First road bike - "relaxed" vs. "aggressive?"

[Owlie]

I do need "WSD" (long legs, short torso, small hands), but I agree that a lot of it is marketing--as long as the top tube length is good, I can in theory swap out components to make any given bike work for me. I think Cannondale and Giant simply file a half-centimeter or so off the top tube of the unisex frames and call it good. Specialized does actually seem a little different.

My current bike is Giant's equivalent of the Dolce. I haven't ridden a Ruby or the Amira (no one has my size!), but I've ridden the Dolce (a more relaxed road bike) and the women's CAAD10, which has the same geometry as the SuperSix, just different materials. I also recently had my Giant fitted, and I'm now in a more aggressive position. (I don't race. I just like riding as much as I can.)

My lower back, oddly enough, is a lot happier with the more aggressive position of my refitted Giant and the CAAD10. I'm looking for a new saddle, but that's the only unhappy part of me. I'm quite flexible, which helps. If I were to get bitten by the brevet bug, I'd look more closely at the Ruby. The handling is going to be a bit different--the CAAD corners much better than my Giant does, and it felt like it would be faster if I wanted it to be. They'll probably feel different climbing too.

Go with whatever fits and feels better. I'm not sure I could do very, very rides on the CAAD10, but I think my back might freak out on the Ruby. Of course, since I have yet to actually hit the 50-mile mark yet...uh...