It's hard to find a bike today that has a special feeling. Bikes in the past were handcrafted custom made to order creations. Now they're stamped out in the hundreds after prototyping and analysis. Tube shapes are optimized for the greatest wind cutting performance and computer modeled to perfection, but they're dimwitted. Aero bikes tend to be incredibly stiff, super aero, and not much else. Bikes are losing their soul.That's where the Ultima enters the scene. It's a bike that brings style back to performance.
The bike boasts a look reminiscent of the Cervelo S3, aero shapes on the front end with a performance minded rear triangle. Except that the Ultima is wrapped in the luscious "Thornsdorf Purple". The tube shapes also don't have the aggressive airfoil shapes or shrouds of the more expensive aero bikes. Chunky stealth fighter shapes and razor thin tubes are the norm in the newest generation of Aero Bikes, but Austro-Daimler is bucking the trend. While I don't know how well the tube shapes perform in the wind-tunnel, I do know they are a thousand times more beautiful than their competitors. It does lack the aero bells and whistles that are appearing like wheel cutouts, aero seatposts, and cockpit integration, nonetheless the aero benefit is still noticable over a standard road bike. The bike doesn't lack technology either, internal routing, an aero front-end, and a pressfit bottom bracket keep it modern and competitive. Performance is of course the greatest factor for any bike.
The beautiful thing about the Ultima is that it is a perfect balance of form and function. Power transfer is regular and the bottom bracket is firm but not unforgiving and that's why it seems to glide along over 20mph. The rear wheel is firmly planted even under maximum effort. The bike is not the greatest climber, but out of the saddle it is responsive. The engagement through both the front and back wheels is noticeable and definitely leads to more confidence and higher approach speeds in the corners. The bike leans intuitively in the bends and still manages to be incredibly nimble. The twitchiness that comes with some "performance" bikes is not a part of the Ultima.
The bike is billed as a "breakaway" style bike and is an excellent straight line cruiser. That's where the Ultima really shines. As the road opens up in front of you it's hard to not push up to 300 watts and hammer down the road. Ride quality is not uncompromisingly harsh, although I didn't try any carbon wheels and I rode 25mm tires. Bumps and rough patches on the pavement aren't particularly anxiety producing, but they aren't unnoticeable. On the open desert roads of my test there were only a few gaps that disturbed my ride.
Mechanically the bike is sound, the cable routing was pretty simple, and the difficult long downtube wires were a breeze with a vacuum and are so cleanly routed through the underside of the bottom bracket. There are some small problems though, the little rubber cap on the seatpost clamp, which is beautifully situated inside the junction with the top tube typically comes back from a ride facing backwards (fixed with a little electric tape to mark post height). And the largest size is not that big, comparable to a 58 in most brands. But what the Ultima lacks in those "second saving" features and various sizes it makes up with panache.
The Ultima is a Kickstarter project from Austro-Daimler, a small Maine based company. The company is a single man, Fred Thomas, with the power of Taiwanese manufacturing behind him. The glut of secondary Taiwanese imports on eBay and the accompanying horror stories of catastrophic failures make a bike like this a murky prospect. However, that single man has made some quality assurances. Each bike is backed by a 2-year warranty and crash replacement to the original owner. The company has a recognizable name to a lot of Master's racer, the naming rights coming direct from the Austro-Daimler of yore. Again this might have a lot of consumers worried about the "Motobecane effect", but the frame is no slouch, and the company isn't a faceless Chinese factory. It's easy to engage with the man behind the bike.
Fred also personally attends to each order, checking that the frame is up to par before being dispatched to the customer, every box is hand labeled. The price for the frame and fork is a hefty $3,000, but this isn't a departure from aero frames in the top-end range, although the Speciaized Venge comes in $1,000 cheaper. A Di2 equipped bike like the one tested would easily come in at nearly $4500 and larger companies have offerings that easily beat this price point. The A-D has something that the big companies have lost, and that's the elegance and character of a small batch bike. You can be confident you'll be getting plenty of questions on your local ride and you won't be seeing a hundred of them at your next race.
