Vaast R1 ride review (magnesium road bike)

[Baron Blubba]

We just brought in a fleet of Vaast R1 road bikes at our shop. These bikes are unique because the frames are made out of magnesium. The bikes are nicely spec'd with a complete Sram Rival eTap AXS drivetrain, surprisingly *excellent* 1550g Alex alloy wheels, and a nice looking/feeling cockpit (post, stem, bars, saddle). The main question about this bike is: How does magnesium ride? So here's a first ride review.

The Course: 50 miles, plenty of fast flat sections, with a hilly and rollery mid-section.

The Bike:

- Possibly smoother than any road bike I've ridden, even running tubes in 25mm tires.

- In a blind test, I wouldn't be able to tell that the magnesium frame wasn't carbon. I'd say, "Wow, that's a smooth bike, but not as stiff as other carbon bikes I've ridden."

- Lacks the explosive acceleration of some other bikes I often ride.

- Once up to speed, behaves like an aero bike. Accelerate to 23 mph and it will put that speed in its pocket and then hold out its hand for more.

- On fast flat sections after downhills, the bike happily accelerated from 27 to 28 to 29 etc up to 30+ mph. I was surprised at how well it performed in these situations compared to many other nice bikes I often ride.

- As mentioned, the magnesium frame rides exceptionally smoothly. There were times when I hit some chunky imperfections in the road and was amazed at how almost imperceptible they were; this is very cool.

- The flip side to the smoothness: There might be a cognitive dissonance for some riders, myself included. The smooth ride also means that there's a lack of feedback, particularly when riding at lower speeds, which can make the bike feel a little 'dead' or unresponsive, even though you're moving at a decent clip. I eventually got used to this sensation, and the dissonance between effort, speed, and road feedback diminished significantly.

- The cool thing about the super smooth ride is that at high speeds, where there is a little more high-frequency feedback, you feel like you are ghosting across the surface of the road. That's the best way I can describe it.

- Not explosive from the get-go, but plenty reactive once you get going, and rewarding when standing to climb.

- The cornering is not razor sharp or 'surgically intuitive', but the handling isn't boring either. It's playful, and a lot of fun to dart around the road avoiding pot holes and debris. Taking corners at high speed was confident if not nearly as awe-inspiringly exciting as on a high end race bike.

- On my absolute favorite bikes, the bike and the rider become one object. The interface between rider and bike feels completely intuitive and I guess you could say seamless. This is not the feeling I got from riding the Vaast R1; it was definitely 'here's me, and here's the bike.' That's not damning criticism, just a statement that as good as this bike is (and it is very very good), it's not going to replace your SworksLab71MeleeSLR9TCRSL0DogmaF.

- The original MSRP of this bike is $3500. The quality and performance of the frame and its constituent parts are easily worth that price relative to other offerings on the market. At the current $2200 asking price, I don't think one could find a better bike. If you were looking to buy a good entry level bike and keep it for years and years and slowly upgrade the wheels, drivetrain, etc, then perhaps you'd be better off with a lower-level TCR Advanced or Tarmac or similar bike, as those frame sets might have a higher performance ceiling with the appropriate upgrades. But if you want a bike that out of the box needs nothing to be a competitive and enjoyable ride, then you'd have a hard time doing better than this.

- I will not be adding one of these bikes to my stable, even at this stupidly low price. I already own a gorgeous Ritchey Logic that I am madly in love with, as well as an Enve Melee, Enve Mog, and legendary purple all-road bike that is pretty much another limb at this point...along with a host of other just-for-funsies vintage/weird bikes. But! If I was looking for a reliable and inexpensive second road bike as a back up, which I would actually look forward to riding when my main squeeze was out of commission (or just for variety), then I would get one of these in a heart beat. I would also get one of these if I were looking for a first bike on a budget, but didn't want a budget first bike --this one can be ridden and enjoyed with no (or very very few) 'fomo' and 'what if...' regrets. Shame about the ugly welds, but pretty much everything else about this bike is quite nice!

[phishrabbi]

Originally Posted by Baron Blubba

behaves like an aero bike

Could you say a little more about what you mean by this? Even if they exist, can you "feel" the ~6-12 watts you're saving at that speed?

[Baron Blubba]

Originally Posted by phishrabbi

Could you say a little more about what you mean by this? Even if they exist, can you "feel" the ~6-12 watts you're saving at that speed?

Certainly. No, I can't feel the watt savings. What I meant to say is that some bikes hit a certain speed and feel reluctant to either hold that speed or reluctant to accelerate beyond that speed (and then hold that new speed). That limit is at different places for different bikes. Some bikes seem, for me personally, to find their comfortable limits in the 22 mph range --I really have to push to nudge them past that point. On other bikes, that point might be 25 mph. This Vaast bike is toward the faster end of that spectrum. It's not quite my Enve Melee or Giant Propel in these terms, but it feels easy to hold 23 mph on it on the flats and is willing to accelerate beyond that speed with only a little extra coaxing.

[Mark McM]

Originally Posted by Baron Blubba

Some bikes seem, for me personally, to find their comfortable limits in the 22 mph range --I really have to push to nudge them past that point. On other bikes, that point might be 25 mph.

