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Road Test/Bike Review (1989) SEROTTA Slicker Cross

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Road Test/Bike Review (1989) SEROTTA Slicker Cross

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Old 11-22-23, 08:39 AM
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SpeedofLite 
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Road Test/Bike Review (1989) SEROTTA Slicker Cross

The SEROTTA Slicker Cross was the sixth of seven bikes reviewed in the "Seven Hybrids" section from Bicycle Guide, Jun 1989.
The section intro and BIANCHI Tangent review are here: Road Test/Bike Review (1989) Seven Hybrids -- Intro / BIANCHI Tangent
FISHER Hybrid here: Road Test/Bike Review (1989) FISHER Hybrid
BRUCE GORDON Rock 'n Road here: Road Test/Bike Review (1989) BRUCE GORDON Rock 'n Road
MIYATA Alumicross here: Road Test/Bike Review (1989) MIYATA Alumicross
OFFROAD Climber here: https://www.bikeforums.net/classic-v...d-climber.html






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Old 11-22-23, 11:39 AM
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I'm loving all these reviews. Beautiful bike. The shifters are interesting. Anyone ever ride one of these?
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Old 11-22-23, 12:22 PM
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The bike comes stock with 28c tires and it doesn't look like it will fit a large volume tire. Odd choice for a hybrid. The thumb shifters are OK but bar ends would have been a better choice IMO.
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Old 11-22-23, 01:00 PM
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That's clearly ancient alien gravel technology.
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Old 11-22-23, 04:39 PM
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Fast forward a decade and change, and thumbies on a drop bar are a distinguishing feature of a big box bike.
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Old 11-22-23, 05:08 PM
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Originally Posted by bikemig
The bike comes stock with 28c tires and it doesn't look like it will fit a large volume tire. Odd choice for a hybrid...
The write up says the stock rims will accept "much wider tires" than the stock 28c but who knows how wide.
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Old 11-22-23, 07:56 PM
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I thought the comment about the rims was curious since we don't often worry about that when picking bigger tires, now. The clearances do look pretty small so I did a little searching at paceline and it looks like the bike will fit 32 slicks and maybe 30 knobbies. Good looking paint, really pops in the magazine photos - funny even moreso than the pictures I'm looking at taken with modern digital cameras from the past few years.

The "slowish steering" comment is interesting too because the viewpoint today is that a bike designed for (some) off-road riding with 54mm of trail would be a squirrelly handful almost downright dangerous to some because of how fast such relatively low trail makes the steering.
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Old 11-22-23, 08:18 PM
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Originally Posted by bOsscO
The write up says the stock rims will accept "much wider tires" than the stock 28c but who knows how wide.
The limiting factor is the frame clearance. The article is right, you can run much wider tires on those rims. I'm running 35c on those rims on one of my bikes.

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Old 11-23-23, 12:35 PM
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Originally Posted by bikemig
The limiting factor is the frame clearance. The article is right, you can run much wider tires on those rims. I'm running 35c on those rims on one of my bikes.
Of course, that makes sense.
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