Col Petite St Bernard. Quite near the top

The base of Sa Colobra - Day 3 training camp

BIKE OF THE MONTH MARCH '08

SEROTTA OTTROTT SE (CUSTOM CARBON)
Tool for the job
Value For Money
Before I owned an Ottrott myself and customers asked me if it was worth the extra cash I would say that it was a case of diminishing returns: “the Ottrott’s better but the ride improvement is marginal”. After my first ride this perception completely changed, the frame is ten times better than anything you can get for half the price, I’m not kidding. My first ride was up through Primrose Hill to Highgate and Crystal Palace and I was completely stunned with the smoothness of the bike and contrary to my expectations for such a comfortable ride was the Ottrott's lightning fast acceleration – it felt like the frame stored up its own energy and gave you a little bit of extra thrust when you asked it to – amazing.
Downhill Tool
Serottas like going down hill fast as well, I’ve never ridden such a predictable and stable bike, you can build up so much speed that you have to brake a long way before you get to the corners otherwise you would never make it through. Carving through the corners is great fun, loading the outside pedal and the inside of the handlebar you can feel the ST stays following the contours of the road and biting in to the tarmac. No speed wobbles and no back wheel skipping.
This rider feedback is so important, if you aren’t getting any information back from the road through the frame you are unable to tell how far you can lean in to the corner.

Grip, Line and predictable Slide
Frames aside that’s one of the reasons we like Michelin tyres, you can feel them start to slide in dry and wet conditions and it gives you time to make corrections, on hot days they’ll even make little squeeling noises to let you know you should back off a little and that you are over forty years old and should know better.

My Ottrott is equipped with a Record compact groupset (I have a small supply of the old style Record levers that give you a multiple gear shift in one strike, I don’t like the new ones with the one-at-a-time gear change). The ergo levers sit neatly in my hands and I have to give the brake levers a little squeeze as I walk past her in the shop, caressing the carbon levers and feeling the subtle modulation of the brake calipers. They are fixed to a pair of the shallow-drop Newton bars. which are much more attractive than the ergo style and the drop from brake hoods to the drops is less which suits us little fellas.
I have been using Cosmic Carbone wheels for the last three years (on and off-road) and although they are a bit of a pain in the arse to inflate they give a very punchy ride and make a lovely noise. You can definitely feel the benefit of a deep section wheel when the speed goes up, you get to about 23mph and then its like it suddenly gets a little easier…which is always a bonus.

Its not quite the lightest frame in the world but Serotta's are built for a lifetime of serious use. Plus my frame and fork weigh about 1500 grams which is plenty light enough. There is so much rubbish talked about frame weight - a frame is only about 15% of the total bike's weight - there are plenty of better places to save weight if you have to. The two most important goals with a quality bicycle frame must be 1. Strength and hence safety and 2. Ride Integrity. Weight is a distant 3rd.
Serottas are built to last and the Ottrott is particularly strong as each tube is rider-specific and tuned, and that is a comforting thought when hitting a pot hole at 50 mph, shaving grams off a frame to get it under a kilo will compromise its strength, durability and the ride quality, give me the Serotta ride any day.

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Read Marcel Wust's review of the frame we designed for him ..more