my current road bike is an aluminum entry level, 105 mech Giant Contend AR. im an XL so its a tank over 12kg. ive had it a few years and it time for an upgrade i think. id love to get di2/AXS, a carbon frame and some carbon wheels (hooked). my budget is $7000 canadian. im not overly fussy about geometry as long as its not super aggressive. i ride Fondos mainly. the bike im currently favoring is the Madone SL 6 gen 8. its on sale for $6k. this is a big expense for me and will most likely be my forever bike so i want to make the right decision. i would love some input and some opinions on what you ride. thanks so much.
You have any bike shops close to you?
You can get a bunch of recommendations, but ultimately get what makes you happy. All the top manufactures make great bikes, most are made by Giant anyway. You are essentially going from a late 90’s Toyota Camry to a 2025 Camry. You might want to go drive a couple to see what features are most important to you.
If you don’t travel a lot with your bike, don’t worry to much about internally routed cables/hoses.
Pick a brand that meets your level of serviceability, do you want someone local to help in a warranty or service situation, if that does not matter then a direct to consumer option works.
Yes get electric shifting, its a game changer. The hookless/hooked wheel fear mongering is overblown.
Make sure the bike can fit wider tires ideally 32-35MM or bigger, has tubeless ready wheels and disc brakes.
If the bike looks good, has a paint scheme that you can live with, checks all your boxes, and makes you want to ride it, then get it! That Madone is super nice, I don’t like the seat tube hole, but that is me.
What do the shops near you carry? I ask because i purchased a Ventum I adore but the bike shop I purchased it through is far from me, which is kind of annoying. Whatever you buy make sure you keep some of your powder dry so you can upgrade or replace whatever items you may need to (handlebars, or cranks). Good luck and dont overthink it!
Did anybody test the polygon strattos bikes (about us$2100) ? How do they compare to bikes that are a lot more expensive ?
What groupset on the Madone?
Is the sale price $6k USD or Canadian?
its 105 di2 on the Madone and that would be canadian dollars
theres a trek and a giant store and a handful of small bike shops with a variety. im going to go shop around tomorrow and see what i can find. my current bike is a giant and i had a giant mountain bike before that. ive been happy with them but the color schemes are just so drab on the new road bikes. i feel like propel is too aggressive perhaps and that TCR looks exactly like my aluminum but with better parts
I love my cervelo soloist. Good tire clearance, not integrated front end means traveling is easier. Got it used so not sure what the price point is new – but I’ve seen a few web ads for new ones on sale in Canada. l just can’t recall where, sorry. If you’re in Toronto, Wheels on Bloor has a bunch of stuff on sale right now I think.
I recommend that you go out and try a whole bunch of bikes. Geometry and fit are much more important than whether you have 105 Di2 or Ultegra Di2 on your bike. Some bikes that make a lot of sense on paper might not be a good fit for you.
For instance, endurance road bikes come on a spectrum from very slack, almost gravel bike-like to more aggressive. Two examples of endurance road bikes with a more aggressive geometry are BMC’s Roadmachine and Cervelo’s Soloist. When I first got serious about road cycling (I was a mountain biker), I got a great deal on an endurance road bike. The bike made a lot of sense on paper, but I just didn’t like the way it rode. It didn’t seem to want to corner and I was not 100 % comfortable when I adopted an aggressive body position. That was solved once I rode more aggressive bikes.
Now your experience may be different, but my point is whether or not you will actually like riding a bike isn’t something you can decide with reviews and charts.
ive ordered the Cannondale supersix evo 1. got it for $6000 canadian. sram force axs. its the 2024 model with the previous Force group set before the upgrades. upgrading to 25mm tires to 30mm gp 5000. super excited to get it. got a free proper bike fit with it too at the bike shop i bought it from. it was toss up between this and a madone sl 7 gen 8 with ultegra di2 in the end since that was marked down to $7k. the cannondale was a better fit for a tall dude like me. either bike was a massive upgrade for me and they are both beautiful to look at. So stoked!
thanks for the input:)
Congratulations! Nice bike!