My girlfriend is looking at getting her first road bike. She has never ridden a road bike until this past Friday when she test road a Dolce. She currently rides a Fuji Absolute which is like a commuter/hybrid bike. We only have been riding Fuji because that is what the closest lbs sells however we went into a really nice bike shop about 40 miles from home and I think I found my new lbs. The service, selection, and pricing was great. My question is, she test road a 2011 Specialized Dolce and really liked it. She went to the website and really likes the 2012 Dolce Triple. What are the differences in the different Dolce's? I am trying to stay relatively cheap since this is her first road bike. What are your guys/gals opinions? Thanks in advance.
Thinking about Specialized Dolce
smoothie7
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My girlfriend is looking at getting her first road bike. She has never ridden a road bike until this past Friday when she test road a Dolce. She currently rides a Fuji Absolute which is like a commuter/hybrid bike. We only have been riding Fuji because that is what the closest lbs sells however we went into a really nice bike shop about 40 miles from home and I think I found my new lbs. The service, selection, and pricing was great. My question is, she test road a 2011 Specialized Dolce and really liked it. She went to the website and really likes the 2012 Dolce Triple. What are the differences in the different Dolce's? I am trying to stay relatively cheap since this is her first road bike. What are your guys/gals opinions? Thanks in advance.
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Color scheme can be amazingly important to new/casual riders. It's hard to change. If she doesn't like the color, she'll be negatively affected no matter what.
Compontents are easy to upgrade in whole or in part (and good deals on parts abound on Ebay in the off season).
Compontents are easy to upgrade in whole or in part (and good deals on parts abound on Ebay in the off season).
my thinking is that if she doesn't like how it looks/feels she will never ride it. This would be her first road bike and I want her to be excited about it. If she really enjoys road cycling I have no problem getting her a different bike down the road, I just want something that works properly for her and that will be worry-free. She's not going to know the difference if it has SRAM or 105 components on it and she will never be racing it. Up to this point, we have only ridden Fuji bikes as shown in my sig. We have been happy with them but haven't done much research on Specialized. That's why I was looking for opinions 
Thanks so far for the input.
Thanks so far for the input.
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5,966 Posts
Trek2.3 and your instincts are correct about color. Go with the bike that excites her. Sora's good enough for her to get a sense of whether she likes road biking or not.
I notice the compact and triple come in the same color. I'd go with the compact.
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Two chainrings is simpler. Easier to keep the derailleur adjusted; lighter.The compact is actually cheaper than the triple.
On my compact I ended up switching the inner 34 chainring for a 36; you might ask the shop about doing that. I made that swap because I found the 16-tooth jump too big.
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I have a 2011 Dolce Triple. I modified the gearing for super-steep climbs, so now it has a 24-tooth small chainring and a Shimano MegaRange 11-34 cassette. I haven't found a hill I can't climb with this bike.
This whole thing about avoiding the triple just because of supposed shifting quality issues is just not significant to most riders. Certainly a beginner is not going to have any problems with a properly tuned triple. Just get it tuned up - and this isn't unique to the triple, the compacts don't shift well if not tuned either.
Frankly, having owned both, and knowing how to tune them as well as possible, I think triples are smoother shifting than compacts because the jumps between wheels is less.
An added benefit - in my experience - is that for many riders and riding situations, there can be far less front shifting because the middle ring is very useful and can easily access the entire cassette w/o chain rub issues. There is just never any thought or issue in upshifting to larger rings - it just happens smootly and easily. Compacts are often more of a finesse thing for upshifting, in my experience.
If she likes the triple color better, there is absolutely no question - get that bike. Color is a legitimate factor in choice. Just read all the posts by vain high end bike riders about handlebar tape, seat color, tire color etc.
The added benefit to the preferred color might indeed be a better shifting situation for her.
By the way, I just bought my wife a used (09?) Dolce elite which is Tiagra/105 triple. Excellent frame, excellent fork, excellent drive train. We have big hills so the triple is really nice to have too. In fact, I might put a 9 speed MTB cassette and derailleur on the back to get her more gears.
Frankly, having owned both, and knowing how to tune them as well as possible, I think triples are smoother shifting than compacts because the jumps between wheels is less.
An added benefit - in my experience - is that for many riders and riding situations, there can be far less front shifting because the middle ring is very useful and can easily access the entire cassette w/o chain rub issues. There is just never any thought or issue in upshifting to larger rings - it just happens smootly and easily. Compacts are often more of a finesse thing for upshifting, in my experience.
If she likes the triple color better, there is absolutely no question - get that bike. Color is a legitimate factor in choice. Just read all the posts by vain high end bike riders about handlebar tape, seat color, tire color etc.
