# Which bike for my wife?



## sae185628 (Sep 17, 2012)

My wife has been riding a Specialized Dolce (size 51, she is 5'6") with Zipp wheels for two years. She has been doing some 1/2 triathlons and wanting to do the full triathlon and even considering iron man. We went to the bike store that we trust to look at bikes. The LBS told us to stick with a Road Bike because of all of the hills in the Kentucky. So, she test rode and loves the Specialized Amira after they had one shipped in. My question would be should we go with an Amira, Venge, or Tarmac? 

The reason I ask is because the LBS (it has 2 other locations as well) said they rarely sell Amira's. Therefore, my business brain kicked in and thought about if we were to resell it to upgrade it would be a hard sell vs. having a Venge or Tarmac. Secondly, if we stayed on the men's side, which way to lean, Venge or Tarmac? We would like to stay around the $3,000 price range and with Specialized. Just looking for some help in this process.


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## Rokh On (Oct 30, 2011)

Not sure if this is much help or if it still holds for the current 2014 models. Might be worth reading through. 

http://forums.roadbikereview.com/specialized/tarmac-venge-266353.html


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## spdntrxi (Jul 25, 2013)

Rule1... Get them what they want
Rule2 . Read rule 1

The Amira is basically a Tarmac anyways... She's 5'6" so men's bikes are not out of reach. I think the Amira will have good resell value.. Probably less flooded then tarmacs and venges anyways. 

I wanted to get my wife a Willier... Ended up with a Ruby Comp and she could not be happier.


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## Rokh On (Oct 30, 2011)

spdntrxi said:


> I wanted to get my wife a Willier... Ended up with a Ruby Comp and she could not be happier.


Too funny ... I can certainly relate. Mine test road a Pina, Domane, and even the Amira and in the end, like yours, went with the 2013 Ruby. She also couldn't be happier and I doubt I could talk her into any other road bike. Of course her idea of a good day in the saddle would involve a Yeti 303 and Rabbit Ears.

Sorry OP I know the Ruby recommendation doesn't help much in your case.


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## QuiQuaeQuod (Jan 24, 2003)

sae185628 said:


> The reason I ask is because the LBS (it has 2 other locations as well) said they rarely sell Amira's. Therefore, my business brain kicked in and thought about if we were to resell it to upgrade it would be a hard sell vs. having a Venge or Tarmac.


Never consider re-sale value on bikes. An uncommon or common model from a major maker makes no difference, you will take a bath when reselling. In fact, I would say common bikes are going to be harder to get good money for, since the market will have lots of them and buyers will see many low prices. Uncommon bikes will have fewer sales to compare to, and so people will go off components and condition almost exclusively.

The only time you should consider resale value is on collectable bikes. Bikes we ride are tools, not investments.



sae185628 said:


> So, she test rode and loves the Specialized Amira after they had one shipped in.


She rode it, and loves it. She's been riding a couple years, and this one did it for her. Bringing up POTENTIAL resale value does not trump ACTUAL love of a bike.

Use your business sense to factor in all the costs and risks, not just a couple hundred potential dollars on a future resale. If you get what I am saying about risks. Or to put it another way, if you talk her out of a bike she loves, you get the blame for any issues with the bike she ends up with. How much cash is that worth to avoid dealing with?


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## love4himies (Jun 12, 2012)

Bikes are not cars. I've never heard anybody take resale value into consideration before purchasing a new bike. If you are worried about depreciation buy a gently used one. Otherwise, let her do the picking. She's the one that has to ride it.

If you are thinking about upgrading in the near future, why don't you up the budget a bit now so there will be no need to upgrade in a few years (I do believe 3K will buy a pretty sweet bike and shouldn't be any need to upgrade for a long time)? 

Out of curiousity, which model of Amira is she looking at?


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## sae185628 (Sep 17, 2012)

love4himies said:


> Bikes are not cars. I've never heard anybody take resale value into consideration before purchasing a new bike. If you are worried about depreciation buy a gently used one. Otherwise, let her do the picking. She's the one that has to ride it.
> 
> If you are thinking about upgrading in the near future, why don't you up the budget a bit now so there will be no need to upgrade in a few years (I do believe 3K will buy a pretty sweet bike and shouldn't be any need to upgrade for a long time)?
> 
> Out of curiousity, which model of Amira is she looking at?



Amira Comp (she test road the lower end Amira)
Specialized Bicycle Components

She really likes the fact it will look good with her Zipp 60 wheels I just bought her for our anniversary.


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## sae185628 (Sep 17, 2012)

Of course, Specialized just announced the Alias yesterday, so we may be waiting for that to come out of production.


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