first ride: Quest 20 inch

[kling]

One advantage of living in Perth (apart from the superb sunny weather, white sandy beaches with occasional sharks, and nice riverside bike paths):
ordered a Quest on Wednesday, picked it up Saturday, assembled by John

Ended up choosing the 20 inch so my wife can ride it too (it is better for people with shorter legs).

Here's a short video of her riding within a few minutes of first hopping on.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/klinkers/4258935397/

First impressions [I usually ride a Silvio set up with Ultegra]
--------------------

I was blown away with how effective the Tektro cable disc brakes are. (seem as good as the hydraulic disc brakes on my MTB). This will be a fantastic bike in wet as well as in the dry. Well constructed. Disc brakes make it so easy to remove the (back) wheel

The rear suspension has a more travel than that of the Silvio. The seat back is supported by a post, which will make mounting a rear safety light so much easier- no hole drilling required.

Will investigate upgrading the Microshift twist gear shift to perhaps a Shimano lever set up.

Overall:
Impressed. Good bang for buck.

Enjoy Cruzing!

Kendrick

 

[borealbliss]

Thanks for posting this video, it really helps me understand the riding dynamics of the bike. You mentioned your wife has short legs, may I ask what her x-seam is? I look forward to seeing more videos of the Quest 451 being ridden by riders of different heights and from a variety of perspectives, etc. Now that Nanda has two of his, maybe he'll share a video too.

 

[Pivot]

What a great video! I'm really looking forward to riding a 26" Quest around Geelong in a few days! The Primo racer 1.0" tyre tread pattern looks like a great alternative to the Kenda West 1 1/8" as fitted to the 20" Quest.

 

[Doug Burton]

The Primo Racer works on the Quest 559 like it was made for the bike.

The casing is sufficiently supple to absorb the high-frequency vibrations from things like chipseal, while rolling very nicely due to the 100psi pressure. And the suspension soaks up the big stuff.

Silvio speed and Sofrider versatility. At a good price.

 

[kling]

I had my local bike store (Glen Parker in Nedlands) change the Microshift shifters over to Deore, works very well.

Wife has not touched her flat bar road bike since....
(which is just as well as I stole the front wheel skewer from it so I could remove the pannier rack from my Silvio in a vain attempt to keep up with John's prototype Vendetta on our speed run this morning)... that bike is fast.

cheers
Kendrick

 

[kling]

borealbliss wrote: Thanks for posting this video, it really helps me understand the riding dynamics of the bike. You mentioned your wife has short legs, may I ask what her x-seam is? I look forward to seeing more videos of the Quest 451 being ridden by riders of different heights and from a variety of perspectives, etc. Now that Nanda has two of his, maybe he'll share a video too.

Borealbliss,
You are welcome

Her x-seam is ~ 93cm

Cheers
Kendrick

 

[borealbliss]

Thank you. My x-seam is about 10cm greater. A little geometry and rough guessing and I think I could get some idea of where I would set the bottom bracket if I were riding the Quest 451. Wait, didn't I see a formula somewhere that yields an accurate prediction when you input x-seam?