JayC

Before I start, I want to get something out of the way.

I'M NOT FLIPPING IT!

Now that that's over and done with, my Pedal Force Fusion is finally home. I ordered the whole bike a few weeks ago and have been waiting for the SRAM groupsets to become available. The bike showed up at the LBS on Monday and I was really hoping to be riding the thing Tuesday. Unfortunately I got thrown a curve ball when the bike shipped with the wrong size front derailer. A quick call to Pedal Force took care of the problem as Ming overnighted me the correct size FD and the LBS went to work assembling the thing. Here's specs on the build up:

Frame and Groupset: Fusion frame + SRAM Rival groupset
Frame size : 57 cm
Chainring combination : 39-53T
Crank length : 172.5 mm
Cassette combination : 11-12-13-14-15-17-19-21-23-26T
Fork: ID14
Headset: FSA Orbit CE
Headset Compressor: Carbolock
Headset Spacers: Carbon headset spacers
Headset spacer height : 30 mm
Seatpost: P2 300mm x 27.2mm
Cables: Standard Derailleur and Brake Cable Set
Handlebar: FSA Wing Pro 31.8mm Bar
Handlebar width : 44 cm
Stem: FSA OS-150 31.8mm Carbon Stem
Stem length : 100 mm
Tubes: 700Cx18-25 Butyl Tube, Presta Valve x 2
Front Tire: Michelin Pro 2 Race, 700CX23 Kevlar
Rear Tire: Michelin Pro 2 Race, 700CX23 Kevlar
Wheelset: Mavic Open Pro W/Ultegra Hubs (from Performance)
Saddle: Terry Fly TI
Pedals: Look KEO Classics
I also added the Fizik Bar Gel and tape.

The LBS that assembled the bike was impressed with the quality of the frame. Pictures really don't do the frame justice. It's a very nice piece. I took some pictures of the welds on the titanium to show how clean the welding job is. I'm sure it's robotic but even still, it's nice.

Before I even got the bike out of the shop, someone stopped and asked me about the bike.

Anyway, I loaded the bike up and headed for home. I was determined to get some miles on the bike tonight. About 5 miles from my house, I hit a major traffic jam on the interstate. I was not happy. After 45 minutes of trudging through all that, I still had about an hour and a half of daylight left when I got home so I threw on my gear and hit the road. I didn't stop to put my cycling computer on the bike or anything, in fact, I unloaded it right off my car rack and rode out. Turns out, that was a mistake.

I headed out of my subdivision, which is essentially a really long climb and made the turn on to the highway in front of my house. It's a rural highway but still, at 5:00 in the afternoon, traffic wasn't light. I crossed the road, got out of the saddle and stepped on it. After clicking through a couple of gears on the SRAM shifters, I went to put the chain on the big ring and the chain dropped right off. Try as I might, I couldn't get the chain to climb back up on the big ring and with traffic whizzing by, I slowed down and unclipped and put the chain back on by hand. Clipped back in and away I went.

One thing I noticed right away is that the shifting on the SRAM is very postive. When you shift, you KNOW it shifted. It's a very postive feeling shift and has a nice firm "clunk" to let you know it shifted. The overall shifting with the SRAM brifters is nice.. I was having no problems with it throughout the ride. It's not Shimano but it didn't seem foreign to me.

I figured I had enough time to do a 20 mile loop, allowing some time for any problems that might occur. I rode the first half of the loop without incident but I kept thinking that the bike seemed really sluggish and I was having to really work it to keep the speed up. There was a pretty good headwind so I wrote it off to that. When I got to the halfway point, I started looking over the bike and the front and rear brake calipers were both cocked off to the side and rubbing the wheel. Not hard enough to make any noise but I'm sure enough to slow me down some. I adjusted both calipers and noticed then that one of the calipers' release lever wasn't all the way closed. Had to readjust it again after that. While I was doing that, a girl roadie stopped to see if I was having troubles. I told her no, just adjusting the brakes, thanked her and she rode on. That was cool.

Now normally I won't just jump on a bike and ride out without checking everything over but I assumed (Yes, I know, thats where I got myself in trouble) that since the bike had just been built that all this stuff would have been checked. That's why I didn't think it would be necessary to recheck it again, plus I was low on daylight so I guess it's my fault for putting too much faith in someone else's work.

The ride home was much better. The bike cruised right along and other than my legs being shot from riding 10 miles with both brakes rubbing, it was an enjoyable ride. The Fusion has what I assume to be by the way everyone describes it, a very plush ride. I wrestled with putting carbon bars on the bike and ended up not doing it. Turns out I don't think I needed them. The ride is very smooth. In fact, other than a slight amount of chain rub in big/big, the bike is virtually silent and you feel like you're just floating along. I'm a pretty big guy and I did a couple of out of the saddle climbs on the bike and it feels very stiff when you're climbing with it. I didn't think there would be any flex in the BB area since it's titanium, turns out that's correct.

Overall, I like this bike. The relaxed geometry is pretty comfortable compared to my Blue and the SRAM groupset is the cats pajamas. I may have to off my Ultegra group on my Blue and put SRAM on it. My only complaint with the SRAM shifters is that the paddles are a little tough to reach when in the drops but since I don't ride in the drops a lot, it's no big deal for me. The ride is superb.. I rode the bike down some awful chip peel pavement on the way home and I think the ride is superior to my Blue from a vibration dampening standpoint.

