What do you think?
http://www.slowtwitch.com/...the_Reaper_6599.html
http://reapbikes.com/REAP-Bikes-White-Paper-Spreads.pdf
Horizontal dropouts? No thanks. Never again.
It got glowing reviews by 220 Magazine, you can find digital copy on the Boardman website, and elsewhere. The frame is not cheap but comparable to other top offerings. Great for time trial but not much storage for tri. Small company so hard to know whether they’ll manage to sell enough to stay afloat. It does look awesome though…
Will it help Harry Wiltshire improve on what was the second slowest pro bike split last year?
This isn’t necessarily directed only at you…but why do horizontal dropouts always seem to raise the ire of some people?
I have a tri bike with horizontal and a road bike with vertical. Changing the rear wheel seems to be just as easy on either, albeit with a slightly different technique. My hands get less greasy swapping wheels on the horizontal tri bike. I think my wheel swaps are slightly faster with horizontal.
Is it a wheel alignment issue? I can see how improperly adjusted set screws would cause a problem. Assuming the set screws aren’t siezed (which I have seen), it sounds like a quick infrequent fix to get good alignment.
Anyway, just looking for some justification behind why some people don’t like horizontal dropouts.
My thoughts
The Good:
Good looking bikeFaired front brakeConventional rear brakeOne-piece frameDi2 integration looks well thought out
The Bad:
Horizontal dropouts: nope, that’s a deal breaker for me.Really minimal storage.
The Unsure:
Seat post binder.Is it aero?
.
Looks like they missed the memo that everything new had to be built with discs.
I like the looks, but like prior mentions: why no integrated hydration and storage?!? That just seems baffling to come out with a bike today and not have that. It’s particularly odd when you consider how much space they appear to have to work with in the top tube and the bottom bracket area.
As for aero, their website has a white paper that puts it against the P-5x in the tunnel (no rider) and on the velodrome track and they claim wins in both places.
This isn’t necessarily directed only at you…but why do horizontal dropouts always seem to raise the ire of some people?
I have a tri bike with horizontal and a road bike with vertical. Changing the rear wheel seems to be just as easy on either, albeit with a slightly different technique. My hands get less greasy swapping wheels on the horizontal tri bike. I think my wheel swaps are slightly faster with horizontal.
Is it a wheel alignment issue? I can see how improperly adjusted set screws would cause a problem. Assuming the set screws aren’t siezed (which I have seen), it sounds like a quick infrequent fix to get good alignment.
Anyway, just looking for some justification behind why some people don’t like horizontal dropouts.
Give this a read…
Someone mentioned on there that BB mounted rear brakes mitigate this failure scenario. Makes sense to me in theory.
This isn’t necessarily directed only at you…but why do horizontal dropouts always seem to raise the ire of some people?
I have a tri bike with horizontal and a road bike with vertical. Changing the rear wheel seems to be just as easy on either, albeit with a slightly different technique. My hands get less greasy swapping wheels on the horizontal tri bike. I think my wheel swaps are slightly faster with horizontal.
Is it a wheel alignment issue? I can see how improperly adjusted set screws would cause a problem. Assuming the set screws aren’t siezed (which I have seen), it sounds like a quick infrequent fix to get good alignment.
Anyway, just looking for some justification behind why some people don’t like horizontal dropouts.
I have the horizontal dropouts on my Cervelo. I have no problems swapping the wheel out but I still don’t like them.
For me, the ONLY skewer that works reliably to hold the rear wheel in place is the Dura-Ace skewer. I literally tried 5 other skewers, and all of them would let the wheel slip forward at some point on a hammering climb, even with the skewer tightened down so hard that I literally needed a tool for leverage to open the QR skewer.
Also, if your wheel starts slipping forward, its highly likely you’ll strip those small positioning screws that help align that rear wheel, and it’s annoyingly hard to deal with that.
I end up constantly obsessing about whether my rear skewer has been tightened enough, esp on race day.
No such issues with a regular dropout bike.
That thread is an interesting read. All the predictions about horizontal dropouts not being around in the future. Here we are, eight years later with horizontal dropouts.
It never occurred to me that the rear wheel could slide out the back of the dropouts during heavy braking. I’ve been on the same horizontal dropout tri bike for the past four years, and I ain’t dead yet. Maybe that’s because my rear brake has little-to-no actual stopping power.
I had it happen to me once. It was entirely my fault because I was new to having nice gear and heard that overtightening the rear skewer will bind up your hub. You have to make it really loose and brake really hard, at least I did. Lessons learned, no issues other than the random skewer slipping forward ever since. And the number of times that has happened has gone to zero since I got shimano skewers yet another thing people on slowtwitch make way to big a deal out of IMO.
It is interesting for sure. But will it make it past this stage?
No pics of the various setups in the white paper = fail
Forget that the scaling is as misleading as the Giant Trinity graphs (plus it’s in ‘aero watts’), this is the phrase that caught my eye:
The Cervélo P5-Six BTA was a standard round bottle
mounted horizontally between the rider’s arms. The Reap
BTA was a prototype, aerodynamic profiled bottle, mounting
between the two extensions and attaching to the headtube.
