Standover height on a road bike. How much room do you have?

[Cataboo]

Btw, in case it wasn't clear - ultegra components are better & more expensive than shimano 105 components...

However, shimano 105 components are perfectly usable and respectable.

[bikecanada]

There's about a $110-$130 difference (the devinci is cheaper). The bar on the giant does feel better. I can reach the brake levers from the drops a lot better. The only difference with the Devinci is that it's got a bigger standover height. The Devinci also doesn't come with pedals.. the Giant has the Crankbrother Candys.

[bikecanada]

Thanks for the help by the way!

[Cataboo]

You're welcome - I wouldn't worry too much about the standover height - as long as you've got clearance and you're comfortable, it's really not as critical on a road bike as it is on a mountain bike.

Given that the devinci's a 2008, you'd think they could cut you a better deal on that bike...

So with the devinci you would still need to buy pedals - if you want to ride clipped in, that's going to be at least another $50, which cuts into the price difference. If the handlebar & reach feels better on the giant, I think I'd say go for the giant.

But go back and ride both of them again and think more about how the shifters & handlebars feel while you're doing it.

I'm guessing the bike shop thought both of the bikes fit you pretty well? I think the shifters on the giant and the 12-27 cassette (again, I don't know what the devinci has) on the back of it would make me go with the giant. The short reach shifters are like $420 if you buy them new:
http://www.performancebike.com/shop/...estore_ID=1056

So if you like how they feel, it's better to get them now while it's included in the price of the bike.

That being said - I'm 5'1 with really short fingers and don't have short reach shifters on my bikes, and I manage. I'd like them, but can't really justify the expense of switching them out.

[bikecanada]

I dont know the cassette on the Devinci either, but the front derailleur is the FSA gossamer. The crankset is the FSA Gossamere mega exo 50/34T.
This kind of information is confusing to me because I don't even know what the FSA gosssamer is. Is that the brand?

[Cataboo]

FSA is a brand - Full speed ahead. Gossamer is one of their crank lines - which are metal cranks that are relatively lightweight. It's not one of their higher end compact cranks - but they're still good cranks.

FSA doesn't make front derailleurs so I think you mean that the crank on the devinci is an FSA gossamer as well, this is what the site I found listed;

* FSA Gossamer compact crankset, 50/34 teeth chainrings

That's the same that the giant has on it. The mega EXO that's listed on the giant is referring to the bottom bracket. Which is what holds the cranks to the bike and basically both bikes are going to have the same one of those.


Basically, both of these bikes have a double in the front - 2 chain rings. The big one has 50 teeth, and the small one has 34 teeth. That's called a compact double - a normal double crankset has 53 teeth on the big chain ring, and 39 teeth on the small chain ring. Basically, the smaller the number of teeth on the smaller chain ring, the easier it is going to be to go up hills.... With a standard double at 53/39, you'd probably initially have trouble on hills.

A bike with a triple crankset up front typically has rings with 52, 39, and 30 teeth - and you'd drop into the 30 teeth smallest gear if you needed it on hills... So the compact double tries to compensate for that by having smaller tooth gears to begin with.

The giant has a 12 to 27 gear cassette on the back - meaning the biggest gear has 27 teeth and the smallest gear has 12 teeth. Typically bikes have a 12 to 23 gear casette or a 12-25 gear cassette. The larger the number of teeth that you have on a gear in the back means the easier it is going to be to go up hills... (there is a thread on triple vs double cranks somewhere on here that gives a lot of info on this and how to calculate gear ratios and such that's really informative) So the giant bike has bigger rear gears to compensate for it being a double... If you're riding in hilly places, you're going to appreciate that.

I can't compare that to the devinci, because frankly the stats they list on the web are really not all that complete for it...


I guess the other thing that you might want to check is the length of the cranks on each bikes - whether one has longer cranks than the other and how it feels on your legs while riding. The bike guys can help you with that. If you're on the short side, you probably want something like 165 mm cranks, definitely nothing bigger than 170 mm cranks.

[dex]

FSA doesn't make front derailleurs...

Actually, they do have a front derailleur that's supposed to be specifically made for smoother shifting on compact cranks. I have one sitting in my closet waiting to go on a bike.

http://road.fullspeedahead.com/fly.a...duct&taxid=115

[Cataboo]

Actually, they do have a front derailleur that's supposed to be specifically made for smoother shifting on compact cranks. I have one sitting in my closet waiting to go on a bike.

http://road.fullspeedahead.com/fly.a...duct&taxid=115

Huh... I didn't know that

And it looks like it does make a gossamer front derailleur, so the devinci has both a gossamer crank & derailleur.

I have no idea how that compares to a 105 front derailleur however.