that's the cheap ones...


can't say much for the avanti.. but the allez and sr01 is a good bike but a tad pricey for an alloy bike... almost venturing into entry level carbon bikes like mr.jgx's merida scultura evo 904... roughly above 7k with 105 as well..

the allez i saw was listed over 5k msrp at gh... not sure about the final price but both bikes are very good at this level...  if i recall correctly... so, is the sr01 listed at 5.5k.. but if you said it can be discounted to 4.7k... it's a good thing... just not sure if you can get the same level of discounts with gh...

i would go with the new 2013 allez if they arrive in a couple of months time over the sr01... but if they hit close to 6k.. serious considerations have to be made into getting a entry level carbon...

at the end of the day.. you have to base your decision on whether which bike shop you are more comfortable with as it will be a long term relationship if you don't already have cycling friends... aesthetics also might play a role in this with the BMC having less appealing color schemes than the allez...

how much was the SR01...super cool yo..

bikes of this level are more or less very equally footed... each might have it's own merit and most likely it will cancel each other's advantages out... further more...entry level carbon models do not detail much about their production methods or their carbon material and neither would it have features from their top of the line models...

assuming both bikes are at the same pricing level... the only thing left for you to decide is which one do you like aesthetically? which bike shop is more accesible to you and which shop you felt easier to communicate and develop a good relationship with... the bike you purchase will require after sales assistance and this factors come into play sooner or later unless you already have a connection to a bike shop and they don't mind you bringing a purchase from another shop for them to attend to...

if you don't care about those things...  go with your gut feeling...

Went to my LBS today to window shop for carbon bike. Given them a budget and requirement. BMC road racer they had on sales were not available in my size    Was looking around and saw this madone 5.9



Damn it so look good in real life and remind me of radioshit team. The price was 1k more than my targeted budget but my lbs told me that they can work something out with me. The default complete bike came with ultegra di2. They suggested me that i go for mechanical ultegra instead of the DI2 version and ditch the stock bontrager wheel to my fulcrum racing 1 comp wheel. Frankly speaking does internal wiring make life harder for mechanics/me to maintain as compared external wiring system? It may look clean but  at expense of making thing harder for mechanics. What did you guys think about it? Shoud i go for mechanical (cheaper) or DI2 version(cheaper long term?)? I have no prob strech my budget to accomadate di2 if required.

i wonder will my gf notice if my bike become like this...