steaktaco

Hi all,

Third time's a charm.

The first ZX3 I had (50cm) took a bit mental effort to lean into the corners. Still, I liked it because it was far stiffer than any of my steel bikes, and the ride was surprisingly comfortable, though a little dead.

The second frame (warranty replacement, they only had 53cm) was rather weird. It was even harder to get into corners—you really had to force the bars—but on straights the front kept twitching by about an inch. You'd think a bike that won't turn would at least keep a straight line. At first I thought it was my imagination, and then the wind, but it was neither. It was just twitchy and stubborn.

I just finished the third frame (also warranty replacement) and put 50 miles on it. Couldn't be happier. The geometry is nice and long. I must've hit the sweet spot as far as trail goes because this bike takes cues from my subconscious—it'll scoot a half-inch if I notice a piece of glass in my peripheral. I took a corner casually, with no input from my hands, and was surprised to see how close I was to the ground. Road feedback is also a lot better, a smidge closer to aluminum. I do suspect that it's not as stiff as the first two ZX3 frames, but I could just be out of shape. And on cobblestones the internal routing can rattle a bit. But hey, I'm excited.










Search terms: Axman R2, Token Corsa,

s4one

Nice bike, is that a Thomson stem? I just swapped for a Ritchey stem, I did not get a chance to ride it yet.

What does your bike weigh in at?

jciv03

Is that a QS2? In 12K carbon weave?

steaktaco

15.6 lbs as is. I'd like to lose some more weight, but it's not really worth spending more money.

I've got a Chorus crankset on the way, and this Centaur crankset is going on my steel bike re-build. But I think they weigh the same.

steaktaco

Nope. I'm not sure what the model would be.

FrankBattle 

yeah what the hell frame IS that?

Hawt bike though ..

ezee

Nice build.
Just curious, what were the warranty issues with the first couple of ZX3 frames?

dsilver668

Yeah looks kinda like an RS, but not an RS2 that's for sure. I like the weave design. Geez I gotta get out and ride. lol

FrankBattle 

I just came back in from riding ..

*at least I can ride *

steaktaco

It's either this or this. Actually, it's more like the former—they're the manufacturer.

I sure hope Pedal Force starts a group buy!

FrankBattle 

Nice looking. I think I'm tapped out right now on PF frames. I have the QS2, the RS, and now the RS2. Those 2 do look alike.

You mean to say that PF frames show up elsewhere under assumed names??

steaktaco

You're kidding right? Axman produces carbon products just like Advanced and ADK. Token gets their R2 model from them and rebadges it as the Corsa. I think Mike is considering the R2 as well—he offered it as a replacement to the ZX3. I guess you can say I have a prototype ZX4.

Doesn't Pedal Force and Bottechia share an overlapping model as well?

FrankBattle 

Yes. I forgot to turn on the sarcasm siren.

ezee

BUMP:

Nice build.
Just curious, what were your warranty issues with the first couple of ZX3 frames?

WheresWaldo

steaktaco, I like the look of this frame much better than the RS2, you don't happen to know the geometry of this frame do you? Also did PF get away from the stupid Hiddenset spec and go back to CaneCreek on the headset for this one.

steaktaco

This. Same thing some RS2 owners discovered.

Just check the Corsa geometry on Tokenproducts.com. This one is actually a Zero Stack standard, which is popular among mountain bikes. The head tube is gigantic.

RB1-luvr

that's a good looking bike.

Proximo

Maybe I'm just being dense but while I can see something is cracked, I can't tell what that something is. Care to elaborate?

ezee

I must also be dense wrt that super close up of something.
Certain ZX3 & RS2 owners have had seat tube cracking issues. Maybe that's what the image depicts?
Your guess is as good as any...

mihlbach

Thats what it looks like to me. Some of the ZX3s (inlcuding mine) had cracking problems due to the seat tube being over-reamed. The problem seems to have spilled over to the RS2s, apparently, based on conversation in the RS2 GB thread.

steaktaco

Bingo. I guess it's not obvious that the big threads up close is part of the seat clamp.