The added benefit to the preferred color might indeed be a better shifting situation for her.
By the way, I just bought my wife a used (09?) Dolce elite which is Tiagra/105 triple. Excellent frame, excellent fork, excellent drive train. We have big hills so the triple is really nice to have too. In fact, I might put a 9 speed MTB cassette and derailleur on the back to get her more gears.
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I agree that being a beginning rider is no reason to avoid a triple crankset. My first road bike was a triple. I still love it. She will probably find that she can stay in the middle ring the majority of the time, so front shifting isn't an issue. After 10 years and becoming a pretty strong rider who logs lots of miles I still enjoy the triple for this very reason.
I'm real excited
Don't get me wrong, I love our 12 year old Mongoose MTB's (kept in better shape than new) for crusing down to the beach with some pack-pack-beach chairs, my boggie board and an umbrella, it's still my kind of fun, but tonite my wife and I are going to a bike shop where she's going to order her first roadbike. We talked about roadbikes before and she said she never wanted one which was a downer for me because I can't go that slow on my CF or STL road bike. This is going to be great! We can find some hilly back roads around here and hook them onto the Thule pickup truck bed rack go, somewhere nice and ride for the day. This should really improve her riding going from fat tire 30+lb bike to more like 20-lbs! Thanks for reinforcing my thoughts for transitioning from a granny gear triple on our MTB's to maintaining the super low end on the Dolce as well. We're going to be doing some hills and until shes up to speed I don't want it to be harder on a road bike than it is on the MTB. Happy the extra brake levers are there (that'll help the transition too) and they can always be removed once she gets comfortable getting down in the drops.
![Image]()
Hank :thumbsup:
P.S. She said "I'll know it when I see it" and the other day she just wandered through a shop and said "I think I see a bike I like"
Don't get me wrong, I love our 12 year old Mongoose MTB's (kept in better shape than new) for crusing down to the beach with some pack-pack-beach chairs, my boggie board and an umbrella, it's still my kind of fun, but tonite my wife and I are going to a bike shop where she's going to order her first roadbike. We talked about roadbikes before and she said she never wanted one which was a downer for me because I can't go that slow on my CF or STL road bike. This is going to be great! We can find some hilly back roads around here and hook them onto the Thule pickup truck bed rack go, somewhere nice and ride for the day. This should really improve her riding going from fat tire 30+lb bike to more like 20-lbs! Thanks for reinforcing my thoughts for transitioning from a granny gear triple on our MTB's to maintaining the super low end on the Dolce as well. We're going to be doing some hills and until shes up to speed I don't want it to be harder on a road bike than it is on the MTB. Happy the extra brake levers are there (that'll help the transition too) and they can always be removed once she gets comfortable getting down in the drops.
Hank :thumbsup:
P.S. She said "I'll know it when I see it" and the other day she just wandered through a shop and said "I think I see a bike I like"
My wife recently purchased a Specialized Dolce from PV Bicycle Center. We were both impressed with everything about PVBC. The highly organized “look” of the shop, the huge selection of bikes and gear, but what was most outstanding was the way we were treated.
This was my wife’s first road bike. Steve did all the measurements and the fit portion, complete with placing a pelvic portion of a skeleton (I hope it was plastic) on the seat to explain “sit bone/ seat interaction”. It was like going to a doctor when he explains things from a well studied, highly intelligent and experienced standpoint. You know that feeling of you are with the right person and have complete confidence.
![Image]()
The bike is a 2011 Specialized Sport Triple and at $839.99 is everything you could want for an entry level road bike.
Hank :thumbsup:
This was my wife’s first road bike. Steve did all the measurements and the fit portion, complete with placing a pelvic portion of a skeleton (I hope it was plastic) on the seat to explain “sit bone/ seat interaction”. It was like going to a doctor when he explains things from a well studied, highly intelligent and experienced standpoint. You know that feeling of you are with the right person and have complete confidence.
The bike is a 2011 Specialized Sport Triple and at $839.99 is everything you could want for an entry level road bike.
Hank :thumbsup:
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2,436 Posts
I have 2 road bikes. A Trek 2000 (aluminum) with a triple and a bran new Felt F5 (carbon) with a compact. We bought the Trek used and it was my first road bike and the first bike as an adult I actually really enjoyed and wanted to ride. I really like the Felt, but I'm still trying to get used to the compact. For me having the triple as my first bike was very helpful. With the triple it didn't take me too long to find a gearing I was comfortable with to use for the most part. I'm having a hard time of that with the compact. We are in a fairly flat area about a half hour or so inland from the coast.
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