The Ultimate Retro Modern Superbike
What if you want a high-quality lightweight, modern carbon road bike but you prefer rim brakes, a mechanical groupset and don’t want balloon tyres for so called ‘all road’ riding?
In this video I’m going to show that that - despite the best efforts of the industry - bikes like this do still exist. I’ve found the ultimate modern bike for the retrogrouch. The Racer Rosa is an example of a bike which proves that you can still buy a top end carbon road bike with rim brakes and is compatible with mechanical gears.
In this video I’m going to show that that - despite the best efforts of the industry - bikes like this do still exist. I’ve found the ultimate modern bike for the retrogrouch. The Racer Rosa is an example of a bike which proves that you can still buy a top end carbon road bike with rim brakes and is compatible with mechanical gears.
Transcript
00:00 What if you want a high quality, lightweight, modern carbon road bike,
00:03 but you prefer rim brakes, a mechanical groupset, and you don't need balloon tyres for so-called all-road riding?
00:09 In this video, I'm going to show you that despite the best efforts of the industry,
00:13 bikes like this do still exist.
00:15 I've found the ultimate modern road bike for the retro grouch.
00:25 Call me old-fashioned, sit in my ways, grumpy even, guilty as charged, but as I see it,
00:31 the bike industry's efforts over the last decade or so to fix things that ain't broke
00:35 means less choice and more expense for the consumer.
00:37 However, if you know where to look, it's still possible to incorporate those retro elements
00:43 into a cutting-edge road bike.
00:44 Not only that, but for the same price as those flagship frames from the big brands
00:49 that are electronic groupset and disc brake only, you can get it made to measure,
00:53 handmade in Italy, and with a custom paint job.
00:56 Yes, it costs over £4,000 for the frameset, £4,700 to be precise,
01:02 but that is about the same as the Cervelo R5, the S-Works Athos, and the Endi Mele,
01:07 all of which are electronic groupset and disc brake compatible only.
01:11 They're made in the Far East, they're off the peg, and this bike is actually cheaper
01:15 than the Colnago C68 and the Pinarello Dogma F.
01:19 If you've never heard of Racer Rosa, it's basically a London-based Italian brand
01:24 that imports wholesale Italian culture into Walthamstow.
01:27 And that includes the bike fittings, with Giuseppe Giannachini,
01:31 who is a bike fitter who fits well to a prose,
01:34 and flies into London one weekend every month for fittings with Racer Rosa.
01:38 I went for a fitting with Giuseppe in 2016, and that's where the journey started.
01:42 Racer Rosa built me an aluminium mini bike,
01:45 based on Giuseppe's measurements, and although I'm not particularly unusually proportioned,
01:50 the advantage of a made-to-measure bike, a bespoke bike, is that everything is absolutely perfect.
01:55 The stem length is exactly right, there are no spaces underneath the stem or above it,
01:59 there's exactly the right amount of seatpost sticking out.
02:02 Everything about the bike not only is right, but it looks right too.
02:05 When I'm not reviewing a bike for my day job here at Cycling Weekly,
02:10 the aluminium bike has been my go-to bike for the last few years.
02:13 Ever since they built it for me. When Racer Rosa offered to build me a carbon bike,
02:17 based on those same measurements, I absolutely jumped at the chance.
02:20 Racer Rosa used established, you could even say iconic, frame builders,
02:24 and this bike was made by Ducordi, using the tube-to-tube construction,
02:28 where every tube is mitered and cut exactly to match Giuseppe's geometry.
02:32 You can even see Luigi Ducordi's signature here on the top tube.
02:35 I wanted as classic a frame as possible, and that means I had to make a frame
02:40 that was as straight as possible, and that means straight tubes and no drop seat stays.
02:45 Now, the top tube on this does have a very little slope on it, it's not quite horizontal,
02:50 and that's so that I can get a little bit of extra comfort,
02:52 with a little bit of extra seatpost sticking out.
02:54 The tubes themselves are squared off rather than rounded,
02:58 but the silhouette itself is absolutely perfect.
03:01 Now, I did mention that I didn't want balloon tyres,
03:05 and the clearance is pretty tight, like a proper race bike.
03:08 Now, I'm going to be running 25mm tyres, not 28mm,
03:11 and I certainly don't need to run 34mm, so it's got nice tight clearances.
03:15 It has a tapered head tube, inch and an eighth to an inch and a half,
03:19 and that actually is a concession to modernity that I'm absolutely fine with,
03:23 because the steering is so precise,
03:25 and I definitely do not want to go back to one of those one-inch steers
03:28 that just flops all over the place.
03:30 Another thing that I definitely didn't want is an integrated cockpit.
03:34 I just want a traditional stem and bar as separate components
03:37 that I can replace easily if I need to replace the cables,
03:40 and I want the cables out.
03:42 If you look at the front end, you can see the silver Campagnolo logo on the cable,
03:46 and, you know, who doesn't like that?
03:47 Now, the bike could have been made with the stem slammed and the steerer cut right down,
03:52 but when I went for my fitting,
03:53 Giuseppe noticed that my flexibility wasn't quite everything it should be,
03:57 so I've just got 5mm of adjustment each way, just in case.
04:01 Being given the chance to design your own paint scheme is liberating,
04:05 but you can easily end up with a dog's dinner,
04:06 or even an accidental German National Champions livery.
04:09 Now, what I actually wanted originally was some kind of a sunburst finish,
04:14 like Fender guitars.
04:15 I'm a bass player, and I really love that classic sunburst finish.
