Originally Posted by lowside67
(Post 8002688)
Hey man,
Perhaps I can help as I have just recently gone through this and was in a similar situation to you. I was considering both used and new but I found that as an educated shopper, you can get a pretty good deal on a new bike and the prices of the used bikes didn't really make a compelling argument for going used.
I was pretty much set on getting a bike with a Shimano drivetrain - nothing against Sram, in fact I run it on my DH bike, but I liked the design of the 105 levers and in general it seems that the Shimano drivetrain is pretty well sorted.
If you are on the Shimano program, you have their cheaper lines, Sora and Tiagra, their mid-level line, 105, and their upper lines, Ultegra and Dura-Ace (in that order). From what I have read, many consider the 105 to be the lowest level that a "real" road bike would be equipped with and that the jump in performance and quality going from Tiagra to 105 is MUCH bigger than going from 105 to Ultegra. In other words, 105 seems to be the sweet spot where you get a lot of trickle down technology from slightly older Ultegra/Dura-Ace setups where as the Sora and Tiagra were bred and built to simply be a cheaper option.
I did not test ride a Tiagra equipped bike but I test rode back to back a Giant Defy 3 (Sora equipped) and a Giant Defy 1 (105 equipped) and the difference was huge to me. While both bikes ultimately changed gears, etc. the 105 bike snapped between the gears quickly and with purpose while the Sora equipped bike felt lazy and lethargic.
In the Giant Defy series that I test rode, it costs about $350 to upgrade from the Sora Defy 3 to the 105 Defy 1 which puts MSRP at around $1350 on that bike. However, with a little negotiating, that bike can be bought around $1150 + HST on a 2012 model from Different Bikes on Broadway.
For me, I decided that I wanted a bike with a quality drivetrain above all else as I am not an experienced enough rider to appreciate all the small nuances between similar aluminum frames but I can certainly feel and see the difference between the 105 and cheaper parts every time I shift or take a pedal stroke. With that in mind, I limited my search to 105 equipped aluminum bikes (I did not want a no name cheapie carbon frame off eBay) and started test riding bikes. The bike that I really wanted was the Cannondale Caad10 5 but at $1599 + HST, it was more than I wanted to spend despite being a really nice frame set. I also test rode a Giant Defy 1 and to be honest, with a very similar part spec, I didn't really feel that much of a difference between what is arguably the best aluminum frame on the market (Caad10) and a pretty average frame and that convinced me that I was going to just buy the Ventura from SportChek. At the end of the day with the price reduced to $1119 for the 2011 model and the 20% off coupon, my bike ended up being $897 + HST for a brand new bike with mostly 105 components and at my current level of riding, this is exactly what I need.
Down the road I might buy a nice set of wheels that could go on the next bike but for now I am stoked! Sorry for the long post but the guys in this thread were very helpful to me and ended up getting me a team assist coupon so the least I can do is pass on my experience and hope that some of that might be useful to you!
Mark
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