Friday, January 23, 2009

2009 Xenith SL Review and Road Test!


So this bike is light!  13lbs out of the box and it was after we weighed it!  The only problem with a bike this light is you think right away, it's gotta to have a lot of flex, at least that's what I thought!  I was dead wrong!  I'm not a small guy so I can twist some shit up at times, not because of power just because of size but this bike gave up nothing!  I smashed it as hard as I could out of the saddle as well as in and it kept coming back for more!  It's a combination of the limited edition carbon fiber frame and the carbon weave that goes into making that frame, other than Pinarello Jamis is the only other brand using a 1k weave outer top coat and it's the only top coat that adds to the structural strength of the frame as well as increases the "stiffness" factor!

The bike comes stock with the sub 2000 gram SRAM RED group with the FSA BB30 SLK light crank set including ceramic bearings along with the 1.5" lower  fork crown race both play a critical part in making this bike flex free!  The bike comes stock with Zipp 404 tubulars but I changed them out for the brand new Zipp 808 tubulars with updated hubs and wow did they also make a difference, no more rear wheel movement due to unwanted play in the hubs!  Jamis also tricked out the bike with some of the new 3T parts like the seat post and just for icing on the cake the brand new full carbon Fizik Arione to match the carbon clamp of the seat post!

This bike has to be one of the best deals on planet, $8000.00 bucks for a bike that you would spend $10,000 building if you could get that much technology some where else?  The only thing I have to compare it to is a 2009 Pinarello Prince using similar parts ended up at $12,000 so you get my drift, nothing wrong with the Prince, It's my favorite bike out there but if you want the bang for the buck in a Pro race machine the Xenith SL is hard to beat!

Test rides available!


2 comments:

Unknown said...

....a $12k bike...it dosen't have a motor? Can it blow me when I ride? You have to be out of you mind. How can you justify a bike that cost as much as a car...or half of must peoples yearly earnings. Write me and please explane this so it makes sense.

Rob Allen said...

Read the post, it says $8000, where are you gettig 12K and if you have ask your on the wrong blog and in the wrong sport!