Re: Serotta final cost?

Jay Beattie said:

"Mike Jacoubowsky" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

You've bumped up quite a bit from the original budget. Since you
started out with a Trek, and since I'm 100% biased (being the largest
Trek carbon dealer in the US), you might try to find a Madone to ride
(since it's now in a similar price range to your new budget). It is
quite the nice machine, with a very different ride from the 5000. The
sort of ride that a 46-year-old might find creates a *lot* of conflict
in his life. Like, how do I rationalize riding instead of household
chores? How do I ditch the family on Saturday without it seeming like
I care more about my bike than I do them?

I thought that Lance actually abandoned his Madone for his 5900 for
many stages of tour #5 or #6, i'm not sure which. Supposedly the 5900
is a more comfortable bike, and when you're going 120 miles per day
comfort counts for something ...

- Don Gillies
San Diego, CA

Quoted message said:

I thought that Lance actually abandoned his Madone for his 5900 for
many stages of tour #5 or #6, i'm not sure which. Supposedly the 5900
is a more comfortable bike, and when you're going 120 miles per day
comfort counts for something ...

Lance abandoned his "Aero" Madone and went to the "SL" for virtually
everything. He also had the prototype SSL (built with GSM 55 carbon tubing
vs 110 for the SL), which was to be his secret weapon for Alpe D'Huez.
Unfortunately, at the last moment he decided to not use the aero bars, which
dropped the weight of the SSL below the legal minimum, requiring use of the
SL for the stage.

But I think you're talking about the '03 TDF, not the '04. It was at the '03
the the Madone (Aero) made its first appearance, and it's true that Lance
didn't use it all that much. A couple reasons for that. First, the original
Madones hadn't been extensively ridden prior to the TDF, and TDF riding
exposed the need for a bit of fine-tuning (for more comfort). I believe in
one area they had 11 layers of carbon fiber; subsequent production switched
to 9 with an apparent improvement in comfort. I've only ridden later models,
so I can't say anything from personal experience, just what I've been told.

Second, Lance is somewhat superstitious about his equipment. His 5900 took
him to many victories, and it had always been his go-to bike for serious
work. And it was tough to argue with his success on the 5900. Eventually the
Madone won him over (which is a good thing, since it was designed from the
ground-up pretty much to give him, and the team, the best-possible tool for
winning races).

--Mike-- Chain Reaction Bicycles
www.ChainReactionBicycles.com

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Regarding the "custom built" nature of the Serotta, it's

actually pretty

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rare that somebody falls off the charts of most standard

"production" bikes.

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The best reason to go "custom" is for uniqueness, not value or

utility.

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Having something built just for them and nobody else can have a

lot of

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appeal to some people. You just have to recognize that it comes

with some

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tradeoffs in terms of what that same amount of money might have

purchased

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elsewhere (utility & value).

Mike, could you describe the Madone ride in a less metaphysical
way. How is it different from the 5200? -- Jay Beattie.

Responsive yet comfortable, smooth yet delivers a feel for the road that
makes you feel alive, all the taste of real butter without the fat, an
unbelievably close shave with 3 ultra-sharp blades that decimate each
whisker yet leave your skin feeling silky-smooth and uncut, a ride that
lifts & separates...

Oh yeah, right, you wanted something less metaphysical.

The biggest difference between the Madone and 5200/5500/5900 is in the front
end. It's considerably stiffer laterally in the head tube area, which makes
it feel a bit more sure-footed when descending and a more-solid platform
when you're honking on the bars. They're really taking advantage of what you
can do with carbon fiber, putting material exactly where needed to achieve
very specific goals. This is in contrast to a lot of the "shaping" going on
these days, where manufacturers are doing interesting things in the name of
aesthetics, but without much thought to enhancing the ride qualities.

Don't mind me. I've been lusting over an SSL for the last couple of months,
and we might finally have enough stock that I can snag one for myself. It's
not as if my 5900 hasn't been a phenomenal bike; unquestionably, it's been
the best machine I've ever owned. But the SSL... I've been poisoned by
road-testing our assemblies. It really does ride differently. And who knows,
maybe it's just different, more than better. But sometimes different can be
fun. And it's a whole lot safer (and cheaper) to experience "different" with
a bicycle than, say... well, let's just say that, as much as my wife might
think sometimes that I value my relationship with my bike more than I do
that with my family, I'm not going to try to find out if the grass is
greener someplace else.

But bike lust can be a terrible thing!

--Mike-- Chain Reaction Bicycles
www.ChainReactionBicycles.com

Mike Jacoubowsky said:

Lance abandoned his "Aero" Madone and went to the "SL" for virtually
everything. He also had the prototype SSL (built with GSM 55 carbon tubing
vs 110 for the SL), which was to be his secret weapon for Alpe D'Huez.
Unfortunately, at the last moment he decided to not use the aero bars, which
dropped the weight of the SSL below the legal minimum, requiring use of the
SL for the stage.

That I don't understand... if I were in a position where I HAD to add
some weight to my bike, I'd simply use a more aerodynamic wheel
(notice the number of them cropping up on the mountain stages). While
they don't provide a huge advantage, they help a little.

If you can get Trek to shave some more weight off the SSL, maybe Lance
can run a disk wheel up Alpe D'Huez this year (assuming it's on the
route - I haven't checked). ;-)

Mark Hickey
Habanero Cycles
http://www.habcycles.com
Home of the $695 ti frame