Cycling_Man wrote: ↑7 Apr 2021, 7:48pm
kylecycler wrote: ↑7 Apr 2021, 5:52pm
As a comparison, my humble Carrera TdF
I just wanted to ask how you find your bike. They seem to pop up second hand a bit more than other bikes and tend to be cheaper bikes so if they are alright they might be a good buy maybe.
I suppose it's ok for a first road bike, but tbh although I know the theory I don't have any other road bike to compare it with either, at least so far. I cycle for transport without using a car or public transport and the group I ride with aren't roadies, so it isn't really all that appropriate (or comfy!) to use it on club rides. I used to get 'shimmy' - 'speed wobble' - when I was on the drops, but not on the hoods, but it went away, so I think it was me - once I adapted to the bike it stopped happening. Shimmy is a mysterious, scary phenomenon.
I don't think you should be too concerned about the number of gears or gearshift quality - 8-speed Claris shifts perfectly acceptably provided it's set up properly and the cables are well lubed, same with 9-speed Sora or 10-speed Tiagra. Most Shimano stuff tends to work.
My TdF is 'old school', from 2013 - Halfords were giving them away, just about, when Chris Froome won his first Tour de France, so I got it for £250 new - half price then. It's 'old school' in the sense that it came with a 52/42 chainset and 11-26 cassette, which these days is high gearing, especially for an entry-level road bike, although I'm quite a strong climber - it just meant I often had to get out of the saddle to get up hills (which they also had to do in the old days with the gearing they had then!).
I ended up fitting a 38T inner ring and an 11-32 cassette so my lowest gear is now 38 front, 32 rear (same as Froomey!), which is ok, but more recent Carrera road bikes from not long after mine was built and most other road bikes for quite some years have come with compact chainsets - 50/34, sometimes 50/36 - 'semi-compact' - and most commonly 11-28 cassettes - so, lower geared than mine was. Endurance bikes tend to have lower gears still - 'your' three all come with compact chainsets and the Giant and Trek have 34T lowest rear sprockets, the Allez 32T, so they're pretty low geared, which is a good thing for your first road bike and for long hilly rides.
The Carrera also came with 23mm tyres with only 13mm rims so the maximum width I can really fit is 25mm and it has a stiff steel fork, not springy steel or carbon, so it loosens your fillings on a badly surfaced road. The three bikes you've listed all have carbon forks, the Specialized comes with 25mm tyres, the Giant, 28mm and the Trek 32mm. Wider tyres tend to be cushier because you can run them at lower pressures for the same rolling resistance, although at the same pressures there's little or no difference, I don't think.
More recent Carrera road bikes have wider tyres and the higher spec ones have carbon forks so they have cushier rides; the very latest have disc brakes, although that tends to need a stiffer fork and can make the ride harsher than with rim brakes. Steel rim brake forks such as those on Spa Cycles framesets can be super-cushy, unlike the sort of faux-carbon-lookalike steel forks you get on entry level Carreras.
A new Carrera Vanquish would need to be the 'L' size - 58cm ETT - for you, but it would still be a lot 'racier' fit than the three bikes you listed - lower at the front, though not as low as mine, although you're 4 inches taller than me so you'd be well 'stooped' - it doesn't have 'endurance' geometry - and by and large you're getting what you pay for. Should be reliable, although the bottom brackets tend to wear out early, especially if they get water in them, although you just replace them with Shimano units which should last forever, just about.
https://www.halfords.com/bikes/road-bik ... 48526.html
Carreras are good enough bikes, for the price. Generally people who are sniffy about them haven't ever run one, although if I had more money I probably wouldn't buy one! You could come up with other alternatives and others who know better could advise.