Opinions of the 2010 Kestrel TSR3 SL Road + SRAM Rival

[X-Nemesis]

Just saw this come available at BD and what do any of you think of this as a first road bike? Overkill?

[turkina]

I have a Kestrel Evoke SL with Sram Rival and it is great. I purchased it at Cycle Spectrum, not the online store. (Yes, I know they are related...)

I am still a "novice" on road bikes and it is my first road bike. (I do have a Specialized mountain bike which is nice and I had been riding for a while)

My longest jaunt was 32 miles solo so far. Doing 20 miles is easy. Available time is the only reason I do not have longer rides and I do not have an accurate guess as to how many miles I have on it.

I do not think it is overkill at all. I saved up the $2K for the sole purpose of buying the bike. The questions you have to answer is what is it worth to you. I knew the $2K would be well spent because I enjoy riding. (I road distance on my mountain bike and a Diamondback for a while.)

My Kestrel is great. It is lightweight and smooth. The wheels come off easy and go back on easy. (I travel with it inside my car.) It is comfortable to ride and very enjoyable.

I would buy another Kestrel bike and I do not think the TSR3 SL is overkill. I think you will get a great bike for the money. (If they would have had a TSR3 SL I would have bought it instead, but it was not an option.)

[X-Nemesis]

Thanks for your informative response

[Rovah]

FWIW, I had an Immortal Force as my first road bike, with full Ultegra groupset that I purchased from Bikes Direct. Great bike and value for the money.

I bought a Kestrel Talon SL frame and built it with Force components. It's a bit heavier than the Immortal Force, but it's a fast bike. I'm not expert, but it'd definitely a stiffer frame than the Immortal Force. It's also very sexy! ;-)

That said, their RT800 frame(now discontinued) was used by Rock Racing a few years ago. The new road models are on their website at: Kestrel Bicycles 2013 - Home of the best carbon bikes for triathlon and road

Some cool stuff coming from them.

Kestrel is on Facebook and are very responsive to questions. The frames are designed in the US and then built in Asia. Check out the history of Kestrel online. They were one of the first companies in the US making carbon frames. A lot of history there.

[Rovah]

Interesting graphic on their current site about the Talon SL frame's drag. I need all the help I can get. :-)

http://www.kestrelbicycles.com/Kestr...373b8e92df.jpg