pingpong

Hi all,

Road newbie here looking for my very first bike. my local bike shop is able to offer me the Blue RC5AL bike with full Ultegra setup for a pretty good price.

Try to search for more info about blue bikes, esp the RC5AL frame, but not much luck.

would appreciate if anyone could give some comments on the bike. how does it compares to the Orbea Onix series?

thank you.

KramerTC

Do a search for "Blue" or "RC4AL" in this forum and you should find good feeback. The RC4AL is the previous yr's model (same except for the paint job and and upgraded fork for the RC5AL). I have the RC5AL and I like it a lot. I bought it as a frameset. The finish on the paint is excellent and the ride is good for aluminum. Some fast riders (i'm not one of them) use this frame for criterium racing because it's very stiff and has aggressive geometry.

Chucklehead

i love mine. i've had it for almost 1.5 years now, and there isn't anything i don't like about it. KramerTC's comments are true, and it's also no slouch on the hills if you tend to do that sort of thing a lot.

one thing i always point out to people is the short, short head tube. it's only 11cm on a medium, so if you're someone who likes a relaxed riding position, you might want to look at a larger size than normal or a different frame altogether with a taller head tube. otherwise you're going to be using a ton of spacers to achieve the right fit for you.

DocMatt

Lets see if this works. If it does this is my RC5AL of course. It is really amazing. I would highly recommend it.

DocMatt

Why did you change the fork?

hmai18

I just checked the geometry chart and boy, you weren't kidding when you said it was agressive geometry. The medium, with roughly the same top tube as my old 54cm CAAD7 has the same headtube length as my 50cm CAAD8. It works for some, but definitely wouldn't for me, at least not without a huge ugly stack of spacers or a +17 stem.

Chucklehead

i just wanted something a little more comfy for longer, bumpier rides. it's also nearly half the weight. for crits, though, the stock fork goes back on.

FrankBattle 

Okay, this is a hot bike .. *whew*

DocMatt

Didn't it come with a stock carbon fork? If so is there really that much of a weight difference between carbon forks? I just asking because I am curious I am not trying to say anything bad about it. I like it.

Chucklehead

thanks! that was one of the main reasons i chose it, other than the price(paid $550 for frame/fork - about $2000 as it is in the pic). but once the bike was completed, i was totally blown away by the performance compared to my previous bikes. the only category it didn't improve over my old bike was all day comfort. but not many bikes can beat a kestrel 200sci in that category.

the stock fork is actually much heavier and not as compliant over bumps. the difference is quite noticeable. it's just good to have the ability to tune your suspension with different combos of wheels and forks.

DocMatt

Thats cool. I don't have the budget for that right now. But I am wanting to get some American Classic 420's.

superdex

I bought an RC4AL and built it up with 2003 Record. She's fast, and corners areal nice.

pingpong

thank you all for your comments!!!

pingpong

The RC5AL has "Aerus Composites Conquest wishbone seat stay and fork". what is Aerus composites? carbon equivalent?

thanks

hmai18

It's just branding: it's just your generic carbon rear end with their name on it.

JayC

https://www.aeruscomp.com/index_home.php

Somehow Blue is tied in with Aerus.. I dont know if Blue owns them, they own Blue or what.

I had an RC4 and now have an RC6. Great bikes.

pingpong

Hi,

i may be going for the Blue RC5AL. need some advice on the right size for me. I know the best way is to measure and fit. unfortunately it is not possible. I am 1.84m tall, inseam is 87.6cm. for those who is familar with Blue bike frame, i should be getting a ML (Eff. Toptube 55.5cm, Seattube 54cm) or L (Eff. Toptube 58cm, seattube 56cm)?

Thank you.

LowCel 

Here is a picture of mine when I had it. In my opinion it was a very nice bike for the money, my only real complaint was the bottom bracket area. To me it was very flexy. I felt that I lost a lot of power on the sprints and on the climbs. Other than that it was great, a little harsh, but that comes with owning an aluminum bike I guess.