Legend Ti – the Swiss watch of bicycles

My Legend gives me the confidence to do this…
…and the inspiration to do this.

BIKE OF THE MONTH APRIL '08 SEROTTA LEGEND SE -
THE STAFF RACER! By Kimberly Kabattoff
In the summer of 2004, after 7 years' service, I was made redundant from a decent City job and decided to spend some of my considerable settlement on a present for myself. One of my colleagues in a similar situation had bought herself a diamond tennis bracelet; I'm not really one for jewelry or frivolous things (and I already had a diamond tennis bracelet) but it occurred to me that since I would no longer be spending my whole day in front of a computer with a clock on the office wall, it might be useful to start wearing a wristwatch.

I love and appreciate things that do exactly what they're supposed to do superlatively well so it didn't take me long to decide on a Rolex. Two years later, when I was tempted back to the City with a job offer I couldn't refuse, I decided to treat myself to a new bike. It didn't take me long to decide on a Serotta Legend

On my old alloy frame, descents on pitted tarmac were a nightmare; my hands would be numb with buzzing through the handlebars and my eyeballs would rattle so in my skull that I could scarcely see where I was going. Any sort of helpful feedback from the road was drowned out by the white noise of frame vibration. Nevermind being last up the hills, I was last down them, too. It just made me feel like a fat, slow, incompetent cyclist.

This opinion changed for good during a training ride at Eastway (RIP) one day not long after I took delivery of my Legend. I had done a few races there and, since I live nearby, used often to go and pay the £2.60 fee to ride around the circuit for training. On Clarie's corner, I never worried about grounding a pedal; I was sure that I would never corner so aggressively or lean the bike so much. So I got a real shock when, during my fastest ever lap there, I sprinted out of the turn and whacked my inside pedal on the ground so hard that the bike lifted up underneath me and caused the rear wheel to skip out. But, testament to the bike's balance and agility, I stayed upright and finally felt like a proper cyclist. I still have that gouged pedal as a memento of my cycling coming-of-age.

But even in less dramatic circumstances the superlative ride of the Legend was immediately apparent. On the Sunday Surrey hills rides, that dreaded road buzz that made me think, “If I have to endure this infernal rattling for one more second I'm going to lose my mind!” was absent. There's a vibration plate fitness training place just down the road from us here in Covent Garden that claims to give you a “whole body workout in just 25 minutes”, evidence of the fatiguing effects of a harsh-riding frame. I don't want to waste my effort coping with that while I'm riding. Frankly, I need all my neurological and physical energy to be directed into turning the pedals, and that's what I feel happens with the Legend.

With aero-bladed Campag Eurus or Mavic Cosmic Carbon wheels, it's my race bike. I put on Campag Neutrons for the Alps and for long training rides and fair weather commuting (the shallow rims and traditional spoking mean they're light but bulletproof.) In its most recent incarnation as a Classics bike, I've put a pair of Zipp 303 Pave wheels shod with Vittoria 24mm Pave tubs on it. I didn't ask Julian to design me a frame that could specifically do any of these things. I'm sure if I'd asked for a race bike, or a classics bike, or a commuting bike, the geometry would've ended up quite different. What I asked for was a confidence-inspiring bike and confidence and inspiration is what this bike has given me in spades!

Though I've added considerably to my stable in the past 2 years, and often joke that my bikes are my babies so how can I possibly have a favourite, my Legend is the bike that I most love to ride.
Four years ago, when I called home to tell my father I'd been made redundant and bought myself a Rolex, I half-expected him to say, “Oh no, now of all times, why on earth do you want a watch like that?” I was pleasantly surprised when he actually said, “Good for you! You've worked so hard for so long; you deserve to buy yourself something nice.”

 

That's what I said to myself when I bought my Legend.


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