Kestrel RT700 Winning Awards
Jul 11, 2007 · 07:15 PM · permalink
From the, “huh, what?” department comes the news that the Kestrel RT700 is winning awards from Outside magazine, IDSA , and BusinessWeek. The “huh” part is this award-winning feature
“Even the seatstays have been considered; here they’re designed to present an easily-discernible hourglass silhouette to riders behind, which is important during group rides or pack races where cyclists behind you need to be able to see you.”
Followed with a “what?” I’ve read that passage several times and still don’t understand it. How is that better than just seeing their butt, legs, or entire body? This bike must attract the tri-athletes and I’m sure is a really nice bike, but that’s an odd winning observation, especially with the amazing advances in technology coming from Trek, Specialized, Scott, and Issac. Or the custom carbon work from Parlee.
Here’s an interview with the designers and a post from Core77.
“This bike must attract the tri-athletes and I’m sure is a really nice bike, but that’s an odd winning observation”
This comment has me going HUH? What do triathletes have to do with this?
In the review, they also note this: “The top tube is flattened to hold fabric food containers of the sort calory-burning triathletes use.” And with Kestrel’s Airfoil bike, I think they’re popular in the Triathelete scene. Note, that’s no diss towards triatheletes and thinking aobut it, they don’t have jerseys or pockets, so hanging a bag on your top tube, must be a good feature …
As a Triathlete, it doesn’t do anything for me. I’d be looking for something far more aero like a Cervelo P2K/P3 etc. You don’t need a flat top tube for a bento box anyway.
I’d have to add Cervelo to the tech advances too.
I think I’d take bike advice from Business Week about as much as I’d look at Bicycling to see where to do an MBA
Matt,
Thanks for the perspective … does Kestrel have cred with triathletes? And agreed on Cervelo. Are the cloth bags the article refers to, like musette bags?
Kestrel does have some cred with Triathletes but one of their top pros (Chris “Macca” McCormack) recently switched to Specialized.
I personally ride a Cervelo P2K. In this 2005 Hawaii Ironman survey Kestrel comes in 3rd:
http://www.slowtwitch.com/mainheadings/kona2005/kona2005.html
I’m guessing the bags referred to are these: http://www.tniusa.com/products/bento-box.html
Sorry didn’t catch that in the article. I too am a triathlete and would say that the front end on this bike is not set up for triathlon. Triathletes usually use bullhorns, aerobars and barend shifters. Also I have heard no buzz online about this on the triathlon sites I frequent. Triathlon bike geometry is usually steeper and set up for aerodynamics and to save your legs for the coming run. My bike is an older Cervelo Dual, and there is much love for Cervelo within the tri community.
About the bags, “bento box” is the common slang. Mounts to the top tube and stem. If you are hammering a 112 miles in the race and have to run a marathon after, you might need your snacks. Tri jerseys do have pockets but they are generally smaller than a cycling jersey’s pockets.
The award from Outside Magazine is probably the only one the Kestrel RT700 will receive, and that is sad since this magazine clearly does not know much about cycling. It’s also sad because it shows how far kestrel has fallen since the late 90’s.
Regarding Chris “Macca” McCormack switching from Kestrel to Specialized. It was because Specialized paid him $$$$ (rumour is $50k) to ride their bike for one race, the Hawaii Ironman.
The day after the Hawaii Ironman, he sold the bike on Ebay and gave the money to a charity.
I now question what is the future of Kestrel now that Fuji has acquired them? To be seen…
Thomas,
Good point and I bet that article and review was probably the result of their PR agency.
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