The new bike is out:
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I love how reviews never really say that much about the ride feel of the bike itself. Would love to have a review where they use the same wheels and switch them between bikes to talk about how the rides feel different. So same tires, same air pressure, same wheels so differences in ride feel should be down to how the frames actually feel
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Seems like a pretty different bike than what the Allez Sprint used to be. I hate round seatposts when making adjustments because I am never sure if it’s perfectly straight.
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The Allez & Allez Sprint were always different models with a different focus. The updated Allez is a natural progression of the “entry-level road race bike” while the current Allez Sprint remains in the line (although I don’t know the true availability as of now and it might be shifting to frameset only?).
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Also up on Escape Collective….
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Bike reviews are pretty worthless IMO. Bike magazines and websites are dependent on advertising from the same companies that make the bikes. And also dependent on being loaned bikes to review. None of them are making enough money from subscribers or other sources to be properly independent and buy their own bikes to review (if they’ve even been released for sale yet) and tell us what they really think. So nearly every review ends up between 4 and 5 stars and generally doesn’t tell us much more than the marketing release from the brand themselves.
Of course it’s also possible that at any given pricepoint/groupset there really isn’t that much to choose between bikes anyway! I.e. If you put the same fit coordinates and appropriate tyre pressure on an ultegra-specced SL7, Madone, Aeroad, Teammachine, Systemsix, etc, and were somehow able to do a blind review, I doubt you’d notice all that much difference.
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They could always make a line down the center on the post that could match up with a line on the frame where the post goes in. Maybe even with some form of horizontal lines to make it easy to note the height. Such advanced tech…
If they could standardize non-round that would be great but better to have a standard size
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This is why I wonder about carbon repairs. Bike reviews talk about how the layup of how the bike is made can make a bike feel very different. Carbon repairs don’t seem to care much at all about the layup of the frame. I can see a repair being just as strong and not visually noticeable. But outside of it causing a bit of weight gain I don’t see talk about how the bike isn’t as good. But how can this be if the fancy carbon layup is very different now and probably asymmetric now. Would seem like you could fix the frame to be ridable but never feel the same.
Repairing just about any bike material will yield some differences. Unless you remove and replace an entire tube on a metal framed bike (which is unlikely), the “patching” type of repair that could be used would result in slightly different performance of a repaired tube. And as mentioned, the great complexity of a carbon bike means it will almost certainly have some differences, even with the best repair.
At the point of someone opting for a repair on any bike frame, they are accepting a potentially lower cost option with a known change in frame performance to some degree. The size and severity of the damage and repaired area will dictate that change, and I’d expect any reputable repair business to discuss that as part of the process.
That said (and within a notable range of damage/repair), we may well be talking about differences that would be hard for a regular person to actually notice in practice. People like to make a lot of what they can tell in differences of the frame, wheels and tires… but I’d wager much of that would be lost if people actually did blind testing. I’ve heard plenty of examples of major bike companies hiding prototype changes between options from pro & test riders, to get more useful (and hopefully untainted) feedback.
The few times we’ve sent out carbon frames for repair, we’ve had nothing but glowing reviews of the finished product. Could be the fact it saved them $$$ and placebo, but I just don’t think most of us have the fine level of detection we might think we do (myself included) 
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The $1200 model has me curious… I have enough parts at home to make it 1x10 with a wide range cassette. Room for 35mm tires puts it squarely into “gravel-capable” though not necessarily comfortable. Plus, that red/mauve color looks nice.
Just catching up to the Trek Domane AL.
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I didn’t like the Escape Collective reviewer above looked his nose down at the basic model. Last summer my AL Domane with Claris/Tektro was the only bike in 52cm I could find. Properly maintained its a great bike and I’ll upgrade someday but still have my dad’s old school save your money problem 
I find these types of response disappointing, TBH….those “western brands” have spent decades and hundreds of millions of dollars building the market in the US. Those Chinese companies would not even be able to sniff a sale in the US without the investment made by those brands / companies.
And, as a side note, there is no way those Chinese companies will ever “take over” the industry because as soon as that might happen, the will need to have US offices, with US employees, warranty product on hand, marketing budgets, dealer support, etc.
Guess what will happen to those low, low prices then?
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This is such a trivial thing to worry about. Just look over the saddle and align it with the steerer tube cap. There, perfectly straight.
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What Felt bike with 105 components had an MRSP of $1200 in 2015?
You are probably right….10 years working in the bike industry and 20+ years doing consumer products and sourcing them out of China is a poor background to understand this “trajectory”.
My bad.
Citation required.
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Escape Collective isn’t dependent on ad revenue. Though they do still get a loaner. But if that disqualifies them as having worthwhile reviews then that would mean DC rainmaker’s reviews are also not worthwhile which I think most would disagree with
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oh, well that is certainly compelling.
I’ll pass, thanks.
It has admittedly been more than a few years since I worked in the industry, but margins certainly were not “insane”. Now, what the factories were making is another question.
But it should also bear repeating that a product’s value and price is not based on COGs or margin.
Additionally, you have no idea what the overhead structure is with the companies. So even “insane” margins can net out to pretty small EBITDA.
Look how many teams Specialized sponsors……each one is likely millions of dollars between equipment and possibly raw dollars. As consumers, we all pay for that.
I never said or implied any such thing about Specialized…just pointing out the facts.
For some reason, you seem to think that ad hominem attacks make for compelling arguments, so I’m just gonna disengage at this point.
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Disc only is very BAD for consumer choice.
On this budget discs add a ton of weight that is not needed really but that’s my opinion.
There should be at least choice for everyone on what to use.
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