Hi All,
James from Diamondback here. The article from Dan and Slowtwitch has certainly generated a lot of banter on the Serios bike. I am happy to answer questions regarding our bikes.
In regards to this thread, there are some points I want to weigh in on:
First, the bike that was posted earlier was of a custom painted Accell design frame for National TT Champion Tom Zirbel. Those frames were also used by FDJ and branded Lapierre. The intent was to use that frame until we completed our two plus year R&D on the Serios in conjunction with Steve Hed and Kevin Quan Studios.
Second - is this our first design of this type of Triathlon/TT frame. Yes. Is this our first foray into the Triathlon world. No. Remember the Dave Scott Centurion? Yeah that was us. Also, the VP of Diamondback is a 5 time Ironman finisher and owned the East Coast's first true Triathlon store for over 5 years, then 12 years at another well known company in the industry before coming to Diamondback. So we have some history here.
Third - The Serios came to be as a result of our relationship with the Optum Pro p/b Kelly Benefits Cycling teams. They were riding our road frames and we wanted them on a DB designed TT frame. However, not every roadie is in dire need of a TT bike. So we knew we needed to design a bike that could be two things - UCI legal for the Pro teams as well a bike to be sold to the extremely competitive consumer market (read: Triathletes). So in collaboration with two of the industries top people - Steve Hed and Kevin Quan, we did just that. Check out the video -
https://vimeo.com/106946118.
Last piece - Most triathletes who are purchasing these bikes are exceptionally well informed and utilize the internet along with forums such as Slowtwitch for trusted product info/reviews. Thus we decided to sell direct to consumer for the Serios models coupled with the fact that we are able to send the bikes 99% built from our factories. These bikes come out of the box with minimal consumer assembly. Literally it is put bars on, seat post in, inflate tires and go. Obviously, most athletes are going to be doing a full fit, and we are working to improve our fit tools to assist in making the correct sizing choice. Also, we lowered the pricing on the bikes in its inaugural year to help entice athlete's to throw a leg over bike that is proven to be fast. Just ask the Optum women's team who took the National TTT title this year with the Men just missing the top step by 7 seconds.
Thanks for reading.