March | 2014 | Traveling & Cycling

Mount Erskine Trail redo!!! I was there during last weekend and it was nice to see a few passionate riders or so called hard cores downhillers were digging and widening up the trail. Now the trail has a separate path for riders going uphill and downhill. At least this is a first step to minimize any accidents. I believe the upgrading works is not completed yet and hope to be done soon. I couldn’t wait to cycle here again.

The soil is still very soft and probably need a few more rains, rides and drying before it is nice to ride again.

The pic below is before and after the redo of Rollercoaster trail. It was widen too for trail riders to easily get up the hill and yet not obstructing the DHers.

After upgraded

Before upgrade

A lot of rolling was constructed too for newbies like me! 🙂 This is where we can train how to handle the rolling.

And, some Table Top jump…

I just wish the trail is much longer than 3km only as this is the only place in Penang that is fully off road. Most of the trails here are cemented single track or tar road. Visit this place and you will love it!

Well, I never come to think that I will own a road bike. I have been riding my MTB for >1 year and still loving it until my boss tempt me with his Cervelo S1. It was a deal too good to pass.

Cervelo is a company up in Canada and they are very famous with the race bike, tri and time trial (TT) bike. What I have is the very last aluminum bike rolls out for Cervelo S series. They are no longer building this bike in aluminum frame. Err… why aluminum? Well, I don’t want to spend tons of money for my 2^nd bike yet it can deliver the power that I wanted.

It took me quite a while before taking up the offer. I have read a lot of the review and mostly all are very positive. Every single one commented that this is a very fast bike and light (some claimed 6.7kg). Of course, it has downside too.

The bike came in unassembled and I have to put it up all by my own. I am gladded that I did as I appreciate the bike more and I know the build of the bike better. All the parts passed down to me were new which never been used (all nicely packed in the boxes) except for the frame which he claimed it was used for 5 times only. And, I believe in him because he has like >15 road bikes either just the frame only or assembled.

These are the bike spec:-

Cervelo Team Soloist (S1) aluminum frame

Cervelo Carbon Aero Seatpost

SRAM Rival Groupset

SRAM Red Chain

American Classic 420 Aero3 (medium profile – 34mm)

Continental GP4000s tires

Time Xpresso4 Pedal

Tioga Saddle

FSA Drop Bar and Stem

Trigon RC28S Full Carbon Fork

I would say this is a very light bike. I managed to get the weight down to 7.72kg for an aluminum bike with pedals and bottle cages! This is an almost all aluminum bike except for the fork and seatpost. I believe I can shed off another couple more hundreds grams but that would means more money to throw in.

The beauty of this bike is it can perform as race bike or TT bike by rotating its seatpost head. The angle of the seat tube immediately changes from 73 degree to 76 degree for the TT bike setup.

The S1 has internal cables routing for both the derailleurs and the rear brake. Normally for an aluminum frame, you don’t see them.

The Ride

Ok, I have to admit the 1^st ride was terrible but not because of the bike. It was the setting I had it all wrong. Coming from MTB rider, I needed time to accustom to it (you can read my blog about Riding a Road Bike). After made all the necessary adjustment, I began to love the bike more and more. I have been going longer distance from 60km to 80km to 110km.

The bike frame is built with Aero down tube and short chainstay (to be exact it is 399cm for a 51cm bike). On a flat road, this bike can take me on an average speed of ~39km/h and I can say that I am not a strong rider. The aero frame and 34mm profile rim did definitely help a lot during the sprinting. There were a few times I got up from my saddle and started to sprint the speed just took off just like I had a jetpack.

Comfort? I would say this is very personal feel. In a forum, there were some people complained that it was too hard on an rough surface but I find it acceptable especially with the Trigon full carbon fork.

The only weakness I see in this bike is going uphill. I have tested with carbon bikes, this bike lacks of power when going uphill. Again, that could be due to the 34mm med profile rim that I have and I may not be the strongest rider out there.

Lastly, the thing that annoys me is the internal cabling sound when I go thru an uneven road or turning a corner. It makes a lot of rattling noises. I probably need to redo internal cabling and put more donuts. That should solve my problem.

Bike Components

Well, SRAM groupset is very famous for 1 thing. Light weight! The Rival groupset is at least few hundreds gram lighter than it’s widely known competitor.

It has a compact crank and the rear cog is 12-25. In this setting, it will gets you going real fast on a flat road.

The SRAM shifting is using Double Tap meaning up and down shift is using the same stick. By lightly tap, it is up shift for the rear cog and to down shift slightly pressed harder and inwards. It allows rapid shifting too by pressing all the way in.

I have not ridden a bike with Shimano 105 long enough to make any comparison comments. But, I would say the gear shifting is not as smooth as Shimano Ultegra but that again is not a fair comparison.

Getting in and out from the Time Xpresso4 pedal is so easy that you can’t imagine. Before using Time, I used Look pedal and I always have to look before clip on but not on Time. Also, slight twist it disengaged easily.

Conclusion

If I have to buy another road bike, it will definitely be aero frame. It is fast, light and agile. And, if $ is not a problem, I will get back a Cervelo bike. I really like their design, geometry and responsiveness.