Hey everyone - someone in the Cyclocross/Gravel forum pointed me over here because they saw this thread.
So, I'm one of those brand ambassadors
jadocs mentioned above. I've been riding my A/1 for about 4 months. It's my first gravel bike and so far I am loving it.
I also read the review yesterday that
mstateglfr posted and thought it was real good critical review - I agreed with a lot of it.
My thoughts on the bike so far:
1) the frame itself is real nice. It's lightweight and ride quality so far has been excellent IMO. My size small with pedals and everything weighed in around 19 lbs.
2) me, nor the bike have spontaneously combusted yet
3) I have no experienced the paint/chainslap issue on the dropped stay as of yet (that was pointed out in that article)
4) agree with the article about the internal cable routing system - the rubber stoppers are not the best. hopefully this is rectified in future iterations.
5) I don't have the issue with the cables rubbing on the front of the headtube because of how I arranged the cables when I moved/swapped the hoods/bars, etc. I'll try to get a pic of that specifically later
6) the dropped chainstay initially caught me off guard as well but honestly i don't even see it anymore. I also think it looks better than say, the way Allied Bikes did it with their version:
https://alliedcycleworks.com/collections/able
7) this particular model is geared toward being an everything bike. the A/1 comes in 700c and 650b versions and it's designed to be a gravel bike or a trail bike or a touring bike or urban assault machine. Are there other bikes like that out there? sure.
8) vaast is concentrating on limiting their product line to a few specific types of bikes that can encompass as many types of riding as possible.
9) the article talked a lot about fit, and as a small person i had to do some extra work to get a better fit out of the box. I swapped the stock bars and stem for a 20mm shorter stem and bars with much less reach and flare. I will say the GRX hoods are a mile long to begin with so i definitely needed to shorten the reach.
10) On my size small i have minimal tow overlap issues. on my single track expedition this past weekend i only rubbed my shoes twice and it didn't cause me to falter
11) the company is heavily into sustainability. the frames are recyclable. the bike box is 100% recyclable with no plastic. the processes to remove and process the materials from the earth are safer and less harmful to the environment.
12) the super mag frame is lighter and stronger than steel, titanium, and aluminum, and a much much higher shock absorption rate than aluminum.
Anyway, i'm happy to talk about the bike with anyone that has questions!
In the meantime, here's some pics from my rides
Here's a clearer look at the bars/stem changes I made. I put on an 70mm Ritchey WCS C220 73d stem, and Whiskey No.7 6F bars. The bottle cages are Tacx Devas.
