Every so often I run across a WWWTPD cyclist. You know the type, they look at what the pro teams are doing, and say out loud to those who do their own research that all of that effort is a waste of time. You should just do what the World Tour (WT) teams do. Performance is so important to the pros that they wouldn’t possibly compromise on the products they use. I…
Cervélo
Yeah, OK, Mike’s Bikes; Pon Group is technically a “family-owned company”
First off, just to be clear, I think it sucks. Really sucks. That Specialized canceled the pre-orders of everyone who bought one of their bikes from Mike’s Bikes. While they almost certainly were within the bounds of their contract with Mike’s Bikes, it’s not great for the 400+ people screwed over by this act, and perhaps more importantly, will cost Specialized goodwill to a much wider audience. FOR SHAME! But, what I…
What’s the value of fancy paint and an integrated headset?
I’ve never ridden a Cervélo Áspero, or any Cervélo for that matter, but from what I can tell it seems like a nice gravel focused bike that would be totally fine as a road bike as long as maximizing speed on the road wasn’t a critical requirement. I also love what they’re doing with the paint, while it might not be to everyone’s taste, I think it looks fantastic and really makes…
If a gravel bike and and endurance bike hooked up…
You’d probably get something that looks a lot like the just announced Cervélo Caledonia. Of course that’s a bit of an over simplification, because based on the headset, it was probably a ménage à trois involving an aero bike as well… Hey, who are we to judge, whatever works, right? The key take away here is all the space for tires (up to 34mm) and fender mounts (unclear if that’s with the…
I’m starting to notice a trend here…
Maybe I have unreasonable expectations, but here again I’m somewhat surprised to find that this $4,000 Cervélo Áspero comes with an aluminum seatpost and a 1760g Easton EA70 AX wheelset. Seeing as you can get these wheels for $200 and an aluminum seatpost for $25 without even looking that hard, it just seems like a lot to pay for a mishmash of parts and a carbon frame. Now, I will admit that…
Sampling the bottom
Let me start out by saying that I find the technical content put out by Hambini to be incredibly useful. I’ve also seriously considered getting one of his Shimano bottom brackets (BB) for my Tarmac (but then I got a Specialized Power Crank instead). That said, I do find his presentation style to be a bit abrasive and unnecessarily confrontational. But, clearly it’s working for him; just look at the subscriber count……