I've been cycling about 3 years and am eyeing a new bike early next year. Right now I'm on a ~12 year old carbon bike my FIL built for himself. He's taller than I am and the riding position is longer than I want it to be so I'm going to replace this thing in the coming months. This bike has Ultegra components and Mavic wheels. It's a nice rig particularly given how old it is and that it's been free for two years. I'm thinking I basically want a new version of this bike and in my size instead of his.
Recently I visited Richardson Bike Mart and visited with a long time rider that works there who is related to my stepmom, meaning low pressure and not much salesman in the conversation. We narrowed down to the Trek Emonda SL6 and Giant Propel Advanced 1 Disk. As far as I can tell the only substantive difference is that the Trek has aluminum rims and the Giant has carbon.
During our conversation he asked me what surfaces I rode and I said that of my 22 mile "base" ride about a third is chip seal. For those in CS I live out by the river at the end of Koppe Bridge. I make my way to Castlegate and down into town. So about 4 miles of chip seal headed out and back. He was pretty strong in his opinion that carbon would have a big impact on how smooth any bike was on that surface even if I just put them on the current bike. Is that the board's opinion too? I've read a few articles on the subject but wanted to check with y'all.
Given all of that any other bikes I should be looking at? The Trek noted about is a $3300 ride, the Giant $4500. The Giant is above my range but if the wheel different is worth it I'll probably do it anyway.
Thanks for the feedback.
Recently I visited Richardson Bike Mart and visited with a long time rider that works there who is related to my stepmom, meaning low pressure and not much salesman in the conversation. We narrowed down to the Trek Emonda SL6 and Giant Propel Advanced 1 Disk. As far as I can tell the only substantive difference is that the Trek has aluminum rims and the Giant has carbon.
During our conversation he asked me what surfaces I rode and I said that of my 22 mile "base" ride about a third is chip seal. For those in CS I live out by the river at the end of Koppe Bridge. I make my way to Castlegate and down into town. So about 4 miles of chip seal headed out and back. He was pretty strong in his opinion that carbon would have a big impact on how smooth any bike was on that surface even if I just put them on the current bike. Is that the board's opinion too? I've read a few articles on the subject but wanted to check with y'all.
Given all of that any other bikes I should be looking at? The Trek noted about is a $3300 ride, the Giant $4500. The Giant is above my range but if the wheel different is worth it I'll probably do it anyway.
Thanks for the feedback.