My friend got his bike in at performance today. After bringing it home I had to do a few adjustments. I rewrapped the bars since the tape was way too overlapped and the finishing tape was hideous. I also went through and tightened everything down. I will (btw, cant type with apostrophes since firefox isnt recognizing this as a text box and is opening a damn search bar every time i type one) get the negatives out of the way first:
-pedals: theyre like those alien sneaker pedals. they have a clip mounting system very similar to the old shimano triangular aero system, but the clips are very short and hard to get a foot into. theyre more likely to get smooshed when trying to get in, they need to push higher up. theyre also narrow so my foot gets caught up in the nylong strap. I threw on my plemonsco with some west german touring pedals from my ride to test (but my friend has to go find his own pedals lol)
-seatpost. thanks mongoose for speccing a 26.4 seatpost, those are super common. at least you put bottom of the barrel on here with a cruiser style seatpost (straight kind with a clamp that you attach to the saddle). on that note the saddle isnt too bad. not terribly uncomfortable, not terribly comfortable. It is too bulky though. not a bad complaint
-rim tape. they used some crappy thick electrical tape in here. I pumped it up to 100 psi, and it tore at some of the rim holes, leading to a flat. Didnt think to check for quality rim tape. luckily I had some extra velox i threw in there.
speaking of rims, this one is a bit strange. it uses alexrims to formulas, but it uses PC18s. they fit 25s how most rims fit 23s, so theyre a couple millimeters wider. not a bad deal, theyre not super wise obviously, and they fit a schrader tube. nice for commuting since you dont have to worry about an adapter and gas stations seem more likely to have pumps for schraders than prestas. the wheels are heavy though. but i dont think weight weenies would be interested in this anyways.
the frame is nice quality. the welding isnt the greatest, imo the kilo has more well done welds. some of the "c"s are bigger than others, it isnt terribly uniform, but its by no means dangerous. I was surprised to see it came with a sexy investment cast lugged crown fork. Its all covered in a very nice, if a bit bright, sparkle blue. the zip ties holding up the rear brake cable arent the most aesthetically pleasing, but many people would presumably be removing that anyways.
the bullhorns supplied are nice, have a slight bit of drop to them. brake levers are nice, brake calipers feel a bit cheap, but they operate just fine. brake lines have some stretch to them.
well, for my test ride, I was not using the stock pedals (plemons on touring pedals) nor stock front wheel (hed jet glued to a schwalbe milano. the front was flat due to crap rim tape). maybe it was my savage front wheel, but it felt like this thing could really fly. The geometry was responsive, and I felt it to be a more aggressive and quicker feeling frame than the clockwork my friend has. seat tube is a little more relaxed, but handling felt very similar to my friends kilo. not as responsive as my njs frame, still had a bit of a mushy feel that I cant really describe, but firmer feeling than the aforementioned clockwork. maybe this is something flexing? i dont think im powerful enough for be inducing flex, i have no clue what im feeling. the clockwork feels very similar to this mongoose. Im sure the sst feels closer to the same with like handlebars. I still feel as though my trek conversion feels more responsive and stiff.
anyways, too much text. im sure im leaving stuff out, so ill try to answer any questions. heres some pics of the bike:
