Bill Bove
12-23-2003, 06:34 PM
A friend of mine bought a used Fierte on ebay last week, I took it for a spin this morning. This bike rocks!! It fit me so close to my custom Legend Ti that I could get a good comparison. The steel frame was a little softer than my ti wich felt pretty good, especially over some rough pavement, I would like to ride this bike on the crappy New England roads that helped drive me to Florida. I only got to do a small climb over a bridge twice and it did as well as my ti wich surprised me as I thought the more flexible frame would rob me of climbing power, it didn't maybe the one centimeter lower bottom bracket helped. The lower BB did cause me to not pedal as far into a corner and to start pedalling a little later than usual out of the corner but I got used to it real fast. Hammering down a straight road I was able to get into a very comfortable position over the rear wheel and behind the BB to push the big* gear and shifting slightly forward was able to carve graceful arcs on high speed curves coming down those bridges. All in all I would rate this bike a nine. It is an excellent introduction to the Serotta feel. If I were 25 again(ohhhh) and racing on a budget I would ride this bike. If sold Serotta's and somebody wanted a bike for fast club rides and century's I'd steer them to a Fierte. If you want a second bike to complement your CSI or Legend, buy a Fierte.
*Big gear, this bike had a 44/50 up front with an 11-23 in back. The 50 tooth ring helped my 46 year over raced legs to comfortably roll 50/13-12 combination, usually I ride a 52/15-16 and sprint in the 13, this set up let me use the lower end of the cluster more. 50/11 was doable if I needed, otherwise the 11 would only be used to go over a cliff. The 44 let me use the 23 in back to go up hill where I would usually be in 42/19 or 21. Simply put, I used more of the available gears so my cassettes should last longer.
The components were Campy Chorus with a Record carbon post and Euros wheels. An odd component selection was a Reynolds itergrated fork on a non-intergrated King headset, it worked fine and looked way cool the way the fork flowed out of the lower HS cup. IMO anyway.
This may be Serotta's low price point bike but it is not a low end bike at all. If it were a man, Elaine would say it was "spongeworthy" I'll just say it was :banana: worthy.
*Big gear, this bike had a 44/50 up front with an 11-23 in back. The 50 tooth ring helped my 46 year over raced legs to comfortably roll 50/13-12 combination, usually I ride a 52/15-16 and sprint in the 13, this set up let me use the lower end of the cluster more. 50/11 was doable if I needed, otherwise the 11 would only be used to go over a cliff. The 44 let me use the 23 in back to go up hill where I would usually be in 42/19 or 21. Simply put, I used more of the available gears so my cassettes should last longer.
The components were Campy Chorus with a Record carbon post and Euros wheels. An odd component selection was a Reynolds itergrated fork on a non-intergrated King headset, it worked fine and looked way cool the way the fork flowed out of the lower HS cup. IMO anyway.
This may be Serotta's low price point bike but it is not a low end bike at all. If it were a man, Elaine would say it was "spongeworthy" I'll just say it was :banana: worthy.