I finally splashed-out on a new bike. After a lot of dithering, I finally went for the Focus Cayo from wiggle.com. It is a nice german bike with a nice carbon fibre frame. With pedals and a few other bits and pieces it has cost me \u00c2\u00a31200. Today the pedals arrived along with some colder-weather riding gear. I have not had a chance to ride it yet as that annoying thing called work keeps getting in the way.<\/p>\n
I had looked at the Scott range of bikes but the fact is, I get as good a bike with slightly better gearing (“the groupset” for those in the know) for about \u00c2\u00a3700 less. Compare the Focus Cayo<\/a> starting at \u00c2\u00a31000 with the Scott CR1 Team<\/a> for \u00c2\u00a31400. I get Shimano Ultegra rather than the lower spec Shimano 105 set but pay \u00c2\u00a3400 less. To get Ultegra on a Scott means the CR1 Pro at \u00c2\u00a31740. The difference between the bikes boils down to the name on the bar in my view. I’m sure some top-end tri-athlete could test them both and find the \u00c2\u00a3740 of extra value but for me, that’s a family holiday for a week somewhere.<\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n I did also look at the Focus Cayo Expert with the top-end Shimano Dura-Ace group set or the Pro with SRAM shifters. SRAM shifters work in an odd way and I was not ready to change yet. The Ultegra set shifts slightly differently from the Sora set on my trusty and still much-loved Raleigh Absolute but not so much that I’m going to fall-off whilst working it out.<\/p>\n![\"Focus](\"http:\/\/simkin.org\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/02\/new-bike-005-sm.JPG\")
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