Mark B
Zen MBB Master
Buyer's remorse? What buyer's remorse?
Build thread here:
http://cruzbike.com/forum/threads/mark-bs-s-40-build.12676/
I took the new S40 out for it's initial ride yesterday. Other than a little ride up and down the street, this would be it's initial cruze, a club ride on a brisk, Southern California morning.
My ride to the ride start is six miles, almost entirely downhill. Did I mention it was a brisk morning? The ride to the ride was technically, I guess, my shakedown ride. I showed up at the ride start with no parts falling off and no unusual rattles.
There was some discussion about the group D needing a ride leader, as the original person had to cancel out at the last moment. I thought about it, for a minute, because it would have been the sane choice for a shakedown ride. Instead, I stuck with my original idea of a C ride, which normally includes a spattering of B riders and B wanna B's
The bike garnered a lot of attention in the parking lot. It didn't take a rocket scientist to see this was a different animal than the Silvio 1.0 that has been so faithful to me for 10 years.
I won't bore you with a lot of braggadocio, but through out the course of the day, I did stay up at the front of the pack, taking off with some of the faster riders and at the turnaround, electing to take the hilly way home with the more adventurous half of the group.
In all, we ended up with 64 miles and some 3200 ft. of climbing. Not a bad shakedown ride.
The bike performed really well. I was happy with the ride the stretched out wheelbase afforded, coupled with the 28C tires. I ran them 90 PSI on the back and 80 on the front. The ride was pleasant and I did not experience any wheel hop, or loss of traction on climbs. We didn't attack anything that was super steep, though, so that will be a future discussion.
Just a few, brief comments I will make on the bike. The seat is really weird compared to the original CB seat. I felt like I was slipping forward all day. In the end, I think it will be fine, just different. The lower bottom bracket is a thing, for now. I did not feel as fast on the climbs, but feel certain I will get accustomed to the hip angle. The lower bottom bracket does reopen the technique of pulling yourself forward in the seat to build power. It might not work on the higher bottom bracket, super reclined bikes, but on this one, it's a wonderful asset.
E-tap. Good Lord, what a nice group! I honestly wonder how much better it can get? It shifts when you need it to shift and after a few minutes, the shifting method gets to be second nature. I did catch myself hitting the right shifter when I intended to down shift, but it's all good..
Brakes were nice. I knew I hadn't properly seated the pads and rotors, yet, so I worked on that during the ride to the ride. I never had any issues with the braking on the ride.
Overall, I am really pleased with the bike. It was definitely an evolutionary progress.
Mark
Build thread here:
http://cruzbike.com/forum/threads/mark-bs-s-40-build.12676/
I took the new S40 out for it's initial ride yesterday. Other than a little ride up and down the street, this would be it's initial cruze, a club ride on a brisk, Southern California morning.
My ride to the ride start is six miles, almost entirely downhill. Did I mention it was a brisk morning? The ride to the ride was technically, I guess, my shakedown ride. I showed up at the ride start with no parts falling off and no unusual rattles.
There was some discussion about the group D needing a ride leader, as the original person had to cancel out at the last moment. I thought about it, for a minute, because it would have been the sane choice for a shakedown ride. Instead, I stuck with my original idea of a C ride, which normally includes a spattering of B riders and B wanna B's
The bike garnered a lot of attention in the parking lot. It didn't take a rocket scientist to see this was a different animal than the Silvio 1.0 that has been so faithful to me for 10 years.
I won't bore you with a lot of braggadocio, but through out the course of the day, I did stay up at the front of the pack, taking off with some of the faster riders and at the turnaround, electing to take the hilly way home with the more adventurous half of the group.
In all, we ended up with 64 miles and some 3200 ft. of climbing. Not a bad shakedown ride.
The bike performed really well. I was happy with the ride the stretched out wheelbase afforded, coupled with the 28C tires. I ran them 90 PSI on the back and 80 on the front. The ride was pleasant and I did not experience any wheel hop, or loss of traction on climbs. We didn't attack anything that was super steep, though, so that will be a future discussion.
Just a few, brief comments I will make on the bike. The seat is really weird compared to the original CB seat. I felt like I was slipping forward all day. In the end, I think it will be fine, just different. The lower bottom bracket is a thing, for now. I did not feel as fast on the climbs, but feel certain I will get accustomed to the hip angle. The lower bottom bracket does reopen the technique of pulling yourself forward in the seat to build power. It might not work on the higher bottom bracket, super reclined bikes, but on this one, it's a wonderful asset.
E-tap. Good Lord, what a nice group! I honestly wonder how much better it can get? It shifts when you need it to shift and after a few minutes, the shifting method gets to be second nature. I did catch myself hitting the right shifter when I intended to down shift, but it's all good..
Brakes were nice. I knew I hadn't properly seated the pads and rotors, yet, so I worked on that during the ride to the ride. I never had any issues with the braking on the ride.
Overall, I am really pleased with the bike. It was definitely an evolutionary progress.
Mark
