Working on the top 10 . . .
OK,One of my top 10 goals is to finish a Triathalon. So to do that, I'll need a bike. And beyond the Triathalon, I want to do events like the Seattle to Portland and the Courage Classic. So I need a good bike. Likely I need a true road bike. However, I'm currently a pretty big guy and most of the TRUE road bikes are not really meant to have a guy like me on them. I've been known to strip a crankset or two. ;-) SO I've been researching bikes the past few days/weeks. What I keep coming up with are cyclocross bikes. Cyclo-cross is a sport in which a racer is expected to race both on road and off and often having to overcome obstacles that require the rider to hop off the bike and carry it over something. The bikes have a road flair, but are built to be quite a bit more durable than your average road bike. The fact that I could take them off road occasionally is appealing too. I'm not the gnarly single track kind of guy, but an occasional forest road or something of the sort is somewhat appealing. So I've narrowed my search to three bikes; The Specialized Tricross Comp Double, the Cannondale Optimo Disc and the Trek X0-1.
Specialized Tricross Comp Double
Cannondale Optimo Disc
Trek XO-1
Now, these bikes come at a price. The last bike I bought, which Teri sold at our garage sale for a DOLLAR!, was a Bridgestone 400 back in 1985 and it was $350.00. I put probably close to 700 - 1000 miles on that thing and it was a great bike. $350.00 in 1985 dollars when you're 15 and don't have a job seems like an impossible amount of money. Thinking of paying more than 4 times that for a bicycle seems insane when you have a GREAT job. So I'm somewhat torn as to what to do. I originally went into this venture figuring to spend about $800 bucks on a bike and then probably another $300 on accessories. Now looking at upwards of $1,600 for a bike puts this little venture over 2 grand. AND I've got to be damn sure I'm going to stick with my training program to be in Triathalon shape by next summer. So I've got some thinkin' to do. Of course I'm leaning towards the Specialized which at $1,599 is the most expensive of the bunch. The Cannondale comes in at $1,249 for the non-disc brake version and the Trek is in at $1,299. Nope, no expensive tastes here. Got some thinkin' to do. If anyone has any suggestions for a good road bike for a 300+ pound guy @ 6'1" lemme know . . . I'd love to hear them.
Okay back to it... starting with the Cyclocross bikes. Your reasoning is sound... but the only problem with a Cyclocross bike is that the rolling resistance will be higher than a true road bike. Probably not a huge deal for most activities but it will be a huge deal for long road rides and especially the STP. Beleive me it makes a huge difference... I HATE riding my mountain bike on the road - just becasue I know what riding a real road bike feels like - nothing compares a true road bike -- it is just slippery-smooth and oh-so-fast. Sure the cyclocross won't be nearly as bad as my mountain bike... but it won't be as good as a true road bike. John I know that you know that when a product that tries to be many things usually does those many things just adequately.
Next peice of overall advice - you probably want a "triple" - that is 3 chainrings on the front. Especially if we ride together and you follow me up hills! :-) Ha! Anyway - for long ride you never know how that 3rd ring may save your ass up that last hill between you and your goal. Usually going with a triple only adds $50 to $75 to the groupo/bike price. Here's a good place to compare components: http://shrinkster.com/hf9 Here's what I'm looking at: http://shrinkster.com/hf8 -- not necessarily to buy from them - but just as a starting price comparison.
So assuming you ignore that advice and go with a cyclocross bike:
The Trek XO-1: First blush... low-end parts. Bontrager is Trek's own brand... not as good as the competitors like Shimano. The Shimano parts it has are their mid-tier 105 stuff (which used tobe their bottom-tier until they made more bottom-tier lines!). For that price I'd rather see you get I'd rather see you get into Ultegra components. Yes it matters. You want smooth shifts... period oh yeah and nice cranks. Us big guys don't want crank-flex.
Cannondale Optimo Disc: I'd say you are getting more for your money here... but I've never heard of TruVatiV - makers of the crank. You do get an Ultegra read derailleur and disc brakes (my next mountain bike WILL have disc brakes! Stopping 260+ take a lot of power). Overall a nice bike... but again I think you can do better with that money.
Specialized Tricross Double: Same deal as with the Cannondale... at least you get an Ultegra rear but I've never heard of the RPM crankset. I'm not feeling the extra dough over the Cannondale or really the Trek for that matter.
I'll throw in one more review: Softride... WTF is that thing? :-) I'm not sure why anyone would think that they need suspension on the road. Drives me crazy. All it does is rob your power... on the road you need your legs to drive you forward not bounce you up and down! The fact that John Curley rode one really turns me off to the bike! LOL! Oh yeah add to that this factoid straight from the Softride website: *Note: the FASTT beam has a maximum rider weight limit of 200lbs. The Classic Beam used on the Qualifier, Classic TT, Lite, and It have a maximum rider weight of 245lbs