Choices, Choices, Choices

[Ejam]

Guys

I have bit of a problem in deciding what options to choose for my next bike. The story is the budget has been set (in concrete) and I have purchased or recycled all the parts required less the frame, fork and groupset. Now my baseline is a La Corsa frame with Kestrel EMS Pro fork and Campagnolo Centaur groupset. Now for the money remaining I can only upgrade one of the following: the frame to a Concours CS, or the fork to a Serotta F3, or the groupset to alloy Chorus. Now before we get some left field replies, I need custom owing to my long body and short legs, I like Campagnolo over Shimano and I'm concerned that the Kestrel fork will be slightly different in colour from the Serotta seat stay. Can you guys offer any suggestions.

Other parts if your intrested are: Fizik Aliante Gamma saddle, Chorus carbon seatpost, Look Keo Sprint pedals, Thomson Elite X2 stem, Modolo Kaly bars, Campagnolo Proton wheels and Continental GP4000 tyres. Other bikes are an Ottrott ST and a Bianchi MTB.

Ejam

[Too Tall]

Concours.

[palincss]

How about sticking with your original spec & saving the money? Is there some compelling need to upgrade anything at all?

[Rapid Tourist]

Get the concours. You will love it. I love mine.

And if money constrains you, punt the carbon rear end. I love my titanium seat stays -- they have a very compliant ride quality and I can't imagine that a carbon rear would improve the ride quality that much. Plus the frame will outlive you if in full titanium.

[flydhest]

My suggestion (worth roughly twice what you're paying for it) is that you don't go for the carbon stays. Does the pricing work out to get the Concours w/out carbon stays and the F2 fork? Keep the Centaur. Stay with the La Corsa if necessary. Heck, I don't know anyone who has complained about Kestrel forks either.

How about some really good, well-fitting shoes instead of any of the suggestions? Or a present for the spouse?

[Ozz]

...don't go for the carbon stays. Does the pricing work out to get the Concours w/out carbon stays and the F2 fork? ...?
I thought the same, but checked, and the price of the Concours is the same whether it has Ti or Carbon rear...

Go for Concours...you can upgrade other parts later if you feel you need to.

[dbrk]

I would upgrade the fork and ask for more clearances in the rear since that F3 can manage a larger front tire. More options for riding in different ways. There is more difference between a 27 and a 23mm than in the frames, atmo yo. If the F2 can't take the 27mm tire then I'd leave my money in my pocket and stick with the original plan.

dbrk

[davids]

Fork.

I doubt that you'd see much difference between the Concours and La Corsa, since Serotta's going to build you what you ask for either way. The only reason to choose the Concours is for the Ti seatstays, or to save a few ounces. atmo.

The Kestral's a good fork, but the Ouzo Pro's better. And the F3 is probably the best.

[Ti Designs]

My frame is what became the La Corsa, and that's my picture in the catalog next to the La Corsa (Serotta makes a very balanced catalog - good looking frame, ugly guy...). I too was on a very tight budget when they came up with the idea of a custom level Fierte. I was replacing a much more expensive custom Seven which had broken at the carbon seat stay. The specs on the fit and ride are a bit off the beaten path - super stiff bottom bracket, steep angles and a top tube that slopes down to the front (they called me a number of times to make sure the slope was going in the right direction). So my first question was "can you build this in that model for that price?" The answer was a simple "yes" from Kelly Bedford. I've learned from years of ordering custom bikes that if Kelly says he can do it, I can bet my house on it. I'm not even worried about the carbon stays. The way Serotta does it, if you break one they unbolt it at the dropouts and replace it.

My point in all of this is that you shouldn't look down on the La Corsa as the entry level or cheap bike. Tell Serotta how you want it to fit and ride and they'll nail it. The fork on the other hand is somewhere you can make a noticable difference. The F3 is as nice as it gets, but it ain't cheap. Larger riders probably notice the sharper response, at 155 pounds I run an Ouzo Pro because I couldn't tell enough of a difference to justify the added cost. The Kestral fork works well for small riders, I found that under heavy braking it chattered - that could also be due to my steep head angle.

Lastly, there's one part that some people try to save money on and it winds up costing them in the long run. I only activly sell Chris King headsets. You put it in your bike and it just keeps on working. It's a simple component, you would think others could make a headset just as good. In the past 3 months I've pulled all sorts of other headsets out of my customer's bikes and installed King headsets. Save yourself a step and do it right the first time.

[72gmc]

I am with dbrk on this one (doing that a lot lately, hmm). If you can get the F3 and ask for more clearance in the rear triangle (meaning no carbon back there) that's the way I would go. You already have an Ottrott ST... why not have a very nice option that you won't think twice about taking out on nasty days, or taking on a towpath/rough road ride?

[Ejam]

Firstly thanks for all the replies and sorry for not being able to reply in "realtime", being on the other side of the planet.

Well so far the verdict is either go for the Concours with titanium seat stays or upgrade the fork to a F3. The local (Australian) Serotta importer suggested the Kestrel over the Ouzo Pro as I am a 90kg (186lbs) rider. I have the F3 on the Ottrott but it is hard to tell its influence on the ride as total Ottrott/F3 experience is so much better than anything I have ridden before. In short what percentage is the fork contributing to the ride quality.

No votes for the Chorus which doesn't surprise me as I did have Centaur on a previous bike and Record on the Ottrott and apart from very slight smoothness in the Record there isn't much difference.

Regarding the frame, I take the suggestion that Kelly will design the frame the way that you want it. Apart from machining differences in the head tube and bottom bracket the Concours has a butted seat tube and the La Corsa does not while the other tubes are the same.

Regarding the other comments: a Chris King headset is waiting to grace the frame, I buy my wife presents all the time as she is a great gal and as a friend of mine said "buy the best bike you can afford".

Regards All

Ejam