chaadster

Thanks to my friend Jochem out in Nijverdal, Netherlands at BikeSuperior, I came home last night with a new, 3T Strada with Force AXS 2x! It was terrific to finally visit the shop which is chock full of really impressive bikes, and even though I was shopping pretty much the bottom shelf, Jochem was *extremely* gracious and generous— as usual!— and made getting this bike home with me possible. Do stop in if you’re in the area; the Sallandse Huevelrug national park was beautiful and offers some great riding, although I was unable to make time for that. Next time.

But the bike… I gotta admit that it was curiosity and a great deal which drew me to this bike rather than the looks, which I think are rather odd. As the “poor man’s Cervelo S5,” the Strada has been on my radar for awhile as an exemplar of the aero road bike segment, and this new, MY23 version, updating the original from ‘17 or so, brings the latest updates in tubing shapes permitted by the UCI, so it’s nice to be able to try out the “latest and greatest” so to speak. That head tube, though…

It is a complete bike with the factory spec kit, so nothing much to report on that other than that it’s pretty good quality stuff being 3T. Their Superergo bars are carbon fiber with internal routing into and through their Apto aluminum stem. The seatpost is a a nice, clean, light, aero-section carbon unit fitted with a Selle Italia Novus Boost Evo Superflow saddle, which is okay, but has a weird, rubberized surface which is entirely too grippy…for my preferences. Bar tape is 3T’s and very nice, and end plugs are tastefully finished with 3T logo. Wheels are Fulcrum Rapid Red 900, which are heavy, OEM aluminum units not doing much other than rolling. Tires are Pirelli P Zero Race 28mm tubed up with Pirelli innertubes. It even came with some modern style Zefal alu bottle cages, but I had some Elite Custom Race+, so I threw those on instead.
EDIT: Oh, the Force 46/33 chainset seems too small for my fast club rides, so I will probably need to at least move up to their 48T. I use the same 46T chainset on my gravel bike, but with the smaller range cassette even, and it feels marginal on pavement sections in that application, so I may need to address that soon.

Other than dropping the bars one spacer and replacing the cages, I didn’t do anything more after pulling it out of the box and heading out for a quick shakedown ride. Initial impression is really good! It handles responsively and feels confident and competent. The 120mm stem may be a bit long, but I need to ride it a bit more and see where my COG should be; it’s very close.

I don’t have much else to say at this point, but with new Force groupset just out and possibly driving discounts on the older Force AXS D1 equipped bikes, and with so little coverage of the Strada anywhere, I thought a few quick words were appropriate. I’ve got some new wheels inbound, will make some fit tweaks, and get some real rides under my belt with the rig before reporting back with a meaningful review.


‘23 3T Strada

chaadster

I swapped out that insanely grippy Sella Italia saddle— which I’m pretty sure is an OE variant of their Model X “green tech”— in favor of a San Marco Shortfit Racing, and in doing so, I not only gained supreme usability and comfort, I also shaved off ~1/3lbs!

I was a little surprised to find a +300g saddle fitted to a bike in this price range, but then, I never really shop complete bikes, so what do I know?



OE Selle Italia (Model X?)

San Marco Shortfit Racing

MidTNBrad

You're right....it does look like an S5! Looks good!

chaadster

Thanks! I’m still warming to the looks; the way the TT flares upwards at the headtube I don’t really care for, but I’ll get used to it. Like the S5, the Strada was designed by Gerard Vroomen to maximize aero, but at a lower pricepoint, so the similarity is for that reason.

LAJ

I've had to come back to this thread and look at your new bike for a few days to decide if I liked it or not. I do like it, and I hope it continues to put a smile on your face. I've scoped out 3T bikes at Excel a few times and may have to look closer at them now.

PeteHski

I think they are interesting, quirky looking bikes. I think it will look much better on some aero carbon wheels. Those shallow alloy rims look out of place.

What cassette does it have with the 46/33 up front? My road bike has a 48/35 front and 10-33 rear, which is ideal for my local hilly rolling terrain, but for the mountains, or very steep climbs, I would actually prefer the 46/33 with a 10-36 cassette.

chaadster

The Strada has the 10-36 with the 46/33, which strikes me as odd for an aero bike that is supposed to go faster. I run Force 10-33 with 48/35 on my gravel bike, and that suits me pretty well. However, while I’m not wearing the little cogs there, I’m also not often running in a paceline or bunch sprinting like I do on the roadie, so I’m pretty sure the Strada is going to come up short as it’s geared, so I’m planning to grab a pair of 48/35 Force or Red chainrings, which I can pick up pretty affordably, and see if that does the trick.

I’m heading down to my club’s spring camp in Bloomington next weekend, so I’ll run the stock setup there and see how it does. I usually ride there on an Ultegra 11-28 11spd x 52/36, so that top end range is going to be substantially shorter on the Strada. It’s spring, though, so a good time to suss this stuff out. I might buy those 48/35 rings now though, and take ‘em with me, just to be safe.

