if I was in the market for a road race bike right now, this is what I would get: http://www.gaulzetticicli.blogspot.com/
No BS … pure function.
Not for nothing, but it looks like a $2000 Al frame with BB30 and ISP. What makes it so special?
It’s designed right, with no gimmicks and no concessions to carbon-based marketing BS. It’s everything you need in a bike to go fast, and nothing you don’t . It’s geo is based in tried, true and proven Euro race bike geometry. It’s light enough; it’s stiff enough. It’s just right, where so so many carbon-uber bikes are just … wrong. I don’t know how else to say it. It might be one of those things: study this bike, and if you Get It, you get it. If you don’t Get It, nothing I say is going to make you get it.
As far as the price, at $2k for frame/fork, I think this thing is a wicked good deal, especially when compared with carbon frames that cost $4-$5-$6k and are poorly designed and not particularly well built.
And, it’s quite similar to what I ride (and will continue to ride, until it decays at the molecular level … it really is an odd feeling not to feel bike lust when looking at the latest and greatest): Merckx Team Sc, unarguably one of the greatest race frames ever made. so, it validates my world view.
Anyway, that’s why.
That seat mast looks like it could be a pain in the a$$. I’d rather have the adjustability of a regular seatpost.
I would expect waaaaaaay better welds at a $2000 frameset price point. What those huge beads are covering up is sh*tty cutting and poor alignment.
I would expect waaaaaaay better welds at a $2000 frameset price point. What those huge beads are covering up is sh*tty cutting and poor alignment.
Really, I couldn’t disagree more. The welds “look” fine to me (not that looks really tell much about a weld … particularly when the looks are on the interwebs). I know the shop building the frames (Gaulzetti isn’t local … but the framebuilder is about a 30 minute drive down the interstate from mi casa) and there frames are great. And besides, weld beads have nothing to do with alignment, and only a little more to do with “shitty cutting” (which I assume to mean “mitering”).
Anyway, to each there own. I think they are the bee’s knees and I threw the post up as a counter-point to the Cervelo-Felt-whatever lust that seems to inform this board (not that there’s anything wrong with that).
Those are pretty good welds on an AL frame (I spent 7.5 years working for the world’s largest manufacturer of arc welding equipment). AL has such good thermal conductivity that by the time the spot you are aiming the TIG torch at is ready to melt, so is lots of the surrounding metal. This leads to a larger puddle and bigger final beads (for quality we look for consistent bead shape and even overlap). AL is also a weaker metal, so the tubes are thicker, and you need more penetration of the weld into the base metal. TI and Steel (esp. stainless) have very poor thermal conductivity, so the beads are much smaller. Look at a Seven if you want to see some awesome TI welding.
The frame might not be everyone’s cup of tea, but it’s YOUR frame. If you want a frame to satisfy everyone else, Cervelo.