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  #46  
Old 10-05-2023, 11:23 AM
ridethecliche ridethecliche is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Tychom View Post
How is it?
I'm going to reserve my judgement till I get the fit dialed a bit more since I don't think I can fully comment on it...and also add that a 31 mile ride with 2200 ft of climbing wasn't necessarily the best test for a shakedown when it was my first time riding in a while and I felt like crap.

That said, the biggest surprise was honestly how well it descended. It was so incredibly well composed on twisty downhills. The only thing really holding me back there was the fact that it really needs a new set of brakepads and I got a bit sketched out. Will be nice to take it out again with new pads tomorrow since those just showed up in the mail!
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  #47  
Old 10-05-2023, 01:25 PM
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would love to find one of these stateside in a 54 that someone just didn't connect with and wants to move on.. hint, hint..
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  #48  
Old 10-05-2023, 02:34 PM
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Baron Blubba Baron Blubba is offline
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Originally Posted by ridethecliche View Post

That said, the biggest surprise was honestly how well it descended. It was so incredibly well composed on twisty downhills. The only thing really holding me back there was the fact that it really needs a new set of brakepads and I got a bit sketched out. Will be nice to take it out again with new pads tomorrow since those just showed up in the mail!
One of my favorite things about my steel bike is how it descends.
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  #49  
Old 10-05-2023, 05:35 PM
ridethecliche ridethecliche is offline
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Originally Posted by fourflys View Post
would love to find one of these stateside in a 54 that someone just didn't connect with and wants to move on.. hint, hint..
If you're honestly interested let me know. I have a 54T and took a bit of a gamble on it since I'm a 56. Thought I could make it work fit-wise but should know within a few weeks at the most.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Baron Blubba View Post
One of my favorite things about my steel bike is how it descends.
A woman in a mercedes gave me the finger as she cut me off and tried to brake check me because she didn't expect me to close the gap at her turn as quickly as I did. So I passed her like she was standing still when the road cleared... partially to blow her off and partially because I didn't want her to try to kill me again.

Well maybe you'd like to trade this for the Specialized Roubaix you just posted in the classifieds. I posted in that thread!

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  #50  
Old 10-05-2023, 09:45 PM
dsjackson dsjackson is offline
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Consistently reviews just like this:

https://www.cyclingnews.com/reviews/...very-accolade/


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  #51  
Old 10-05-2023, 10:05 PM
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Originally Posted by ridethecliche View Post
If you're honestly interested let me know. I have a 54T and took a bit of a gamble on it since I'm a 56. Thought I could make it work fit-wise but should know within a few weeks at the most
for sure.. sent you a PM!
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  #52  
Old 10-05-2023, 10:42 PM
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Originally Posted by fourflys View Post
would love to find one of these stateside in a 54 that someone just didn't connect with and wants to move on.. hint, hint..
Not sure what your price range or preferred vintage is but this has been sitting around on the FB marketplace for a while. Price may be somewhat negotiable as its been there for 3+ months.


oops sorry that one is just a 54R

Last edited by sweitee; 10-05-2023 at 10:43 PM. Reason: fourflys was looking for a 54t
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  #53  
Old 10-05-2023, 10:56 PM
ridethecliche ridethecliche is offline
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Red face

Quote:
Originally Posted by sweitee View Post
Not sure what your price range or preferred vintage is but this has been sitting around on the FB marketplace for a while. Price may be somewhat negotiable as its been there for 3+ months.

oops sorry that one is just a 54R
Fourflys can fit on either I think.

The issue is that the one you linked is a 1.0 which is disc brake plus QR. The 2.0 is a huge upgrade from that. There's less of a jump to the 3.0 relative to the 2.0 than there is from the 2.0 relative to the 1.0.
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  #54  
Old 10-06-2023, 12:56 AM
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Originally Posted by ridethecliche View Post
Fourflys can fit on either I think.

The issue is that the one you linked is a 1.0 which is disc brake plus QR. The 2.0 is a huge upgrade from that. There's less of a jump to the 3.0 relative to the 2.0 than there is from the 2.0 relative to the 1.0.