I didn't really go nuts with weight saving measures on this bike. The saddle is kind of heavy and the wheelset isn't exactly light either. Even still, the bike weighed in at 18.2#s complete minus the flat kit and cyclometer.

Here's some photos:

JayC

More photos

blandin

Kudos, and thanks for all the great pictures! Your Pedal Force Fusion and SRAM Rival combo looks great - you're not going to see this bike on every corner. Enjoy!!

Gibbygoo

nice!

Dubbayoo

I have never been a fan of lugs but that is a nice frame, as far as lugged frames go. nice job.

JonRags

Gorgeous bike!!!!!

the beef

Whoa. Rival looks surprisingly decent in the flesh. Sweet bike. Unflipped stems are sexy.

sshakari

Thats a sweet build. Realy like the Ti lugs & carbon look.

shabbasuraj

Flip it.

Cot Du Trent

The Ti Lugs and Carbon go GREAT together. How do you like your SRAM components? The only thing I've used of SRAM's is a 9 speed rear cassette.

Lectron

Looks good.

But. But why did you go for a handlebar with all that drop forcing
you to stack it all that way up in the air. You know you could
have flipped it with an other choice of handlebars

domestique

ok, I gotta ask. What is the horizontal metal bar near the bottom bracket on the sloping down tube? (top middle of pic.)



Op, great looknge bike. Love the Ti lugged carbon. Reminds me of another bike around here that is Ti lugged carbon..... what is that? oh that's right a Tete. Don't let Rad see this bike.

bdcheung

The bike stand

domestique

LOL, thank you. I guess that is what I get for being all doped up on anti-biotics.

linux_author

- i think i just decided on the gruppo for the QS2S frameset build, thanks!

msheron

That's niceeeeeeeeeeee!

alex909

Where's a good place to get the Rival set at a good price? That is one good looking bike!

JayC

So far I really like them. One things that's really cool about the SRAM stuff is that the paddles basically float. You can put your finger on the paddle and move it around. So anywhere you put your hands, you can keep your finger on the paddle.

I really thought that the upshifting would be wierd on the bike but it's not. The way the shifting works is when you push the paddle in far enough for it to click, nothing happens. At that point, you have a choice. If you release the paddle, it drops a gear. If you keep pushing it, it climbs back up the ring. I believe you can climb back up 3 gears per push of the paddle. When you get to the top of the ring, it will give you an extra click but the derailer doesnt move. After that, the shifter won't push over any more.

The hoods are really comfortable as well. They might be a tad more squared off than the Shimano hoods but the overall size of them works and the way the brake levers are shaped and the fact that the paddles float, you can keep a finger on the paddle and a finger or two on the brake lever and it all just kind of works.

I really like the Rival stuff.. if it's problem free for a few hundred miles, I'm going to have to seriously consider it for my Blue in the springtime.

Mariner Fan

Man that's nice. You don't see Sram componants every day. I really like the way this one turned out.

JayC

Mainly because I wanted something that was ergonomically comfortable on the flats and at the corners of the tops. I ride on the hoods mainly but sometimes when I'm in the back of a paceline, I'll ride on the tops or corners of the tops for a while and wanted something that fit my hands.

That and Pedal Force's price on components when you buy a frame is INSANELY cheap so it would have been dumb not to get bars when I was buying the rest of the stuff and that particular bar was the only one I was familiar with and I knew it had a nice ergonomic shape.

I do think the bars are a tad high for me but I set it up similar to my Blue and the Blue has a much lower head tube height than the Pedal Force. I'll probably drop it some more after I put a few miles on it.

leob1

When I see new bikes I lamet the loss of the art of frame lugs, this give me hope for the future.
I put one on my x-mas list.

PepeLeTour

JayC -- Why do you insist on getting all the bikes that I want?!?! First the Blue, now the PedalForce.

Fine looking bike!

BTW, I am going to be in Raleigh area over Thanksgiving (visiting folks in Sanford and ECU vs NCSU game) -- any organized rides in the area I should know about?

Patriot

Absolutely beautiful.

I still want one of those frames. I here they ride like a dream. Smooth as silk.

I'd probably go with a set of Trigon integrated bars (I love them), a stealth straight blade fork, Centaur or Chorus group, and a set of MG's Niobium 30's.

I would even be inclined to leave it unpainted.

cuda2k

The Century Gray finish would look mighty fine on that frame, with the bare carbon and Ti on either end of the gray scale spectrum.

JayC - beautiful build and it's good to hear a good write up on the SRAM group. I'm with a lot of the others here who have been eyeing the Fusion frame for a while now and have a love/hate response to seeing one fully built and a ride report. love, cause I'd love to add one to the collection hate, cause well, ain't going to happen any time soon. Enjoy the ride dude.

JayC

It really does. I took it out for another ride this morning and it does ride better than my Blue. It's much smoother and seems to be slightly stiffer in the BB area.

I considered the Trigon bars also but didnt want to jump on something integrated until I know what size I needed. Thats another reason I bought what I bought. It was dirt cheap through Pedal Force. I think the bars and stem were less than $80.00. Now that I know what size I need, I can look for something integrated.