bonnie & jason

I got a new bike – Dawes SST review

I’ve been riding a beater mountain bike to go to work the last few months but it finally started giving me problems. Specifically, the chain was hopping off and the seat stem was starting to bend. So I decided it was time to replace the Motobecane Messenger that got stolen last year. (I’m still bitter by the way.)

I went to bikesdirect.com again since I was pretty happy with my last experience. But I figured I’d try something different this time. And it turns out the Dawes SST was exactly what I was looking for.

It had bullhorn bars, matte black finish, and a pretty easy geometry good for my commute. Plus, it was actually a little cheaper than my last bike. So… without further ado, here’s the review:

1. Ordered 52cm matte black on 10/3/08 (I’m 5’8″ with a 30″ inseam). Received 10/10/08.
2. Everything was in good shape upon delivery. No scratches or dents or anything like that. The only minor things I would mention are that I found a small tear in the bar tape and it looks like one of the welds on the chain stay (on the back end) looks to be slightly incomplete. In other words, there’s a small gap where there should be weld. Not happy about this, but I don’t think it will fail on me either.

EDIT: Bikesdirect is sending me some new bar tape. Yay!

3. Assembly went as expected with the exception of one thing. The rear brake mount seems to be angled a bit such that the brake pads aren’t parallel with the wheel. Not sure if it’s a bad weld or if the mount just wasn’t aligned in the fixture when the guy tacked it down. Regardless, not very happy with the result. I checked the wheel itself and it’s in line with the rest of the frame. Here’s a pic to demonstrate:

I know it’s not a huge deal… I actually was going to remove the brake entirely. But I commute daily on this thing and I figured the rear brake might help me stop a few feet more quickly than without and who knows if that could mean the difference between getting into an accident or just avoiding one.

EDIT: I just bent the brakes a little with some channel locks and now the pads are parallel. TADA!

4. I slapped on a 17T Soma cog and a generic lockring so I’ve been riding fixed. The gear ratio with the supplied 16T freewheel is a bit tall for me. The 17 seems to be a good balance. I might even go up another tooth or swap the chain ring for a slightly smaller one. I’ll have to ride a bit more and see if my legs get stronger or if I really should modify the gear ratio one way or the other.

5. Otherwise, I’m pretty happy with the bike given the price. It’s not the best quality piece of kit out there but it will do the job. I figure I’ll just replace things as they fail or wear out. If bikesdirect could give me a discount given the rear brake thing, then I would be satisfied. Shipping back to them in exchange for another one seems like a big waste of time, money, and energy.