Let's sing about the unsung Soloist!

Triathlon Forum
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Hi, All,

I know, I know, I live in Austin, TX “Center of the Triathlon Universe.” How could it get better?

On Friday, Don and Brad at Austin Tricyclist hooked me up with my new Soloist. It’s the 2003 frame model the same one Tyler won Liege-Bastonge-Liege on. It’s got Ultegra 10, and it rocks the house!

Admittedly, I’m not particularly worldly when it comes to road bikes. The first one I got was the Specialized Allez. I bought it from the “big retailer” here in Austin, and the knuckle head who sold it to me, didn’t know what she was doing, and it ended up being a 54 when I needed a 56. After years of jacking with it, I finally got it to be workable.

I have to admit though, I hated that bike and ever since the Soloist started showing up on Supergo back in 2001, I had the Jones.

Then my coach got one about 8 months ago. I was going on and on about carbon and Ti (my tribike is Ti), and he suggested I look at the design of the bike (geometry) more so than the fram material.

Lord knows, he’s the coach! I test rode the Trek 5200 at the “big retailer”. It was nice enuff. Everybody in town has a Trek of some variety. Big whoop. Plus it was 600.00 more than the Soloist. I rode the soloist, and it was love, love, love. My inaugural ride was a 74 miler down to Lockhart. The ride is smooth, while the bike has serious lateral stiffness, and it is dead on precise on corners. I did another 20 miler the next day, and it was more love, love, love.

People need to know about this bike. Forget about Lance and Levi and their “evil empire bikes” which are the equivalent to Coke and Pepsi in the bike world.

Go test ride a Soloist if you can. This bike is a dream, and I’ll be riding this thing until the wheels come off!

Thanks Don and Brad! This baby is a keeper!

Best to all who don’t live in Austin, TX “Center of the Triathlon Universe”!

Robert

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Good bike? Yes. Unsung? Not quite.

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  1. That has a 1" steerer, correct? What fork are you using?
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I have the same model but with DA 9, good bike, great value and you dont see many around. Having said that we see more and more of the black model. I also have a p2k but trying to sell it as it never gets used anymore.

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Dude, did you see the Soloist Greg had done up for his wife? He had it and an Easton EC90 Aero fork custom painted by deKerf… SICK!

Matching lid & socks, too.

The best part of the story is that it was his anniversary present to her. :slight_smile:

(I think he’s the man of Cathy’s dreams :wink: )

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yes I saw it, I think its a Dual though. The paint job looks great, problem is it cost almost as much as the frame! Yvonne is seriously fast, been on the podium at IMC (overall women not AG) She will do the bike justice!

I heard you were in ordering some bigger pads for the Visions, if possible would like to borrow them one day to test. I used a pair of syntace streamliners with pads turned backwards for a 10m TT on the weekend worked great but the clamp did not agree with my carbon bars. Damage is cosmetic but the syntace clamp is not smooth so I am not keen on putting them back on.

Did not move seat or change stem, worked great. For 10m you can get away with it but will be different for the 40km TT in Squamish. You should think about that race, problem is they do measure at that one or so I am told.

For a short TT there is little difference between the bikes at my level. I rode much the same speed on the Soloist on much the same course at Warp Speed on the P2k with totally different positions. Go figure!

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Hey Khai, would that be Greg of Tri-Action? I know his wife is a quality athlete. As for dekerf are they local to the area? I was just wondering about painters in the area.

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Hey Julian, not Khai but I do know Chris Dekerf who is based in Richmond and has his own paint shop. I had one of Linda’s bikes repainted by Chris, does a very good job. Dekerf is known for the mtb but Chris use to make all types of bikes for some of the big local brands like Norco and Rocky Mtb. including road bikes.

There are a couple of other painters in town but Chris is the only one I have had direct experience with.

Not thinking of repainting the Kalibur are you! :slight_smile:

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We really need to create the “Cervelo Pink Room”…

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http://img263.echo.cx/img263/1975/cimg28903ex7ir.jpg

Mine. Complete with Easton EC90 fork which I think is a bit whippy. I might switch to a Reynolds Ouzo Pro.

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Hi,

I must plead ignorance on the steerer tube. I know that it’s a aero carbon fork that Don says normally comes on the P2K or whatever it’s called these days. As a result of the steerer and the aluminum seat tube, the bike is a “tad” heavy, but I don’t care, compared to my last ride this thing is it.

