Opinions on Specialized Ruby?

[Loso85]

I am looking at a 2006 barely used Ruby Expert for $1,650. I would not be able to afford a new one and thought this sounds pretty good. Does anyone have any info to share?

Well your in luck cause i have one that my girlfriend had, an now I still have it an I want to get reed of it. I'm actually selling it for $1,200 and it to was barley used. An as far as the info that your requesting, its a beautiful bike light weight sleek. If interested please don't hesitate to let me know.

[Susan126]

Well your in luck cause i have one that my girlfriend had, an now I still have it an I want to get reed of it. I'm actually selling it for $1,200 and it to was barley used. An as far as the info that your requesting, its a beautiful bike light weight sleek. If interested please don't hesitate to let me know.

Hello Loso85,

This thread was originally posted in July 2008 but there still may be someone out there who is looking for a specialized ruby today. And welcome to the forum!

[kajero]

I know someone who may be interested. She won't buy any bicycle unless the seller has the proof of ownership. She wants to make sure she is not buying a stolen bicycle.

Could you let me know if you have this, what size the bike is, and where you are located?

[Helene2013]

An older thread, but the bike name is the same.

I'm going to try a Ruby this weekend. I don't know if it is a 2013 or 2014 but it is only to see how it compares to my Kuota.

I have a 2013 Kuota Kharma that I find a bit too reactive and nervous for me. My LBS kept telling me to come and test drive for a weekend one of his Ruby. So they will fit me on one tomorrow night and I can give it a shot - I was going for a 100km (60 miles) on Saturday or Sunday - depending on weather. He said to me for comfort (feeling safer on the bike), definitively the Ruby will better than the Kuota.

I told him I wanted to keep my Kharma (still love it - sooooo cute) but for the trainer. He said: try the Ruby and then we'll see and talk. I have no intention on spending so much after coughing out $3000 on the Kuota last June. So maybe I will be doing a trade-in (losing money on Kuota), or cough out money and keep the Kuota on trainer (which is not a wise option - but hey! What love can do to you. hihi). Will see 1st how it rides, and what's in it for budget. Money does not grow on tree in Montreal either! Never found a place for that yet! hihi

I had told him I did not like the colour of their Ruby. He kept saying: just come and try it. Then we'll talk! haha He just wants to see if it is ME the problem on a bike or the Kuota's really too nervous for me (which he's sure it is as it is a different type of bike).

So I will let you know how I liked riding the Ruby vs my current Kuota.

[brigada]

I think you could get more for that Kuota if you sold it and then used the money for the Ruby than by doing the trade-in.

[Helene2013]

It depends. That same shop traded-in my husband's 2013 Cervelo R3 (which he did not buy there to start) for his 2014 Cervelo S3 and he received the same thing he would have had if sold by himself. They are pretty good at this. But bike had to be top-notch. And he saved the taxes (15% taxes here in Quebec) on that amount that was traded-in. Which is roughly $300. And he had no hassles and having to deal with a future buyer. So I will have to see how much he would give me in return. So even if hubby would have been lucky to get $200 more from private sale, he still would have lost compared to saving on taxes with trade-in.

We have a formula prepared by a guy on a French board and he's pretty accurate (it was on the dot with LBS). So if I go by his, I should get roughly 2000 for my Kuota. We'll see if his formula is near that. My bike is still in excellent shape, no scratch, and under 1000km to it. And he knows it. I bought it there and all modifications, etc. were done there. TBC...

[Helene2013]

Went to pick up the white/pink Ruby for testdrive this weekend. They got me a 48cm - which would be equivalent to my Kuota's size. Fitting is done, all is perfect. It is soooo comfy. The saddle I think I will adore. My hands fit well on the handlebar, etc. So we're ready to ride this weekend. Yeah!

BUT!! I get back into the store area and other owner (they are 2 brothers) sees the bike and seat height and says: I think you should try the 51cm. I'm not too sure about the 48cm. So he goes in the back and comes back with a 51cm that is dark flat grey (beurk!) but hey...it's only to test right! Anyway, he goes in the mechanic area and has it prepared, my measures were applied to that bike and he told me if I like it, they do have a white/pink brand new in a box in a 51cm. So that's good.

I went outside to try both bikes and feel how they handle so I can decide which one I want to try this whole weekend. Both feel good to me. I barely see the difference. Hubby is same size as me and tried them too. He said I will be better too on the 51cm.

For the first time in a year I was able to make a u-turn without stopping my bike, I was able to turn my head to check if back traffic was coming. All this while the bike kept stable. I was never scared once on that bike.

So what we'll do today is just ride it around the house (a 30km ride) and since we'll go towards the bike shop, if there is an adjustment to do before my 100km ride tomorrow, out of town.

So far, I like it a lot. TBC...

[azfiddle]

Very cool. I love my Ruby and hope this bike works out for you!

[Helene2013]

Ok...here we go!

The "test drive" was great on Saturday for a little drive I took it in. My comments to the store owner was that it was very slow compared to the Kuota. Like it does not kick in when I ask for power. It seems I always need to pedal and never lose the momentum as it is hard to catch up. But it maybe the price to pay for stability/comfort vs road racer Kuota.

I love the comfort and stability of the bike, mostly the saddle!!!! Wow.

