Looking to take the leap into Carbon Frames. Anybody know about the Guru Photon?

Heard this bike is winning all kinds of awards and is lite as hell. I think I'm in love. Has anyboby ridden one?

 

Wasn't it reviewed in either Bicycling or Road Bike Action? Maybe about a year ago? Did the review say something about the bike being fine for a 140 pound but woud flex for a 180 pounder?
Not sure. Someone probably remembers the review better than I do.

 

The only reference that I saw was that it did not flex for a 145 lbs test rider. There was no mention of a 180 pounder in what I read. What I can't see is spending $5000 for the frame and fork, or $10,000 for a bike built up with top line Shimano or Sram components. Not only is it super light but the performance is pretty impressive, but for that price it better be. Maybe if I was a pro with good sponsorship.............!/img/vbsmilies/smilies/rolleyes.gif

 

I am sorry, you are right. Just found the article, in the April 2010 issue of Bicycling. Good luck, whatever you decide to do.

Lew

 

Isn't the new Cervelo R5ca pretty close in weight to the Photon and stiffer than this? Sure, the Cervelo is a "limited production" run but it's been tested and approved by The God of Thunder, Thor Hushvod, who remarked it was more responsive and stiffer than his normal Cervelo.

Either way - they're probably great frames and worthy of someone with a fat wallet who can understand that buying something like this will not significantly increase their performance on the bike - unless they're moving from a mid 70's 10 speed that weighed 35lbs and had square bearing in the wheels and 20psi in the tires.

For those who want the best because they appreciated the all day comfort and bike handling prowess that such frames provide them its a killer investment. Personally, I dig my Cannondale Hi-Mod more than the Cervelos due to its near telepathic handling and all day comfort combined with monsterous lateral stiffness but it's a personal thing and I probably don't get any appreciable increase in performance over a CAAD9 until several hours into the ride.

 

The ad video is enough to put me off. A bunch of company principals, sitting around with wine bragging about what a great job they did......with no details provided, not even the claimed weight. Besides, anyone can make and sell a lighter frame. The trick is making a frame both durable, stiff and light. Without knowing what kind of ultimate load and endurance testing this frame passed, or what spec it complies with, light weight isn't impressive. Didn't someone design and build an 8 lb bike which could be ridden gently around the smooth floor of a gym?

As swampy says, even if it's the world's lightest frame, so what? The frame on any modern race bike is a very small % of the total weight of bike and rider, so that the resulting improvement in hill-climb performance will be slight. If the frame is 750 grams, vs 1000 or 1200g for "normal" CF race bikes, that's not much savings. After all, the two full water bottles I normally carry weigh 1500 grams.

 

the guy who makes them hangs out here, why not ask him?

http://www.f88me.com/

 

Thanks for the feedback! I'm still looking at frames but the thing about the Cervelo R5ca is the cost coming in at $9,800. I consider myself a good rider and will do the extra spend for great gear but in this case I want to be able to have cash left over for the build up. From what I've read the Guru is still an excellent frame for a guy my size.

 

Good call. If one really wanted to, one could spend serious cash on ultra lightweight bits from AX Lightness, Tune, Storck, LEW and the like on a Photon or R5ca frameset and build a rideable sub-13lb bike. But unless you're doing regular time trials up D'huez, Stelvio, Angliru or Evans, the benefits are limited in daily use. If anything, such a bike probably wouldn't last long for daily use. If you want to really lighten the bike and rider equation, take some weight off the "engine" - it makes a bigger difference.

 

I have the Geneo and that been pretty good so far...

 

I'd suggest the OP look into a Parlee Z5! Personally I have a Z4 and the performance of that bike is out of this world. It's handling is telepathic, it smooths out rough roads, and despite some claims that it's not stiff enough to race I find that it snaps up to speed very well, and I can spend all day on that thing turn around and do it the next day because it is such a comfortable ride.

 

Sean Kelly killed everyone on a Vitus 979, which has to be the most flexible frame ever constructed...

... anything made these days is more than stiff enough to race. You could tie straws together from McD's together with the paper sleeves that they come in and they'd give better latteral rigidity than a Vitus 979.

 

Hey Guys,

Just thought I'd chime in on a couple of points that have been brought up. Firstly, we do not have a weight restriction on the Guru Photon. If you're more than 200 lbs, we adjust the layup of the frame to account for it by adding about 80-100 grams of additional carbon fiber to reinforce certain junctions. One of the biggest points in favor of the Photon is that it is fully 100% custom! I'm surprised nobody mentionned that. Nobody else is doing full custom carbon superlights - except Guru...

And about the corporate video... yeah, sorry about that. Seemed like a good idea at the time.

Let me know if you guys have any questions on any of our models and I'd be happy to give you an "insider's" answer.

Phil

 

Hi there, I wasn't aware these were custom made, do you ship to Australia?

 

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