What Bike should I get

[VaGaur26]

Hello, I was looking to get into road biking but I don't know what bike to get. I've been looking at a few options, however I'm not sure what would be the best fit for me. I run track and cross country in collage so I'm pretty athletic, and not worried about getting a 'too aggressive' bike. I was looking to stay around $1200 if I can and still have a descent bike. My short list is The Polygon Stratton S4D, Cannondale Synapse 3, Giant Contend AR 4, Specialized Allez, Cannondale CAAD Optimo 4, and Trex Domane AL 2 Gen 4. Im open to other suggestions or any feed back. Thank you!

 

[Charlyghoul]

Hello, I was looking to get into road biking but I don't know what bike to get. I've been looking at a few options, however I'm not sure what would be the best fit for me. I run track and cross country in collage so I'm pretty athletic, and not worried about getting a 'too aggressive' bike. I was looking to stay around $1200 if I can and still have a descent bike. My short list is The Polygon Stratton S4D, Cannondale Synapse 3, Giant Contend AR 4, Specialized Allez, Cannondale CAAD Optimo 4, and Trex Domane AL 2 Gen 4. Im open to other suggestions or any feed back. Thank you!

Specialised do nice kit but I never had a bike of theirs, trek and giant are nice bikes. Most important is having the right fit, go to a bike shop that does fitting and go from there, they will probably have frames you can try. Fit is important because of things like arm length and leg length, I have quite long legs but shortish arms so had a small stem fitted for me, for example.
Once you decided on a nice frame the wheels are the next most important, it’s not so nice having cheap wheels on an expensive frame. Don’t worry too much about having the best groupset , it’s least important when you’re starting off and you can always get better parts on your frame later on

 

[red_flanders]

Specialised do nice kit but I never had a bike of theirs, trek and giant are nice bikes. Most important is having the right fit, go to a bike shop that does fitting and go from there, they will probably have frames you can try. Fit is important because of things like arm length and leg length, I have quite long legs but shortish arms so had a small stem fitted for me, for example.
Once you decided on a nice frame the wheels are the next most important, it’s not so nice having cheap wheels on an expensive frame. Don’t worry too much about having the best groupset , it’s least important when you’re starting off and you can always get better parts on your frame later on

That's some solid advice IMO.