Persistence

What is a good price to pay for a 1) Felt SC Team edition (not sure about the year model) SRam Force group set, ~7kg bike total weight with wheels etc, including good racing wheels 2) Giant TCR Alliance (not sure about the year model), Shimano Ultegra groupset, racing wheels (quite decent), about 7.5kg the bike's total weight edit. Both bikes mint condition and/but second handPersistence2009-11-11 11:55:46

On buying a new bike I reason like this and for your expert opinion(s) I publish it here to pick your brains and gather some insight. - I currently have a R3500 worth bike. This gives me less than 10kg with Shimano Sora components. - Next stop would be about R10k and this give me about 8.5kg with 105 components. - R14k gives you second hand Ultegra/rival components with 7kg - Then after this would be R18k with Ultegra/Rival components and about 7.5kg The two questions arising from this is the following. 1) It's not worth the effort buying R10k since the 2kg saving isn't enough (hence) 2) It's not worth it buying the R14k since i)I can't detect any possible cracks in carbon myself and ii) saving the R4k ontop of that to go for R18k gets you a new bike and components with warranty? Suggestions and comments please, hope this is clear enough. CheersPersistence2009-11-03 04:18:26

I have a fair idea of the type(s) of training that need to be done for road bike riding mostly from stuff available from magazines and google. I would like to know how many k's needs to be done per ride/per day/per week to be able to do "well" in a 100k (I take it most races are about 100k's). I am aware or under the impression that Saturdays should be a long one of about 40 - 60k's and that there should be ample sleep and an off day somewhere in the week. I would like to tweak the distances in the week days so that I know that the k's are "enough".

My next upgrade to my Giant OCR 5 which I bought a month ago would be a lighter wheelset. I figured next would be a groupset and then a long save up for a better frame. I personally like shimano - it's a mind thing, I confess, and it can definitely change since it is an emotional affair . Which brings me to my point, I would love to have three spoke grouping wheels(spokes on the wheel are grouped in three parallel to each other). I've only seen it thus far in Campagnolo. With this as background info, here is my questions I would like you to answer so I can gather insight please. 1) Does the parallel grouping of spokes serve a certain purpose other than just being more aerodynamic i.e can they be used for normal training/races? Or putting it differently will someone point and laugh for me using the wrong wheels? 2)Anyone knows if shimano has the same configuration of spokes? 3)Is wheelsets a good choice for upgrading next, when you weigh price vs weightsave? Thanks in advance.