January 3, 2009

Tough choices...

As I contemplate a carbon bike purchase later in the year, I've mostly narrowed it down to three choices. The Trek Madone, Orbea Onix, or the Cervelo RS. The Trek is probably out because I don't like any of their paint schemes this year, and it's expensive. The Orbea is nice. The Cervelo is the current leader, but expensive. The RS has nice geometry that I think will fit better, and I like how they post all that engineering jargon on their site. Plus if their production frames can survive under Fabian Cancellera in Paris-Roubaix, it can survive my enormous mass. He is heavy (195lbs.?) and powerful (sustained 550 watts for 5 kilometers). I am heavier (?) and way less powerful (10 watts for 5 meters, followed by a nap).
Ideally, I would get the RS geometry with the R3's straight seat stays. But who am I to be picky? It would of course be built with my patented SRAM Red/Rival component blend. That is, Red shifters and Rival everything else. Although the new Rival shifters are said to have zero-loss travel and trim, just like Red, so maybe all Rival, all the time. Probably some nice Easton wheels. Though I do like the reflective stickers on ROL wheels...

Why am I not looking at, say, the S3? I don't generally ride fast enough to need lots of aero goodies, I don't race, and the giant airfoil frame just doesn't look pretty to me. Mostly it's aesthetics.

Choices.

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