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.
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00:00What if you want a high-quality, lightweight, modern carbon road bike, but you prefer rim
00:04brakes, a mechanical groupset, and you don't need balloon tyres for so-called all-road
00:09riding?
00:10In this video, I'm going to show you that, despite the best efforts of the industry,
00:14bikes like this do still exist.
00:15I've found the ultimate modern road bike for the Retro Grouch.
00:25Call me old-fashioned, set in my ways, grumpy even, guilty as charged, but as I see it,
00:31the bike industry's efforts over the last decade or so to fix things that ain't broke
00:35means less choice and more expense for the consumer.
00:38However, if you know where to look, it's still possible to incorporate those retro elements
00:43into a cutting-edge road bike.
00:45Not only that, but for the same price as those flagship frames from the big brands that are
00:49electronic groupset and disc brake only, you can get it made to measure, handmade in Italy
00:55and with a custom paint job.
00:57Yes, it costs over £4,000 for the frameset, £4,700 to be precise, but that is about the
01:03same as the Cervelo R5, the S-Works Athos and the Envy Mele, all of which are electronic
01:09groupset and disc brake compatible only.
01:11They're made in the Far East, they're off the peg, and this bike is actually cheaper
01:16than the Colnago C68 and the Pinarello Dogma F.
01:24If you've never heard of Racerosa, it's basically a London-based Italian brand that imports
01:29wholesale Italian culture into Walthamstow, and that includes the bike fittings with Giuseppe
01:34Giannachini, who is a bike fitter who fits well to a pros and flies into London one weekend
01:40every month for fittings with Racerosa.
01:42I went for a fitting with Giuseppe in 2016, and that's where the journey started.
01:47Racerosa built me an aluminium made-to-measure frame based on Giuseppe's measurements, and although
01:52I'm not particularly unusually proportioned, the advantage of a made-to-measure bike, a
01:56bespoke bike, is that everything is absolutely perfect.
01:59The stem length is exactly right, there are no spaces underneath the stem or above it, there's
02:04exactly the right amount of seatposts sticking out.
02:07Everything about the bike not only is right, but it looks right too.
02:11When I'm not reviewing a bike for my day job here at Cycling Weekly, the aluminium bike
02:15has been my go-to bike for the last few years, ever since they built it for me.
02:19When Racerosa offered to build me a carbon bike based on those same measurements, I absolutely
02:23jumped at the chance.
02:25Racerosa used established, you could even say iconic, frame builders, and this bike was
02:28made by Decordi, using the tube-to-tube construction where every tube is mitered and cut exactly
02:34to match Giuseppe's geometry.
02:37You could even see Luigi Decordi's signature here on the top tube.
02:41I want it as classic a frame as possible, and that means straight tubes and no drop
02:45seat state.
02:46Now, the top tube on this does have very little slope on it, it's not quite horizontal, and
02:50that's so that I can get a little bit of extra comfort with a little bit of extra seatpost
02:54sticking out.
02:56The tubes themselves are squared off rather than rounded, but the silhouette itself is
03:00absolutely perfect.
03:02Now I did mention that I didn't want balloon tyres, and the clearance is pretty tight like
03:07a proper race bike.
03:08Now I'm going to be running 25mm tyres, not 28s, and I certainly don't need to run 34s,
03:14so it's got nice tight clearances.
03:17It has a tapered head tube, 1 1⁄8 to 1 1⁄2 and that actually is a concession to modernity
03:22that I'm absolutely fine with, because the steering is so precise and I definitely do
03:26not want to go back to one of those 1-inch steerers that just flops all over the place.
03:31Another thing that I definitely didn't want is an integrated cockpit.
03:34I just want a traditional stem and bar as separate components that I can replace easily
03:39if I need to, replace the cables, and I want the cables out.
03:42If you look at the front end you can see the Silver Campagnolo logo on the cable, and who
03:47doesn't like that?
03:49Now the bike could have been made with the stem slammed and the steerer cut right down,
03:52but when I went for my fitting Giuseppe noticed that my flexibility wasn't quite everything
03:57it should be, so I've just got 5mm of adjustment each way, just in case.
04:02Being given the chance to design your own paint scheme is liberating, but you can easily
04:06end up with a dog's dinner or even an accidental German National Champions livery.
04:11Now what I actually wanted originally was some kind of a sunburst finish like Fender Guitars.
04:15I'm a bass player and I really love that classic sunburst finish.
04:19There's a video on YouTube of guitar bodies being sprayed yellow, and then the black goes
04:23on around the edges, and then finally the red.
04:25So I said to Diego at Racer Rosa, let's do a sunburst finish, and he started putting
04:30in the yellow and the red and the black, and then it hit me.
