# New Bike Day!



## jabrabu (Feb 16, 2011)

I love the color scheme.


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## digibud (Oct 26, 2010)

At least you are assured it was built right...

congrats !


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## 92gli (Aug 27, 2009)

Luckily their road bikes don't have brains right ? Sometimes stupid is better.

Whats in there ?


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## jabrabu (Feb 16, 2011)

92gli said:


> Luckily their road bikes don't have brains right ? Sometimes stupid is better.
> 
> Whats in there ?


Uh oh, someone recognized me from the mtb forum. :blush2: 
It's been 3 weeks since the Brain went into the shop, and still no word. It's a good thing I have my vintage mtb as a backup.

The new road bike is not quite ready. I'll post photos when it's done.


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## 92gli (Aug 27, 2009)

very nice


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## SpokeBroke (Mar 15, 2011)

Hope to see the photos soon!
Congrats!


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## Optimus (Jun 18, 2010)

Dang, sweet ride ... very very nice!!!


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## Special Eyes (Feb 2, 2011)

That's one sexy and impressive box! I don't think the box my bike was shipped in was quite that nice. The textures and colors are very appealing and the dimensions and aspect ratio are very pleasing. Excellent graphics layout, with a good sense of space and gobs of valuable information right down to that superb bar code. Congrats on a spectacular carton!!! This certainly is in the running for BOTY (box of the year).


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## jabrabu (Feb 16, 2011)

Okay, here are some photos. I'm not good with flash photography, so I'll get some better daylight photos at some point.


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## Optimus (Jun 18, 2010)

H O T ! ! !


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## jabrabu (Feb 16, 2011)

*Initial impressions*

Here are my initial impressions after riding the bike a bit. For background, all of my previous road bikes have had steel frames. I have ridden other carbon and aluminum frames, but have only owned steel before the Roubaix. My previous bike had a Reynolds 653 frame with a carbon fork and Shimano 105 triple drivetrain.

*Ride*. The ride is smooth, but not as smooth as my steel bike. It's also kind of dead feeling compared to the steel bike. The steel bike even had skinnier tires at higher pressures and it had a smoother, more damp, ride. On the other hand, the Roubaix is much stiffer. This is especially noticeable when shaking the handlebars -- the steel bike wiggles and the Roubaix is totally solid. I know that the carbon layups and shapes are tuned to allow vertical compliance but have torsional and lateral stiffness, but it just feels like a much stiffer frame overall.


*Fit*. The cockpit felt just a bit cramped to me. The bars are below the level of the seat, but it still felt kind of high in the front. I have a very short torso, so you'd think that at shorter cockpit would work better for me, but I also have long arms and I like a longer reach. My old bike was a 55cm, but the 54cm Roubaix has a 54.8cm effective top tube, so it is pretty much the same. I think the main difference is that the handlebars have a short reach. I rotated the spacer in the stem 180 degrees to give it more of a down angle (see the attached photo compared to the above photos) and rotated the handlebars forward a bit to put the hoods lower and flatter. I think this will be enough to make it more aggressive and aero, but still comfortable. If I want an even more agressive position there are some spacers that can be removed.

*Handling*. It is very balanced and feels very confident in the turns. The tires are also quite grippy, so I felt confident leaning it way over in a turn. The slacker geometry results in a slower turn-in, but I'm not racing criteriums so I don't care. I only noticed the slower turn-in when doing a rapid lane-change type maneuver. The relaxed geometry and stiff frame also make it very stable on downhills.

*Brakes*. The Ultegra brakes were awesome -- the most powerful I've ever used on a road bike, even after installing new pads and cables on my other ones. I don't know if this is due to the pad material or the rims or what. I can notice the extra friction in the rear brake from the internal cable routing, though, but you don't really notice it while riding.

*Shifting*. The Dura-Ace hifting is great, but not really any better than my old Shimano 105. The feel is different, but not what I can really call better or worse. The lever throw for upshifts sure seems long. It seems like it could be just a quick little throw like on mountain bike trigger shifters.

*Saddle*. The Avatar saddle felt pretty good but I did notice it, so it's not perfect for me. Maybe I just need some more seat time. I have some other saddles at home I can swap out for comparison.

*Wheels*. The wheels seem like a good choice for this bike. They are relatively light (just under 1500g) and stiff enough without being too stiff for a comfort bike.

*Looks*. I typically like pretty plain bikes. A solid color or maybe 2-color frame and silver components is more my style. But I think this bike looks great -- looks racy but just avoids being too gaudy. I like the matte carbon with the gloss paint. I'm also suprised that I like the color-matching on the wheels, cranks, chainrings, seatpost, and stem, but on this bike it all looks good.


