Eve's new steed

Eve purchased a sweet Scott CR1 Pro over the weekend.



While she desired the component spec of the CR1 Pro (i.e. Shimano Ultegra groupset), she preferred the colors of the CR1 Team:




Viki of the excellent folks at CycleCraft was happy to swap the components over for her. Since the frame is identical between the CR1 Pro and the CR1 Team, except for the color, Eve basically has a sleeper CR1 Pro! Way to go, gal!  :-D


Specifications

Frame:
Scott CR1 Pro CR1 carbon technology
Road geometry
Integrated headtube

Fork:
Scott carbon CR1 Pro 1 1/8" carbon steerer integrated

Headset:
Ritchey Pro integrated

Derailleur (Rear):
Shimano Ultegra RD-6600 20 speed

Derailleur (Front):
Shimano Ultegra FD-6600

Shifters / Brake Levers:
Shimano Ultegra ST-6600
Dual control 20 speed

Brakes:
Shimano Ultegra BR-6600
Super SLR Dual pivot

Crankset:
Shimano FC-R600 Hollowtech II

Bottom Bracket:
Shimano Ultegra SM-FC 6600

Handlebar:
Ritchey Road Pro 31.8 Oversize Anatomic

Stem:
Ritchey Road Pro 31.8 1-1/8" four bolt

Seatpost:
Ritchey Pro Carbon 31.6mm

Saddle:
Selle Italia C2 B-Colour

Hub (Front):
Mavic Ksyrium Equipe

Hub (Rear):
Mavic Ksyrium Equipe

Chain:
Shimano Ultegra CN-6600

Cassette:
Shimano Ultegra CS-6600 12-25 T

Spokes:
Mavic Ksyrium Equipe

Rims:
Mavic Ksyrium Equipe 20 front / 24 rear

Tires:
Continental Ultra Race 700x23 C

Weight:
7.7 kg (16.9 lbs)


The Scott CR1 is a very nice bike. Check out the accolades:


A recent test performed by EFBe (Engineering for Bikes), an independent test facility in Germany, proved that the SCOTT CR1 is the benchmark carbon road frame. Awards were given in three categories at the conclusion of the performance rating test. The test starts by applying an “out of saddle load” to measure fatigue life and then considers frame weight to categorize each frame. The CR1 was rated number one in EFBe’s “Top Performance” category, comprised of the best top quality construction frames.  (Engineering for Bikes fatigue test)


The following is a review of the Team Edition CR1. The frame is a little lighter than the CR1 frame in the Pro and Team. Geometry remain the same.


The CR1 dials the road vibration down as well as anything tested (not light praise), gives up stiffness only to the heaviest in class and weighs less than everything else in it’s durability range (check the guys at www.EFBE.DE). It actually weighs less than anything in any range...

This is a great lean man's bike. That’s not to say that the CR1 is not a big man’s bike, but a big man probably isn’t looking for a sub 2 pound frame anyhoo (nor should they…). This bike is a dreamboat for guys light enough to actually feel a difference. That said, it's not a bad choice in to the upper mid sized folks as well.

I can’t explain the ride feel except to say that, when coasting along, it feels like an old steel bike with 25c tires inflated to 100lbs. It’s just that smooth. But, stand up and step on the gas on a sharp little climb, and it feels like there’s nothing there.

[ . . . ]

Handling is also very good. It is Crit [Criterion] quick, and it's light weight allow you to move it around at a flick. But even at that, it's angles give it respectable stability at speed. There are better things to scream down a mountain with, but almost nothing better to get up the mountain in the first place...

The fit and finish are extremely good. You will want some clear protection film for the frame where cables rub, as the (thin) clear coat and gloss black will show scuffs. The bottle cage bolts, drop outs and bb and head set shell are all clean as a whistle. Someone pays quite a lot of attention to these bikes before they head to the customer...  (PezCycling News)


I'm not going to bore you by going on and on about how the CR1 weighs in at just 880g. We all know that the Scott CR1 is the lightest frame out there. But the lightest bike in the world won't amount to much if it's not comfortable to ride. So how does the Scott CR1 ride?

[ . . . ]

My initial impression of the Scott CR1 (and one that continued to stick) was of the incredible stiffness of the frame, coupled with absolute road dampening comfort. It felt as if every ounce of pedal stroke went directly into the drivetrain.

[ . . . ]

We spoke with BiciRace.com Inside Scoop writer Marco Pinotti after his prologue ride.

