N+1: Bike fancying

I live 5 mins from a Spesh shop (San Min). I’m tossing up to buy a mid-range bike from them rather than something cheap second hand. It’d be handy to have them on hand for bike maintenance.

I gotta get back in the game.

Local/independent bike shops are always recommended over the big chain stores, but yeah i’d hesitate to buy any used carbon. Actually i’d not buy any used bike anymore as

I bought a ‘vintage’ reynolds 531 framed bike and never ridden it just cos it’s awful, useful for drying towels on though!

Guy who owns local bike shop near my present address, sells very few road bikes, saying most serious riders wait until October and buy that years models, big reductions.Bike manufacturers market-promote new year frames in October.

I buy secondhand always no problems , only new bike I’ve ever was Raleigh racer for 16th birthday.

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Second hand components, not a big issue for me. We are lucky to be in Taiwan, so meeting in person to check the product before exchange is eays.

Second hand frame, I would probably only buy if it was from an acquaintance. I think knowing how much the previous owner took care of the bike and how he rode it is quite key to a second hand purchase.

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OK the Aethos and the Tarmac might be a bit ‘out there’ for my purposes, I’m considering the Merida Scultura as a cheaper alternative. Running SRAM Force, geometry from what I can see is less aggressive than the Allez/Tarmac/Aethos set up.

Duno, will sleep on it long enough for me to save the money for it…

If budget is an issue, there’s also the mid-tier Tarmac Comp and also Tarmac Sport.

No need to go all out on the highest tier 10,000USD+ Tarmac.

Have you ever looked at UK’s own “Factor” o2 VAM? Geometry seems similar to the Tarmac and build price would be comparable to the top tier S-Works range.

This taiwan shop has some nice ‘build’ videos that makes me want to splurge on a sub-7kg Factor. :grin:
(1) 『武嶺爬坡神器FACTOR V.A.M』O2 VAM | Factor Bikes Dream Build - YouTube

Lol the weight weenies in the comment section.

it is pretty hilarious.

I’ve been filling my boring moments watching carbon framed bike reviews and the one thing that the comments sections has shown is that weight weenies and rim brake lovers come out in force.

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Unfortunately, that’s the culture. Not as prevalent in Taiwan, but still there. People are not as direct here, but if you read in between the lines, it’s pretty toxic.

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Wow I didn’t know that. I thought it was all in good fun, but some of the comment section arguments can get quite intense. I guess it is one of those topics you have to ‘steer’ away from. :upside_down_face:

If it’s amongst buddies, it probably is, but if you are meeting someone for the first time and he comments on you running a mixture of Ultegra and 105 parts, that’s just him looking down on you. He will be especially salty if you just dusted him on the climb with your contraption :laughing:

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Yeah the ‘avoid discussing’ list goes:-

Religion
Politics
Low end no-name Shimano groupset with high end campagnolo wheels (Guilty)

Disc brakes
Mixing groupset components
Merits of tubular tyres on road bikes
Vaccines

:rofl:

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come by my bike shop, ill give you more speeds :wink: haha

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I would but i’m several thousand kms away :rofl: soz!

Did you see the part where I encouraged local bike shop use though, did you see! I did a good :yum:

It seems the geometry for a 61cm Tarmac SL7 is pretty comparable to a 58cm Allez in terms of reach and standover height. This seems a bit odd to me. What’s goin’ on there then?

I plan a big upgrade to my bike when I eventually return to Taipei. As I have said repaint frame, new rims and hubs but most importantly I would like Shimano Di2 gear setup.
I have found what I’m looking for in UK on sale for present exchange rate 34673ntd.
Any one know price looking at in Taiwan.
https://www.merlincycles.com/shimano-ultegra-r8050-di2-11-speed-gear-kit-112246.html

Also would make sense to have medium length rather than short?

I hate my Shimano Ultegra gear change, it feels clumsy and inaccurate to me.

For Taiwan, I’d say the longer the cage length the better. This means you can run bigger gears on the cassette which is good for hill-climbing. Medium will run an 11-32 I think, best to check and confirm before purchase though.

Short cage, I’m not really sure why you’d want that, bike anorexia maybe?

Yes. must be why, all other stockists sold out of medium cage.

Some nice bikes on eBay that have the Di2 group set fitted, pondering buying whole bike and exchanging with my manual Ultegra.

Non close enough to me as yet tho.

Since there’s a global shortage of group sets, especially Ultegra Di2, the going price is something like 40,000NTD.

That’s weird they call it “medium cage”, in Taiwan it’s always called long cage. If you have the extra cash, go with the Bar-End EW-RS910H option. Makes for a much cleaner look on the cockpit with the junction box in the bars instead of the stem.

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