Jay C! Your new Bike

[Jason E]

Jay,

How about a review of your new Ride?

Jason E

[JayC]

Where to begin....

First off, the ride is extremely plush. I was a little apprehensive that the ride might not be all that great. I rode a Litespeed TI back last summer and thought that the ride quality was inferior to carbon. Turns out the Pedal Force Fusion frame does a great job at dampening road vibrations. There is a tiny bit transmitted through the bars but I didn't put carbon bars on the bike so for an aluminum bar/stem combo, I'm happy. I think the Fizik Bar Gel probably helped quite a bit also. The BB area is very stiff, even when climbing out of the saddle. I believe it's substantially stiffer than the Blue in that area.

The groupset is awesome. It really makes me want to ditch the Shimano on my Blue and replace it with SRAM. The doubletap is very easy to get used to. Shifting is very positive. I do think that the throw to push the chain on the big ring is kind of long but I feel the same way about Shimano stuff. I guess it's the nature of the beast.

Where the SRAM stuff really shines is in comfort. I've put over 100 miles on the bike since picking it up and the SRAM brifters are very ergonomic. There is a place for your thumb and a place to rest your pointing finger on the brake levers. When riding my Blue which has Ultegra on it, I'd get soreness between my thumb and pointing finger. That doesn't happen with the SRAM stuff. The hand pain limits the amount of time I ride on the hoods with the Shimano stuff. I rode 52 miles Saturday on the Fusion and spent probably 90% of the time on the hoods and my hands felt fine when I finished up.

About my only complaint with the SRAM stuff is that if you drop the chain (Which seems to happen to me at least once every time I ride the bike), you have no chance whatsoever of coaxing it back on the big ring. The derailer is so low in the back that when the chain drops off, it's too high to go back on the little ring but too low to go on the big ring. Hopefully once I get past the initial cable stretch, that can be adjusted out.

About my only complaint with the whole bike is the fork. I feel like it has too much lateral flex in it. I've already emailed Pedal Force and we're going to swap the fork out, which means you guys will be seeing the bike back probably by the end of the week. Mike @ Pedal Force said that sometimes larger riders notice more flex in the fork and that if it made me uncomfortable, he'd exchange it. He's sending you guys a Alpha Q CS20 and I'm going to send him the ID14 back.

http://www.trianglecycling.com/photopost/data/501/Picture_008.jpg