First Road Bike: 2014 Cervelo S3 OR 2013 Giant Propel Adv.
Moderator: robbosmans
Hey Guys,
My name is Marlon and I am addicted to speed! In September 2013, I bought my first cyclocross bike (2012 Cannondale Caadx 5 105) for the sole purpose of commuting to and from work which is 15km away from home which is about 30km/day. I live in the greater vancouver area, and where I live there is a lot of flat ground (i.e. for a 70km loop around the city i live in, there is about 60m of climbing total). However, when i do group rides, I will usually do about 500-750m of climbing per 60km. I am training throughout fall/winter in order to set myself up for longer rides in Summer 2014 and for 2014, I have decided to ride on a aero road bike setup.
So in summary, I need a bike for:
- Climbing
- Flat ground
- Speed
- As future proof as possible, i will be riding this bike for at least 2 years.
- $4000 budget for a complete setup.
Choices:
- 2014 Cervelo S3 Ultegra
- 2013 Cervelo R3 Ultregra
- 2013 Giant Propel Advanced 2
- 2013 Giant TCR Advanced 0/1
Personal Opinion:
- I personally picked the 2014 Cervelo S3 Ultegra because I wanted to be as aero as possible. The bike can take on clip on aero bars which i intend to get in order to get even faster on my bike if i want to do more TT style riding.
What do you guys think? I'd be more than happy to take your suggestions! I am picking the purchase on January 12/14 while there is a sale on cervelo bikes.
My name is Marlon and I am addicted to speed! In September 2013, I bought my first cyclocross bike (2012 Cannondale Caadx 5 105) for the sole purpose of commuting to and from work which is 15km away from home which is about 30km/day. I live in the greater vancouver area, and where I live there is a lot of flat ground (i.e. for a 70km loop around the city i live in, there is about 60m of climbing total). However, when i do group rides, I will usually do about 500-750m of climbing per 60km. I am training throughout fall/winter in order to set myself up for longer rides in Summer 2014 and for 2014, I have decided to ride on a aero road bike setup.
So in summary, I need a bike for:
- Climbing
- Flat ground
- Speed
- As future proof as possible, i will be riding this bike for at least 2 years.
- $4000 budget for a complete setup.
Choices:
- 2014 Cervelo S3 Ultegra
- 2013 Cervelo R3 Ultregra
- 2013 Giant Propel Advanced 2
- 2013 Giant TCR Advanced 0/1
Personal Opinion:
- I personally picked the 2014 Cervelo S3 Ultegra because I wanted to be as aero as possible. The bike can take on clip on aero bars which i intend to get in order to get even faster on my bike if i want to do more TT style riding.
What do you guys think? I'd be more than happy to take your suggestions! I am picking the purchase on January 12/14 while there is a sale on cervelo bikes.
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Marloon wrote:Hey Guys,
So in summary, I need a bike for:
- Climbing
- Flat ground
- Speed
- As future proof as possible, i will be riding this bike for at least 2 years.
- $4000 budget for a complete setup.
If those are in order of importance, then (old) Cervelo S3 didn't have a reputation as being great for climbing. Not sure what the new one is like.
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- Joined: Wed Jan 01, 2014 8:33 pm
If you need a climbing-first bike you should check out the Cervelo R3 as well.
Based on your 2 year future proof, TCR Advanced might be up for a big change. Basic design was introduce in 2009, with just a few updates (overdrive 2, internal cabling, Di2, etc) and no major ones.
2018 Giant TCR Advance SL0 Disc
2017 Festka Scalatore
1989 Battaglin Roche
1985 Alan Carbonio
2017 Festka Scalatore
1989 Battaglin Roche
1985 Alan Carbonio
nickl wrote:If those are in order of importance, then (old) Cervelo S3 didn't have a reputation as being great for climbing. Not sure what the new one is like.
Thanks for letting me know. I didn't know this. Can you elaborate more on this as to why it wasn't a good climbing bike?
prebsy wrote:TCR all damn day
Why the TCR?
johnnyscans wrote:If you need a climbing-first bike you should check out the Cervelo R3 as well.
My first importance is speed. Then climbing then flats.
shotgun wrote:Based on your 2 year future proof, TCR Advanced might be up for a big change. Basic design was introduce in 2009, with just a few updates (overdrive 2, internal cabling, Di2, etc) and no major ones.
