Sram 10 speed ( red) I’m posh ( 4 bikes with it on )
It went downhill from there ( with crappy brakes )?
Discs really are brill if you live in a hilly area and your a bit of a wuss
It’s funny you should use that particular phrase, as it was in my explaining of the value of that attitude at an industry event last night that led me to post that allez sprint.
I’ve still got weeks of procrastinating to go, so might as well re examine the cheap options:
All my stuff is the cheapest options pretty much, even my Argon18 was a bargain discount frameset I built up myself as that was…good enough. Or at least I thought so. In hindsight I’ve had a few race day mechanical issues I’m sure a prebuilt bike wouldn’t have suffered.
I’m just a miser due to my upbringing. Don’t see that word often now do you?
I guess with this loan it’s my opportunity to finally do cycling properly.
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My mates stock alloy frame 30 mm tyre disc break < a grand 2019 “ hack “ was so much nicer than any of my bikes to ride it just wasn’t funny !
Depends what your used to I guess but it was just brilliant, he swears by tubeless too !
65 psi, it just floated !!!
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I hear most people talk about things like houses from that way round:
- what’s the biggest deposit I can save
- what’s the biggest mortgage I can get
And then they look for the best house in budget.
I’m very much a cheapest that meets my minimum standard type person on most purchases.
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My main bike, had it 10 yrs and just routine servicing. Feels light and responsive, 9 speed, rim brakes.
Ideal for me.
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I still ride an Allez from 2012. Clocked up close to 50,000 km on it!
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bargain! errm…
one can but lust
If it helps you descend like him it would be worth the money! Did he win the Alpe d’Huez stage with a big descent before the Alpe climb? I remember him catching up and easily blowing past Neilson Powless who tried to keep up before realizing he feared for his life too much….
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Went into a Giant store to eyeball them in real life. None of the ones they had looked much, even the defy pro sangria one wasn’t as good in the flesh.
And they all looked the blooming same! Thousands of pounds variance in price and I can away feeling a TCR or Defy with Tiagra would be fine if I could find a colour I liked 
They even get red and black wrong somehow…
Wheelsets all looked the same despite huge nominal price variances.
Shame I can’t try their bikes outside…
Jerseys fit nice though. Pretty set on that front.
The Talon 4 also looks pretty good for an MTB.
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I never understood why people keep their best bike for ‘racing’. Screw that, use your best bike for training, you spend more time on that and road racing can have ‘less than stellar ‘ outcomes crash wise.
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Can’t believe I’ve missed this thread as I ABSOLUTELY love a bit of new gear 
I’ve read through and thought I’d add a bit of my experience as I have chopped and changed through quite a few bikes in the last 6 months and some of the upgrades have been great, some have just felt nice and some have been completely irrelevant.
I see you’re looking at the TCR and I had one first with mechanical di2, rim brakes and alloy wheels and then changed for a Trek Madone Sl6 with 105 di2, carbon wheels and disc and then had that upgraded by trek after a few months due to issues with the seatpost to the SLR7 which is their top of the range carbon so can give you my experience of going through those.
My experience - hope it helps make a decision easier.
- Entry level carbon (TCR) to mid range Carbon Madone (SL6) to top Carbon Madone (SL7) - honestly can’t tell you a noticeable difference between them all and if you blind tested me I couldn’t tell you which was which.
- Mechanical 105 to Di2 105 - performance I can’t notice any (gears shift well with each) From a superficial feels/sounds nice, then yes the Di2 is very nice to have but Mech do the actual good just as good
- Disc Brakes - I maybe notice a little extra stopping power but I don’t think anything that you would make a big song and dance about - only thing on this is you may struggle to get Rim brake parts in the future due to being phased out so if the cost isn’t too much then it may be worth it to future proof the bike
- Carbon Wheels - this is probably the only thing I did notice a difference on but once again it wasn’t night and day, I didn’t suddenly ride like I was 10kg lighter. The one major difference is aesthetics, carbon wheels makes looking at your bike waaaaaaay more enjoyable,
Long story short - if you get a top of the range bike instead of a carbon frame with mech 105, rim brake and alloy wheels, the only major difference I think you’ll see if in your wallet.
My friend rides a Scott foil with mech gears, alloy wheels and rim breaks and keeps up with all us “fancy pants” on our Cervelo’s Madones and S-Works
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These come on a discount with a bike.
Having seen them, they make little difference to the way the bike looks with the standard Giant P-R2 Disc Wheelset which I believe are aluminium.
If I got them, I can put my old GP5000s 25mm on cant I? I don’t know much about tubeless set ups or hookless rims. No tube, do something funny with the valve hole and have a shop inject the sealant…?
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Order. Placed.
Giant TCR Advanced 1 Disc Road Bike 2023, 105 Di2
Second wheelset and rotors, Giant SLR2 50
…And now we wait.
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I’m glad that choice is over, procrastination has been off the scales on this purchase! 
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And now the never ending second guessing and consideration of other choices begins…?
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That was a very quick delivery ?!
Unless I missed something ?
Looks good
12 speed ?
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When I ordered I knew they had the bike in store where I collected it, got a bit of confusion on the emails as I got the impression the kits and spare wheels were also ready which they weren’t.
I don’t know if it’s 11 or 12 to be honest, 105. I’m having difficulty getting my head around the shifting buttons, so used to Campag mechanical.
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