THE 2024 RACE SEASON’S EDGING CLOSER, MEANING IT’S TIME TO START PLOTTING YOUR NEW PB. WHICH MIGHT BE ASSISTED BY THESE CARBON STEEDS FROM TWO BIKING POWERHOUSES…
WORDS ASHLEY QUINLAN
When considering parting with a large pile of your hard-earned cash in exchange for a shiny new race bike around the five- to six-grand price point, just what are the key factors to think about? Good question…
01 RACE GEOMETRY
A bike’s geometry largely dictates the kind of handling that it’ll deliver. Steeper frame angles normally equate to sharper, faster handling, while slacker angles calm the ride experience. Nailing the balance is key, and adjusting things such as stem length can help you tweak this if necessary.
02 CARBON LAY-UPS
Brands often offer bike framesets with different carbon lay-ups to meet a certain price point, so it’s worth looking into which level you’ll be getting. The Scott Addict RC 40, for example, uses the lower grade of two tiers offered by the Swiss brand, while the Canyon Ultimate CF SLX 8 Di2’s the midrange frameset of three. Carbon bikes are actually made of a composite: a mix of carbon fibres in a matrix of epoxy resin. The fibres can be arranged in different orientations – woven, mat or unidirectional – to form thin layers, called plies, which are laid up in different patterns to determine the stiffness, weight and strength of the frame tubes.
03 SPECIFICATION
The specification will affect the bike’s price significantly. However, you don’t necessarily need to go all out for a ‘better’ groupset or wheelset – sometimes the only obvious difference for most of us between lower-tier and higher-tier groupsets, for example, is the lower-ranked one is slightly heavier. The best bike deals often include higher-tier components for the same price, and sometimes cheaper, than lower-tier versions so do shop around.
04 UPGRADES
Consider if you want the maximum out- of-the-box experience from the get-go or if you want to leave some budget so that you can make some upgrades later. Doing the latter usually works out slightly more expensive in the long run, but the upsides of this can include having spares for winter use perhaps and saving component wear.
05 HOW WE TESTED
We rode these bikes in a variety of conditions over an array of distances on our local West Country test loops to see how they measured up against each other. We took in short, steep climbs, longer uphill drags,