"Marco, how do you like your Scott CR1, and how does it compare with aluminum frames you've ridden in the past?" Marco looked me square in the eyes and said, in his Italian accent, "It is the best bike I've ever ridden; I love it! With an aluminum bicycle, at the end of the year, you need a new one. This one is strong year after year. It is very stiff, and good on the climbs. [ . . . ]

The Scott CR1 continuously amazed me with how comfortable it was, how fast it felt climbing, how smooth it descended and how responsive it was to out of saddle accelerations. Every time I went into my garage and saw her sitting there, I got a smile on my face and a little jump in my step.

Now, I'm no Gilberto Simoni, but I felt like a mountain goat riding the CR1. It's not like I'm usually dropping people in the hills. Actually it's usually about survival. But climbing aboard the Scott CR1 was an absolute pleasure! Sure it's light, but the real joy was the incredible responsive qualities of its ride. Nothing was lost from the pedal strokes, and when you accelerate hard out of the saddle in a switchback, it's all there right underneath you.

Descending on the Scott CR1 was smooth. It handled like a dream and felt super tight bombing through corners. (Scott CR1 SL Reviewed)


This thing is obviously light and incredibly responsive. When I first rode it, it almost felt too damp, almost dead. But when you hammer on the pedals, it takes off, it also is a great climber and handles the downhills very well. I was going 50+ in strong winds, both tail and cross wind gusts up to 60mph. The hill was only a 5% grade so you can imagine the tail wind to get up to 50mph. The bike handled great and never got sketchy. Used to ride a Specialized 2001 S-Works aluminum frame. What a difference the carbon makes. I do not feel beat up after a ride, no more sore shoulders and neck. It does a great job of absorbing the road vibrations.  (jeffc7)


Tour de France Tech — July 15, 2005

Saunier Duval-Prodir's American rider Chris Horner told Cyclingnews that he thinks his Scott CR1 team bike is "the best road bike on the market today" and he's already won a Tour de Suisse stage this year to prove it. Scott's CR1 frame weighs in at just 880g without fork, which makes it easy to build into a bike that hits the UCI weight limit of 6.8kg. In fact, as Saunier's mechanics have found, it makes it too easy - we'll get to that in a moment.

[ . . . ]

Saunier Duval's Leonardo Piepoli one of the smallest men in the Tour and therefore rides a size S frame. That means his frame is lighter than most and grams also drop off because he's also using shorter cranks and stem, a narrower handlebar and so on. It's only five grams here and five grams there but it adds up. Or rather, it subtracts, and the practical upshot is that, with Campagnolo's lightweight Record carbon group on the bike, Piepoli's machine ends up well under the UCI's 6.8kg weight limit.

Since the UCI's regulations don't specify what constitutes a bike for the purposes of the weight rule, various inventive ways have been found of getting bikes to hit the target over the last couple of years. We've heard, for example, of mechanics dropping chains down the seat tubes of bikes belonging to female track cyclists to get them up to the weight. The Saunier Duval mechanics are even more blatant - Piepoli's bike has 140g of lead strips bolted on under the water bottles!  (Cycling News — Tour de France Tech)


Anti weight-saving - things have become silly when team machanics have to add lead to get small bikes up to the UCI weight limit.

There is a caveat though. The Scott CR1 is far, far, far from your Wally World bike, and as such, requires demands expert maintenance. Take it to your neighborhood Joe Blow bike shop and he will probably wreck it. Read on:


The Scott set’s the record for the most Caution / warning tags relating to torque on a bike frame. It is a race bred, tight tolerance mechanism, and I wouldn’t let any shop close to building one up that didn’t have torque wrenches at the ready. The material at the seat clamp for instance is near paper thin (as is the case on a few light carbon bikes), and danger lurks for the heavy handed wrencher as much or more on the Scott CR1. But that doesn’t mean this is like those thin walled (even more brittle) flyweight single season Aluminum bikes.  (PezCycling News)


The folks at VeloGoGo have the last word on this:


I don't consider Scott CR1 to be a particularly nice-looking bike to look at. But I think it's one of the most bad-ass looking bikes in the peloton. It's built to be raced. Hard. And that's what I find appealing about CR1. I look at it as a "Cannondale in Carbon" with its thin-walled, (very) large-diameter tubesets. CR1 is just a mean looking son of a bitch...

The lucky owners say the same thing about CR1's ride — light, stiff, comfy, climbs like a goat on EPO, eats up corners and sprints at local crits like teenage Japanese boys at Nathan's hot dog eating contest. There's also one unusual thing people commonly comment on... that it rides kind of like steel. That sounds beautiful. A 15Lbs steel ride. Yum.

[ . . ]

Everything about CR1 screams bad ass and it would be a perfect race bike to own if you got the legs to push it around.