04:17 There's a video on YouTube of guitar bodies being sprayed yellow,
04:22 and then the black goes on around the edges, and then finally the red.
04:25 So I said to Diego at Racer Rosa, "Let's do a sunburst finish,"
04:29 and he started putting in the yellow, and the red, and the black,
04:31 and then it hit me.
04:34 We had a rethink, and now we started with a pearl white for the main colour,
04:38 and it goes into a deep orange, and then a flame red,
04:40 and then it's got a blue-grey at the rear triangle.
04:42 And it's all gloss, and it looks absolutely lovely.
04:44 I finally and regretfully accepted that the steel Roberts
04:53 that I bought second-hand and built up for that Resto Mod video last year
04:58 was too big for me.
04:59 I didn't want to fit a stubby stem on it, so I stripped off the Chorus Group set.
05:03 Luckily, I'd never ridden it in the rain,
05:05 and I brought it here for its new home on the Racer Rosa.
05:07 I sang Chorus's praises a lot in that video.
05:11 It's a lovely group set, and besides, it would be a crime
05:13 to fit Shimano or SRAM to an Italian bike, in my view anyway.
05:17 If you want a mechanical group set, Chorus is the only choice
05:20 for a handmade Italian bike.
05:22 I just absolutely love the snappy shifting, the marbled cranks.
05:26 The aesthetic is just absolutely perfect for this handmade bike.
05:29 And even though it's only the third-tier group set,
05:31 it is not underpowered for a bike like this.
05:33 It has a 52/36 chain set and an 11/29 cassette,
05:37 which is perfect for the type of riding I do,
05:39 which includes club runs, group rides, even the odd road time trial.
05:42 Next up, the wheels.
05:45 Now, I reviewed these Mieke SWR50 wheels a few years ago,
05:48 and they're already becoming a little bit old school
05:50 because they have a narrow internal rim width of 17mm,
05:53 which is not the biggest compared to wheels these days.
05:56 But for my purposes, they're perfect.
05:58 This bike has narrow clearances.
06:00 I'm going to put 25mm tires on them, which go really nicely.
06:03 Now, they're 1600g just over, so they're not the very lightest,
06:08 but I'm guessing they're pretty aerodynamic.
06:09 They look great, build quality is really good,
06:11 and they sound really nice too.
06:13 As for the tires, they're going to be Continental Grand Prix 5000s,
06:18 25mm size, of course.
06:20 And these are not Italian tires, obviously,
06:22 but they're really great tires.
06:23 I love them.
06:24 And in the end, it means that the German flag does get to appear
06:27 on my Italian bike after all.
06:29 And finally, the finishing kit.
06:31 It's all Italian Deda Super Zero Carbon.
06:34 And the saddle is Italian too.
06:35 It's the Selle Italia SLR Superflow,
06:38 which I just get on really well with
06:39 and didn't really have to think twice about that.
06:41 And now, if you're wondering what the total cost of this bike is,
06:44 I added everything up as if I bought it from you,
06:47 and it comes to £7,435.
06:49 So here is the complete build list.
06:53 Frame, £4,700.
06:55 Groupset, £1,145.
06:59 Wheels, £1,150.
07:02 Finishing kit, £300.
07:04 Saddle, £70.
07:06 Tires, £70.
07:08 Total, £7,435.
07:11 Is there anything about this bike that I don't like?
07:15 Okay, well, if I'm really honest,
07:17 I'm really not sure that a press fit bottom bracket would have been my first choice.
07:22 Somebody who goes for a mechanical groupset over electronic,
07:24 rim brakes over disc brakes,
07:26 is not going to go with a press fit bottom bracket.
07:28 But I have enough faith in Decordia's manufacturing
07:31 that I don't think this bottom bracket is going to creak.
07:34 It's going to be really well made.
07:35 Everything is going to be straight and round.
07:37 Quality control is going to be at a really high level.
07:40 So this bottom bracket is not going to creak.
07:42 So I'm happy with that.
07:43 And in the kind of bottom bracket, belt and braces sort of thing,
07:47 it also has an aluminium sleeve inside
07:49 so that the cups aren't directly pressing on the carbon.
07:52 Other than that, this is my dream bike.
07:55 It fits absolutely perfectly, of course,
07:57 since it's made to measure the ride quality.
07:59 I mean, I can probably say that I can compare it to a classic steel race bike,
08:03 and that is the biggest compliments I could give it
08:05 because for me, that is the benchmark.
08:07 But it's better than that because it's so much lighter.
08:09 It weighs 7.5 kilos altogether,
08:11 which obviously is a lot lighter than a classic steel race bike.
08:14 And you really notice that when you ride it.
08:16 It just accelerates.
08:17 It's so responsive.
08:19 I mean, it's firmer than those bikes that have the big tyres.
08:21 But really, you know, it's got the classic ride,
08:24 and that's what I'm looking for.
08:25 As for its speed, it's a fast bike.
08:28 I've already won first road bike in my local club time trial.
08:31 I've been on a really fast group ride with it.
08:33 I've done a couple of commutes,
08:34 although, you know, you don't really want to use this kind of bike for commuting,
08:37 and you're going to eat into its lifespan if you do that.
08:40 I've had it for a couple of months,
08:41 and every single ride, I've just absolutely loved riding it.
08:44 It's just an absolute joy.
08:46 The only problem is, if this is my ultimate bike,
08:50 what is my N+1?
08:51 Let me know what you think of my dream bike in the comments underneath.
08:55 And if you've enjoyed this video,
08:56 don't forget to like and subscribe to the channel,
08:59 and I'll see you again soon.
09:00 [Music]