I am deciding between the Specialized 04 Roubaix Comp 27 and the Trek 5200, any suggestions. I live in Tahoe and the roads are fairly bumpy but to to bad. I am mainly a mtn biker but am doing more road riding than in the past and my Specialized Allez isn't quite cutting it. Most of my road rides are 1-2 blasts and a few centuries a year.

Any advice would be great. Thanks.

I am deciding between the Specialized 04 Roubaix Comp 27 and the Trek 5200, any suggestions. I live in Tahoe and the roads are fairly bumpy but to to bad. I am mainly a mtn biker but am doing more road riding than in the past and my Specialized Allez isn't quite cutting it. Most of my road rides are 1-2 blasts and a few centuries a year.

Any advice would be great. Thanks.

I'm a great fan of Trek and when facing your decision went with the 5200, a decision I've not second guessed once. Having said that though, the primary reason I ended up with the Trek was that the Trek LBS gave me GREAT service, spending several hours with us (my wife got a new bike at the same time) in test rides and fitting. The other LBS which sold Specialized, Bianchi and Lemond treated us like we were wasting their time. Point being that I would suggest one factor in your decision should be what kind of support are you going to get with one bike over the other as rides of this quality should fit you well. That leads to the real issue: which one fits you better and rides better. This is a purely subjective test that you have to make for yourself. If you are spending this kind of money, the shop should be letting you give them a good test ride to try to get a handle on the ride. Of course, that in turn is going to depend on them having a bike in your size in stock but then again, if they don't have a 5200 in stock in your size, you probably won't get one as I think production has ceased (it's being replaced by the 5.2 Madone for next year).

Spence