Why didn’t they just test against one of the many other bikes with integrated front end hydration if they weren’t going to use the same bottle? Also, if you check out the YouTube video for the Reap, you can see the setup of the P5-6 (it has a bento and downtube Speedfil). About as useful as the notorious ‘tape all the gels to the top tube’ P5x test.
Not sure why people are so up in arms about horizontal dropouts; vertical dropouts are for road bikes. As this is Slowtwitch, I thought the major gripe would be the lack of disc brakes. My biggest grip is that you’re forced into BtA or behind the saddle hydration, which isn’t practical for everyone.
As the big test bike test a few months ago showed, most bikes are within a hair of each other, so it doesn’t really matter what you pick as long as you sort your position. The white paper… well… it’s the same as every other one I’ve seen. They like they’re smoking the competition, but in reality it’s just vague enough to have no real bearing on whether or not someone is going to buy one. That said, the battery/junction holder is pretty cool.
So in short, buy whichever bike you think looks the prettiest*. This is a new choice for those wacky Ventum/Dimond/Falco/Softride peeps who are tired of riding ugly bikes (yeah I think it looks pretty good).
*and fits
Hello BryanD and All,
I think it looks good … I like the front end set up.
Looks like we are getting a few different beam bikes to pick from …
I thought beam bikes might have died after Softride (and I liked my Softride bikes)
Now if only we had bullet proof no flat tires with great rolling resistance numbers … oh … and automatic accommodation to the riding surface.
The REAP looks nice. Then again, I have and RODE my Pearson Z1-9c at Kona in 2013. So, you can’t really say that beam bikes haven’t been to Kona. Granted, I am not a podium finisher at all, so I can’t say that my bike is the mega-fastest thing around in Kona (at least in 2013 when I rode there). And, yes, my Pearson has horizontal dropouts, and I have no problem with them at all.
I like the REAP, but I do have a few questions regarding tube shaping. Still, I would choose the REAP over a Dimond. But, then again, I would rather have Graeme Pearson build me another frame as my first choice.
The REAP looks nice. Then again, I have and RODE my Pearson Z1-9c at Kona in 2013. So, you can’t really say that beam bikes haven’t been to Kona. Granted, I am not a podium finisher at all, so I can’t say that my bike is the mega-fastest thing around in Kona (at least in 2013 when I rode there). And, yes, my Pearson has horizontal dropouts, and I have no problem with them at all.
I like the REAP, but I do have a few questions regarding tube shaping. Still, I would choose the REAP over a Dimond. But, then again, I would rather have Graeme Pearson build me another frame as my first choice.
Wow that’s a great looking bike! I love the beam bikes design apart from the P5X. It would be good if there was a budget beam bike out there.
Hello Taugen and All,
Your beam bike looks like it might be lighter than the others … http://pearsonbikes.com/bicycles.php
What is different in Z1-11 than your bike? What price?
Horizontal dropouts for bikes like my Cervélo P5 allow adjustment for various tire sizes to move close to the edge of the fairing for best aerodynamics. Not sure how to do that easily without horizontal dropouts.
The P5 dropout adjustment screws work fine … I had to replace the P3 adjustment screws but then they worked OK too.
Curious now how bike like Cervélo S5 that does not have horizontal dropouts adjusts for tire size to edge of fairing optimum distance?
Zoot is coming back to Carlsbad …
Used to drop by the Carlsbad factory when they had sales …
Have a couple of Zoot lightweight jackets I still wear …
pshh, no disc brakes? I like it, but really no discs?
Hey guys,
First off, I was not, nor am I trying or wanting to hijack this thread about the REAP bike. I have been on top of the REAP bike development for quite some time, and have watched it progress. I think the REAP bike is a great looking bike, and I’m sure it’s quite fast. Not sure I agree with the truncated tube shapes, but I do understand the concept. Then again, their research may show that the truncated tubes are faster in crosswinds?
As for my Pearson. I had Greame make it for me in early 2009 based on his Z1 design. In 2011, I did some of my own carbon lay-up additions in the toptube/stem juncture, and the FD hangar post/downtube juncture. I just wanted to clean up some of the flow lines in those areas. Also, I custom made the seatpost out of 6061 aluminum, machined to my exact specs. The fork I sourced from China from a TT carbon open-mould frame commonly found on eBay. I tried several other forks previous to settling on the China one, simply because it flowed with the frame’s shape.
As for durability, I can say that I have ridden this frame through 18 Ironman races without a single problem, including crash at IM Cabo (due to a large pot-hole in the road).
Regarding the difference between my 2009 frame, and Graeme’s later models, there are slight tube shape variations as best as I can tell. Not sure of any weight differences. I have spoken with Graeme about his latest models, and I would love to have him build me his latest design as i believe fully in his bikes.
Picture attached is one of the latest designs that Graeme has designed and built, and I would love to ride.
