Simon’s ISP road bike

2017 update: After six years of solid use, Simon sent his bike back for a little freshen up! The frame was stripped and the cable stops removed. I also fixed a dent in the toptube before applying fresh powdercoat. The Ritchey stem was looking a bit tired, so that was coated too, and the fork was cleaned up and painted matte black.

Then for the reassembly, the bike now has SRAM eTap, with a Praxis Zayante 4iii powercrank and TriRig Omega brakes. Heading back to Simon for more riding :-

A variation on my theme of an ISP road bike – adding a 44mm headtube for a Chris King Inset headset. This adds a little bit of weight, but gives a bigger interface for the toptube and downtube joints, and a cleaner integration with the Edge fork. A full Campagnolo Record groupset, Zonda wheels and Ritchey bar/stem complete the build for a sub 17lb overall weight. Paint is a double coat fade from Sapphire to Midnight blue.

Here’s Simon’s report:

“It’s been three weeks now with the new bike so enough time has gone by for me to get a general idea of how the frame behaves and my overall thoughts. Last weekend I decided to do my first race of the season considering I couldn’t make any excuses any more because of a bike. The wisdom of jumping into the first race at the height of the season is questionable and I was positive by half way through I’d be cooked. But somehow 42 miles in with 1 mile left I was still in the front group. I was saved from attempting the sprint by the guy in front of me nearly taking out half the back of the pack. The bike performed beautifully. My initial impression still stands, that the frame feels smooth. NYC is very bumpy and bikes take some serious abuse, When I lived in Vermont even the dirt roads were smoother than many of the NYC streets. The frame is not beating me up compared to the Reynolds 953 which had oversized seatstays and I could feel every bump and vibration. The difference is very striking, on the new frame I feel a lot more energy going to into forward momentum instead of my bum trying to absorb shocks. As for the front end well I didn’t know what to expect but it looks way cool and man is it stiff. My hands hurt a lot more from hard efforts or sprints as I can really push on the bars a lot harder. Not a negative just need to readjust my style, I used to keep a vulcan death grip on the bars to keep the front end chatter down, now I can relax and just concentrate on the effort. Last but not least the bike just looks cool. Bike riding is a mental sport, your body can do so much more if the brain just goes along. To be riding on a bike that looks good just adds that little extra to the ride.”

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