New road bike- how much bike should I buy?

[SadieKate]

You want to really have your mind boggled? Wait to make any decisions until you go to this. Be prepared to drool.

3rd Annual North American Hand Made Bicycle Show

Serotta is a great bike. One of the best. But there are tons of good custom builders out there.

[Kathi]

I built my custom Ottrott this summer. I'm very impressed with the quality of the bike, the ride, the way it handles and fits.

I originally planned to build a custom Seven, being small I didn't think that Serotta could do the job for me but I was wrong. CJ and Kelly (at Serotta) were wonderful. My frame is a 48 cm on 650c wheels.

Check out the Serotta forum http://www.serotta.com/forum/. Mostly guys there but they are very respectful of women.

There are other small frame builders as well. They are often talked about on the Serotta forum. Sometimes they have a long wait list.

In your price range you could get a Fierte, Serotta's stock frame. I demoed it and it's really a nice bike.

[Kathi]

Here's the link to the post of my bike pictures.

http://forums.teamestrogen.com/showt...erotta+ottrott

[anakiwa]

Ace-

First off fit is the most important thing (and it's worth spending money on).

As far as whether to spend the full $3000 now, versus buy an entry level bike now and spend more in a year or two- you can argue it either way. If you fall in love with a $3000 bike and are convinced it's the bike for you- go for it. On the other hand it might make sense to ride something cheaper for a year first (which will allow you to figure out what you really do and don't want in a bike- and when you do get to buy your dream bike you'll really know what you want).

I have a Serotta Coeur d'Acier that's designed as a tri bike and am in the process of buying a Serotta Concours road bike. I'm therefore probably a little biased, but I think a custom bike has a lot to offer. (My current Trek road bike is a really nice bike, but the fit is just not quite right.) I suspect it might be hard to keep the price under $3000 though. The stock Serotta bikes would be a little less expensive (and if you have a decent Serotta fitter they'd be able to tell you if you can fit one of the sizes or if you'd do better with custom or something else).

Good luck!

[KayTee]

I have to agree with the last few posters. Custom bikes can be reasonably priced or ridiculously expensive, depending on frame material and fabricator, and would certainly fit into your budget. At this point in my own cycling life, I'd go for custom frame only and whatever components I can best afford (or re-use), then upgrade the latter if necessary. I rode various stock bikes for 6 years before springing for a custom steel Independent Fabrication Crown Jewel earlier this year. It's been worth every penny.