Originally Posted by andre nickatina

Okay, raced the Alien tonight / rode it at Alpenrose for the first time. Here's my review for you. I'm using my Pista Concept as comparison because that's what I regularly race on at the drome...

At cruising to "good" paceline speeds, the bike seemed to hold a solid line in the walls a lot easier than the Concept. I didn't have a computer on so I can't give anything exact but let's say low to mid 20's mph as a ballpark estimate. Pushing it in a fast tempo with the front riders, it was a bit twitchier. Sprinting it through the walls, very twitchy - whereas my Concept seems to get more stable the faster it rides but takes a little more effort and focus keeping a clean line through the walls at cruising/decent speeds.

Harshness vs. aluminum... hard to say. Almost the same it seems like. Rode 120psi clincher rear / 150 psi tubbie front tonight, and I usually do 140-150psi tubular duals on the Concept. Tire pressure and choice is pretty critical in terms of how harsh or smooth a bike will ride of course.

Track worthy? Definitely. All of what I said about twitchiness at a certain speed only applies to Alpenrose - that stuff all varies from velodrome to velodrome as per how a given fork rake and trail will ride at a certain speed on a certain track.

One thing - the quill stem. You might want to run a steel quill stem (like Nitto) or get a threadless adapter if you're good at flexing bars / front ends.