I'm not a Roadie but... New Giant flat bar disc bike looks really cool.

[Carbon_Dude]

As I continue to recover from my leg injury, I'm not sure how long it will be before I'm back on the trail flying down the bumpy downhill runs so I was thinking I would just ride my Chiners around the neighborhood for a while.  I even bought a set of flat pedals as my ankle doesn't twist so well for clipless pedals at the moment.

Then I was reading about the new Giant Flat Bar Disc bike.  A bit of a hybrid road/mountain bike.  Giant just came out with the 2015 model.  Carbon frame, disc brakes, flat bar.  For $1,750 you seem to get quite a bit for the money.  Maybe I need one of these to help speed my recovery .

Check out some pics:

[Andy]

Yep CD, it's a neat looking bike.  But why not just throw some slick Hybrid tires on your IP057, lock out your fork and save yourself about $1700?
Andy
IP036
LTK023

[Carbon_Dude]

I know I can even just ride my IP-057 and just wear out the tires on the pavement, or put slicks on.  However, I have room in my garage and the number of bikes anyone should won is N+1 where N=the number of bikes your already have .

When I get a chance I want to drive over to the Local Giant Dealer and check out the FastRoad CoMax 1 and just see how nice it rides.

[Sitar_Ned]

I think it looks bad ass. I'd like to have something like that myself eventually but for $1,700 I'd probably just build a chiner hybrid. Simply because now that I know how and have the tools, I'd much rather pick mine out component by component and build it myself. Seriously, if I were to walk into a LBS and buy a bike I'd feel like I missed out on half the experience/fun. The build process is just as fun and satisfying to me as the actual riding.

But yeah.. really cool lines on that frame.

[cmh]

A bit of a hybrid road/mountain bike.

Hah, I was selling "hybrid" bikes when I worked in a bike shop in 1993. Or was it '92.

Still, that Giant is a damn fine looking bike. Sure looks a whole bunch better than the Schwinn Criss Cross we sold so much of back then:



Was a hell of a deal at $329 retail, nothing fancy but good, solid parts on a nice frame. Was surprised to see that the shop's cost was $289 and we'd often discount the bike and throw in the bottle/cage, that type of crap. No wonder bike shops don't make any damn money. Also, if I punched each person who said "for that much money, it'd better have a motor" I'd still be in prison.

[Carbon_Dude]

I would need to add up the cost of building a carbon hybrid, it's possible it will not be that much cheaper.  Yes, I would like to have the satisfaction of building another bike myself, however, until my leg is much better than it is now, I won't have the luxury of working in the garage on my bikes very much.  As it is, it's killing me not to be able to wash my wife's car.

So, I plan on giving my ankle another 1-2 weeks then start riding my IP-057 around on platform pedals as I don't think I can safely do clipless.  Maybe after that, I will take a more serious look at the Giant FastRoad CoMax (BTW, who thinks of these names?).

[Sitar_Ned]

Also, if I punched each person who said "for that much money, it'd better have a motor" I'd still be in prison.

Hahaha, I could imagine this being one of those things that people that work in bike shops just universally hate to hear.

Here's my issue with road bikes.. They are just too damn fast! For the short while I had one I was just hauling major ass on that thing. Downhill you're easily hitting 40-50 miles per hour.. On this 17 pound plastic bike with super skinny tires, riding over asphalt with traffic around.. all while hunched over in a position that isn't exactly confidence inspiring. Don't get me wrong, I think the fact that they make such light weight super fast high tech bikes is awesome, but the simple physics of the situation just freaks me out a bit.

[Carbon_Dude]

Also, if I punched each person who said "for that much money, it'd better have a motor" I'd still be in prison.

Hahaha, I could imagine this being one of those things that people that work in bike shops just universally hate to hear.

Agreed, funniest thing I've read today.

When I was in college, one summer I worked at a motorcycle dealership on the showroom floor, and for that much money the bikes did have motors in them .

[Sitar_Ned]

When I was in college, one summer I worked at a motorcycle dealership on the showroom floor, and for that much money the bikes did have motors in them .

Haha, I guess you have a good point. They actually probably should have a motor in them for the price of some of these bikes. I mean literally a top of the line MTB will be the same price as a really nice motorcycle. It seems a bit illogical when you think about it.

[cmh]

When I was in college, one summer I worked at a motorcycle dealership on the showroom floor, and for that much money the bikes did have motors in them .

Haha, I guess you have a good point. They actually probably should have a motor in them for the price of some of these bikes. I mean literally a top of the line MTB will be the same price as a really nice motorcycle. It seems a bit illogical when you think about it.

Not when you really think about what goes into their construction. Honestly, the fact that you can buy a functional bicycle for only a couple hundred bucks should be the surprising part, not that you can buy one for over $10k. No matter what folks are making, someone will make an uber-expensive one and claim it's better. (Look at $150 network cables) But when you can go out to the store and buy a bike which works and will be reasonably reliable and not even spend $200? That's kinda miraculous. Good luck convincing the general customer who doesn't know anything about bikes or manufacturing, though.