I would agree with this..
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  #55  
Old 10-06-2023, 01:11 AM
ridethecliche ridethecliche is offline
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Originally Posted by dsjackson View Post
Consistently reviews just like this:

https://www.cyclingnews.com/reviews/...very-accolade/


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Hah! Timely!
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  #56  
Old 10-07-2023, 04:40 PM
ridethecliche ridethecliche is offline
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Took the Strael out again yesterday.

Had a few all time PRs on some descents I've been doing for a few years and had one of my fastest times this season up a local hill.

Forgot my gloves at home and really noticed how my hands really weren't hurting or tingling at all from being out on the bike.

It's a pretty amazing machine.
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  #57  
Old 10-07-2023, 07:07 PM
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yeah, but you'd probably be more comfy on a 56, right?

Quote:
Originally Posted by ridethecliche View Post
Took the Strael out again yesterday.

Had a few all time PRs on some descents I've been doing for a few years and had one of my fastest times this season up a local hill.

Forgot my gloves at home and really noticed how my hands really weren't hurting or tingling at all from being out on the bike.

It's a pretty amazing machine.
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  #58  
Old 10-09-2023, 01:04 AM
ridethecliche ridethecliche is offline
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Another day... Another ride on the strael. Similar route again and still blasting some of downhill PRs. And getting some of the best uphill times of this season.

My bike as shown in the pictures, with pedals and cages minus seat bag and pump, comes in at right around 20lbs. I was really hoping it was going to be 19lbs or so but I've made a few conscious decisions that will make that challenging... It's just wild that my old giant tcx weighs a pound or so less.

-I'm using one of the knockoff ec90 saddles instead of my selle smp saddle.I've thought of swapping back to that to cut weight but find myself asking why I should bother.
-Deep wheels. 60mm wheels are heavy. I might throw some gp5k on the light gravel wheels I have just to see what that does to the weight. I think it'll drop it to 19 or so.
-Running specialized roubaix tires instead of gp5000s. Like I said, I might test fit some stuff together to come up with a 'best case weight' with my current parts setup.

All of that said, I really can't say I notice the weight when riding it. My goal in getting this bike was to get something that would be comfortable to ride. My old Al bike is really nice but I just felt beat riding that the way it was set up, though thinking about it changing saddles could have made a huge difference.

One of the things I'm debating is getting 40cm bars since thats what I like to ride... But I'm debating whether I should get something with some flare or not. If I drop the flare option then I can just use a set of bars on another bike but I kinda like having the flare on the stock bars. Hilariously, I may have to get a 140mm stem if I move to narrower bars but should be able to avoid that if they have some flare... Might just keep these though they're comfortable enough.

Overall, it's really hard to overstate how well mannered the strael is, especially when pointing it downhill. It's also hard to overstate how much more comfortable it is vs my tcx even when riding similar wheel/tire combinations.

In any event...







Last edited by ridethecliche; 10-09-2023 at 01:08 AM.
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  #59  
Old 10-09-2023, 01:45 AM
Radius PNW Radius PNW is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by ridethecliche View Post
Another day... Another ride on the strael. Similar route again and still blasting some of downhill PRs. And getting some of the best uphill times of this season...Hilariously, I may have to get a 140mm stem if I move to narrower bars [...]

My bike as shown in the pictures:






Following this with interest...

Can you post your height and inseam?

Great build.... I have a thought on fit, as I saw you mention 54T vs 56, and hope you don't mind me dropping in this -- is this fit, as shown in the photo, dialed for your position?

I'm curious about this fit, as most times I've seen riders choosing a possibly smaller fit frame is to reduce stack height, and achieve a more significant saddle-->handlebar drop.

In your case, this isn't what is happening, if the photos are a final riding position -- you show significant seatpost, however are actually elevating the handlebars to basically the top of the adjustment range, and additionally extending the reach of the fit with a fairly lengthy stem...

Any one of these, in isolation, doesn't necessarily indicate to up-size your frame, but considering them as a system, it could be a thought...

I know you mentioned you are enjoying the ride characteristics, so not sure if this would be advisable, but if you were contemplating sizing up to a 56 (56T ?) it seems from your photos that this might be a reasonable idea...

