I have been racing triathlons and riding bikes in a competitive environment for 17years and have had the opportunity to own and ride some of the best bikes available on the market today so I am able to compare the ride quality of one bike to another.
I have also been a group ride leader in france riding up and down the Col Du Tormalet,Col Du Abisque and Col Du Solour 3 times each in 10 days.
Ive done a ride from Manchester Veledrome to London Veledrome in 2 and Half Days.
I have done as much research on every product available on the market today and am very anal and a perfectionist when it comes to anything to do with bikes.
NB: This Blog is of me testing the Starley Bicycles and Components in the early stages and by no means is the bike going to be perfect and if there are any issues these will be rectified before they go into production.
Testing Starley Road Bike version 1(SR2Race):
Bike Spec:-
Frame :SR1
Handlebars:Starley D-Race 440mm
Stem:Starley Race 120mm
SeatPost:-Starley Race
Groupset:Sram Force
Wheels: Meteor Sapim cxr Tubular 50mm
My impressions so far:-
First Ride:
Terrain: Ride was too and from my house to didsbury 36km each way, mostly flat,very bumpy British road surface with some undulations and a decent of 2km reaching speeds of 60km/h average speed for ride was 30km/h 2hr49min total ride time.
First Impression straight away was this was I bike I could get used to, my last bike ridden was a Ridley Noah Di2 and Riding the SR1 felt exactly the same.
On the first ride I wanted to focus on the frame and wheels only, it was stiff and could not feel any flex apart from at the steerer tube but this was more to the fact that I had a high stack of 100mm under the stem. The wheels made the bike feel fast very fast, to the point were the wheels seemed to be the main focus and made me think it was the wheels that made the whole bike experience feel smooth and fast, giving me a false reading of how the frame performed. I would need to test the bike without the meteor wheels so as to get a true reflection of the frames ability.
Very exited about riding this bike more as it was very responsive,ready to be a race bike or still be relaxed and comfortable enough to be a sportive bike.
Ride time 3hrs
Any changes I make to bike or components I will mention at the start of each day.
I have changed the Meteor Aero wheels for some normal road race wheels that were still stiff at came in at around the £500 mark so a good set of wheels.
This time I could focus on the frame and the rest of the bike. The frame was just as I thought, although it did not have the smoothness and carry over speed of the Meteor wheels, you know that feeling when you stop pedalling or pedal lightly and you still keep rolling at the same speed, the bike still had that instant responsiveness that most bike enthusiast crave, this bike was awesome, from a standstill from traffic lights to full sprint the response was immediate(im weighting in at 87kg)and at this weight if I cant flex the bike then that’s saying something.
The Carbon handlebars have a flat bar top that are a welcome relief when climbing, although I would put the bar tape all the way up to the stem next time as if you don’t wear gloves like me and sweat loads in the summer mnths or are lucky enough to ride abroad then they would become a bit slippy. They are very stiff and had no flex in them whatsoever even when sprinting and climbing out the saddle.
No comments:
Post a Comment