On wheels, I do have some LightBicycle— the China-direct thingies— on order with their 50mm deep, 25mm internal WR50 rims, so yeah, that’ll make a visual difference while also dropping damn near a pound in weight! I hope they get here next week! Fulcrum spec those Rapid Red 900 on there at 1950g. Yikes!

bampilot06

Congrats!

chaadster

Thank you! I can't wait to ride it in earnest; I keep fiddling with it in my living room! Hehe.

bampilot06

Cant wait to hear how it rides. Never had the opportunity to ride one.

chaadster

Just in case anyone is interested, since my new wheels won’t arrive in time for training camp this weekend, I decided to pop in some TPU tubes to lightweight it a bit.

Well, the stock Pirelli butyl 700x28 tubes came in on my scale at 150g apiece, which is pretty “wow,” IMO. I replaced them with 36g apiece Ridenow TPU, saving a whopping 228g, a.k.a half-a-pound.

EDIT: stock tubes marked 32-40mm; oversized for fitment.

So between tubes and saddle, that’s the better part of a pound— 4/5ths— gone for little cost and very little work. I think that’s pretty cool! Maybe it’s because I usually build frame up with light weight in mind rather than shave down complete bikes, but in any case it’s a nice reminder about “low hanging fruit.”

chaadster

Updating, I’ve ridden the bike a fair amount at this point, and can say that I really like it! It handles very well, with responsiveness and predictability, and really just feels well composed regardless of what its going through. It’s a very competent frameset, perfect for my kind of all-around riding.

I’m a little embarrassed to admit the gearing is working out pretty well, though I do run deep in the cassette, and have found myself being out of gears when I’d have liked another. I still think I’ll kick the chainset up to the 48/35, but the 46/33 definitely works for most of what I can do.

I did stick on those LightBicycle WR50s, which I had painted in a “crystal effect” silver. I’m not in love with the design choice, but I do like it and think they’lll grow on me. It’s definitely a different look, and that’s what I wanted, so I’m happy. I put the OE Pirelli P Zero Race 28s on them because I didn’t get new 30mm tubeless rubber yet, but the tire is a little too stretched, and I don’t like the ride feel. I knew 28s on 25mm IW rims was less than ideal, but it’s worse than that: it’s marginal.

Just a few more items to swap out, like the rotors, chainset, tires, and probably stem (3Ts More is crazy looking!), cut down the steerer tube, and I’ll call this one done. Changing out the saddle, tubes, and wheels got the bike down to a more respectable 17.6lbs (no pedals, but with Elite Custom Race cages and Frames & Gear 3T integrated Wahoo mount).

Here are of couple of pics:

bampilot06

Looks good. I like the look of those wheels. Would look fantastic on my madone.

Do they come in gold as well?

chaadster

Thanks, and yeah, they’ll do any color you want.

PeteHski

I like the rim colour, but not the pattern. But it’s certainly a bit different! It makes for an interesting bike and the frame certainly looks better with deeper aero wheels. Enjoy the ride!

primov8

I love the look of this build, especially the wheelset. I've always been a fan of having a custom look and this is just right.

Starlite033

That's a beautiful Strada, I absolutely love the color. I heard a rumour it was rocket ship fast.

Happy and safe riding

Star

chaadster

While I hadn’t been an “aero doubter,” I was still surprised by how much more efficient this bike is than my standard roadie.

I was late to the aero wheel game and only got on 30mm deep rims in ‘13. Thinking back, I did notice a performance improvement then, but they were also wider, tubeless, and lighter than what I’d been riding, so I didn’t know how to call what was causing what.

I moved, on that same bike, to 47/52mm deep rims and again felt I was getting more speed for the same kind of work, but a series of knee and back injuries made it hard to compare apples to apples since I was always up and down with training and fitness. Also, just being a big, fat guy always led me to believe that the fast kids were faster because they were more trim, and no matter what I did to the bike, that was the main thing, so I never got serious about aero.

I got this bike rather randomly, in that I didn’t set out to get an aero bike. In fact, I was going to get a Trentasei steel 36er gravel bike, but when my wife and I changed our travel plans and decided to stay in Netherlands, everthing just fell into place for this.

Getting it home and riding it has been, as I said, surprising. I knew I could go fast if I worked hard, and that remains true on Strada, but the surprise has been in the general efficiency, like it provides more options to maintain speed for fewer watts, so I’m well into Z2 power instead of on the cusp of Z3, stuff like that. I’ve still gotta do the work to work to go fast— it ain’t an ebike!— but I’m fresher when that time comes.

My grotty knee broke down again 5 weeks ago and I’ve only just returned to training this week, so this season is a loss in terms of exploring how far this bike can elevate my efforts, but I plan to enjoy the ride through the season as best I can, though OTB of the crew I’ll be.