Specialized Amira vs. Cannondale Evo vs. Trek Emonda

[MarieV]

If you've only done parking lot test rides on the Ruby, Synapse (carbon or Al), and other endurance/sportive bikes, I would take each of them out for a longer ride that involves hills. Assuming the bike shops take the time to tune the bikes to make sure they shift well and have no brake rub, you should be able to feel a difference when you accelerate and climb with these carbon bikes.

Also, if you're only 5'2", then I would think a 50 cm Trek Silque (518 ETT) is probably too big for you. Did they have the Trek Silque in a 44 or 47 for you to test ride? Could the twitchiness have been because the bike is too big or they swapped out the stem for a really short one that messed up the handling?

[Crankin]

Yes, I am 5' 1" and the 47 cm Silque fits me perfectly. I had a shop sell me a 50 cm bike years ago. The top tube was in my crotch, but I was just too dumb to say anything. I eventually made them switch it out for a smaller frame, but I learned my lesson. They tried the stem switching thing, too, which made it all worse.

[fallstoclimb]

Yeah, I think what away going on with the Silque is that it was too big, and they maybe even had swapped the stem out....not to my knowledge, but with the way it was handling I wouldn't be surprised. It was more "loose in the front" than twitchy, really.

I can tell a difference with the carbon endurance bikes, they are smoother than my dolce and certainly shift better, but I'm pretty dead set on getting something aggressive and responsive to help me get those Strava segments.

All I wanna do is ride fast.

[fallstoclimb]

Welp, I just test rode the CAAD10 and FELL IN LOVE....so all of this hemming and hawing were moot, haha. I'm sitting at home looking at my new bike right now

[fallstoclimb]

OMG congrats! Did you get the women's with 105? I want pictures!

That's exactly what I got!!1

[fallstoclimb]

Nice!

We're going to need a ride report!

I took it out this morning for a quick spin before work. I didn't have time to properly warm up or wake up, so my times weren't quite what I was hoping for, but it was still probably my strongest solo ride (I always find a little extra trying to keep up with groups) and I still managed some PRs!

I'm in love with the bike. It's so lively and fun to ride. I was spinning up one moderate hill casually, decided to shift up and power over the rest, and it felt like the bike just JUMPED up with me - its so responsive to sprints. Definitely not as smooth as some of the carbon bikes I rode, but I prefer feeling the road (to some degree!). I do need to get the fit dialed in but I love that I am more over the bars during standing climbs, which makes them more secure. Also love shifting from the drop bars. And one time I shifted up front and I actually had to look down to see that the chain moved because the transition was so smooth.

And it's just effortless to go fast. I haven't put a computer on yet so I didn't know what I was averaging but every attempt felt so FAST even as I was still not near redlining. I was 4 seconds off one PR I was trying to beat, but I could have gone a little harder -- its going to take a little practice to learn how to harness the power of this bike because its so different from my old one.

Overall I'm very happy with my purchase