Well, that's quite some difference between those two bikes. Especially when you consider that all else the same, overcoming drag at 25 mph takes about 40% more power than overcoming drag at 22mph. Do some bikes create 40% more drag than other bikes? Or maybe some bikes allow the rider to produce 40% more power than other bikes? Or some combination of the two?

[Talrand]

I like how they call their bikes "aero inspired" like they know they'd get laughed at if they claimed to actually be aero so they had to soften it a lot.

I like to think of my cycling speed as Pogacar inspired, not Pogacar-like, just inspired.

[EB]

I am very curious about the frame material. The claims made by Vaast for Allite Super Magnesium are quite strong - 75% lighter than steel, 50% lighter than Ti, 33% lighter than Al, 21% stronger than 6061, 17% stronger than steel, 20x greater "shock absorption" than Aluminum, etc.

This all sounds wonderful - why would anyone build a bike frame out of anything else. This has me wondering what the tradeoff is. It can't be expense - the frames here are marketed more cheaply than many Taiwanese-made steel frames.

Or put another way - how does this super magnesium enable something fundamentally different than what can be achieved with aluminum alloys?

[Baron Blubba]

Originally Posted by Mark McM

Well, that's quite some difference between those two bikes. Especially when you consider that all else the same, overcoming drag at 25 mph takes about 40% more power than overcoming drag at 22mph. Do some bikes create 40% more drag than other bikes? Or maybe some bikes allow the rider to produce 40% more power than other bikes? Or some combination of the two?

I don't use a power meter, and I'm not any sort of physicist. All of my anecdotes are anecdotal, but they do lead me to question the validity of the aero bike science in real world application.

I ride everything from a 1987 Bridgestone 550 to a variety of state of the art bikes, so all else is absolutely not the same.

On modern bikes I generally think the aero benefits of what is defined as an Aero Bike and what is defined as an All Around bike --a Tarmac SL 8 versus and Aethos, for example-- are significantly overstated in most use cases. This has been discussed enough on these forums so that's all I'll say here to avoid thread drift.

[dancinkozmo]

im considering one...thanks for taking time to write a review

[AngryScientist]

Magnesium is real. IMO.

This is one of the best riding and handling bikes in my fleet.

[bfd]

Originally Posted by AngryScientist

Magnesium is real. IMO.

This is one of the best riding and handling bikes in my fleet.

Yes, of course, magnesium frames are real, who can forget the Kirk Precision Magnesium bike!



Good Luck!

[offrhodes]

My question is Vaast going to be around? For the price it does not really matter, but it would be nice to know if a company will be around if you need them. I know they are owned by the same parent company as Niner, so there is money behind them. All the deals that can be found on these bikes is making it hard not to pull the trigger.

[Baron Blubba]

Originally Posted by EB

I am very curious about the frame material. The claims made by Vaast for Allite Super Magnesium are quite strong - 75% lighter than steel, 50% lighter than Ti, 33% lighter than Al, 21% stronger than 6061, 17% stronger than steel, 20x greater "shock absorption" than Aluminum, etc.

This all sounds wonderful - why would anyone build a bike frame out of anything else. This has me wondering what the tradeoff is. It can't be expense - the frames here are marketed more cheaply than many Taiwanese-made steel frames.

Or put another way - how does this super magnesium enable something fundamentally different than what can be achieved with aluminum alloys?

I question the metrics their value in real world application.
How do you calculate things like 20x greater shock absorption in real world terms, where it actually matters to the rider?
75% lighter than what kind of steel? High-tensile WalMart bike steel or triple butted Columbus Neuron steel?
Does the strength of a bike material even matter beyond a certain point where strong enough is strong enough for 99% of the population and use cases?

I'd speculate that perhaps bike material technology 'skipped' a generation by going from aluminum to carbon and skipping magnesium, which in my VERY limited experience offers a much smoother and carbon-esque ride than aluminum (for better and for worse).

End of the day, I think it's a legitimate material to manufacture a bike out of: The ride is super smooth if sometimes a bit *too* smooth for folks like me who prefer a more 'earthed' feel out of their bikes, and it's pretty light if not carbon light, and seems plenty capable --I'd take this out for the fast n frisky Sunday group ride with no hesitation.

[Baron Blubba]

Originally Posted by offrhodes

My question is Vaast going to be around? For the price it does not really matter, but it would be nice to know if a company will be around if you need them. I know they are owned by the same parent company as Niner, so there is money behind them. All the deals that can be found on these bikes is making it hard not to pull the trigger.

That's a good question. I'd buy one and order a backup seatpost if you plan on loving it longlongtime. I don't think anything else on this bike is proprietary.

[slowpoke]

Originally Posted by EB

I am very curious about the frame material. The claims made by Vaast for Allite Super Magnesium are quite strong - 75% lighter than steel, 50% lighter than Ti, 33% lighter than Al, 21% stronger than 6061, 17% stronger than steel, 20x greater "shock absorption" than Aluminum, etc.

To cut to the chase, what's the weight of a 55/56cm frame?

[EB]

Originally Posted by slowpoke

To cut to the chase, what's the weight of a 55/56cm frame?

LMGTFY - website states frame weight for the road racing frame as 1250g. Unsure which size that is, as it is not stated.

One interesting comparison is the CAAD13, which comes in at 1182g for a 56cm frame.

I think one problem with their claims is that the numbers are not contextualized so it's unclear what they are comparing them to.