We got the bike ready for Sunday's long ride. So I put my own equipment, changed the basic wheels/tires for my American Classics (to see if I could gain more speed). And I'm not talking racing as I don't go that fast anyway.

Then I took the bike for a long stretch of a 100km yesterday. This is where everything fell apart for me.

After 48km total, I was back in the car, totally exhausted. But riding it felt like I was driving a car with the hand brake on all the time. As soon as I'd stop pedaling, the bike would slow down like crazy. Like if the tires were glued to the bike path. I could never get any decent speed unless I was pedaling really strong/hard. My cadence was to be kept very high in order to get something decent. I tried to work on the big and small gears. Test all I could to make my ride enjoyable. Nothing worked, but for the stability.

My husband checked to see if the brake pads were not sticking to wheels, compared gear numbers with Kuota (which is same), etc. I was never able to complete the whole ride. It drained me as if I had never trained all winter.

I had done the exact same path last week (and longer) with no tiredness, no soreness, nothing. Yesterday was totally opposite. I just don’t know what to think of it. But certainly not a bike I would have liked to purchase. I will call the LBS (anyway I have to return this one).

At the 48km mark I had to lie down on a bench and only had 10km left to ride for the car but could not get myself started. By the way, I had my “water tank” with me and drank a lot, electrolytes, good food, etc. I was top shape before heading for the 1st kms. My husband thought I was pedaling too much (higher cadence) but I had no choice if I wanted speed without burning my leg muscles. Working with gears did not work.  The only time the bike was fast was going downhill. The rest of the time it would slow me down a lot (if I compare with Kuota). Enough to get me sick by giving too much energy. I got home exhausted, migraine and the whole shabang.

So for now, I will remain with my Kuota as it glides, flies on the roads, requires so less energy for same distance…if I could just handle it’s nervousness better I would adore this Kuota.

So that was my test drive for the Ruby Elite. I guess I had set my hopes too high on that one. I realize that I have to give something up for comfort and stability. But I never thought that I’d be losing that much in speed. 

[Crankin]

Is the gearing *exactly* the same? I had a moderate amount of difficulty when I got my custom Guru, as compared to the Kuota. While the Guru actually has 2 lower gears than the Kuota, it does not have some of the same gear combinations. I felt that I was either in a gear which was too easy or hard, and had some trouble finding my comfortable place. I sucked it up for about a year, and finally my average was about the same on both bikes. I am very sensitive to any change on my bikes. Like if something is off 1 cm, I will know it. I can handle 1-2 changes, but every step for me means ingraining it in my muscle memory for quite a while, before it becomes second nature, if there's a lot of steps involved. There have been a few things that have been intuitive for me, like clip less pedals and shifting, and I gues that has helped me that those are big things, which often trip people up.
Putting 25 cm tires on my Kuota made it feel more stable, and since I already had them on my Guru, I made the switch last summer.

[ny biker]

I don't know anything about the Kuota, but the Ruby has inserts to absorb road vibrations. I wouldn't be surprised if that affected the way it rides. Also I'm wondering if the Kuota seems skittish because it is designed to be a faster, more responsive bike.

+1 on trying wider tires on the Kuota. Also you might try a lower psi in them. How much do you usually inflate them?

[Catrin]

I don't know anything about the Kuota, but the Ruby has inserts to absorb road vibrations. I wouldn't be surprised if that affected the way it rides. Also I'm wondering if the Kuota seems skittish because it is designed to be a faster, more responsive bike.

+1 on trying wider tires on the Kuota. Also you might try a lower psi in them. How much do you usually inflate them?

Don't know if they are the same type of inserts or not. My Trek 7.6 FX had those, and I had more road-buzz on that bike than any of my others. Of course, all of my others WERE steel bikes so.... never mind Concur on trying wider tires and lowering the PSI.

[Owlie]

The Ruby is a "plush" road bike, so it's designed to be a bit more upright and stable, at the sacrifice of some speed. While I don't know anything about the Kuota, it might be a more aggressive bike, so it seems twitchy. (The biggest thing that helps with that is relaxing!) The gearing is probably different. While they may have the same number of gears (2x10, in all likelihood), the spread is probably different. The "plush"/endurance bikes tend to be geared lower, whereas your Kuota may be geared higher.

The good news? If you like the saddle on the Ruby, that's not a hard thing to buy.

[Crankin]

Also, getting the shortest and shallowest handlebars I could find helped my confidence immensely. I really don't find the Kuota any more skittish than the Trek 5200 (pre-Madone version) I had for the 2 years before I had the Kuota. It is incredibly responsive and I love the feel of the tight geometry. Some would say it's too small for me, but, no, it makes me feel perfectly balanced. Once I get *on* my other bike, I feel fine, but even though it's custom, I still have to say to myself "push yourself up," when I start riding the Guru. I feel like the saddle is too high up, even though it's not, and I feel fine when riding. The position is just so different. Both have the same drop bar, but I feel "high up" on the Guru and just right, all scrunched in on the Kuota.

[ny biker]

If anyone wants to look for shallower bars, my research found the Bontrager VR-S (formerly the VR-WSD) to have the shortest reach and drop. And they're not expensive.

(This reminds me, I ordered my narrower bars a while ago but haven't heard from the LBS about them. I need to remember to call them tomorrow.)