Austro-Daimler Ultima Carbon Limited- 4/5
Style- 5
Stiffness- 4
Handling- 4
Mechanical- 5
Price- 3
The bike boasts a look reminiscent of the Cervelo S3, aero shapes on the front end with a performance minded rear triangle. Except that the Ultima is wrapped in the luscious "Thornsdorf Purple". The tube shapes also don't have the aggressive airfoil shapes or shrouds of the more expensive aero bikes. Chunky stealth fighter shapes and razor thin tubes are the norm in the newest generation of Aero Bikes, but Austro-Daimler is bucking the trend. While I don't know how well the tube shapes perform in the wind-tunnel, I do know they are a thousand times more beautiful than their competitors. It does lack the aero bells and whistles that are appearing like wheel cutouts, aero seatposts, and cockpit integration, nonetheless the aero benefit is still noticable over a standard road bike. The bike doesn't lack technology either, internal routing, an aero front-end, and a pressfit bottom bracket keep it modern and competitive. Performance is of course the greatest factor for any bike.
The beautiful thing about the Ultima is that it is a perfect balance of form and function. Power transfer is regular and the bottom bracket is firm but not unforgiving and that's why it seems to glide along over 20mph. The rear wheel is firmly planted even under maximum effort. The bike is not the greatest climber, but out of the saddle it is responsive. The engagement through both the front and back wheels is noticeable and definitely leads to more confidence and higher approach speeds in the corners. The bike leans intuitively in the bends and still manages to be incredibly nimble. The twitchiness that comes with some "performance" bikes is not a part of the Ultima.
The bike is billed as a "breakaway" style bike and is an excellent straight line cruiser. That's where the Ultima really shines. As the road opens up in front of you it's hard to not push up to 300 watts and hammer down the road. Ride quality is not uncompromisingly harsh, although I didn't try any carbon wheels and I rode 25mm tires. Bumps and rough patches on the pavement aren't particularly anxiety producing, but they aren't unnoticeable. On the open desert roads of my test there were only a few gaps that disturbed my ride.
Mechanically the bike is sound, the cable routing was pretty simple, and the difficult long downtube wires were a breeze with a vacuum and are so cleanly routed through the underside of the bottom bracket. There are some small problems though, the little rubber cap on the seatpost clamp, which is beautifully situated inside the junction with the top tube typically comes back from a ride facing backwards (fixed with a little electric tape to mark post height). And the largest size is not that big, comparable to a 58 in most brands. But what the Ultima lacks in those "second saving" features and various sizes it makes up with panache.
The Ultima is a Kickstarter project from Austro-Daimler, a small Maine based company. The company is a single man, Fred Thomas, with the power of Taiwanese manufacturing behind him. The glut of secondary Taiwanese imports on eBay and the accompanying horror stories of catastrophic failures make a bike like this a murky prospect. However, that single man has made some quality assurances. Each bike is backed by a 2-year warranty and crash replacement to the original owner. The company has a recognizable name to a lot of Master's racer, the naming rights coming direct from the Austro-Daimler of yore. Again this might have a lot of consumers worried about the "Motobecane effect", but the frame is no slouch, and the company isn't a faceless Chinese factory. It's easy to engage with the man behind the bike.
Fred also personally attends to each order, checking that the frame is up to par before being dispatched to the customer, every box is hand labeled. The price for the frame and fork is a hefty $3,000, but this isn't a departure from aero frames in the top-end range, although the Speciaized Venge comes in $1,000 cheaper. A Di2 equipped bike like the one tested would easily come in at nearly $4500 and larger companies have offerings that easily beat this price point. The A-D has something that the big companies have lost, and that's the elegance and character of a small batch bike. You can be confident you'll be getting plenty of questions on your local ride and you won't be seeing a hundred of them at your next race.
Austro-Daimler Ultima Carbon Limited- 4/5
Style- 5
Stiffness- 4
Handling- 4
Mechanical- 5
Price- 3
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