Light road disc frame with fender mounts?

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Eleven21
Posts: 156
Joined: Sun Jun 25, 2017 8:08 pm

by Eleven21

Eleven21 wrote:
mr_tim wrote:Cinelli semper. 25mm tires and fenders.

With These winter frames you'd hope not to be using unless necessary. So I'd always be thinking not too spendy is best. Bowman price of £845 for alu frame is insane.
The thing is IMO life’s too short to be riding bad bikes. I want my winter bikes to be as nice riding as my summer one and FWIW I give our winter bikes a thorough wash ‘pretty much‘ every week. I’ll be up early morning tomorrow to wash both of them as it was really wet and muddy on the roads today.

When I don’t get to wash them straight after the ride I’ll give the frame and chain a wipe down and then put more lube on the chain to help prevent any rust taking hold until I can give them a proper clean.

petromyzon
Posts: 781
Joined: Mon Apr 05, 2010 4:14 pm

by petromyzon

mr_tim wrote:
Sun Dec 15, 2019 12:28 am
Cinelli semper. 25mm tires and fenders.

With These winter frames you'd hope not to be using unless necessary. So I'd always be thinking not too spendy is best. Bowman price of £845 for alu frame is insane.
Is £845 really that crazy? What are your options for an alloy frame and full carbon fork for less? Ribble and Merlin have got some really good options but they are heavier, not as aesthetically pleasing and lack some of the specific routing features that Bowman have designed.
Most of the large bike makers are moving away from offering frameset only options for people who like to build their own bikes. So you have to buy a low end model and strip it down +/- suffer the tyranny of a pressfit BB to get what you want.

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NickJHP
Posts: 462
Joined: Wed Feb 14, 2018 2:22 am
Location: Canberra, Australia

by NickJHP

The Dolan RDX aluminium frameset is available in a 50cm size, takes flat mount discs, and has mudguard bosses. At the moment they seem to have it on sale for £150. You can also go for the Ti ADX for about eight times the price...

Lugan
Posts: 191
Joined: Wed Oct 26, 2011 9:02 pm

by Lugan

Eleven21 wrote:
Sun Dec 15, 2019 12:48 am
The thing is IMO life’s too short to be riding bad bikes. I want my winter bikes to be as nice riding as my summer one...
I totally agree. I own 8 bikes, and ride all fo them, but my rain bike gets 40-50% of my ride time here in the Seattle area, and I don't skimp on anything on that bike. Winter riding is already uncomfortable enough.

Lugan
Posts: 191
Joined: Wed Oct 26, 2011 9:02 pm

by Lugan

Lugan wrote:
Sun Dec 15, 2019 2:56 pm
Eleven21 wrote:
Sun Dec 15, 2019 12:48 am
The thing is IMO life’s too short to be riding bad bikes. I want my winter bikes to be as nice riding as my summer one...
I totally agree. I own 8 bikes, and ride all fo them, but my rain bike gets ~40% of my ride time here in the Seattle area, and I don't skimp on anything on that bike. Winter riding is already uncomfortable enough.

Lugan
Posts: 191
Joined: Wed Oct 26, 2011 9:02 pm

by Lugan

Eleven21 wrote:
Sun Dec 15, 2019 12:48 am
The thing is IMO life’s too short to be riding bad bikes. I want my winter bikes to be as nice riding as my summer one...
I totally agree. I own 8 bikes, and ride all of them, but my rain bike gets ~40% of my ride time here in the Seattle area, and so I don't skimp on anything on that bike. Winter riding is already uncomfortable enough.

petromyzon
Posts: 781
Joined: Mon Apr 05, 2010 4:14 pm

by petromyzon

NickJHP wrote:
Sun Dec 15, 2019 11:23 am
The Dolan RDX aluminium frameset is available in a 50cm size, takes flat mount discs, and has mudguard bosses. At the moment they seem to have it on sale for £150. You can also go for the Ti ADX for about eight times the price...
Fair enough. But Ribble have been making triple butted 7005 winter bikes for many years. They are cheap but no-one holds them up as sweet riding performance machines. I've never bought or ridden a Bowman but they are well reviewed. I wouldn't write them off as poor value just because some other aluminium frames exist at a lower price point.

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mr_tim
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Joined: Sun May 31, 2009 8:47 pm
Location: durp durp durp

by mr_tim

Semper is £500.