In Austin, at least, the Soloist is lost among the sea of Treks out there. Don’t see many people riding them here. I don’t know about other places…

Best,

Robert

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You’re right of course… it is a Dual. My bad. (I’m not much of a Cervelo connaisseur) Wicked bad paint job though. :slight_smile:

I have heard that Yvonne is hella fast, although I’ve never met her myself.

I’ll be back in town on Sunday, and am racing North Shore on Monday. The pads are yours to try out for as long as you need.

If I’m in town, I’ll definitely be @ the Squamish TT. I’ll likely bring both bikes, as I was kind of pissed @ the last race, being a tri-geek with a new toy and yet one of the only people there with a legal bike.

Congrats to the wife for taking 2nd place in the season opener crit, too! That’s awesome. :smiley:

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As usual, Simon beat me to the punch and is correct once again - I was speaking of Greg @ Tri-Action. I’m not a personal friend of Chris deKerf, but I used to lust after his bikes in the early 90’s. Haven’t seen a lot of his stuff recently, but he always had interesting designs, and was usually pretty cutting edge (rode a deKerf Softride MTB up a flight of stairs SEATED in '92 or so…)

Nice paintwork, too.

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It was orginally speced with a 1inch steerer, probably a wolfe fork with carbon steerer. The main problem with the bike is the head set comes loose every now and again, I am really not sure why. Have had two shops look at it and they cant seem to find any issue with it. I would counsel you to check for play in the head set every few weeks and learn how to tighten it if you dont know. I have a 11/8 inc stem with a shim which may be an issue and before the spacer police come after me I dont use any spacers.

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(I’m not much of a Cervelo connaisseur)

Shame on you and you call yourself a member of the ST Peaceful Tribe! Sheesh!

The pads are yours to try out for as long as you need.

Congrats to the wife for taking 2nd place in the season opener crit, too

She won last week but ended up in the grass this week. On the final lap, someone cut her off on the last corner on the inside, a major no-no. She is fine, so is the bike, if I were her I would have given the offender a piece of my mind!

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Hi Simon, how are things with you? What is your focus, race wise this season? My race at Penticton is still up in the air because of my back problems. I have a 1/2 IM distance race at Weymouth next month to see how the back behaves before my coach and I can agree.

THanks for the information on deKerf, I am thinking about getting a funky paint job on my cross bike once I am over for good and just wondering if he was local.

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Hey Khai, was it you that posted pictures of a custom painted pink pearlescent Kestrel EMS500 with white detailing sometime back? I recall that was an incredible paint job, and wondered if that was a dekerf job.

How’s your season shaping up? A races are…

Up stairs seated,eh? That I should like to have seen!

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Hey Julian - no more tris for the year only road racing, and racing as much as possible to get experience. Going to World Masters Games in July for both TT and RR, going to get my butt spanked right and proper there. I dont run or swim right now and really enjoying just riding the bike and not having to get up at some ungodly hour to swim

When are you coming over for IMC, still coming if you dont race?

BTW we have a cross race series in the fall but its short series of races. So once the road series is over, its cross, then track through the winter (race every Wed evening) and then back to spring road series again.

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That sounds nice to be able to concentrate on one discipline for a while. So, you are Edmonton bound in July, eh? That will be quite an experience, I’ll warrant. Enjoy it for what it is, I am sure you will. I’ll be flying in on the 20th August and leaving on the Monday after the ex-Xterra at (Buntsen Lake?) Port Moody. Yeah, I’ll be over regardless, although it will be kind of shitty if I can’t race, just hope they will defer entry to next year with a medical certificate. Naturally, I would expect it to have some financial cost. But the entry is the important bit.

I think I saw the poster for the Cross series in O’Hagens in White Rock last September, are they sponsors?

“then track through the winter (race every Wed evening)” Is that at Burnaby 'drome? Sounds like I could get some bike action in BC for sure!

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Track is the Dome on the way to Port Moody. Last winter they had a race series every Wed evening.

You should be able to get in lots of bike racing around here. racing basically starts last weekend of Feb with the Spring Series. Also there are the Tue and Thrs crit from May to August, plus all the regular open category road races and time trials throughout the summer. There is also the “old farts” race series (I race in this category as well). Should keep you well stoked up with racing! Of course there are the running races which are numerous. More than enough to wear most people out.
Will see you in August, going up to support but this time going to stay in the nicest B&B I can find and one that serves a really good breakfast which I can return to after the swim start! Then I am set for a day cheering you on!