A Cyclist's Life in Tenerife (Canary Islands)

In recent news, we received a package from Pro Lite yesterday (well 7 actually). Included in this shipment are two new road framesets in 56cm and 60.5cm sizes as well as one 19.5″ hardtail MTB frame. These are manufactured from 7046 aluminium alloy and the weight of the 54.5cm alloy road frame is a respectable 1258 grams! They definitely look like they are worth the money.

Everything fit right out of the box and nothing was omitted from the order. All the parts were the right size and spec too, so there were absolutely no mistakes. Frames came equipped with BB cable guides and barrel adjusters preinstalled, a nice touch. I noticed that all the BB threads were cut extremely well and very clean, while the headset bearings plopped straight into the nicely machined headtubes. The only thing I had to do was lightly sand the inside of the seat tube to stop the carbon seatpost(s) getting scratched. Too bad I didn’t think of that earlier…

The wheels in particular look extremely well built, but I’m also very happy with the quality of the Giavanni full carbon forks and remaining components. The monocoque carbon seatpost is not the lightest I’ve felt in hand at a claimed 270grams, but it feels STRONG. As you can see from the photos, I decided to go with some Pro Lite carbon bars which I now reaslise are actually carbon/alloy hybrid (a quick look in the Pro Lite catalogue confirms that). I was doubtful at first, but I’ve previously had problems with alloy bars getting crushed so we’ll see how we go with these.

What can I say? I won’t ever buy a Leader frame again… I am thinking of replacing the entire rental bike fleet with Pro Lite components when the time comes. It’d certainly be nice to have 100% matching bikes, but I’ll see how everything holds up in the mean time. Meanwhile, I send out a big thankyou to Steve, Archi and Jasper over at Pro Lite for fulfilling this small order!

Tags: News Reel, Sales Pitch // 1 Comment »