Dave T-S

If so, what do you think of it - i'm toying with buying one.......

the moose

A little too much cash on your hands, Dave?

Rode one not long back, and have to say it was lovely, though how much of this was the groupset and how muchg the frame I couldn't tell you.

I sure wouldn't pay the difference to upgrade from my bike, but then I'm not that much of a roadie.

Dave T-S

LOL - maybe - bonus coming up in a few weeks, and I can dream that I can ride it as well as Lance, even if I can't - it will be wasted on me, but will look good propped up outside the pub

Enjoying road biking more than MTBing at the mo, so should pile some miles on it. Doing my first 10 mile TT tonight

DR Motorsport

One of the top men from Trek was interviewed on Eurosport yesterday during the tour about their production bikes and Armstrongs bike.
He said all the US postal bikes are direct from the production line with no mods done to them.
So you can buy the EXACT same bike.
Commentator from Eurosport wasn't too convinced.
The bare carbon frame weighs less than 1kg.


David

Dave T-S

David
I lifted the complete bike in the shop up under the top tube with just one finger. It is staggeringly light, and that's just the standard Madone, not the lightweight version

Currently negotiating price - shop offered 10% off straight away (£400), i'm asking for £500 discount - sure i'll succeed

Lust4Life

Wouldn't leave it outside the pub too long

Lovely bike.

Phil

Butkus

How much are they?

It sounds like you're in Colnago territory, in which case there'd be no contest. Remember, Lance doesn't get to choose what bike he rides, so don't read too much into that argument. Choose the bike for the bike's sake, and nothing else.

Butkus

Sorry, didn't read all of your post above. I see it's £4,000. I'm sure it's an amazing bike, but make sure you look at others first!

J4CKO

iTrader: (1)

Look at other bikes first, motorbikes for 4 grand I would hope !

It a 4 grand bike much better than a 3 grand bike ?

Dave T-S

butkus
Colnago is a good manufacturer.

Armstrong doesn't have a choice - he has to ride TREK - but you can safely bet being a perfectionist he has a hand in the design and spec of it

J4CKO
Just because I have £4000 to spend (now got the discount on a Madone up to £500 ), what would I want a motorcycle for? Totally missing the point!

Is a 4 grand bike better than a 3 grand bike? Probably not. Will I ride a 4k bike better? Definitely not, but it's a big boys toys thing

imlach

Is a £28k car better than a £24k car?
Same question really....

Just as many think £10k is plenty enough to spend on a car, others will think £1000 is enough to spend on a bicycle.

...but you will always get those who are willing to pay a lot more....

Perfect example - a Impreza WRC car costs something like £250k - ten times as much as the model it is based on. Not many could afford to drive the car that those in the WRC do.

A bike more or less the same as Lance Armstrong rides is perhaps £4-5k.
Quite a few people could afford to ride the same bike Lance rides!

SteveLegacyToo

What's going on??
Someone asks for advice on a particular bike, and so far, no-one has told him that he should spend his money on something else, like cocaine, or a car, or a smallholding in the western isles.....I am very disappointed

the moose

Well, I'd always say you should spend £4k on a mountain bike rather than a road bike, but other than that mild disagreement, it's a sound choice.

Saddo that I am, I couldn't conceive of having anything less than, say, Hope brakes, a Chris King or Cane Creek headset, XT groupset .... you get used to it, and after sniffing greatness you just refuse to compromise.

Does it make you a better rider? Nah, of course not!

Regacy

For that price you can have something custom made.
I managed to get my tri bike with a decent road set-up for less than that and it fits like a marigold....
However Lance is THE man and if it's good enough for him it's more than enough for me.
(I chose the custom carbon route and a USPS shirt to make me feel better!)
R

Brendan Hughes

Steve - we're old-timers - we know he bought those LAST year...

J4CKO

iTrader: (1)

Nah I am not having that, comparing a 250k rally car to a road car, you still have to pedal the push bike however much you spend on it and you aint gonna go that much faster whether it costs 4 grand or 400 quid.

I do sort of get the bike thing having recently started cycling again, however my wife thinks a 12 year old Diamond Back Mountain bike is more than adequate, would spend up to a grand but over that the law of rapidly diminishing returns kicks in, also I would feel a right tit going into our local very posh cycle shop buying a 4 grand bike and getting all excited about it weighing 18 pounds when I am sixteen stone.

Would have to win the lottery to think about spending that much even if I had it as I know I would end up needing money and resenting spending that much but if you have it, go for it !

Regacy

J4CKO do you buy your clothes from M&S?
A Madone is NOT a practical purchase, it's an aspirational purchase.
We buy Subarus because Colin made them look good.
Lance makes this bike look good and you can buy the exact same bike from the shops,
Sadly the same cannot be said for Colin’s car, you get a very cheap replica.,..........

Dave T-S

J4CKO
LOL

Had to laugh at the treatment I have got from the bike shop (who shall remain nameless for the time being as they only have one Madone left in my size and I want to grab it ).

When you buy a cheap bike and want to road test it, you have to go where the bike is. I went into my local branch of this shop and asked about road testing the Madone, asked which branch it was, and they said don't worry, we'll ship it over here for you to try

Also think I went in too low with my offer - told them I was not prepared to pay full price for it as 2005 models out soon, and they instantly offered me 10% - £400 - off. Told them I wanted £500 off, or £350 off the TREK 5500, and they came back within a couple of hours and said they would do a deal. Bugger, all too easy, should have said I wanted £750 off

Should be trying out the Madone on Tues or Weds - I might not like it!

Currently getting severe grief from 'er indoors about this too - she's a bit of a spendthrift, has put something like 20,000 miles on her MTB and Giant CFR road bikes, gets attached to her bikes, and can't understand why I want to get rid of my Bianchi after a couple of months. Gonna be a tough one to sell this.....best I can come up with so far is "because I want one"

the moose

Sell .... a ..... bike?

Sorry, what do these words mean? I can certainly see why you might want to buy a new bike, but that's absolutely no reason to dispose of the previous one!

Regacy

Spot on Moose, what are garages for if not stacking to the rafters with old favourites!

Dave T-S

LOL @ the moose and regacy

I would keep it, but naively thought that selling the Bianchi and getting a bit of cash back towards the TREK might sway it with the management (although in reality fat lot of difference it will make )

the moose

Best to keep it as a training bike. Or for when you want something different.

My MTBs go a bit like this - the S-Works is the main one, but the Klein is a lovely lightweight hardtail "which is hardly worth anything now, and I can use it when there's a lot of climbs", the Stumpjumper is "a good hack, and I might be servicing the others", the other Stumpjumper is "my commute bike", the road bike is for when I don't feel like riding off-road, the touring bike is, well, for touring, and the others are "a useful source of spare parts".

I haven't told Mrs Moose about the singlespeed plans yet ....... On-One ahoy!

Dave T-S

'er indoors isn't even Mrs TS. Only been going out with her five months, and I suddenly thought, hang on, it's my hard earned readies, not up to you to tell me what to do with it. Unfortunately as she is a stroppy northern tart (her exact words, not mine ) I don't have the bottle to say that to her

PG

any of you guys got some spare XT kit kicking around (8sp) I want to upgrade my shifters and rear mech. ?