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## ukbloke (Sep 1, 2007)

Thanks for the pictures and write-up! It is nice to see the carbon instead of the carton.

So, how did you manage to get a Specialized bike in a box? I've not seen that before - did you just ask the LBS/dealer to leave it disassembled?


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## urbanlegend (Dec 16, 2009)

nice. i just purchased an elite, but I was lusting after the internal cable routing. looks great.

You mentioned possibly taking out some of the spacers and I thought you might want to know about something that I learned about Specialized bikes during my fit. There are inserts that angle the stem that can be changed to simulate removing spacers without needing to have the spacers above the stem or cutting the tube. I ended up going from a -8 insert to a -12 which is the same as taking out both 5mm spacers.

Enjoy the bike!

J


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## jabrabu (Feb 16, 2011)

I'm pretty sure that they have to be assembled by the shop or else the warranty is not valid. But if you have a very good relationship with the shop you can probably check out the bike in the box when it arrives and get involved (or at least observe) the build process. But yeah, unless you have some special connection or a relative that owns a bike shop you probably aren't going to get one in the box.


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## jabrabu (Feb 16, 2011)

urbanlegend said:


> nice. i just purchased an elite, but I was lusting after the internal cable routing. looks great.
> 
> You mentioned possibly taking out some of the spacers and I thought you might want to know about something that I learned about Specialized bikes during my fit. There are inserts that angle the stem that can be changed to simulate removing spacers without needing to have the spacers above the stem or cutting the tube. I ended up going from a -8 insert to a -12 which is the same as taking out both 5mm spacers.
> 
> ...


J, 
That's exactly what I did. That's what I meant when I wrote that I rotated the shim inside the stem 180 degrees. This changed it from providing +2 degrees to providing -2 degrees to the angle of the stem. You can see the difference in these photos.


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## mcaswell (Mar 5, 2011)

That's an absolutely gorgeous bike... very similar color scheme as my new Secteur Elite that I bought a month ago. I actually walked into the store with a firm $1000 budget, intending on buying the base model Secteur, but when I saw that bike I just had to have it (which was a good decision regardless of color scheme, as I'm really loving the Apex group).

--Michael


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## Shadrijm (Mar 19, 2011)

Congrats!! Very nice bike, I looked at this bike at my LBS.......way outta my price range. So I settled for the Roubaix elite.


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## jabrabu (Feb 16, 2011)

It's actually way out of my price range too. My old bike had Shimano 105 and I wanted my new bike to be Ultegra level. The Roubaix Expert looked like the sweet spot for value. It has the SL3 frame with Ultegra components and the price was what I was looking for. But it wasn't available until June, and I got a super deal on the Pro, so I stepped up. I also sold a guitar, some car wheels, my old bike, and a banjo to cover the price of the new bike.


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## jabrabu (Feb 16, 2011)

I got these bottle cages for it. They match the bike nicely.


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## SpokeBroke (Mar 15, 2011)

*Ultegra brakes*

I agree - they are very strong brakes- the best I have ever had on a bike. I have about 700 miles on my SL3 - very confident in cornering, downhill, etc. Can't say a bad thing about it.

That is a great looking bike by the way!
:thumbsup:


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## digibud (Oct 26, 2010)

I just took delivery on a Roubaix 105. I haven't had occasion to look at braking much yet but I live nearby large mountains and ride downhill up to 50mph at times. And I'm pretty heavy. Not meaning to further hijack the thread, but my recollection is the OEM pads are thought to be good, eh? The best pad can make a difference so you've lit a fire under me to double check what might be better than the OEM pads. Thoughts?


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## PJ352 (Dec 5, 2007)

digibud said:


> I just took delivery on a Roubaix 105. I haven't had occasion to look at braking much yet but I live nearby large mountains and ride downhill up to 50mph at times. And I'm pretty heavy. Not meaning to further hijack the thread, but my recollection is the OEM pads are thought to be good, eh? *The best pad can make a difference *so you've lit a fire under me to double check what might be better than the OEM pads. Thoughts?


It certainly can. Here's the answer:
http://www.amazon.com/Kool-Stop-Bicycle-Brake-Pads/dp/B001HBRHJS


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## BluesDawg (Mar 1, 2005)

The new Shimano pads are a lot better than what they were using a few years ago. I'll join the chorus praising the new Ultegra brakes that came on my Roubaix Expert.


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