How To Buy A High-End, High-Performance Road Bike

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Money makes the wheels go round. Spend more money, and you’re likely to get fasterwheels. I’m not talking about some over-horse-powered-midlife-crisis mobile, but rather two wheels wherethe power comes from your own legs. The return on investment is going to be higher.For acombination Father’s Day/birthday present to myself, I opted to spend asizable chunk of cash on as fast a bicycle as my children’s college fund couldafford. But I wanted to mortgage their future wisely, so I got expert advice, which Ishall now pass on to you. It’s Tour de France time, after all, and who knows what ideas that mightput in your head.I wanted to fork out the extra cash for an allcarbon-fiber frame because it’s much lighter and has some shock-absorption to itthat less expensive aluminum frames lack. The first place I went to look for such a bikewas Facebook.There are lots of hardcore cyclists on my friend list, and animportant first question to ask was, “Where do I go to buy this new bike?” MyCalgary friends voted in droves, and one name came to the fore: SpeedTheory. (They also have a storein Vancouver.)I called ahead and booked an appointment with manager DarcyBell, and the first thing I told him was my budget. He replied by asking me what I wantedto get out of this new bike. Since I like long rides, he asserted that comfort wasimportant. “It’s always key,” he told me, “but comfort issubjective. It’s very personal.”Note that all these figures are inCanadian dollars, and although we’re pretty much on par with U.S. dollars right now,things are generally more expensive here because… I don’t know…Because we need to be taxed back to the Stone Age to pay for pot-smoking welfare hippiesto get free dialysis. Whoa, I got demonically possessed by Rush Limbaugh for a moment.Sorry about that.Anyway, I wore my Pearl Izumi cycling shorts to the store, and the first bike I tried --locked into a trainer, not outside -- was a Felt F5 with a Shimano 105 groupset. It was pretty good, but certainly different thanany bike I’d ever ridden. The cost was $2,399.Next up was the Cervélo RSwith a SRAMRival groupset. I liked the fit better but preferred the way the Shimano 105 shifted.Cost was $2,600. Another one I tried was by a Canadian company, the Argon 18Krypton, which also had Shimano 105. This bike felt like “the one.”It’s a personal thing, and I believe you’ll know it when it happens. This bikejust felt right for me. Darcy told me the Argon is “fantastic bang for yourbuck,” and that it’s Shimano 105 throughout. They don’t try to hide incheaper components.I resisted the impulse buy and opted for due diligence. Italked to Roy Wallack, who writes the “Gear” column for the Los Angeles Times and isthe author ofseveral books, two of which are about cycling. One of the things Roy told me is thatmy price range was pretty much perfect, because higher-priced bikes are mostly aboutshaving off weight.“The most important area to ensure lighter weight arethe wheels,” Roy told me, “because it takes more effort to spin a heavierwheel. But as for the rest of it, it just doesn’t make sense for the average guy tofork out thousands more to shave ounces or even grams off a road bike.”This makes sense. You could instead work on dropping a couple of pounds off your bellyand have less weight to transport. Either that or order a plate of battery-acid-hellfirechicken wings washed down with draft beer, and you’ll sh*t out several pounds ofnapalm the next day, although I doubt you’ll feel like spending much time in a bikesaddle afterward. Continue Reading

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