Bianchi, Orbea, Giant, or Trek Road Bike?

[MauiRockHopper]

I just bought a 48 Orbea Onix Dama, and I don't find her squirrely at all. She's quite fast, nimble and stable at the same time. I haven't found anything about her that I'm not in love with. The only thing that's taking time to get used to is going from 3 chain rings to 2. And the only time I have problems there is figuring out which hills I can do in the large ring and which ones I need to switch to the small ring before I start up. There's nothing worse than having to go down a chain ring mid hill. Bleh!

Thanks for posting. How tall are you and your inseam? I still have the hots for Orbea. Did you try other bikes and how did they fare compared to Orbea?

[Jallora]

Thanks for posting. How tall are you and your inseam? I still have the hots for Orbea. Did you try other bikes and how did they fare compared to Orbea?

You're welcome. I'm 5'4.5". I always have to make sure I throw in that .5". LOL! My inseam is 29". I rode a 50 non WS bike, a Mercer Galaxy for several months. Not only was it too tall for me, but the reach was waaay too long. I made it work for hundreds of miles of riding though. I knew I was going to get a new bike, and I was trying to decide between an Orbea, Specialized and Giant. I road a lower end Specialized and Giant, but that was all. They were okay, but they weren't even close to the level I was planning on buying so I can't say it was a good comparison. My LBS was completely out of all WS bikes that were in the range I was looking for except for two left over Orbeas...a Diva and an Onix Dama. I was waiting for them to get in the new 2009 bikes so I could test ride them all and compare. Then they announced a fall special with 2 years no interest financing. They were still weeks away from getting in the new bikes, so I decided to try out the two Orbeas to see what I thought. I had not allowed myself to ride them before that because I was afraid I was going to fall in love and then they would be gone by the time the Christmas special came along...which was when I thought I was going to get my new bike. I rode the Diva first, and I have to say that I wasn't that impressed. The owner of my LBS said it's because it's a much racier bike than what I'm interested in and not as smooth of a ride. Then I rode the Onix Dama. I was in love. I knew that I should wait until I could ride them all, but I just loved the bike. Dawn, the owner of the LBS, said that the only bike I would probably like as much as that was the Ruby. They had a special breast cancer version of the Ruby coming out at the beginning of October, and that gave me pause for a little bit. But the price was going to be the same as the Onix Dama...and the components were two levels under the Onix Dama. It just didn't make sense. So I took my girl Minx home with me, and we've been tearing up the roads together since. No regrets at all.

[MauiRockHopper]

I've got a Giant OCR1W, and I love it. It's at the lower end of your price range ($1150), and it's really the only bike that fit me well. I'm also 5'3".

Ok, even though I hardly shopped around due to lack of choices on my island, I've narrowed down my choice to a Giant Avail Advanced 2. I rode a men's 52" bike and of course the top tube was too long. I'm still puzzled when bike shops never stock any WSD bikes, I guess we are a minority in sales! Anyhow, the bike guy seems to think I should get a Small, and that XS would be too small and cramped. What size did you end up getting?