Road Cycling - Question for the knowledgeable roadies out there

Hey!

I have a friend looking at a bike- he sent over specs, and I wanted to get some honest opinions about the bike, from the viewpoint of serious cyclists like yourselves- some of whom race, and everyone who looks at a bike like it's a sacred object. From looking at the specs, what are your opinions about this bike? Apparently, it's a hand made frame or something from some bikemaker in Europe (I don't think it's one of those big companies. I was looking for some fresh eyes to look at it- can this bike be used for serious training rides or racing? Looking at the components, are they complimentary? What is this bike comparable to? Just looking at the specs, on a scale of 1- 10, with 10 being superior, how would you imagine the bike to perform? Etc....

Anything you can contribute would help. I sure would hate to see someone drop this kind of money on a bike, only to find it's not worth the bucks. :(


$1501-$2000- Frame Only price

The bike frame is custom sized and welded
by a especialist. The best materials available are used in building the frame. The main triangle uses Dedacchiai V2 aluminum tubing. The rear triangle uses the Dedacchiai Black Box carbon fiber tubing. The frame is matched with a custom carbon fiber seat post, and a Sintema carbon fiber front fork
Total frame weight: 1100 grams, (2.4)"

Frame Size: 54.5 (custom)
Main Frame: Dedaci Tubing
Rear Triangle/Fork: Carbon
Top Tube: 55 cm
Stem: 120 Deda Magic 73 rise
Newton Bar 44 cm
Stand Over: 80 cm
Head Tube: 13.5 cm
Angles: All angles proprietary
Components: Campy Record 10-Speed
Wheels: Mavic Ksyrium SSC-SL
Pedals: Look CX-6 Ti
Tires: Continental Gran Prix
3000


Thanks,

Koffee

Looks pretty good to me. How much does your friend weigh?

I'm not saying it's a red flag for not getting the frame but to be perfectly honest, unless the frame maker is well versed with some of the eccentricities of carbon fibre, I'd be a little cautious. Joining and bonding CF can be a bit tricky and if not done right can result in debonding and delamination which could mean frame failure at the intersection between the main and rear triangle. In some sense, the bigger factories have a certain advantage. This is however a gross generalisation as someone who is knowledgable and meticulous about the material can produce a high quality and reliable CF frame. It all goes back to the reputation of the builder and whether or not they've had a lot of experience dealing with CF. Welding more common metals such as aluminum in a jig is a little less black magic sometimes and a little harder to hide screwups.

Does how much the person weigh matter? Are you saying that there's going to be a weight restriction, and if so, how can you tell? I'll find out what this person weighs/how tall they are.

Hmmmm... anyone know how I can change a picture file from .art to .jpg so I can post the pic of the bike?

Thanks so far!

Koffee

Some carbon frames do list a weight restriction. However, what I was getting at was that the quality control and build of a carbon frame or frame with carbon components may be suspect unless it came from a reputable builder. At least in this case, the material choice is reputable but without knowing more about the builder I'd be a little hesitant.

Dedaccai U2 or V2 tubing is very thin light weight stuff. It usually builds bikes with a weight limit of 85kg or thereabouts.

As for the carbon rear end I would'nt worry to much about that. The whole rear section is pre manufactured by Deda and shipped to frame builder as is. All they have to do is glue it in place.

It's the main tubes I'd worry about.

However any one that fits a bike of 54.5 cm should come in under the weight limit.

Who is the frame builder? Thats important info you left out.

I'm very interested to see a pic of this and find out who the builder is. Anything made in Italy with Record on it gets me excited :)

Ok, the components, wheels, pedals and tires were all ordered from different places by a guy who bought this bike. So far, he's not giving up the name of the maker of the frame.

So, taking away the components, wheels, pedals and tires, we get all curious about the quality of the bike, if it's a good racing bike, etc.

I'll work on getting the other details.

It's kind of hard to tell the quality of the bike without knowing who built it - I could buy a bunch of Deda U2 tubing and some nice parts, but would you really want to ride anything I welded together? (Answer: NO!)

Fondriest and others make some very, very nice bikes with the U2 and V2 tubesets - all with weight limit suggestions though (normally 180lbs). I'd be pretty cautious about a frame built with that fragile a tubeset unless I knew exactly who was doing the construction. If the welds aren't done perfectly - it won't be durable at all, or even worse, flat out dangerous.

Not sure about the frame, but someone who won't give away who the maker is might be trying to pull a fast one. Do you trust this guy?

As for .art to .jpg, I'm willing to bet you can open the file in Internet Explorer (File > Open) and then save it as a .bmp (by richt-clicking and choosing "File > Save as"). From here, you can just double-click on it and it should open in Paint or your default photo-editor. Then just "File > Save as" and change the format to .jpg. Sounds complicated, but it'll take you less time to do it than it took for to write this sentence :) Worst case scenario: you can open it in IE, right-click to set it as wallpaper then search the Windows directory for "Internet Explorer Wallpaper" (I think that's the right name)

Ya know, .art is AOL. You can probably pull up the original e-mail in AOL and when you save the image, change the file type to jpg...

How unfortunate that my high speed internet is down- I can't get onto the internet through IE right now. I'm using compuserve dial up. :(

As soon as I get it up and running, I'll try and get these pics up. I'll find out from my friend if he has any additional info, but so far, it doesn't seem like there's much out there on the bike. I also find it suspicious that they won't say who makes the frame, but claim it's a superior bike.

Koff

Hmmmm... friend reported back- the guy who's all for this bike said he CAN'T remember the maker of the bike.

I guess he bought it with cash in a dark alley while blindfolded, huh?

I'll keep everyone updated.

I'm more and more curious about a bike frame that costs $2000 where the guy can't even remember who made the bike.... :eek:

Koffee

Whoops, deleted the original email once I saved the pics to my hard drive. :-(

Hi,
the question is....
1)does the design of the frame suit his needs?
2)is the design and construction top notch? Lots of alternatives if he's not sure. And he should be 100% sure for that kind of dough......

My gut tells me this is not the right choice. Your pal is getting back into cycling, and looking for a great bike. Reliability is part of greatness.Someone doing some serious training, and then start racing...is going to really put a bike through a wringer. It needs to be tough. He should try a few bikes anyway, see what he likes.

deda aluminum + deda carbon stays. at $1500... sounds good to me.. just make sure your friend likes the geometry though..

But there are lots of frame makers in the US and Canada who makes similar frames w/ similar materials..

If the frame is deda, why not make the fork, stem, handlebar, etc. deda all the way.. the Deda Magic series is good..

Make sure its not a Huffy.

Sure, and I've got another "deal" for you.. can I get your checking acct info?