The Ultimate Retro Modern Superbike

Cycling Weekly

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.

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,

00:06 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,

00:30 but as I see it, the bike industry's efforts over the last decade or so

00:33 to fix things that ain't broke means less choice and more expense for the consumer.

00:38 However, if you know where to look, it's still possible to incorporate

00:42 those retro elements into a cutting-edge road bike.

00:45 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,

00:52 you can get it made-to-measure, handmade in Italy, and with a custom paint job.

00:57 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.

01:12 They're made in the Far East, they're off the peg,

01:14 and this bike is actually cheaper than the Colnago C68 and the Pinarello Dogma F.

01:19 [Music]

01:24 If you've never heard of Racer Rosa, it's basically a London-based Italian brand

01:28 that imports wholesale Italian culture into Walthamstow.

01:32 And that includes the bike fittings, with Giuseppe Giannachini,

01:35 who is a bike fitter who fits well to a prose, and flies into London

01:39 one weekend every month for fittings with Racer Rosa.

01:42 I went for a fitting with Giuseppe in 2016, and that's where the journey started.

01:47 Racer Rosa built me an aluminium made-to-measure frame based on Giuseppe's measurements.

01:51 And although I'm not particularly unusually proportioned,

01:54 the advantage of a made-to-measure bike, a bespoke bike, is that everything is absolutely perfect.

01:59 The stem length is exactly right, there are no spaces underneath the stem or above it,

02:03 there's exactly the right amount of seatposts sticking out.

02:06 Everything about the bike not only is right, but it looks right too.

02:11 When I'm not reviewing a bike for my day job here at Cycling Weekly,

02:14 the aluminium bike has been my go-to bike for the last few years, ever since they built it for me.

02:19 When Racer Rosa offered to build me a carbon bike based on those same measurements,

02:22 I absolutely jumped at the chance.

02:24 Racer Rosa use established, you could even say iconic, frame builders,

02:28 and this bike was made by Ducordi, using the tube-to-tube construction,

02:32 where every tube is mitered and cut exactly to match Giuseppe's geometry.

02:36 You can even see Luigi Ducordi's signature here on the top tube.

02:40 I wanted as classic a frame 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 with a little bit of extra seatposts sticking out.

02:55 The tubes themselves are squared off rather than rounded, but the silhouette itself is absolutely perfect.

03:01 Now, I did mention that I didn't want balloon tyres, and the clearance is pretty tight, like a proper race bike.

03:07 Now, I'm going to be running 25mm tyres, not 28mm, and I certainly don't need to run 34mm,

03:13 so it's got nice, tight clearances.

03:16 It has a tapered head tube, 1 1/8" to 1 1/2", and that actually is a concession to modernity that I'm absolutely fine with,

03:23 because the steering is so precise, and I definitely do not want to go back to one of those 1" steers that just flops all over the place.

03:30 Another thing that I definitely didn't want is an integrated cockpit.

03:33 I just want a traditional stem and bar as separate components that I can replace easily if I need to, replace the cables,

03:40 and I want the cables out.

03:41 If you look at the front end, you can see the Silver Campagnolo logo on the cable, and, you know, who doesn't like that?

03:48 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, 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 or even an accidental German National Champions livery.

04:10 Now, what I actually wanted originally was some kind of a sunburst finish, like Fender guitars.

04:15 I'm a bass player, and I really love that classic sunburst finish.

04:18 There's a video on YouTube of guitar bodies being sprayed yellow, 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," and he started putting in the yellow and the red and the black, 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, and then it's got a blue-grey at the rear triangle,

04:42 and it's all glossed, and it looks absolutely lovely.

04:50 I finally and regretfully accepted that the steel Roberts that I bought second-hand and built up for that Restomod video last year was too big for me.

04:59 I didn't want to fit a stubby stem on it, so I stripped off the Chorus groupset.

05:03 Luckily, I'd never ridden it in the rain, and I brought it here for its new home on the Racer Rosa.

05:08 I sang Chorus's praises a lot in that video.

05:11 It's a lovely groupset, and besides, it would be a crime to fit Shimano or SRAM to an Italian bike, in my view anyway.

05:18 If you want a mechanical groupset, Chorus is the only choice for a handmade Italian bike.

05:22 I just absolutely love the snappy shifting, the marbled cranks, the aesthetic is just absolutely perfect for this handmade bike.

05:29 And even though it's only the third-tier groupset, it is not underpowered for a bike like this.

05:33 It has a 52/36 chain set and an 11/29 cassette, which is perfect for the type of riding I do,

05:39 which includes club runs, group rides, even the odd road time trial.

05:43 Next up, the wheels. Now, I reviewed these Mieke SWR50 wheels a few years ago,

05:48 and they're already becoming a little bit old-school 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. This bike has narrow clearances.

05:59 I'm going to put 25mm tyres on them, which go really nicely.

06:03 Now, they're 1600g just over, so they're not the very lightest, but I'm guessing they're pretty aerodynamic,

06:09 they look great, build quality is really good, and they sound really nice too.

06:14 As for the tyres, they're going to be Continental Grand Prix 5000s, 25mm size of course.

06:20 And these are not Italian tyres, obviously, but they're really great tyres, I love them,

06:24 and in the end it means that the German flag does get to appear on my Italian bike after all.

06:29 And finally, the finishing kit. It's all Italian, Deda Super Zero Carbon.

06:34 And the saddle is Italian too, it's the Selle Italia SLR Superflow, which I just get on really well with,

06:39 and didn't really have to think twice about that.

06:42 Now, if you're wondering what the total cost of this bike is, I added everything up as if I bought it from you,

06:47 and it comes to £7,435.

06:51 So here is the complete build list.

06:53 Frame, £4,700.

06:56 Groupset, £1,145.

06:59 Wheels, £1,150.

07:03 Finishing kit, £300.

07:05 Saddle, £70.

07:07 Tyres, £70.

07:09 Total, £7,435.

07:12 Is there anything about this bike that I don't like?

07:15 Okay, well, if I'm really honest, 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, rim brakes over disc brakes,

07:26 is not going to go with a press-fit bottom bracket.

07:29 But I have enough faith in Decorative's manufacturing that I don't think this bottom bracket is going to creak.

07:34 It's going to be really well made. Everything is going to be straight and round.

07:37 Quality control is going to be at a really high level, so this bottom bracket is not going to creak.

07:42 So I'm happy with that.

07:44 And in a kind of bottom bracket, belt and braces sort of thing,

07:47 it also has an aluminium sleeve inside 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, 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 compliment I could give it, because for me, that is the benchmark.

08:07 But it's better than that because it's so much lighter.

08:10 It weighs 7.5 kilos altogether, which obviously is a lot lighter than a classic steel race bike.

08:15 And you really notice that when you ride it. It just accelerates. It's so responsive.

08:19 I mean, it's firmer than those bikes that have the big tyres,

08:22 but really, you know, it's got the classic ride, 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.

08:34 I've done a couple of commutes, although you don't really want to use this kind of bike for commuting,

08:38 and you're going to eat into its lifespan if you do that.

08:41 I've had it for a couple of months, and every single ride, I've just absolutely loved riding it.

08:45 It's just an absolute joy.

08:47 The only problem is, if this is my ultimate bike, what is my N+1?

08:52 Let me know what you think of my dream bike in the comments underneath.

08:55 And if you've enjoyed this video, don't forget to like and subscribe to the channel, and I'll see you again soon.

09:00 [Music]

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