Ridley Damocles RS vs. <BLANK>, e.g., Specialized Allez Sprint Comp

[ultrafi]

Any one care to compare the ride qualities for me? TIA

[bthornt]

I own a 2008 Ridley Damocles and I'm very pleased. Lots of miles on it, don't have a cycling computer so I can't tell you the exact number. Absolutely no problems. To me it's comfortable (I've owned steel, aluminum, and titanium in the past), very stable, and when you get on it, it moves out very smartly. I suppose the only issue is that it's heavy for a carbon frame, but that's not much of an issue for me. I will say it's a very unusual looking frame, with the "sharp edge" design - the top tube and down tube in particular are have a pentangle shape.

I do own a specialized bike, a carbon diverge, which doesn't compare well to the alloy sprint. I owned a Klein Quantum in the 1980s, and I found it to be a very unpleasant ride, but I understand that aluminum bikes have evolved considerably in the comfort area.

I think the few remaining new Damocles are about 1000 dollars, but I also think they are difficult to find unless you can ride a small. I actually owned a Damocles RS frame that I bought when Competitive Cyclist was clearing them out (I still don't know why I did that), but I sold it on ebay for 900 or one thousand dollars. I tried to sell it here, no takers though.

Bottom line is that I can give a strong endorsement to the Damocles.

[T-Crush]

First, I'm a big dude (6' 4" and 265 now, working my way down to a 235 fighting weight) and I owned a 2010 Damocles for a couple of years. I found the ride quality to be very good. Very comfortable on longer days, quick in the twisties and stable at speed. I kept looking for something to replace it with and cycled through a C-50, Look 585 and 595 Ultras on the carbon side of the garage, and while each may have been very slightly 'better' (smoother, lighter, prettier, whatever), the differences were very small. The Look 595 finally won out, but only because I'm a bike snob fell for the "made in France with carbon lugs" storyline, nothing the Ridley could do about that. If you're a "my bike is a tool" sort of guy, it's a great tool.

Yes, it's a touch heavy for a carbon frame, and yes the sharp edge design is different, but if it looks good to you, ride it. They run a little on the big side (an XL is really an XL, where I'm on a XXL Look) and these days, a decent used frame/fork/headset is in the $400 range. If I could find a Filipo Pozzato version in my size, I would probably be back on one.

As a side note, I heard the Gen 1 Damo's had a habit of breaking, but that was completely nailed down within a model year or two.