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I have the Race23’s. Stiff
I have the Race23’s. Stiff and light though the freehub needs a clean after manky weather.

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This was mine:

I’m now
This was mine:

I’m now looking to build up this 🙂

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@ DrJDog – its a 31.6mm
@ DrJDog – its a 31.6mm seatpost, not a 34.9mm

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I wouldn’t choose second
I wouldn’t choose second hand, you don’t know just how worn the groupset is. New groupsets just feel nicer.

Both the BTwin’s have had some good write ups for the price. Aluminium generally feels a bit more rattley over the bumps, carbon mutes the bumps a little bit. Thats quite a generalisation but what I’ve found regardless of frame quality.

They had a grey / blue version of the Alur at the Etape event village. It was very nice!

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Just be aware that the
Just be aware that the lettering on the anodised black is essentially raw aluminium (albeit laser eteched) and mine corroded – the finishing went all mottled and I couldn’t get it to clean up. So keep the downtube well cleaned and possibly use some alloy wheel wax or a similar protective liquid to keep it fresh and clean.

Dom at Kinesis sorted me out with a new one though under warranty, no quibbles. I went for the orange one as a replacement. Ashamed to say I haven’t built it up yet though 🙁

I’d definitely go a carbon seatpost of some kind, and I swapped from Planet-X wheels to Wheelsmith Race23’s when I did have it built up. Might not be wise to use a wheel builder in another country, but they do offer “free spokes for life” which suggests they’re happy to endorse their wheels as unlikely to fail in normal use.

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The SLX is ~200g lighter and
The SLX is ~200g lighter and its overall weight is a bit more comparable to Cannondale CAAD10 or Kinesis Aithein frames.

Will it bug you knowing there is 200g extra weight on your frame if you buy the cheaper one?

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I have a Kinesis Aithein and
I have a Kinesis Aithein and a Giant TCR SL (alloy) – both sub 1200g frames. I don’t think the TCR SL is available in the UK this year. They both feel a bit more rattly over the bumps than my KTM Revelator (carbon) but both still feel very rapid. The Giant feels a bit stiffer front to back but the Kinesis probably a bit more fun. Cheaper or older designs of carbon frame aren’t much lighter than these.

Of the bikes the OP mentions, only the Canyon and Cannondale CAAD frames will be competing with the lightest alu frames on the market. The other alu frames mentioned might be ‘good’ so far as ride comfort/handling but their manufacturers don’t publish frame weights for a reason.

I’d bet that Kinesis put a weight limit on, partly because they’re a smaller company and so can’t afford to be replacing frames from underneath relative ‘clydesdale’ size riders.

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I was going to say Decathlon,
I was going to say Decathlon, but I think its just limited to helmets and gloves.

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Just don’t worry about
Just don’t worry about internal cabling.

It might look neater and have very slight benefits for aero or in keeping the cables clean but…..
-cables round the bb are normally exposed either way;
-every time you want to change cables you need to feed a sleeve over the old cable and through the frame so you’re not fiddling trying impossibly to poke a cable through;
– internally cable routing isn’t sometimes the best routing either – the cables on my externally routed bikes are all smoother.

Some frames may have internal guiding but a lot don’t.

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Notfastenough makes a valid
Notfastenough makes a valid point. Alloy will feel much more immediate and snappy to accelerate versus cheaper carbon.

My Giant TCR SL (alloy) and Kinesis Aithein both feel snappier than my KTM Revelator (carbon) but the KTM mutes the bumps a lot better. Because it mutes the bumps so well, I can’t tell if it is really a little softer/slower than the alloy frames but it feels like it. Reviews of the KTM say its pretty rapid, so it may just be deceptive. I like riding all three cos they are light and feel fast!

Even at £2000, bikes come mostly with pretty rubbish/heavy wheels. I’d spend £1000 – £1500 on a bike with a reputable frame (alloy or carbon), £300 – £500 on some lighter wheels and the rest perhaps on some nice finishing kit, or tweaking the bars/saddle etc once you know what you like/dislike.

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If people have steered clear
If people have steered clear of any comments on the Norco, its probably because its relatively unknown. Norco evokes thoughts of mountain bikes, long travel, Canadian North Shore etc etc – not perhaps road bikes.

I don’t think you will notice that ‘cheap carbon’ is ‘cheap’. Unless you can compare it back to back with expensive carbon. Carbon will make the road bumps and general chatter feel muted and slightly less harsh. Cheap or not, that should be a ride characteristic most carbon bikes will exhibit. Bikes like the cheapest Specialized Tarmac are close to what they were riding not too long ago on the pro circuit. There’s a few sacrifices to keep the price down, but it would still be a good ride. Ditto Trek Madone.

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At £2000 you should get a
At £2000 you should get a reasonable carbon frame AND groupset comparable to full 105. Anything less would strike me as not particularly good value.

You can also get a decent alloy frame but with Ultegra for sub £2000 easily.

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Hi-mod is stiffer so you can
Hi-mod is stiffer so you can use less (and therefore lighter frame) to achieve the same stiffness. Some frames claiming to be hi-mod aren’t hi-mod throughout and for the mere mortal it will be difficult to tell the minute differences between frames (other than poisition and distinctly differing design purposes like aero Vs sportive).

£2k is a lot to spend on a first road bike. Some very good alloy framed bikes (cannondale CAAD, Giant TCR SL alloy if you can find one, Kinesis, etc etc) with 105 for around £1000 at the moment. Having seen some of the weights of low end carbon frames, its not necessarily better than alloy.

Get one that fits and the one you like the look of.

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Can’t get too excited about
Can’t get too excited about the article either way. Fairly bland, a few good points, a few indifferent or disagreable points.

I do think there is a certain “cliquey-ness” that pervades from most road clubs – its almost inevitable – since I’d hazard a guess that most riders who’ve never ridden with a club won’t know much about the hand signals and calls that make cycling in a group at speed on the road safe(r).

I’d been riding 20 years or so before joing a predominantly road based club and would never have known about the hand gestures for indicating potholes, indicating loose road surfaces, the need to move out etc. And I did my cycling proficiency to keep me safe on the roads all those years ago, so what more did I need to know??! A lot, that’s what! Knowing such hand gestures and other things like not half-wheeling won’t necessarily be obvious to novices but its these kind of that minimise pile-ups and crashes when riding in a group. On the flipside, I can see how this almost ‘dictatorial’ but necessary etiquette can come across as a kind of cycling snobbery.

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As per joemmo, never had any
As per joemmo, never had any issues with 105 10speed or Ultegra 10 speed (essentially the same shifter but a carbon lever).

I wouldn’t put grease anywhere near the cables on my bike (brake or gear), but I would use a light dry lube to minimise the friction and work as a corrosion inhibitor. If its both front and rear gears then it could be the grease around the bb where both cables pass.

Cable outers can also shift slightly under bar tape through riding or in the event your bars get too twisted e.g. lifting in/out of a car boot etc.

I’d get new cables (inners and outers) professionally fitted with new bar tape and if its done properly that should sort any issues.

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