04:34We had a rethink, and now we started with a pearl white for the main colour, and it goes
04:38into a deep orange, and then a flame red, and then it's got a blue-grey at the rear triangle,
04:43and it's all gloss, and it looks absolutely lovely.
04:50I finally and regretfully accepted that the steel Roberts that I bought second hand and
04:55built up for that Resto Mod video last year was too big for me.
04:59I didn't want to fit a stubby stem on it, so I stripped off the Chorus groupset, luckily
05:04I'd never ridden it in the rain, and I brought it here for its new home on the Racer Rosa.
05:08I sang Chorus' praises a lot in that video.
05:11It's a lovely groupset, and besides it would be a crime to fit Shimano or SRAM to an Italian
05:16bike, in my view anyway.
05:18If you want a mechanical groupset, Chorus is the only choice for a handmade Italian
05:22bike.
05:23I just absolutely love the snappy shifting, the marbled cranks, the aesthetic is just
05:27absolutely perfect for this handmade bike, and even though it's only the third tier groupset,
05:31it is not underpowered for a bike like this.
05:34It has a 52-36 chainset and an 11-29 cassette, which is perfect for the type of riding I do,
05:39which includes club runs, group rides, even the odd road time trial.
05:44Next up, the wheels.
05:45Now, I reviewed these Miike SWR50 wheels a few years ago, and they're already becoming
05:50a little bit old school, because they have a narrow internal rim width of 17mm, which
05:54is not the biggest compared to wheels these days.
05:57But for my purposes, they're perfect.
05:58This bike has narrow clearances.
06:00I'm going to put 25mm tires on them, which go really nicely.
06:04Now, they're 1600 grams, just over, so they're not the very lightest, but I'm guessing they're
06:09pretty aerodynamic, they look great, build quality is really good, and they sound really
06:12nice too.
06:15As for the tires, they're going to be Continental Grand Prix 5000s, 25mm size, of course.
06:20And these are not Italian tires, obviously, but they're really great tires, I love them,
06:25and in the end it means that the German flag does get to appear on my Italian bike after
06:28all.
06:29And finally, the finishing kit, it's all Italian Deda SuperZero carbon.
06:34And the saddle is Italian too, it's the Selle Italia SLR Superflow, which I just get on really
06:39well with, and didn't really have to think twice about that.
06:41Now, if you're wondering what the total cost of this bike is, I added everything up as if
06:46I bought it from you, and it comes to £7,435.
06:51So here is the complete build list.
06:53Frame £4,700, Groupset £1,145, Wheels £1,150, Finishing Kit £300, Saddle £70, Tyres £70, Total £7,435.
07:13Is there anything about this bike that I don't like?
07:16OK, well, if I'm really honest, I'm really not sure that a press-fit bottom bracket would
07:20have been my first choice.
07:22Somebody who goes for a mechanical group set over electronic, rim brakes over disc brakes,
07:26is not going to go with a press-fit bottom bracket.
07:29But I have enough faith in Decordy's manufacturing that I don't think this bottom bracket is going
07:33to creak.
07:34It's going to be really well made, everything is going to be straight and round, quality
07:38control is going to be at a really high level, so this bottom bracket is not going to creak.
07:43So I'm happy with that.
07:45And in a kind of bottom bracket, belt and braces sort of thing, it also has an aluminium sleeve
07:49inside so that the cups aren't directly pressing on the carbon.
07:53Other than that, this is my dream bike.
07:55It fits absolutely perfectly, of course, since it's made to measure the ride quality.
07:59I mean, I can probably say that I can compare it to a classic steel race bike and that is
08:04the biggest compliments I could give it, because for me, that is the benchmark.
08:07But it's better than that because it's so much lighter.
08:10It weighs 7.5 kilos altogether, which obviously is a lot lighter than a classic steel race
08:14bike.
08:15And you really notice that when you ride it, it just accelerates, it's so responsive.
08:19I mean, it's firmer than those bikes that have the big tyres, but really, you know, it's
08:23got the classic ride and that's what I'm looking for.
08:26As for its speed, it's a fast bike.
08:28I've already won first road bike in my local club time trial.
08:32I've been on a really fast group ride with it.
08:34I've done a couple of commutes, although, you know, you don't really want to use this kind
08:37of bike for commuting and you're going to eat into its lifespan if you do that.
08:41I've had it for a couple of months and every single ride, I've just absolutely loved riding
08:45it.
08:46It is just an absolute joy.
08:47The only problem is, if this is my ultimate bike, what is my N plus one?
08:52Let me know what you think of my dream bike in the comments underneath.
08:55And if you've enjoyed this video, don't forget to like and subscribe to the channel and I'll
08:59see you again soon.