At 6'1" I have found myself just outside of the typical test bike/prototype range at Seven Cycles. If you are Joe Wignall or Neil Doshi or Graham Dimmock or Bryan Hollingsworth or Matt Sutton or pretty much anyone else who works at Seven you'll find a variety of these bikes to test in your size. Of course maybe that's the point of a test bike, to have one in a size that most people can use? I suppose it doesn't matter anyway as I already own the world's finest bike and rarely have interest in riding anything else. One of my responsibilities at Seven is to answer phone calls and emails, so it's important for me to be knowledgeable on as many aspects of the company as I can. One question that comes up a lot is "what are your carbon bikes like?"
Until Sunday I had only ridden a few prototypes that were too small and for too short of a time to really form an opinion. You can imagine my excitement when I learned that the Ride Studio Cafe was going to take a Diamas SL that was very close to my size and were going to let me demo it for the Sunday ride. As it turns out anyone can demo a bike for the ride, but at the time I thought I was special.
It's so fast that pictures always come out blurry.
Equipped with 10 speed Campy Record parts, Zero G brakes, and a older pair of Mavic Ksyrium's I had nothing to complain about, a rarity. If push came to shove I'd complain about the silver braking wall, but I'll just internalize that for now. I adjusted the saddle height, 'chrew on my pedals and was ready to brave the cold and the wind awaiting us outside.
I have been riding my Elium SL for about five years and am thus very familiar with how it feels. Light and lively, a touch muted, and it soaks up the bumps. I have found full metal frames to "feel" faster than my bike even though the speedometer reads the same. Sort of like how my college car, an '85 Nissan Maxima that weighed more than all of my cars prior or since weigh together, felt on the highway. If you weren't paying attention you'd be rolling along at about 95 mph but thinking you were treading water. I'll make no excuses, I am a someone who prefers power steering a the float of a big body Caddie over a two door coupe. I'm fragile and like to be cradled. To each his/her own. With this in mind, my Elium SL is a perfect fit. At least I didn't have any pre-ride biases going into the test ride of the carbon fiber Diamas SL.
We were off.
Two pedal strokes in and already the Diamas SL yielded a totally new feel, just totally different. The suspension/chip seal absorbing feel of my Elium was there, but the "fast" feel of a metal frame was present. I don't mean it felt like a metal frame, but it shared the "snappy" feeling of a frame that wanted to be pushed. Unfortunately the wind and the cold didn't make me want to push, I wanted to curl up on the couch under a blanket and dream of football season. See, very fragile. Over the course of the ride few things became clear to me:
1) First off, on a windy day a low profile (medium profile?) rim like a Ksyrium SL proved to be no benefit to me, I was getting tossed around like a rag doll.
Therefore, why would anyone want anything less than this?
2) Sele Italia makes a saddle shape that I get along with. I consider myself an SLR guy, but have been using their entry level Filante Flow on my commuter and other than being rock hard, it fits just as well. Both the Filante Flow and the Diamas SL's SLR Flow have the cut out, or whatever we're calling it these days, and I have decided that I do in fact have an opinion on the matter. I don't like'm as much. I'll stick with the non cut out thanks.
3) Carbon Fiber has it's place. I can see what all of the fuss is about. I was hoping to go into the ride and bolster an uneducated opinion that I was a metal and/or metal and carbon guy. I came out thinking, "yeah, I can see it." This isn't to say that I liked it better than my Elium SL, far from it. My bike is custom for me after all and fits like a glove. The ride is familiar, predictable and makes me want to crush hills. Up hills that is. The Diamas SL has a world of potential, but this one was a little too big, the handling was a little too cautious, and the silver braking surface kept me up all night.
4) Dan's the man. While I was getting thrown all over the loop and struggling to keep up, Dan set the pace and kept me in sight. I can't remember the last time I let the wind get to me in such a humiliating fashion. A few marg's the night before probably didn't help either but still. Thanks to Dan for keeping me around in the front half, the wind must have died down enough for me to stick with them the second half.
5) Brett from Philly. First timer to the ride, somehow he heard about the group ride and showed up on a sick Kuota. Philly must be full of nice people, I know because I have only met nice people. I haven't met Will Smith but he strikes me as a good guy as well and he likes to let the Alpine blast.
6) Bad news for my participation on this Sunday's ride. Thanks to a trip to the Rising Star of Connecticut to see Pearl Jam crank it up, I'll be in no shape to ride Sunday morning and likely won't even be in Massachusetts. Why would I go to Hartford to see them when they are playing in Boston just two night later? 'Cause I'll be there too. If you are like me and lost touch with Pearl Jam after the third album, I would suggest at the very least downloading "You Are" off of the Riot Act album and just tear into it. You can thank me later. I'm hoping to convince Neil to lead the ride this week, but no matter who leads just know that there is a ride.
That's all for now, see you soon.
