putting 25mm tubulars helped somewhat but it never made it a comfort bike.

Maelochs

A lot of it is so purely personal there is no way to advise you wisely .... but that has never stopped me before ....

You can set up most bikes to be pretty similar ... as in, where their contact points lie relative to one another. You might end up with tall spacer stacks and sharply up-angled stems, but you can get bars, seat, and pedals nearly at the same relative positions if that's your goal.

What you have to know going in, is what those positions are. If you get the wrong frame ... well, there are limits to what you can change with spacers and stem length and seat-post set-back.

Another issue is flexibility. I find the really long, low bikes can feel awesome for the first 80 minutes and then start killing me a 90. That is a result of poor flexibility, particularly in my shoulders, I think. For people with normal range of motion and good core and leg strength, a "race" set-up can be extremely comfortable.

"Endurance," which usually means slightly taller head tube, slightly longer chain stays, and slightly shorter top tube, makes it easier to set the bars higher relative to the seat without compromising so much with giant spacer stacks and tiny, steeply up-angled stems, for those folks who aren't as comfortable on a racier set-up after a while. Basically, you could set up the endurance frame racy now, with a longer, down-angled stem and bigger seat-to-bar drop, and have room to rise as the body demanded more and offered less.

I have a Workswell 066 which is a Cervelo R5 clone (pretty racy) but I have not cut the fork down---the steerer tube sticks up an inch about the stem, and it looks Fugly in the extreme ... but I know in ten years I might want to add some spacers. (On the other hand that bike has a long head tube fore a "racy" bike so it is easy on my old body.)

Anyway ... that was all a digression.

Before you buy your "perfect bike" I highly encourage you to buy a cheaper bike or two. Your fit will change after you ride a while more, and you will also be able to fine-tune your fit. If you buy some amazing carbon-fiber Wunderbike, you might find that no matter how hard you try you just can't quite get the fit right ... maybe you needed a 56 instead of a of a 54, because that frame had some quirk of geometry .....

Find a cheaper bike that seems to fit really well, then fine-tune it. Get the seat and bars right where you feel best, to the millimeter. Take a few months or longer. Make micro adjustments in the middle of rides and see how it feels. Take out a spacer or add one, or put in a narrower one. Buy three $15 stems and swap them around. (Note: seat/pedals.BB relationship shouldn't change much, IMO ... body mechanics pretty much determines that. But one degree of tilt in the saddle, or one millimeter higher or lower, can make a huge difference once you get yourself accustomed to riding.)

When at last you Know exactly where the seat, pedals, and bars need to be to make You happy .... measure them in every conceivable way, and then go look at the bikes you want to buy now. Bring your ruler and level and tape measure and plumb line and cardboard templates or whatever you need.

What I did with my Workswell was make a sort of engineering drawing in side elevation and, based on the bikes I already owned, measured out where I needed the various pieces to be. Then I figured out what frame size would allow me to fit those pieces there, with how much seat post exposure, how many spacers, and what size length and angle stem.

Some folks could probably do it by feel ... but I was mail-ordering .... But seriously. How can you buy the perfect bike in the perfect size until you know what that size is?

It is entirely possible that one of those half-price team bikes could be set up to fit you perfectly. or not. But until you know what "fit you perfectly" means, it is all a bagatelle.

Buy a decent $600 road bike and tear up the roads for six months. Then call it your rain bike/bike for visiting friends, and go buy the Wunderbike you really want.

Nickolassc

Think about what you really want...I own both a Cannondale Synapse Alloy disc and a Tange champion 2 steel new albion homebrew, which is just a soma smoothie ES with skinny tubing at half the cost (buy fork and frame separate from various websites, whoever has them cheapest at the time considering discount). I absolutely love my new albion homebrew, which is "endurance" geometry in that I have 60 mm of spacers on the steer tube underneath the stem to have the bar tops level with the seat and a nice upright riding position with narrow handlebars and a short crank. It has fender and front/rear rack mounts, and can easily fit up to 34 mm tires (or roughly 30s with fenders). If you can't fit at least 32s on the bike, it's not worth buying IMO. You're not racing here, you're looking for comfort. "Endurance" bikes that can only fit 28s without fenders such as my Cannondale Synapse disc alloy are a cynical joke.

kbarch

Lots of good points made above; I'll second a couple.
- Difference in comfort riding a "race" vs "endurance" bike may not be appreciable until you get to really long rides, or unless you ride non-stop. I've found no difference in comfort between my race bike and touring bike until about 70 miles with a stop or two in the middle, or more than 90 minutes non-stop. Even then, it's not an issue unless I'm pushing myself. I could go longer without really noticing a difference if I take it easy the whole time.
- Chances are, you could set up any performance-oriented road bike your local shop has to be comfortable as long as you start with the right sized frame (which may not be the same as if you intended to race it). It just won't score well in "Hot or Not."

big john

There is more to comfort than frame geometry. Some frames are stiffer than others and will beat you up on rough roads.
I've owned a number of frames and there is a difference in comfort when the roads are pot-holed and broken asphalt.
I'm 63 and I've been using 23mm tires for 30 years.

Mdavis5011

Thanks for so many great, GREAT comments. I think the ability to hear so many excellent viewpoints from experienced riders is truly invaluable and what makes this forum so fantastic. I can see that nothing beats a good, long test ride and a proper fit.... and wider tires! Thank you very much!!!

Seattle Forrest

No. You also have to stretch out the chainstays to make a longer wheelbase.

Kontact

Plenty of race bikes have longish chainstays already.

draganm

this topic has always interested me, and while I'm not 60 (yet), I am thinking about the day when I might need a little more forgiveness from my road bike. Even back when I was in my 30's, I remember buying a rather expensive ($100.+) suspension seat-post (elastomer spring) to take the punishment out of my Trek AL frame.

Has anyone here ridden a Domane? The movement they've built into the frame is really impressive. What I don't understand is how they do they tune it for different size riders. What might be a little give for a 160 pound ride could feel like a pogo stick for a 230 pound gear masher?

If I was the OP, this is one I would be sure to try

at 1:54

Garfield Cat

Its your timeline and the rest will work its way.

Those bikes you quoted are not cheap. That means you can get a proper professional fitting anytime.

Its more about your development as a rider. Just get the bike already. Not endurance.

At age 60, you don't want any regrets.

drewguy

Yes, I have one. It's a bit hard to tell what it would be like w/o isospeed, because other bikes have other different attributes. Mine is older and not adjustable, but I believe the newer models are adjustable to address your point. I've found in some limited instances a bit of a "bounciness" to it, but it's infrequent and usually after going over a bump where if feels like there's a bit of recoil.

Hunterdog

I'm over 60 and returned to riding a few years ago. I had an older Cannondale that I had purchased from a much taller friend; it's a nice bike but not very "forgiving". Three years ago I purchased a last year model Specialixed Roubaix and the comfort improvement for me was terrific. I started riding more and now often go on 50 - 70 miles ride and have done a few centuries. Could I have done that on a race bike? Probably. But I don't think it would have been as comfortable. I purchased a 2018 Roubaix Expert last fall with the future shock and it came with 28mm tires. It is really very comfortable and the times on my regular loops seem to have improved some (my main goal for the new bike was disk brakes as I do ride in inclement weather). Good shopping and have fun!