Well, after a slight detour to Long Island, my new Titanflex arrived in Florida on Friday. Headed to the LBS to put the last pieces on and to give everything a once-over. Rode an easy 3 hours yesterday (first long ride post IMFL). Thoughts on the bike:
1. Great ride. The TF boom is much stiffer than the Softride Rocket Beam. Less deflection when pedaling (less bouncing around), but sufficient deflection to make bumps invisible. TF offers 4 degrees of stiffness, I went for the 2nd softest. Very easy to get into a nice comfy position and stay aero for long stints.
2. Bike is beautiful. TF powder coats the bikes, so you can choose from any of about a thousand colors supplied by Tiger Dry Lac. I picked out a sparkly silver, and it turned out great.
3. Build quality very high. Frame welds were very nice, parts hung on nicely without need for tweaking.
4. Beam mechanism very elegant. Boom slides in and out with a simple clamp. Seat post goes up and down. No fuss no muss. Makes it very easy to micro-adjust your set up. Compare that to 2 page procedure for adjusting the 7 parts to make the beam on my Softride Rocket stay. Apply this certain type of loctite to these threads, but not those threads, use such and such grease on the inside of the slidewasher, but not the threads, torque to xzy inch/lbs of touque, weight and unweight saddle and re-torque, etc....
5. Parts spec was great. DA, 180 FSA cranks, Cane Creek 200 sl brakes, aspide triathgel saddle... Also, the Look ergo stem is a real interesting part (http://www.lookcyclesusa.com/pp-ergostem-hsc.htm). I plan to use this stem to dial in fit EXACTLY, then replace it with a lighter stem once I get happy. Will also get a set of 404's (TF sells them at a nice discount -- $750 inc. skewers) when I sell the Rocket.
6. Buying experience was very nice. As mentioned on this site in the past, the owner of TF, Tom Piszkin, is very accessable and he spent a lot of time on the phone with me, making sure that I got what I wanted.
The proof will be in the bike split, but I am very pleased so far. Will post a "long term report" after a couple thousand miles. Later
Happy holidays to everyone.
1. Great ride. The TF boom is much stiffer than the Softride Rocket Beam. Less deflection when pedaling (less bouncing around), but sufficient deflection to make bumps invisible. TF offers 4 degrees of stiffness, I went for the 2nd softest. Very easy to get into a nice comfy position and stay aero for long stints.
2. Bike is beautiful. TF powder coats the bikes, so you can choose from any of about a thousand colors supplied by Tiger Dry Lac. I picked out a sparkly silver, and it turned out great.
3. Build quality very high. Frame welds were very nice, parts hung on nicely without need for tweaking.
4. Beam mechanism very elegant. Boom slides in and out with a simple clamp. Seat post goes up and down. No fuss no muss. Makes it very easy to micro-adjust your set up. Compare that to 2 page procedure for adjusting the 7 parts to make the beam on my Softride Rocket stay. Apply this certain type of loctite to these threads, but not those threads, use such and such grease on the inside of the slidewasher, but not the threads, torque to xzy inch/lbs of touque, weight and unweight saddle and re-torque, etc....
5. Parts spec was great. DA, 180 FSA cranks, Cane Creek 200 sl brakes, aspide triathgel saddle... Also, the Look ergo stem is a real interesting part (http://www.lookcyclesusa.com/pp-ergostem-hsc.htm). I plan to use this stem to dial in fit EXACTLY, then replace it with a lighter stem once I get happy. Will also get a set of 404's (TF sells them at a nice discount -- $750 inc. skewers) when I sell the Rocket.
6. Buying experience was very nice. As mentioned on this site in the past, the owner of TF, Tom Piszkin, is very accessable and he spent a lot of time on the phone with me, making sure that I got what I wanted.
The proof will be in the bike split, but I am very pleased so far. Will post a "long term report" after a couple thousand miles. Later
Happy holidays to everyone.