I’ve had my Ultimate for about 3 days now. I’ve mostly been going out for 20-50km jaunts to get a feel for it and to work out the fit. This is my first modern performance bike, carbon bike, electronic shifting bike and all, so here are some initial thoughts/impressions.
Still waiting on a brake bleed kit so I can install the shorter stem I ordered with the bike. It’s kinda stuck being a tad long until that gets here, but not unbearably so.
The whole integrated cockpit thing… well I have mixed feelings. It looks great and all, but it’s kinda hostile to my desire to tinker. Aw well.
The Selle saddle included looks great and is super light, but I was having trouble getting it dialed in. Its really quite small. I put my Brooks C17 on there for now, which is much better. It’s a tad wide. I ordered a C13 which I suspect (read: hope) will be a good fit. I’m fighting the urge to be obnoxious and just throw a B17 on there 😅
I’ve been kinda anti electronic shifting for a while now, but having experienced it, its kinda awesome (I say that now, before the inevitable day when im 50km from home with a flat battery). Though I do find the Di2 buttons less intuitive than the Shimano mech shifters. The big swooping motion to move the chain up the cassette or onto the bigger ring feels more natural than remembering which button goes which way. It is super fast though, and being able to shift both derailleurs at once effortlessly under load is really fn nice.
Also my first go with running a power meter. Still getting my head wrapped around those stats but seems useful for tracking progress and managing effort on longer rides.
Annoyingly, the “gear groove” computer/light mount isn’t available yet, so I’m stuck with things mounted to the bars 💀
Climbing and descending, well I’ve been primarily on a fixed gear for years so apples and oranges, but yeah it climbs and I hurt, but then going down is really fast snd stable.
The P Zeros have been great so far. Super grippy and feel
plenty quick. Im running them both at 70psi to start, which seems like a nice balance.
The little integrated QR/Hex/Torx tool thingy is nifty. Anything that would need to be adjusted during a ride can be with this little thing that just sticks in the thru axle. Unfortunately, its a very soft metal. The seatpost angle adjustment bolt calls for 12nm, so I tightened it normally and gave it a little extra nudge and the tip of the took just ripped off. Ordered a new one (they're only $17), just need to note to be careful with it in the future.
The color is nice, though I don't love it as much as I thought I would. It usually just looks like a flat pine green (which is meh IMO), though when it picks up light at angles and turns iridescent shades of blues and violets, it looks quite lovely. In a do-over, I'd probably just order the metallic black one TBH.
by MishyJari
2 Comments
Nice breakdown! On the shifting, have you tried to tune it using the app? i believe you can customize the shifting quite a bit and might help with some of the issues. Im generally in the market and the Ultimate has been my top choice, thanks!
It does sound like you’re getting your feet wet with a lot of things at once haha
Please get a torque wrench if you haven’t already. The T25 thru axle tool doesn’t cut it. I’ve tossed it in a box somewhere and forgot about it. A multitool works better anyways.