You should see how much of a clunky pain in the ass the first generation PR6 stem is.

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Don't drown. Don't crash. Don't walk.

I think your friend should return the bike and get something he likes. There's no reason to compromise when you are spending that much money.

Take this with a grain of salt, but when I was broadly scoping out bikes a few years ago, I browsed a QR booth at IMCDA. Again, grain of salt, but it was the one bike brand I have ever seen where I just remember being really disappointed with their fit and finish of things like rear boxes and such. It just looked... Not professionally done. It was enough to make me stop looking into them. Maybe the ones I saw didn't represent the brand as a whole, but that stopped me from learning more.

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JustinDoesTriathlon

Owner, FuelRodz Endurance.

Costs 12500? Don't know anyone that is buying those without getting a steep "discount" these days.

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Trent Nix
Owned and operated Tri Shop
F.I.S.T. Advanced Certified Fitter | Retul Master Certified Fitter (back when those were things)

Yes of course he didn’t pay that much but that’s what it costs. I just don’t understand anything aluminum and that clunky upfront on a bike that’s supposed to be top end. I just wasn’t impressed at all. I mean the bike itself looks nice but they fail on the details but for that price you can’t fail on the details and be successful.

Sorry if it sounded like I was being aggressive - that wasn't my intent. I just deplore the current strategy many vendors have about having artificially high MSRP prices to create the illusion of a deal or special treatment. I've joked from time to time that there are some customers that would go on a buying frenzy if I marked every item in my store up 100% and then advertised a 50% off sale.

XTerra, Rudy, Roka - lots of brands do it, and the MSRP of their products isn't the "cost" of that product. It's a marketing bait-and-switch tactic.

I just find it scammy.

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Trent Nix
Owned and operated Tri Shop
F.I.S.T. Advanced Certified Fitter | Retul Master Certified Fitter (back when those were things)

If he likes the bike but not the stem/cockpit he could also change the fork to a PR5 fork and use an integrated cockpit like the new Vision Metron, PD Aeria Ultimate or TriRig Alpha... just an idea

If you're calling the PD Ultimate Aeria garbage, I'm pretty sure Slowman is going to have a bone to pick with you. https://www.slowtwitch.com/...listening__6413.html

As for cable routing, etc., if you've got a whole bunch of stuff exposed everywhere you did it wrong. You can look at most of their pro's bikes to see how they did a much better job integrating everything. Particularly Joe Gambles' rig.

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Editor-in-Chief, Slowtwitch.com | Twitter

The base bar is fine but the stem is the worst not even carbon. We didn’t route the wires it came that way but it has to come out of the stem and into the base bar from the bottom so no way around that with the current setup.

A stem being alloy instead of carbon is not an immediate disqualifier of quality.

You can clean up the wiring. It's not impossible, especially if you disassemble and reassemble with some thought to the process.

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Editor-in-Chief, Slowtwitch.com | Twitter

Of course those things are true. I draw the line when it’s trying to be considered a “superbike” and the asking price is so high. It wouldn’t be hard for them to offer a clean, light aero stem with that package but for some reason they decided that one was good enough when it’s entry level at best.

The whole point of that bike is for it to be super easy to adjust and wrench on while being in the ballpark of a P5. It is, in my opinion, the single-most underrated bike (in either rim or disc form) on the market. And part of that has to do with their current distribution and marketing strategy, and part of it has to do with the lack of understanding of what the original engineering mission was.

As somebody else mentioned, that stem is an improvement on the original generation one, which added more stack to the proceedings.

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Editor-in-Chief, Slowtwitch.com | Twitter

It's super easy to say they should have just made a unicorn stem, but the problem isn't that simple. Considering the dynamic forces on a stem when riding over rough roads, or if you accidentally hit something like a pothole, I'd much rather have one that doesn't break. Return the bike if it's such an issue, but a slightly heavier stem and a few inches of exposed cable are really not that big a deal.

