Tresca Going-Fast Bicycle: Testing Update

Yesterday, after a brief hiatus, I finally got back on the Tresca for a standard-issue New York City-area road ride:


And then, this morning, I finally had an opportunity to test the Tresca in a real-life race-type situation in Brooklyn's Prospect Park.

I am dismayed to report that I failed to complete the race.

Now, I am not blaming the Tresca for my failure.  For one thing, it's October, and ordinarily I'd never subject myself to a road race this late in the year--the only reason I did so was to try out this bike.  For another, it was cold and windy, which made matters that much more difficult.  And finally, on yesterday's ride I did feel like I was dragging ass, so I'm not surprised that this general sensation of sluggishness carried over into today.

At the same time, while I certainly didn't feel great, I must say I was not thrilled with the way the bike felt, either.  This surprised me.  Since taking delivery of the bike a few weeks back I've quite enjoyed riding it, and while it lacked a certain amount of refinement compared to my plastic Fred Sled and my new-to-me titanium "Forever Bike," I put a lot of this down to the extremely thin bar tape.  Furthermore, I assumed the bike would really come into its own in a race, given its aggressive position and overall demeanor.

This isn't quite what happened.  Instead, I found the bike lacked a bit of stability on the downhill and when reaching into my jersey pocket or down for a water bottle, which was distracting.  There are also rough sections of pavement in Prospect Park, which if you're not attentive and you fail to position yourself properly ahead of time you get forced into riding over at speed, and these moments were more unsettling on the Tresca than on the plastic bike.  Also, on the "climb" (Prospect Park has one big-ring incline you go over like 12 times at full speed, which is where I ultimately slipped off the back a little past the halfway point of the race), the bike felt kind of like a wooden block--which is ironic since the actual wooden bike I used to have felt nothing at all like a wooden block.  All of this is to say that, whil the bike wasn't even remotely terrible, I simply never felt great about the bike.

HOWEVER, it's important to keep in mind that my perception was no doubt tainted (and possibly even totally undermined) by the fact that I simply wasn't feeling it this morning.  I also have no idea if something as simple as, say, a proper set of race tires would have made a significant difference in how the bike felt.  (The Tresca has Continental Grand Sport Race tires, with which I have no experience, and which are on the heavy side.)  And let's not forget that before this morning I hadn't taken part in a bike race since the end of August, and that I hadn't taken part in a bike race in Prospect Park since April.  So maybe what I was interpreting as a lack of stability was just me needing to find my footing after over a month of leisurely solo riding.

Still, as lousy as I am at bike racing, and as rusty as I am at the moment, it's fairly unusual for me not to finish a race in Prospect.  Also, I've never had moments where I doubted my plastic bike in a race; if anything I'm always stricken by how well it performs, even when I don't.  (It's easy not to like the "S" company but they've clearly figured out how to make a race bike.)  And even my Milwaukee with its filthy, balky 10-speed 105 drivetrain felt like a perfectly competent race bike the time I pressed it into service for a wet Prospect Park race:


So while I'm hesitant to criticize the Tresca for what could easily be simple matters of component choice or the fact that I was an even bigger mess than usual out there this morning, I also felt what I felt.  Maybe it's as simple as fit: the Tresca comes in S, M, and L, and while I'm pretty much smack in the middle of the height range Tresca recommends for an M, the bike's certainly smaller in pretty much every dimension than what I usually ride.  (Looking at the L, I could probably ride it with no headset spacers and a short stem, but I don't know that this would be an improvement.)  Regardless, sizing is certainly another reason they'll have a hell of a time competing against aluminum bike makers such as Cannondale.  (A CAAD13 with 105 costs $1,800 and comes in eight sizes.)

In any case, you never really know a road racing bike until you, you know, race it.  A great race bike isn't there: you're focused on the wheels around you and the road surface and not getting dropped and feeding yourself and all the rest of it, and you really only notice the bike if it mis-shifts or something else about it bothers you.  So whether it's just a matter of the sizing (most likely, the more I think about it) or the components or something else, I didn't quite get there with the Tresca today.  I'm sure if I changed some parts around I could get almost there--or maybe I could even all the way there--but as it is out of the box it's not the bike I would choose for my sad middle-aged park exploits.