Originally Posted by
strayduck
Caadster: I'm totally with you on the bike feeling unified from front-to-rear. We've got lots of little rolling hills out here where you'll have to stand and mash for 10 or 15 seconds, then settle back into the saddle and the bike responds uniformly at the pressure points (handlebars/fork, pedals, wheels). In a couple of words the I find the bike solid and predictable and it only took a couple of miles of riding it before I stopped thinking about it and got to focus on the terrain and scenery.
One point to make (for my build, anyway) is that I made no attempt to make this bike lightweight and it is not--it's a full 4lbs heaver than my summer ride and while I haven't seen much of a difference in speed on my rides I feel it in the form of a little extra lactic acid on the efforts.
All of this steel makes for a really predictable ride, though, and I really like how it's handled in the wind. We've had some wicked gusts during this moody early spring and the bike tracks steady and true.
I had my other bike professionally fit and I got the stock Breezer parts as close as I could using the measurement sheet I was provided but I still felt like I was reaching a little more for the bars. I lined the two up and while the pedals and seat matched up perfectly, lo and behold the bars are 2.75cm lower on the Breezer, so I'm off to find another stem to make up for that.
It's kind of interesting to see the two bikes side-by-side to compare the "compact" geometry of the Merlin against the Breezer. There are very noticeable differences in the top tubes and head tubes.
There has been some discussion on this thread about the Venturi being a "racing" bike and with some lightweight wheels and part upgrades this could very much be the case but now that I have some miles in I find the choice of a compact crankset an odd one. Unless you live in a really hilly area I find I'm always in the smallest cogs when in the small chainring and over geared when transitioning from the small chainring to the large. If the bike hadn't come with these parts I would do a 39-52 in the front with an 11-27 or 11-28 in the rear.
No, the Venturi is not particularly light; with a pretty mid-grade build like mine, my M/L size bike is hitting the scale right at 20lbs fully dressed (pedals, cages, Garmin bits). I don't know what the frame/fork weigh, but I'm pretty sure a Sram build with some 1500g wheels and lightweight saddle (i.e. non-SMP!) would be about 18lbs. Decent, but far from the weights easily achievable with aluminum or carbon.
Anyway, I'm running a standard drivetrain-- 53/39 and 11-25-- which works for my strength level and rolling terrain. Whether that's enough to make it race-worthy I'll find out next month when our local spring crit series opens!