A Chinese factory bike-maker called Pardus just came out with possibly the ugliest Time Trial bike since the Cervelo P5-X. This bike is triathlon's version of The Homer. The one nice thing I can say about it is that the front brake is a TRP 861 which is likely the best, most powerful front rim brake you can buy. I have one of these brakes and it's a beautiful thing I've been dying to use.
I would never buy the above bike, but this Pardus firm has caught my eye with their legacy model -- hat tip to Culprit for the referral -- and I'm considering ordering one instead of the Cervelo P4, because as far as I can tell the Pardus is the only bike on the market with P4-esque geo.
The 50 cm Pardus vis-a-vis the 51 cm P4 is 2 mm lower on the frame stack and 7 mm shorter on the frame reach. This bike looks so much like a P4 I might have it custom painted in classic P4 paint scheme just so triathletes don't throw rocks at me.
This bike has a direct mount front, standard interfaces, and comes in paint color of choice. What am I missing? Why is this bike not on ST's radar, except for the brand boner all of you guys have for Cervelo? Has anyone tried the Pardus? Has anyone been suffered debilitating injury while riding it? I figure it can't be more dangerous than a Felt IA, but lack of recourse in the event of paralysis unsettles me.
Note: I was considering building up a P4 solely for the purpose of demo-ing a bunch of the latest and greatest front end solutions over the winter -- which I'll review (read: shit on profusely) in a series of posts on these boards -- but the used P4 market is awful...sellers either don't have water bottles, or the frame is cracked, or they are charging outrageous amounts. Clearance issues, rear brake is shit, etc. It's hard out here in a short, tall, slack world, but we can vote with our wallets, and I just may.
I would never buy the above bike, but this Pardus firm has caught my eye with their legacy model -- hat tip to Culprit for the referral -- and I'm considering ordering one instead of the Cervelo P4, because as far as I can tell the Pardus is the only bike on the market with P4-esque geo.
The 50 cm Pardus vis-a-vis the 51 cm P4 is 2 mm lower on the frame stack and 7 mm shorter on the frame reach. This bike looks so much like a P4 I might have it custom painted in classic P4 paint scheme just so triathletes don't throw rocks at me.
This bike has a direct mount front, standard interfaces, and comes in paint color of choice. What am I missing? Why is this bike not on ST's radar, except for the brand boner all of you guys have for Cervelo? Has anyone tried the Pardus? Has anyone been suffered debilitating injury while riding it? I figure it can't be more dangerous than a Felt IA, but lack of recourse in the event of paralysis unsettles me.
Note: I was considering building up a P4 solely for the purpose of demo-ing a bunch of the latest and greatest front end solutions over the winter -- which I'll review (read: shit on profusely) in a series of posts on these boards -- but the used P4 market is awful...sellers either don't have water bottles, or the frame is cracked, or they are charging outrageous amounts. Clearance issues, rear brake is shit, etc. It's hard out here in a short, tall, slack world, but we can vote with our wallets, and I just may.