Pearson Carbon Audax Pro: A comfy, modern & fast (ish) long-distance bike

About 7.5kg, by far the lightest bike I've ever ridden. The acceleration is (to me) bonkers. I do a mini wheelie if I start out fast in the lowest gear, and I'm crap at wheelies!

And damn that is light!

Love the look of it but what is going on with that tape?

Looks real nice.

I'd be tempted to file a mm from the brakes, and a mm from the dropouts. Both could kill you in the face with fire though. So you'd have to have a good hard look at the parts in question.

^If the dropouts are carbon that'll be easy.

Hmm, I'll see what Digger thinks of that idea, but I suspect the answer may be not a lot :)

Aside from the brake issue Pearson made a very odd decision on the forks, pairing low end 632g forks with a 1290g frame, which seems a tad front heavy. Despite being the 'official' forks for the frame, they don't match up - the join isn't AT ALL contiguous (which is just bizarre really, for the forks which are meant to match) and the quality of the weave is worlds apart.

The forks I'm looking at are the Enigma Etape Carbon Audax forks, which were designed for short reach brakes (but with maximum mudguard clearances).

They are a Dammit pleasing 122g lighter, based on claimed weight.

I suspect pearson went for the current forks based on the aluminium steerer. Which would be a more robust option for an audax perhaps. The 122g saved is down to the steerer.

Although that doesn't explain the fact it doesn't match the frame at all!

I meant to say, it looks like a carbon steerer doesn't it? And as you say that would explain the weight difference. But I couldn't find out for a fact if they are. fussballclub has some so I've asked him.

I don't see a problem with a carbon steerer as long as the forks aren't silly light. Pretty much all the rest of the bike is carbon, after all.

Carbon steerer but wrong.

Just walked into the workshop and had a look at my bike; maybe not too wrong for your bike.

I don't see a problem with a carbon steerer as long as the forks aren't silly light. Pretty much all the rest of the bike is carbon, after all.

Pearson may argue that alu is a more reliable option, especially on a bike which could very likely be running a large bar bag.

I'm with you though. If carbon steerers can cope with beefy sprinters putting big bending forces through them. Then it'll cope with a couple Kg in a bag.

Are you pleased with the wheels? And what tyres and size are you running?

So far yes, but bear in mind I have only ridden it 8 miles. I think you can feel the wider rims, the tyres feel very planted. I'm running 23mm Vredestein Fortezza Tricomps, HED recommend a 23mm tyre as the rims are optimised for this. In time I may try 25mm but I wanted to start with the standard. The Hope hub sounds nice on the back :)

^^ That presumes a lot of thought on the behalf of Pearson which I suspect may not be there... And definitely does not excuse the join between the fork and frame!

looks the business, hope you can sort the forks out. also, I like the chain ;)

23mm felt like 25mm on that rims, great solution when you want to run mudguard but don't want to spend ages fiddling to make sure it doesn't rub due to tight clearance.

^^ That presumes a lot of thought on the behalf of Pearson which I suspect may not be there... And definitely does not excuse the join between the fork and frame!

My high end BMC framest came with a heavy alu steerered fork.I remember reading BMC claiming the big guns requested it, to stiffen the front end or something. They at least spent some time defending the chioce. Cant remember the details. Cant say I really buy into that. My fork is over 500g. A WW road fork is around 350g. So you could add a lot of extra carbon to the steer and crown, and still come in 100g lighter.

Yarp, both my tapered steerer CF forks were bang on the 345g mark, but the Super Six one was far, far stiffer than the System Six fork- the steerer ID was much smaller as the walls were thicker, and the Super Six fork is (apparently) a higher modulus CF.

I'm only a 77.5kg stripling, but I could generate significant torsional flex with the System fork, not so with the Super.

I'm only a 77.5kg stripling, but I could generate significant torsional flex with the System fork, not so with the Super.

This is why I havent swapped mine. The bike is responsive in every way. I like the idea of shedding 150g and hitting the 6.5kg mark. But the fork will need to be at least as stiff as the one I have. The range topping Easton forks (easton suits a BMC), are reported to be a touch flexible. Tempted not to try and fix something thats not broken.

(nods)

I'm not really sure what exactly you're talking about, but I don't think I should be that worried about fork stiffness, should I? The review I read of the Pearson Carbon Audax Forks said they were a bit too stiff but they would be good for heavy riders.

Obviously I am not a heavy rider and priority would be comfort over stiffness, I think.

So, new forks are fitted and the good news is that they do indeed ride much better. A lot smoother over the bumps and a bit less road buzz. Turns out it wasn't really that rideable, as I managed to jam the front brake full on this morning on the way to Bikeworks. Fortunately I was only about 100 yards down the road.

I actually like how they look too, I think I prefer them to the Pearson forks, funnily enough.

There's still a spare ring on top which will stay until I'm sure the bar height is right, but it looks much better without the massive stack of spacers above the stem.

Mudguard wise I've got some SKS race blade longs to fit, hopefully I'll do that tonight, if I don't fall asleep first.

Been meaning to post- I saw a chap with CF-alike Bontrager mudguards the other day.

Obviously you'd need to remove the Bontrager logo/s, but they might match better if you flatted the clearcoat anyway.

Stem needs slamming.

'Tis not the audax way!

Also, I have those Hope skewers on my CX bike, they are nicely made but small objects tend to start travelling in a concentric circle around them...

24" wheels?

These come in red, and are less than 33% of the weight of those Hope ones:

What does this weigh.

That's what I'm interested in. Also forgot I *need *to buy Nokon cables...