So I’m in the market for a new tri bike.
I’ve heard alot of good things about Serotta road bikes from some roadie friends,but have never seen any of there tri bikes on the road or at races.
On there website (http://www.serotta.com/pages/custom_road.html) it looks like several of there models are listed as either road or tri format.
Does anyone out there own,or know anything about there tri bikes?
Any feedback would be appreciated.
Thanks
Serotta bikes are excellent. Very high quality.
I have a CX II CS, which I love. The custom geometry was necessary for me-long legs, longer femurs, and short torso. Nobody has more experience building custom bikes than Serotta. After years of poor aero fits, mine fits like a glove. I can now stay in the aero bars for almost all of 112 miles. The steel CX II is super stiff and yet very smooth, If you don’t want steel, they will build any one of their frames w/tri geometry.
If you want a mega-aero frame, look elsewhere. If your priority is fit, build quality, and ride quality, I highly recommend Serotta.
Some on this site think Serotta lacks a fit philosophy for tri. That was not my experience. My fitter (Tim Troha of Sports Garage/Colorado Multisport of Boulder) is both Serotta and FIST certified. He said the tri fit concepts were very similar. I think the fit limiter is the fitter, not Serotta.
I ride their tri bike, the CXII. Serotta is known for three things: an obsession with fitting you correctly with a custom frame, very high quality, and (not surprisingly) pretty high prices. If you compare the CXII to many of the high-end carbon bikes, however, it’s actually a good deal.
A few things lead me to pick the CXII. First, I’m tall with a long torso, so getting a proper fit takes some work. Gettting a frame built to my specs was a major draw. Second, I like steel and the CXII is one of the highest quality and lightest steel bikes that I’ve seen. (I don’t like aluminum and carbon doesn’t offer the customization that I like.)
On the road, the bike rides like a dream and it fits me perfectly. I can stay in the aero bars all day and I don’t feel beat up after a long ride.
Bottom line: I love the bike and highly recommend it. Let me know if you have any more questions.
Keep in mind that Serotta bikes are custom. Slowman has pointed out on numerous occasions that Serotta doesn’t have a design philosophy for tri bikes in the same way that they have a design philosophy for road bikes. But they will build what the bike designer specifies, so it comes down to how much you trust your fitter/designer to create a bike that will meet your specific triathlon cycling requirements. A properly designed custom bike is the ideal for a triathlete because there’s no guesswork about replacing stems, seatposts, aerobars, etc – Everything works from the get-go. That’s one of the reasons you pay the premium for a custom bike. But if the designer doesn’t know what they’re doing, the result will be worse than a factory bike that fits moderately well.
Several people will point out that Serotta doesn’t offer aero tubing on their bikes. While that’s true, I think it’s a negligible factor in choosing a bike. In the real world – outside a wind tunnel – the benefit of aero tubing is an order of magnitude less than the benefit of maintaining a powerful comfortable position and a constant effort level for the duration of the bike segment of the race. Don’t pick your bike based on whether or not it has aero tubing – pick it based on whether it fits correctly.
Lee Silverman
JackRabbit Sports
New York City
< I think the fit limiter is the fitter, not Serotta. > I live in NYC,so if I do purchase a Serotta,I would be fit by Paul Levine. I like the look of the CXII,but was leaning more towards Ti,or Carbon(something light). Do you know what the frame weight is on the CXII?
Levine does custom Guru now too, so you can indeed have your aero tubing AND a proper custom fit and frame if you so desire.
Not that there’s anything wrong with a Serotta (other than the pricetag), but if you indeed want a custom tri bike, then, why not get a custom TRI bike?
Because each bike is custom, there probably isn’t a set weight, but I would imagine that a quick call to a dealer or directly to Serotta, would get you a pretty good estimate.
I would imagine, however, that you will find the weight difference to be negligible. Unless you are a top pro, a few ounces/grams either way is not going to be nearly as important as a good fit that maximizes your power and comfort. If you find a Ti or carbon bike that fits you “off the shelf” then go for it, but don’t let a small weight difference steer you on to the wrong bike for your build.
Good point. I had forgotten that Guru does custom as well. You can’t go wrong with either one.
I have both a custom serotta Nove and a custom guru crono. I did IMLP last year on the serotta and will be doing imfla on the crono.
The serotta is all about the ride, really amazing feel and effortless smooth, electric engine like accelerations. he crono is like a race car,edgy,sharp taught, accelerates with aggression.
Both Bike achieve that same speeds but on the guru you are constantly reminded that you are racing.
The serotta is like taking a AMG Mercedes on the autobahn cruising at 160 listening to mozart vs feeling the engine and exhaust through the floor of track prepped mercedes at 160.
If you are on east coast give Paul Levine a call and discuss options.
Kevin
an alternative to the Paul Levine/Serotta/Guru route could be to go with David Greenfield and a custom Elite razor. Search posts on Elite bicycles on this site for excellent reviews.
A couple of trips to philly will be well worth it to end up with the right tri bike and unbelieveable after sales service.