New 'sportive' bike for £2kish

Sounds a good choice and hard to resist at that spec and price.

Hi,

Last year I was looking to upgrade to a carbon Sportive bike.

I narrowed it down to a Ribble or a Dolan.

I suggest looking at the Dolan website where you can specify all the individual parts ie Ultegra, Mavic Ksyrium etc rather than having to take what comes with the bike then changing parts.

I opted for a Dolan L'Etape Carbon Ultegra with Ksyruium wheels. It was on offer at £1500 at the time.

Hello,

These suggestions might be slightly different and so I'm not sure if they'll appeal to the OP or not.

potentially could consider either the Mason Definition with builds starting at £2,345

https://masoncycles.cc/shop/categories/definition-bikes

http://road.cc/content/review/149005-mason-definition-road-bike

or the Mason Resolution but this might break the budget with builds starting at £2,745

https://masoncycles.cc/shop/categories/resolution-bikes

http://road.cc/content/review/152814-mason-resolution-105-hydro

Or the SPA Titanium Elan at £1,990

http://www.spacycles.co.uk/m1b0s21p3553/SPA-CYCLES-Elan-%28105-11-Speed-Hydraulic%29

Hope that you enjoy searching and good luck finding the right bike for you.

John

What do folks think of a Ribble Gran Fondo with Ultegra and Fulcrum racing 7's £1500. I'm thinking of getting but perhaps with 105. Comments woud be welcome.

Or how about something in metal? 

http://www.planetx.co.uk/c/q/bikes/titanium-bikes

The Synapse is very comfortable and I would say it should be on your list. In my opinion its only slight weakness is the BB30 bottom bracket. 

http://road.cc/content/news/209981-cycling-deals-continental-cube-minour...

that Cube is worth considering and under budget. I replaced my winter/commuter GT Grade carbon with a version of that Cube, it's a GREAT road bike with lack of mudguard mounts being the only possible flaw. Unless you're racing you won't regret discs. You can spend the extra budget on some Hunt 40mm carbon hoops

GT Grade Carbon Ultegra? 2016 models are reduced to about £2200 if you can find one in your size. I'm 6ft 2" and the 56cm frame is spot on. Pretty much a road bike but able to go off the beaten track a bit.

http://www.hargrovescycles.co.uk/gt-grade-carbon-ultegra-2016-road-bike....

I've got that Synapse 105 Carbon with discs and find it hard to fault. It's far comfier than my previous Giant Defy (alu) although that could partly be the wider tyres playing their part.

It seems a bit on the weighty side (heavier than the old Defy on the scales), the wheels are relatively poor (although that's the same on any bike at this price point) and it's a bugger to keep clean but that's the fault of the matt paint job.

A creak started in the headset after a couple of weeks which I probably could have resolved myself with a bit of grease but got the LBS to do for free when they were reindexing the gears.  

However, if I were buying again I think I'd get a cyclocross for the extra wheel clearance in the winter/family bimble and buy a seperate set of wheels for road riding in the summer.

I can thoroughly recommend Python's CR1-SL as a perfect all day ride if the size and geometry suits you.  (I'm assuming he snapped it up when Westbrooks were selling them off at silly money 3 years ago, as did I )

Mine is built up with middle of the road kit and still produces a very light bike.  You could build one into a proper featherweight.

SimonS - your rides sound like mine down to the metre (including the handful of rides in France) and I do it all on a Synapse. It's a wonderful ride for a quick, not especially racy bike. I'd easily buy another one. I don't know what the wheels on offer are but mine came with Mavic Aksium and they are fine with some decent tyres (though recently upgraded to Fulcrum). Rim brakes are fine, even on a damp Tourmalet descent last October.

I haven't ridden a Canyon, and would be put off by the difficulty in getting a test ride (why I didn't buy a Ribble before choosing the Cannondale). I have tried the Defy, and still have a Giant on the turbo in the garage, and would recommend that too, though with less experience.

my brother in law swears by his BMC GF which you may get in this price range.

I'm hoping to be making a similar decision early next year and have a pretty similar short list.  I'm waiting to see some longer term reviews of the Roubaix - the head tube suspension sounds very clever and I can see the engineering behind it but I worry about the complexity and whether some of the riding feel is lost in return for traction and comfort.  And the Roubaix is shiny new expensive right now, and I'm guessing that it will not be heavily discounted this year.

Even full price the Synapse is £500 less than a similar spec Roubaix and you can find them discounted below that.  I have seen a carbon Synapse with Ultegra Di2 for c£2300 and I'd snap one of those up if I was in a position to buy right now.

PS Diverge might be worth looking at if you want the versatility and don't mind the weight.  You tend to pay a premium for gravel bikes though.  Also, watch the rear axle spacing on Specialized - most them used to be some measurement that was only used by them (it was a fudge to keep chain lines when adding disc brakes).  Nothing wrong with it other than it limited the wheel choices that fitted in the future as no-one else made wheels like that.  The new Roubaix using a standard and I imagine that the other models will change as the models get renewed.

What about Giant Defy?
There's some 2016 advanced pros kicking around at pauls cycles and ash cycles and some giant dealers. They're under 2 have great frames and hydraulic discs.. As do the 2017 Defy advanced. They upgraded the 2017 advanced to hydraulic from cable.
The 2016 pros if they fitted would be great. Defy advanced pro 2 won some best of earlier this year if I recall correctly.