I have to give my local shop some credit here. I’m intending to move up from my Trek Checkpoint ALR 5 to a carbon bike; the salesman said that for most riders, the SLR 7 isn’t worth the money for what you can expect to get out of it and recommended the SL.
And let us not forget: Those marginal gains at the top, that is something that counts for highly trained pros who are racing. I’m not trained as much, I’m not racing, so a lot of things really do not matter
Which makes it even harder to find good advice about it because one person writes a review looking for gaining half a microsecond of lap time, another just wants a reliable bike to ride to country pubs on.
Yeah, bicycle journalism is a lot like car journalism. A brand new, perfectly tuned bicycle with top-end components will be a great ride. Just like a high-end Mercedes is a great car and a brand-new Ferrari will be quite the fun. But if I want to commute to work, those cars are totally overkill and a long time review of a Dacia Sandero would be more interesting. I wan’t to know how components are holding up, if I can buy replacements for those custom carbon parts in 8 years or what a crash would cost me
I find a nice bike purchased with co-op hours really is worth it. Those hours you bought it with make you able to fix it yourself
What do people consider to be an expensive bike though? You can buy a bike for £75, £750 or £7500.
I have a Boardman MTX 8.6, the cheapest in their range but I thought likely better to go for the cheapest in the higher end range than the most expensive in the lower end range.