Thierry,

Try to get Ironclm (Cathy) to reply to you. She rides a Super? Prodigy and a P2K. Don't forget to let her know what you have been riding previously.

A Super Prodigy is Cervelo's high performance steel bicycle. High performance as in racing. If you are accustom to riding a bicyle with touring geometry, then you are definitely going to notice a difference in handling(manners).

Like the difference between a Lincoln and a Ferrari or Lambourgini.

Waterford makes racing bikes and touring bikes and the geometry on their R-22 and R-33 bikes is more aggressive than on their touring frames. Be sure your comparing apples to apples.

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Ben Cline


Better to aspire to Greatness and fail, than to not challenge one's self at all, and succeed.

 
Ben,

Thanks for the reply.

I might get use to some of the handeling weirdness, but I am not sure I should. I have been riding ~7days a week for decades. Recent bikes: Masi 3V, GT Course, Schwinn Homegrown. I like my bars low at the front--5-10cm drop. I ride for fitness, race rarely.

I know what steering should feel like on a road bike, and it ain't there on the SuperProdigy. This is most probably due to: head angle, fork rake and/or headset quality. I am working on it...but I cannot buy a new fork, and I should not have to.

Thierry

Thierry,

A 73 degree head angle and 43mm offset fork are the standard in the road bike industry. I would guess that 90% of all bikes share this front end geometry. If the bike feels strange to you, it is probably more a reflection of odd geometry on your old bike than it is of odd geometry on your new bike.

John

You're stem seems to be pretty short. That could be affecting the steering as well. (longer stem will slow down the steering a bit)

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Swimming Workout of the Day:

Favourite Swim Sets:

2020 National Masters Champion - M50-54 - 50m Butterfly

John,

I am pretty sure the bike would feel strange to many as it is (=off-the-shelf). However most of that may be due to the fact that the bike was probably not assembled well. I got it mail-order as my LBS would have charged me twice as much. I am providing bikes for four riders: 20', 24', 650c & 700c, and costs add-up!

I will rebuild the headset, but I am not too familiar with threadless ones. Interesetingly, I am not happy with the only other threadless headset I use extensively: the one on my Homegrown! I guess it is time to evolve and forget about those wonderfull threaded headsets ;/

The Masi geometry is fine. That geometry probably won more World and Olympic titles than any other one, some of those titles were won in the last decade. Am that old?

Thierry

Yes,

I am getting a 110 stem, and that should help. I am considering getting a 25deg riser and fliping it to offset the long head tube -- 3.5 cm taller than the HT on my GT. I seem to have a long torso, and bikes with the correct reach for me tend to have a long HT.

>>Try to get Ironclm (Cathy) to reply to you. She rides a Super? Prodigy and a P2K. Don't forget to let her know what you have been riding previously.<<

Don't ask me any technical questions. That's what I pay the guys at my LBS for.

I ride the 2002 version of the Prodigy and it rides like a dream (both on the road, in the mountains of France and in some crits this year). I did have to swap out the original headset, but don't remember what the issue is.

I went from riding a Raleigh touring bike (long ago), to a Centurion Ironman bike (1987) and that was like going from a station wagon to a Chevy Nova or something. I then went to the P2K and that was like hopping onto a Ferrari.

clm

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clm
Nashville, TN
https://twitter.com/ironclm | http://ironclm.typepad.com

I have a Prodigy. I bought it assembled a little over a year ago. When I rode it the first few miles, I was puzzled. There was something weird in the handling but I could not quite put my finger on it. Then I realized that there was an issue with the steering. The symptoms were as if the headset was too tight, but I found the real issue when I disassembled the fork. There was a blur that had bonded on the fork and was creating friction between the column and the frame. I sanded it out and it improved the handling dramatically!

Cathy,

Thanks for pitching in your personal experience.

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Ben Cline


Better to aspire to Greatness and fail, than to not challenge one's self at all, and succeed.

 
Cathy, Wants2rideFast, John, Jason, Trirunner...
Many thanks four your advice and opinion. I am certain that I will end up loving the bike, I am just a little obsessive about it. It is interesting that in this small group they were two examples of problems related to steering with an "original" build.

The lesson is obvious (do I have to learn this over and over ?)
-- find a very good LBS or
-- get ready to rebuild whatever came with the frame (so far I have experienced "pre-build" problems with wheels, headset, cables & housings...)

Thierry,

We all are on the learning curve just like you. Just in different places on it. We share our experiences to assist and hopefully benefit others on their advancement on the curve. Sometimes we can benefit from the lessons "learned" by others who preceded them. Sometimes we can learn from and/or even avoid someone else's mistakes. However, you have to draw your own conclusions.

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Ben Cline


Better to aspire to Greatness and fail, than to not challenge one's self at all, and succeed.

 
Epilogue:

I turns out that there was a mismatch between the crown
race on the fork and the CaneCreek C2 headset. That
problem made the lower bearing useless. New crown race:
$5, and the steering is now flawless.

(If I had to take a guess on the origin of the problem,
I would bet on the Wolf fork recall.)

Glad to hear about the happy ending!

Thierry,

Thanks for the update on your bike handling problem. I glad you were able to get it rectified. I can't imagine Gerard making substandard bicycles. I'm sure your going to love your SuperProdigy now! I know I love my Serotta csi.

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Ben Cline


Better to aspire to Greatness and fail, than to not challenge one's self at all, and succeed.

 
To make Gerard proud ;) , I hope to return to:
http://www.everestchallenge.com/.

Some of the most amazing riding there is on this
earth...

Wants2rideHigh

Thierry,

After checking out your link I must say that you must not be a slouch or any kind of a couch potato.

Have "fun" on them "hills".

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Ben Cline


Better to aspire to Greatness and fail, than to not challenge one's self at all, and succeed.