The KGS / Cyfac Absolu as it was tested on it's maiden voyage. Photo: Kevin G Saunders
I recently built up a KGS / Cyfac Absolu for the showroom and today I got to test it. Bike tests for me are not that long, but have hills, descents, cornering, hill attacks and some rough roads to see just how the bike measures up.
The best compliment I can give a premium custom bicycle is that it rides as it is expected to do. This bike does.
I used my Lightweight Standard wheels that are normally on our KGS / Passoni XXTi, so I would remove a variable in the testing. I know how the XXTi rides and since the geometries are exactly the same, I have a real apples to apples comparison.
First, the overall ride is very quiet, and the frame is rock solid. The oversized lower headset bearing makes for a very solid feeling in the fork, and so there are no surprises here.
The cranks were very stable in hill attacks and it felt like all the energy was going to the ground. Cornering was like the bike was on rails, and on rough roads the bike was stiff but not harsh.
The nice thing about being a bicycle designer is knowing what the bike should feel like, but the really nice thing is experiencing the bike feeling exactly as predicted. If an airplane is properly designed, and the controls are in the right place, and you give it the gas, it will fly! This Absolu has some great engineering behind it and it performs exactly how I thought it would.
Like Martha Stewart says, “It’s a good thing!” If you like more photographs of this great ride, go to our Flickr gallery.
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
What do you call the red color you chose for the Absolu v1 paint scheme? I just had a custom Absolu and was trying to have them paint it a red color very much like on your frame. But it came out very different – depending on the lighting mine shifts from almost as dark a red as is shown in your photo to a burnt orange in direct sunlight.
Thanks for the comment. I had Cyfac choose the colors and don’t know what it is. I will reply offline and connect you with Cyfac.