 

Point me to another integrated superbike stem that is all carbon. I'm sure there are some, but to be honest, I'd rather have something sturdy like the PR6 stem. Also, the point of that stem is that it is incredibly easy to work on - the exact opposite of most superbike stems. Now, would you rather save a some grams (which you probably won't even notice the difference) and not be able to work on your own bike, or have it the way it is? I packed up a PR6 Disc and a PR6 Rim in under an hour for the first time ever last night. Could you do that with any other superbike? Doubtful.

For the cable management, you've gotta be kidding me. You can hide everything from the wind with that stem/bar combo. Use your imagination and some e-tape. On my PR6 Disc the wind does not see a single cable/wire other than at the base of the fork.

I'd bet $1 that this guy could make some significant improvements that would be much more worthwhile than a little bit lighter stem.

My PR6 blows away the Gen 2 Speed-concept I replaced-if seeing a wire or two is the price I have to pay for ease of travel and significantly more stable at speed...I am okay with that-that being said make sure you torque the stem cover bolts in the right order or you may have an issue down the line...and BTW https://mybikeshop.com/ has great pricing and support when it comes to QR's...

Pots4

 

Yup - I had a 2016 Giant Trinity before and there is a night and day difference - I would never go back. Brian at MBS has an awesome relationship with QR - if you're on the east coast this is the place to get them.

I recently bought a PR6 as well. Mechanical shifting. I agree and disagree. The stem is fine but they could have routed the cables better from the factory. I re-cabled it during assembly to clean it all up and now its fine...but, no one really wants to have to do that on a brand new bike.
Love everything else about it though!

I think the QR's are nice bikes, but surprised to hear anyone say the speed concept is not stable at high speeds?? I've been well over 70km/hr on descents with side winds several times with a disc and 9 front, no issues whatsoever.

It was close to a death ride at 40mph-my Felt B12 at 50 didn't move, the Trek was horrible to the point I asked the LBS to look into anything in the front end that was wrong,anyway to stiffen it up...I tried Enve wheels, Vision, Flo...nothing worked...Hit 51 at Tremblant and it scared the shit out of me.....3 rides on the PR looked at my Garmin, went 52, knew I was going fast but had no idea it was that fast...History: I road-raced Porsche's and motorcycles so I am comfortable at speed, well aware of target fixation, hitting apexes...who knows...

Pots4

Odd, so many people on SC's, very few complaints like that. My high speed race descents were at Tremblant as well. Maybe you need to gain some weight.... ;)

I don’t concur w/your assessment. The only issue with the PR6 was fixed with the gen 3 stem, and that involved gaining another 2cm in drop over the original version. This is important if you use PD aero bars. I am as low as I can go on the gen 1 stem w/PD bars, but could go another 2cm or so lower, based on my previous tri rig measurements (Kuota Kalibur w/original Hed aerobars). I have to invest in some new Hed or Pro bars to get those 2 cm.

Otherwise, the PR6 is pretty incredible. I’ve raced it hard for 2 years now and consider it the best tri bike I’ve ever owned. That list goes all the way back to Dave Scott Centurions, and includes things like Cervelo P2s and P3s, the Kalibur, and several Kestrels, as well as original QR Kilos, Tequilos, and Private Reserves.

That’s fine you don’t have to agree. I’m glad to hear you’ve had a good experience with it. My opinion still remains the same though and even though many have said they’ve improved the stem over previous models it’s still garbage. Why not just use the PD Aeria stem? To me I was just shocked at that price point what showed up. Almost every bike can be fast for an age grouper if we just train so I can see why some have had good results with it but at the pointy end this needs a few tweaks to even be close.

Thank you for more eloquently putting what I stated before.

If you don't understand the motif of the bike, you might think that the stem with it's adjustability to not to par with some of the more "elegant" solutions. But this bike was never about elegance. It was about adjustability, functionality, ease of use, and oh by the way, still fast as snot.

I'm just debating whether I wind up with the disc or rim brake version (the PR6 in orange on clearance is still tempting me.)

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Editor-in-Chief, Slowtwitch.com | Twitter