New Bike Day! Fezzari Empire SL
 

My wife bought this for me 2 weeks ago and it just showed up to my house. Not a whole lot available on this bike since it’s fairly new and from a smaller brand but the buying experience was awesome and this thing absolutely rips.
https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...5fa14e1c5.jpeg
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That is one really cool mural.

Maybe choose a different background if you want us to see your bike...

Yeah, I’ll take some better ones when it’s daylight. I was in a rush giving it a quick test ride today.

Dang, your wife must love you. That's a nice bike.

Enjoy.

Duplicate post.

That is a beautiful bike. Always wondered about that brand.

Beautiful!

ride safe and enjoy!

Joined this forum just to learn more! I've been really interested in the Empire SL (considering the Team Edition, currently), but as you said, there isn't much information out there other than a few previews. I have some questions, if you're up for answering them...

- What was the buying process like? And did you choose "comfortable" or "racelike" geometry? I haven't been able to quite tell what that changes.

- How involved was assembly?

- What's the weight of your bike?

- Do you have any drivetrain or disc brake noise? I've seen some comments about loud SRAM 12-speed drivetrains, but it seems like it's pretty installation-dependent.

- How does it ride, comfort/handling-wise?

Thanks! Hope your new bike is treating you well so far.

My pleasure!

-Buying process: you order online (or call and talk to an actual person). Once they receive your order, they will have a human being call you and go over your measurements and ask if there is anything else that you wanted (such as if you wanted a different set of wheels, gears etc). 2 weeks after that, they send the bike to you. I chose “race like” and what I think that means is how many spacers they put into the headset as well as (maybe) the stem length. They pretty much nailed the geometry, at least for me.

-Assembly: you will need to install the front wheel as well as the handlebar to the stem. All in all, 4 small bolts and a thru axel. They provide the Allen keys and instructions needed for installation if you don’t have it. It’s a 5 minute job not including taking off all the packaging materials.
I took extra time putting it together because I swapped the saddle, swapped the bar tape and set up the AXS components with the app.

-I haven’t put it on a scale but just by picking it up I can tell it’s not quite as light as my rim brake Edmonda SL with carbon everything but no where even near as heavy as my gravel specific Giant Revolt Advanced.

-Noise: No brake rub at all. My chain was kind of noisy. Not squeaky but just drivetrain noise. I only have 1 short 20 miler on it and that was with the stock lube. I washed it all off when I got home and am currently letting the Dumonde Tech chain lube soak in good for tomorrow’s ride. That probably will quiet things up a lot. The drivetrain is flawless otherwise. Everything was tuned perfectly and shifts like a dream.

-It rides awesome. My Emonda that I had was harsh. This thing feels way less effected by bad roads. It’s not a plush bike by any means though. It doesn’t feel like a magic carpet over rough tarmac like my Revolt does, but that bike also has 42c tires ran at 40 psi. I am very happy with the ride of the bike. It’s still very stiff and very connected to the road but it doesn’t beat you up.

I only have 1 ride in but I will be riding it daily next week and dialing everything in and maybe doing some gearing changes so I can be ready for a week long vacation the following week where I will be doing some serious mileage. I’ll post updates as I get them.

If you have other questions, feel free to ask!

Awesome, thanks for all the information. Definitely interested in hearing further impressions (ride, drivetrain, etc.) as you get some more miles in the saddle. I'm looking to buy in the next few months, and the main contenders are this or the Parlee RZ7, unless anything else new pops up soon... leaning towards the Empire for now!

Better pictures
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Great looking and spec’d bike! Enjoy.

I have a Fezzari Cr3 with Di2 and I stopped by their store in Lindon and saw the new Empires last week. The Empires are good looking bikes and they are one of the few bikes that have a one-piece carbon frame.

Congrats!! Good looking bike!

Do you have toe overlap? Looks like you might not. I'm on a long term hunt for a lightweight road bike with enough front center to prevent overlap. I don't have it on the Revolt, and I've gotten used to not even having to think about it. Now every time I smack my foot on the Tarmac, I'm reminded to keep looking. lol (but I do love the Tarmac, fantastic bike)

Thanks!

I didn’t notice any overlap on my first ride. I’ll check it out when I do my usual 30 mile loop during my lunch break today.

Looking at the specs, looks like the trail and headtube angle are what I'm looking for. What size did you end up with, and do you know the total weight?

Price looks good too. Do they let you mix and match? I want Ultegra, but also want the FSA integrated cockpit, on their website they only offer that with the SL and SRAM groupsets. I like the paint on the Elite.

I ended up with a Large. I don’t know the weight but it’s not heavy at all.
I don’t know about the mix and match thing but all it would take is a phone call. They were super helpful and willing to do custom stuff when I was ordering mine. I was tempted to do a mixture of the top 3 builds (Force/Enve/alloy bar) but instead just went with the stock build.
When I get access to a scale, I’ll throw it on

Thanks. Looking at my retul fit info from my last bike, I'd prob end up with a Medium, which is 12mm less wheelbase than your L, could be the difference between having overlap or not.

Have you done much descending yet? I'm guessing it feels pretty stable with the long wheelbase and relaxed head tube angle.

I sent them an email. :thumb:

Great looking bike, just not feeling the Bianchi color scheme on a non-Bianchi.

They said no problem doing the integrated cockpit on the Elite frame, can also do Di2 (I would not want to have to replace cables with that setup lol). :thumb:

If there's no toe overlap on this bike, it will def be on the top of my list. A lightweight disc road bike with no overlap is exactly what I want. I'm not doing crits, I don't need twitchy handling, I want a long wheelbase and front center for stable handling and descending, but still with a racy geo for fast road races and group rides.

That is a great looking machine!

Sorry I haven’t gotten back about to toe overlap thing. As soon as the week started, I got drilled with the flu and I’m just starting to get back on my feet. I’m on the mend so I’m hopefully going to take it out tomorrow and report back

No worries, hope you're better soon! I appreciate you checking. I asked Fezzari and they said there's too many variables, shoe size, cleat position, crank length, etc. Which is true, so I'll just have to hunt out people who have the bike and can check. lol

Nice ride OP--enjoy! Fezzari headquarters in near me and a lot of people around here ride them. I've never talked to anyone that wasn't happy with their Fezzari bike.:thumb:

Still way too sick to ride, but I did hook my shoe into my pedal real quick and had no toe overlap with a little over an inch to spare. This is with a Large frame, 175 cranks, Ultegra pedals and a size 46 Fizik shoe.