BTW, I did check out the Strael geometry, and it looks like:
  • the 54T looks like it has a 160mm head tube, with a HA of 72.5. Your long stem takes the edge a bit off of that head angle.
  • the 56T has a 180mm HT, with a HA of 73. If you upsized to the 56T, you would gain about ~13mm of ETT, possibly letting you dial back your stem length, and soak up the HT increase by removing your spacers to run 10-20mm worth of those.
Pardon the input if your fit is still being adjusted...

-R

Last edited by Radius PNW; 10-09-2023 at 02:09 AM.
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  #60  
Old 10-09-2023, 07:24 PM
ridethecliche ridethecliche is offline
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Originally Posted by Radius PNW View Post
Following this with interest...

Can you post your height and inseam?

Great build.... I have a thought on fit, as I saw you mention 54T vs 56, and hope you don't mind me dropping in this -- is this fit, as shown in the photo, dialed for your position?

I'm curious about this fit, as most times I've seen riders choosing a possibly smaller fit frame is to reduce stack height, and achieve a more significant saddle-->handlebar drop.

In your case, this isn't what is happening, if the photos are a final riding position -- you show significant seatpost, however are actually elevating the handlebars to basically the top of the adjustment range, and additionally extending the reach of the fit with a fairly lengthy stem...

Any one of these, in isolation, doesn't necessarily indicate to up-size your frame, but considering them as a system, it could be a thought...

I know you mentioned you are enjoying the ride characteristics, so not sure if this would be advisable, but if you were contemplating sizing up to a 56 (56T ?) it seems from your photos that this might be a reasonable idea...

BTW, I did check out the Strael geometry, and it looks like:
  • the 54T looks like it has a 160mm head tube, with a HA of 72.5. Your long stem takes the edge a bit off of that head angle.
  • the 56T has a 180mm HT, with a HA of 73. If you upsized to the 56T, you would gain about ~13mm of ETT, possibly letting you dial back your stem length, and soak up the HT increase by removing your spacers to run 10-20mm worth of those.
Pardon the input if your fit is still being adjusted...

-R
Hey! Thanks for the comment!

I'm 5'10 with a 33-34inch inseam. I've run about a 75-77cm saddle to BB center for a lot of bikes over a long time. Over the last bit, I've been experimenting a bit with moving my cleats slightly rearward and need to go back a bit further I think.

I don't entirely disagree with you about sizing up since a 56T is what fairlights calculator also spat out at me. That said, I like having a longer seatpost for comfort and actually like the handling characteristics of a longer stem on a road bike. I think fairlight likes to spec a ~110 stem on their bikes for their preferred handling. I can say that I've had no issues descending with this current setup.

Currently, the position feels a bit upright to me since I usually ride on the hoods anyway, with the drops either for sprints or for descents. I just installed 165mm cranks since I feel like they help sort out some of the issues I've had in the past, i.e. feeling tension in my back from tight hamstrings as my knees go up. I'm actually hoping to end up with less spacers over time but didn't want to drop more because the compression plug wasn't very deep. I'll have to look at that again though.

That said, these bars also feel really really short reach which necessitates the longer stem. I'm pretty sure I used to race with a 130 stem on my 56 CAAD9 back in the day and I like how that feels.

The last thing is that I bought this used because it was in budget and I thought I could make it. I'm still in training-ish so can't throw money at bikes the way I wish I could. I'd have likely bought a 56T if I was buying new. That said, I'm okay with having to sell this as a bike or frameset and starting anew if it just doesn't work out. So far, I've felt decent after being on long rides on it so it's off to a relatively promising start!

I honestly really appreciate your post though. Thanks for checking in. Happy to move this side convo to a different thread to get more input.

As a side note: My rim brake bike is a ghost nivolet which I thought was a medium but is actually a large based on my headtube measurement. That one has an ETT of 565 and I run a 120 stem on it. That ghost has about 5mm less stack height as well though. I also run that with a full stack of spacers. My other rider these days is an old giant tcx which I also run with a stack of spacers and a bar with some rise to it.

In all honesty, I think my saddle height is typically pretty high for my height.
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