Don't honestly know if you get carbon steerer on the carbon fork but you don't notice tbh. I've ridden both and couldn't spot the difference (colnago forks on a thrashable colnago alu race frame which handled very neutrally)

£500 (and you can find it in Euro for less) vs £845 is 69% more ... These alu frames are going to weigh all about the same so its marketing koolade once you find something that fits. Alu rides like alu- it's the wheels like make it a dead or alive riding bike (assuming you get the fit right).

I appreciate what everyone says about life being too short for crap bikes. My 'bad' weather bike right now is Giant TCR SL with Campag h11 discs so get that take on life 🙈

I also keep a mudguard bike for necessity if needing to ride in full on wet weather but typically give full wet weather a miss and ride turbo vs getting soaked and risking illness. That doubles as a ghetto outdoors lockable bike so it's none too glitzy (still £3k odd with record bits & decent wheels). Have been debating on swapping this out to the Semper but still getting used to concept of discs generally.

petromyzon wrote:
Sun Dec 15, 2019 10:38 am

Is £845 really that crazy? What are your options for an alloy frame and full carbon fork for less?

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cerro
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Location: Malmö, Sweden
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by cerro

Cannondale caad13 or Synapse

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tnkn
Posts: 113
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Location: Hampshire, UK
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by tnkn

Does anyone know of the Focus Paralane uses the same frameset/carbon layup/weight throughout the range?

Thinking of getting the bike and swapping out parts as the frameset seems hard to come by.

romanmoser
Posts: 573
Joined: Sun May 06, 2018 8:30 pm

by romanmoser

I guess I'll end up with a caad13 frameset and BB3024A hambini bottom bracket
despite the integrated seat post binder and specific seatpost etc

nothing else available in frameset and as intersting
the bowman weald is super short and high
too much for me
i don't want to compromise handling by riding a -130 -140 -17 stem

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tnkn
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Location: Hampshire, UK
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by tnkn

I ended up buying a focus paralane 9.8. Very nice bike and comes in under 8kg with the mudguards and shimano xtr MTB pedals. Without the mudguards 7.4kg.

Obviously I've changed a few bits from stock but I'd highly recommend one.

It's super smooth, fast and handles well and should be able to cope with a bit of rough given the 35mm clearance.

emotive
Posts: 613
Joined: Tue Nov 01, 2016 10:40 am
Location: Melbourne, Australia

by emotive

tnkn wrote:
Thu Feb 20, 2020 10:20 pm
I ended up buying a focus paralane 9.8. Very nice bike and comes in under 8kg with the mudguards and shimano xtr MTB pedals. Without the mudguards 7.4kg.

Obviously I've changed a few bits from stock but I'd highly recommend one.

It's super smooth, fast and handles well and should be able to cope with a bit of rough given the 35mm clearance.
I ride gravel with a guy on a Paralane 9.8 and Gravelking SK 35's. He can out descend me on gravel roads, and is getting in the top 1% of Strava times, so can definitely handle some rough roads.

NickJHP
Posts: 462
Joined: Wed Feb 14, 2018 2:22 am
Location: Canberra, Australia

by NickJHP

tnkn wrote:
Thu Feb 20, 2020 10:20 pm
I ended up buying a focus paralane 9.8. Very nice bike and comes in under 8kg with the mudguards and shimano xtr MTB pedals. Without the mudguards 7.4kg.
600g for mudguards is rather heavy. You need a pair of these: https://www.veloduo.co.uk/products/carb ... 35-40-50mm.

jih
Posts: 596
Joined: Fri Jan 29, 2016 12:54 pm

by jih

Matter of opinion but for me, winter bike is not the same as a bad bike. Slightly slower bike, but in a group ride not enough that it is a problem if you're one of the average or faster riders anyway. If anything, you get a tiny bit more training on your alloy winter bike.

Campag Veloce/Centaur/Potenza for me is a joy to use. I enjoy them just as much as the higher groups. It just works. It feels nice. You don't see the carbon fibre bits while you're riding anyway and the weight difference isn't that much. Shallow section alloy wheels are stress-free on longer miles when the wind picks up, and in the middle of a group you're drafting anyway.

There are good and bad summer bikes and good and bad winter bikes. I like riding good winter bikes and good summer bikes equally in each bike's correct context.

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