Slowman, your recent article about the Elite Razor Carbon really upset me. You claim that Elite is a great company because
“It sells the mid-priced, affordable, custom tri bike”
then later in the article you state
“what custom bikes are out there, and this market is dominated by those who build chiefly with round tubes like Seven, Parlee, Calfee, Serotta. Yes, there’s Guru, but you pay for this, probably $7000 in case of its popular Crono. What if you want truly skinny aero tubes, carved out seat tubes, but $4000 or $5000 is more your budget?”
I checked out the company websites for the Elite Razor Carbon and the Guru Chrono, and here is what I found:
A custom Elite Razor Carbon with a 105 build kit costs $4599.99.
A custom Guru Chrono with an ULTEGRA build kit cost $4495.00.
So the Guru Chrono is $104.99 cheaper with better components. It is also a complete carbon monocoque frame (unlike the Elite which only has a carbon tt and dt).
Please justify why your article isn’t about how the Guru Chrono beats the pants off the Elite Razor Carbon in every way.
“Please justify why your article isn’t about how the Guru Chrono beats the pants off the Elite Razor Carbon in every way.”
maybe you’re right. i guess i’d like to know who’s bought a guru crono – did the slowtwitch spellchecker catch your misspelling – in a custom geometry with ultegra, and if so what is it you paid?
I don’t have my receipt in hand but I bought a Crono in May '06 with Ultegra and an Ergomo attached and it was approx $6,000 all in so I believe the $4500 for the bike is correct. $4500 is the number that sticks with me.
“Please justify why your article isn’t about how the Guru Chrono beats the pants off the Elite Razor Carbon in every way.”
maybe you’re right. i guess i’d like to know who’s bought a guru crono – did the slowtwitch spellchecker catch your misspelling – in a custom geometry with ultegra, and if so what is it you paid?
Guru doesn’t charge extra for custom designs (at least they didn’t last year). So a custom Crono with Ultegra should still be $4495.00, but if someone who has purchased one would care to comment…
mine was custom unless my LBS guy is hosing me and just put me on his Serotta fit cycle for 3 plus hours and made a bunch of measurements to make things look good.
Guru doesn’t charge extra for custom designs (at least they didn’t last year). So a custom Crono with Ultegra should still be $4495.00, but if someone who has purchased one would care to comment…
when i priced these things a two years ago they were very expensive, and i couldn’t decipher a way to get the bike below $6k. i might have been on mushrooms, or they may have lowered their prices under my radar. i’ll certainly change the way the article reads if you can in fact get a crono for under $5k, custom, complete, with ultegra-ish parts.
I’ve seen the Crono’s in MissionBay listed at $4,500 or so and guru’s website suggests a custom Crono can be had for $4,500. They’re custom in the ways that you mostly describe in the article. ST angle ranges from 75 to 80. TT / HT lengths can be changed.
So it’s “custom”, not custom.
Indeed, a few years ago they were more expensive.
Edit: And that’s with Ultegra parts. No “ish” needed.
THey changed the prices significantly from 2006 to 2007. We sold a bunch of them as soon as they did this.
The only real change to spec was from mavic es wheels to a rolf wheel set.
“they changed the prices significantly from 2006 to 2007. We sold a bunch of them as soon as they did this.”
this would explain a couple of things, in particular why the guru crono kept coming up so much more popular than the other guru customs. this explains it.
I got a custom Crono in July with Ultegra and Ergomo after waiting 4 months for an Elite Razor. On initial order of the Razor the delivery time was “10-12” weeks. After 4 months the frame was delivered. The bottom bracket shell was not compatible with the Ergomo even though this was noted in the initial order of the Razor frameset. At that point my patience had run out with Elite. They did offer to rebuild the frame, but by that time my season would almost be over.
Enter Guru. They turned the custom frame in less than 6 weeks. It is beautiful and works like a charm with the Ergomo. Total cost with Ultegra, Ergomo and carbon aerobars and crankset was about 6600.
Hands down, Guru came through
We change the head tube angles to improve the handling of the bike (ie. Fork rake and trail) and to allow us to manufacture a shorter top tubed bike for shorter people. So for that reason, we have a standard 44 mm rake fork (for '08, was 43mm for '07) as well as the 50mm rake. You will be able to see all the changes for Guru on October 1st when we launch the new multi-lingual website. For those hoping to see us in Vegas, sorry to disappoint but we’re not going. Can’t say more as I’m under a gag order, but I will say that the cosmetics are much improved once again.
I’m really interested in seeing the new cosmetics now. I already considered guru bikes had some of the best looking and definitely best worked frames out there! Paint jobs are always fantastic.
Michael, this is a totally uninformed question, not meant to deride or otherwise enflame. Aesthetically, I think your frames are beautiful (personally, I also like the paint options, but understand this is a variable for all potential cusstomers). But the “lines” or tube shapes and meeting points are very unusual when compared to what I will call a “classic” aerodynamically designed bike (with a traditional airfoil tube shape). What was the thinking behind the shapes, and was there testing done to confirm that these shapes have similar, or different aerodynamic qualities (whether better or worse) than what seems to be the standard bearer in the industry.
– in a custom geometry with ultegra, and if so what is it you paid?