My second Serotta

[Jay Torborg]

Just picked up my second Serotta to go with my Ottrott. I wanted a bike with S&S couplings to use as a travel bike.

58cm Serotta Concours (56cm top tube), red/yellow fade
Serotta O2 fork (same paint scheme)
Record 04 with carbon crank
Thompson seatpost
Fizik Alliante (ti) saddle
Stella Azzurra Tirreno bars (44cm)
Ritchey WCS 9cm stem (31.8)
Chris King headset
Topolino wheels with record 12-25 (ti/steel) cassette
Conti GP3000 tires
Arundel cages
Speedplay X2 pedals

Total weight 17lbs even.

Looks gorgeous. I'm taking it to Hawaii for a week of riding after Christmas.

Merry Christmas everyone.
- Jay

[Kevin]

Jay,

I am jealous. I have an Ottrott ST and a Litespeed Vortex for rainy days. But I do not have two Serottas. Enjoy them both.

Kevin

[Smiley]

what were the couplers made of ? Ti , boy this is an awfully light bike.

[Jay Torborg]

Yes, the couplers are titanium. The couplers only add about 300 grams.

[Blastinbob]

How about a picture Jay. In one piece please.

Have yourself a great time in Hawaii. :cool:

Bob

[Serotta PETE]

Jay, how does it ride to a non-coupled bike? I have been thinking about getting one for a few years.

How long does it take to assemble and dis-assemble? What type case do you have for carrying

Thanks for the info and I hope that you enjoy the trip... I am going to Maui in February for a few days and plan on renting or bringing a bike.

Have a happy holiday. PETE

[Tom Byrnes]

Jay,

Your bike sounds beautiful. Have a great time in Hawaii.

Happy holidays.

Tom

[Serotta PETE]

Got so excited about reading the description of your bike, that I forgot to mention how nice it sounds AND send a picture to us.

PETE

[Jay Torborg]

I haven't had a chance to ride it yet, or take it apart to pack. I'm planning on a 30-40 mile ride tomorrow and will post a photo. I'll report back after my trip to Hawaii as to how easy it is to pack and unpack and how well it performs on a long ride.

- Jay

[Jay Torborg]

It was a nice day for riding Monday in the Seattle area - low 50's, hazy sunshine, no wind, and beautiful clear air. I did a quick 40 mile ride over rolling terrain in about 2 hours. This bike likes to be ridden fast - I was supposed to stay below 150HR on this ride but I'd often look down at my HR monitor and notice I was riding harder than I should be.

http://www.jaytorborg.com/images/serotta.jpg

I'm still waiting for my O2 fork (I had ordered the bike with an Ouzo Pro fork, but decided I wanted matching paint), so I'm using an Easton EC90 fork that I was saving for another bike until my O2 fork is done.

Here are my riding impressions compared to my Ottrott ST. My Ottrott has similar components except Eurus wheels, Record 03, and carbon rails on the Alliante saddle. Same size and geometry. The Concours is just a bit lighter.

The Concours is zippier than the Legend ti I test road when I decided on my Ottrott. I am guessing this is because the Legend didn't quite fit me, although it could be the wheels.

The Concours felt surprisingly quick, seeming to accelerate faster than my Ottrott. This could be due to the lighter Topolino wheels which I think have considerably less rotational mass. The lighter crank could also have something to do with it, but probably not much.

I would have a hard time telling the difference between the bikes on smooth flat roads. On descents, the Concours felt good, but not quite as stable as the Ottrott. On climbs, they felt about the same. When the road got a little rough, the Concours definitely transmitted a little more buzz to the rider, but less than I would have expected. I think the Topolino wheels do a nice job of smoothing the ride. I'm looking forward to trying these on my Ottrott to have a better chance of determining how much of the ride quality is the wheels vs the frame.

On fast corners, the the rear-end felt a bit twitchy on the Concours compared to the Ottrott. I guess the ST stays really do improve stability in these situations.

My butt was definitely a little more sore than when riding my Ottrott on similar rides. I suspect this is primarily due to the titanium seat rails instead of carbon. I'm going to take my carbon rail Alliante to Hawaii with me to see if that is the difference.

