Fascenario 0.7 II

About a month ago we talked about Marcus Storck and his beautifully designed and manufactured carbon-fiber frames. We were very proud of the bike we built for one of our clients. We have another one, with slightly different characteristics from the earlier build. This is also based on a Fascenario 0.7 frame. Its attributes, besides being extremely light and stiff, are the exquisite craftsmanship and seamless lines. The tubes that form the frame seem to flow organically one into the other.

In the case of this bike, however, we installed different components, such as Lightweight Standard carbon-fiber clincher wheels, manufactured by Carbon Sports, a German company. This is a very light wheelset for clinchers, somewhere in the order of 1,000 grams in weight, in keeping with the overall character of this bike.

In this bike, the gruppo consists of SRAM Red components, some of the lightest available. But rather than installing Storck’s proprietary PowerArms crankset, this time we opted for an integrated power monitor and crankset. The PowerMeter has become an indispensable accessory for serious riders, those who follow a scientific method of training, with everything based on numbers and diagrams. How much power can a cyclist produce, at a certain cadence, and for how long? These numbers provide a profile of an athlete’s fitness, and, perhaps more importantly, show the weak areas, those that must be improved to show better results. Clearly, this is a set up to train a rider with competitive ambitions.

The PowerMeter, wirelessly connected to the bike computer, is manufactured by SRM, also a German company. The actual crankset is by FSA (Full Speed Ahead), with the chain rings set up in a standard configuration (53-39).

The brakes, Ciamillo Gravitas, are also extremely lightweight. Ciamillo is a Nicholson, GA, based company. The SuperLogic Carbon seat post is by Ritchey Design, a company located in Reno, NV. Finally, also in keeping with the character of this bike and attempting to reduce its weight to the minimum, we installed a Nokon Carbon cable set.

This is one very light bike. One can admire it at home as a trophy, and it’s worth admiring, or one can ride it, and it is fast and nimble. As much as I like it, I’d rather ride it than just look at it.