I agree. now that they produced the Propel, its time that the TCR gets love.
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- Joined: Thu Jan 03, 2008 6:14 am
Considering how the old S3 has been ridden to victory on many many races both stage and one day, I don't think there's any merit to it being a poor "climber". But to ease your doubt, the new S3 is over 20% stiffer in the bottom bracket and 30% stiffer in the headtube. I'd take the S3 any day because 1, I think it actually is more aero than the Propel, and 2, its cable stops are ready for any future system including hydraulic.
The new S3 rides more like a R series, too, even though it's way more aero than its predecessors. It just feels (and is) very very fast.
The new S3 rides more like a R series, too, even though it's way more aero than its predecessors. It just feels (and is) very very fast.
justkeepedaling wrote:Considering how the old S3 has been ridden to victory on many many races both stage and one day, I don't think there's any merit to it being a poor "climber". But to ease your doubt, the new S3 is over 20% stiffer in the bottom bracket and 30% stiffer in the headtube. I'd take the S3 any day because 1, I think it actually is more aero than the Propel, and 2, its cable stops are ready for any future system including hydraulic.
The new S3 rides more like a R series, too, even though it's way more aero than its predecessors. It just feels (and is) very very fast.
Thank you for this. I'm really bent on buying the S3 but i really have to step back and consider what is presented in front of my as I have a lot of choices to make and I want to make the right choices considering that I will be dropping some serious coin on this bike.
First of all, I was reading cervelo's aero vs weight blog/article as I see myself doing 5% climbs and the biggest climb that I want to do this year will be an avg of 7%. - http://www.cervelo.com/en/engineering/t ... -aero.html
And they said on this article, "How steep does a climb have to be before the weight savings trump the aero gains? As we saw before, the answer depends on the rider weight and speed, as a faster rider would encounter higher aerodynamic forces while the gravitational forces stay the same. For an average, 250 Watt rider, the tipping point is around a 5% slope, for a good pro who puts out 400 Watt, it’s at 8%."
I'm thinking that based on this, even though the s3 is a heavier bike to climb on vs an R3 or a TCR advanced 2, I will be okay on it knowing that when i do my own personal rides, i will only be riding on flat ground and some small climbs.
second, reading bikeradar's "how aero is aero" article (http://www.bikeradar.com/road/gear/arti ... ero-19273/), I noticed that clip on bars and aero helmets are a wiser investment than bike frames and aero wheel sets in terms of $/watt saved.
I can't believe how huge of a difference aero bars make in terms of watt savings as I intend to grab syntace c3s for the cervelo s3 when i grab it.
Thoughts?
elSid wrote:Does anyone have a 2014 S3 in stock?
Do you live in the GVRD area as well? Labicycletta has them in stock apparently.
Marloon wrote:I can't believe how huge of a difference aero bars make in terms of watt savings as I intend to grab syntace c3s for the cervelo s3 when i grab it.
Depends when you like going fast. You won't be on those aero bars in group rides.
The S3 is a nice bike though - enjoy it.
I would say the giant propel just because i think it looks like a total beast to ride on a more serious note i would suggest that you go for a few decent test rides and decide whether you like the geometry/compliance/etc of each bike.
On a side note - i notice that not many people short list the bmc timemachine when looking at aero bikes.
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On a side note - i notice that not many people short list the bmc timemachine when looking at aero bikes.
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nickl wrote:Depends when you like going fast. You won't be on those aero bars in group rides.
The S3 is a nice bike though - enjoy it.
I like going fast anywhere I go - more so on the nice straight farm roads we have locally. I know that I wont be using the aero bars when I am riding in a group - its definitely too unsafe.
philly wrote:I would say the giant propel just because i think it looks like a total beast to ride on a more serious note i would suggest that you go for a few decent test rides and decide whether you like the geometry/compliance/etc of each bike.
On a side note - i notice that not many people short list the bmc timemachine when looking at aero bikes.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
I tried the Propel Advanced 02 and one thing that I didn't like were the brakes. There was really no modulation with them and on top of that, I didn't like the handle bar that they were using. They use a proprietary aero bar and There's no way i can clip my aero bars onto them.
I guess i just never considered the TMR02. thoughts on this bike?
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I would prefer the S3 over the S5. Lighter, stiffer, and only 4 watts slower (at best). Besides, you can run 25c tires on the S3 but not on the S5 if you'd like
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