So I’m on the market for a new bike, I’m currently on a Specialized Tarmac Pro (2015) very nicely custom build I bought from quite cheap second hand. Love it is fast and fun, but it kills my writs and numbs my balls.
I did a bike fit, drop to the handlebars was too much, so we moved the stem around.
For ref, I’m 182 and ride a 54 size Tarmac because I found the Allez 56 too long and was compensating moving forward in the saddle, which was causing me numbness.
Unfortunately stack is still too low, so I want to go fro a more relaxed bike geometry.
So I have been looking at a few bikes that kinda fit the geometry that I need, but wanted to know if there are other recommendations.
Specialized pricing is a bit bonkers, but the Roubaix is a great bike too. It’s pretty upright in stock form (riser bars, positive angle stem). I have a 2021 Roubaix Expert with Di2 and it’s been great.
Yet another plug for my favorite bike geo site. Not only does Bike Insights have a great 1:1 geo comparison tool, but they offer grouped bike sets (like the “endurance” category essentially covered above) to see one of the largest compilations of options in a given category.
Assuming you want a road bike (vice gravel which tend to be more relaxed anyway), I’m a huge fan of Fezzari. It’s based in Utah and was recommended to me by this forum three years ago. The Empire is their endurance road bike, but they recently released an aero bike (Veyo) but the geometry isn’t that far off from the Empire.
@mcneese.chad it still gives a really long list and it’s impossible to filter for common brands. There’s a lot of brands shown in there that are smaller and hard to get where I live (Netherlands).
@rkoswald thanks for the tip, they look cool but I’m not in the US
Roubaix is another option like mentioned before, you also have good ones already listed. I’m gonna add a new unreleased one, so don’t quote me on anything about the bike since I don’t know much other than it’s going to be a more relaxed geo compared to the Melee which is the Enve Fray, but likely coming out in the next couple of months I believe if we look at the release dates of the MOG and Melee
One of the best ways to alleviate this is through bigger tires and lower pressure. You haven’t said what kind of riding you are optimizing for, but one option is a gravel bike with clearance for big tires.
You can also look at bikes with some form of suspension, like the Specialized Roubaix and Diverge, Trek Domane and Checkpoint, Cannondale Topstone.
I’ll warn you and say that according to Tour Magazine wind tunnel tests, some of these endurance bikes are significantly slower than you might expect. I myself was pretty bummed to find my Merida Scultura Endurance near the bottom of the list, which I bought after suffering from terribly rough roads.
ETA: The wheels aren’t all the same and many of the bikes near the bottom of the list have shallower wheelsets and some are tested with 28mm tires.