I didn't notice any unusual behaviour that I could attribute to the S&S couplings. Overall, the bike road great and was a blast to ride.

- Jay

[Smiley]

and nice review Jay, I sold a coupled Serotta Peleton to a chap that used it as a travel bike, it was Ti with Ti couplers, he loved it and decided to sell his Legend because he liked everything about the Peleton. It was built as a compac frame and his old Legend was a standard frame. Have fun in Hawaii.

[Kevin]

Jay,

The bike looks great. It is the first Serotta I have seen with couplings. From the review it looks like you are in love. Enjoy the bike.

Kevin

[Jay Torborg]

I took apart my Serotta to pack it into the 26"x26"x10" suitcase today. In order to fit it in the box, I had to take off the following components:

Seat and seatpost
Handlebar
Stem
Fork
Front brake
Pedals
Rear deraileur

Here's a photo of the bike in the box, shown without the protective wrapping on the frame to make it easier to see.

http://www.jaytorborg.com/images/serottainbox.jpg

So, it's clearly not as easy as putting a bike into a Trico Ironcase or TriAll case, but it doesn't seem too bad - probably an extra half hour to pack and unpack.

[Kevin]

Jay,

It is amazing how small it gets. I suppose that is how Santa gets all the gifts in the sleigh. Enjoy Hawaii.

Kevin

[Johny]

Jay,

Thanks for sharing all the info. Now we know what is the next on the list...
Have fun there. :)

[Serotta PETE]

Jay, thanks for posting the ride impressions and showing us what it looks like. I will be thinking about getting one over the next few months. Hope that you are enjoying Hawaii.....

Have a happly new year. PETE

[Jay Torborg]

Just returned from my Hawaii trip and wanted to share some thoughts on my new bike. It took me about 45 minutes to put the bike together, although this included labeling all the tube protection sheaths to make it easier to pack up the bike. This is about twice as long as it takes me to put together a bike packed in a Trico Ironcase or TriAll case.

Packing the bike took me about 90 minutes, although this also included cleaning it. Since I was never in the rain, the cleaning was relatively easy. I'd estimate an extra 15-20 minutes compared to carefully packing a bike in a conventional case.

The weather in Hawaii was about the worst I've seen in many trips over the past few years. It rained at least a little every day in Kona, although the first day was dry until late in the day. I manged a 110 mile ride on the first day and got a good feel for the bike.

The Concours is definitely not as comfortable as my Ottrott. I took the seatpost (Serotta carbon) and saddle (Alliante with carbon rails) from my Ottrott with me to remove another variable. After a century, I could definitely feel it in the seat more than on my Ottrott. But it's still a very pleasant bike to ride and seems pretty fast. This was a solo ride with moderate winds (there are always at least 5-10mph tradewinds on the Big Island) and about 3500 ft of climbing. I wasn't pushing very hard (generally keeping HR in the 135-140 range) and still finished the ride in 6 hours riding time. For me, this is a decent century pace.

Two other 50 mile rides was all I was able to squeeze in between squalls. On the second of these rides, the wind REALLY picked up half way through the ride. I ended up riding into 35-40mph head and crosswinds for the last 20 miles. The Concours and Topolinos were easy to handle and I still managed a decent pace (sharing the load with another rider I met about 10 miles from town).

Overall, I'm quite happy with the bike. Not quite as comfortable as my Ottrott, but it feels a bit lighter and zippier and I feel just a bit stronger when climbing.

After a fairly soggy week on the Big Island, I headed back to Seattle via Maui. Big mistake. Maui was getting even more rain than the Big Island. By Saturday morning (Jan 3), Maui had already received a third of their ANNUAL rainfall. Maui has a short runway, and our DC-10 flight took 18 hours longer than scheduled to get us home, including 9 hours just sitting in the plane on the tarmac waiting for rain to subside and misc. airline/airport snafus, and a sidetrip to Honolulu to add back the fuel they had to remove to finally get the plane off the runway in Maui.

Hope everyone had a great New Years.
- Jay