Now that the danes are out of the closet ! and learning that you understand our strange language: did you get a translation or is it your european/Ducth ? background.
First you of all you should not expect to sell much overhere unless you actually get the bikes on display in shops and best all over the country. We are not used to internet and mailorders. People pretty much only buy what they can see physically in the bikeshop or if they have seen someone else riding a bike and inspected it. Also it is funny when you move around the country and study the bikes people ride - then you see that people generally only ride excactly what the local bikeshop is stocking in the area. In the provins there are a limited amount of racebikeshops. I even think it is hard to find a good shop in Copenhagen as there seem to be a small crises in the bikebusiness and shops are reluctant to stock expensive frames.
Sizes : i dont understand the sizing sheme of the soloist. It seems that the head tube is very short in comparison to a normal eurostyle roadbike. I ride a 56cm toptube aluminiumframe with a 17.4cm headtube and even on that i have as minimum 2-3cm spacers. The Team Soloist do look very nice and is even painted the Danish national colours red/white. I had a serious look at it but the size with a 56cm top tube only has a 14.8cm headtube. This seems very short to me and i would break my back trying to ride it. Long legged with a short torso as i am.
Is there a reason for the short toptubes you run on the bikes or is it because it is intended for the pro’s only
I’d better let Gerard answer that for you in case I screw it up. However, once CSC destroys everyone at the TDF this year, everybody in Denmark will be wanting to own a Cervelo!
Now that the danes are out of the closet ! and learning that you understand our strange language: did you get a translation or is it your european/Ducth ? background.
Well, I got some practice at the media presentation when I sat through one hour of Danish, followed by the 2 1/2 hour Athlete of the Year broadcast. Not that interesting when you only understand half of the conversation.
Back to your questions, we will be in shops starting fairly soon, so while we certainly don’t expect Denmark to be our major market, we’ll have a fair presence quite soon. As for the Soloist, what you see on TV is what you get. About half of the CSC riders use zero spacers, even though the headtubes are so short. That said, the Soloist is lower than our other road bikes by about 12mm (which has to do with its origin as a combined road/TT bike, and now comes in handy with the way the CSC riders ride.
On top of that, things are not as bad as they seem depending on the equipment you choose. First of all Speedplay pedals (which CSC uses and I think you should too have a really small stack height, for example if you switch from Look or Shimano to Speedplay, you drop down 1cm. That is the same as lengthening the headtube by 1cm. Furthermore, the more modern stems have less drop, most stems no longer have a minus 17 angle but a minus 10 or minus 6. That also raises the bars.
You do have a very good point of the pedal vs. stackheight. I use Look pedals now - goes well with a Look bike. I have allready considered switching to a type with lower platform height, most likely the new Time Impact instead of the speedplays as i do not like so much float. I allready use a -6 degrees stem for the same reason, but generally have a hard time finding bikes that fit me well.
Anyway “normal” danes are usually quite a bit bigger that the CSC team guys, i meet Tyler Hamilton at the airport last year and was surprised to see how small/short he was. He was very friendly and seemed a really nice guy. It was just 2 weeks after CSC has announced the move to Cervelo bikes and i talked a bit with him about that. They thought the Look bikes was nice but way too heavy.
Good luck with the bikes and the CSC team - if they present a good ride at the tour then it should guarantee huge business all over Europe.
I have allready considered switching to a type with lower platform height, most likely the new Time Impact instead of the speedplays as i do not like so much float.
Anyway “normal” danes are usually quite a bit bigger that the CSC team guys,
If you don’t like float, the Speedplay Zeros can be set up with anywhere from zero to 15 degrees float. So you can have as little as you like. The Time Impact pedals are also nice, and they do have a low offset as well. For both pedals, make sure you combine them with the right shoe sole for the optimal effect (for example, the Shimano sole is 3mm thicker than the DMT shoes the team uses.
As for tall Danes, I’m aware of that. But Riis is quite tall, and even though he now rides a 58cm Soloist he first rode a 56cm. And even on that small frame, he didn’t want any spacers under the stem. The same goes for Lennie Kristensen, he is quite tall and on a relatively small frame (56cm) with zero spacers. Finally Tafi (not a Dane but tall nonetheless) is on a 61cm frame with no spacers. Of course there are also riders on the other side of the spectrum, but even Tristan Hoffmann only has two spacers on his 58cm Soloist. Obviously the shorter Danes ride smaller size frames, but those also have relatively short headtubes.
And I have to say, it’s something I have adjusted to as well (I figured if I can make my position look like theirs, the speed will follow :-). Short headtube, few spacers, long stem. And it is really comfortable once you’re used to it.
I think you have convinced me about the Speedplay Zero. Searched a bit for it and saw among other tests the one at Bikesportmichegan with a very thourogh explanaition.
I think i will try them out, provided that i can actually find them here at a decent price.
Only drawback is if i really like them - then i will have 2 more bikes to exchange pedals on…costly.
Will have a look at the Team Soloist when it eventually gets here. I probably will “need” a new bike next year anyway and usually buy in the end of the year to to avoid the normal long deliverytimes in spring.